Chip Chick
Nothing led anyone closer to finding Erica though that evening, but over that summer, authorities were led to a man by the name of Christian J. Gabriel.
Christian was interviewed by detectives on July 14th, 1999, about Erica’s disappearance, and he mentioned that he, a man named Clifford Butts, and a woman named Jan Franks (who was dating Clifford) were all in his van driving away from a local grocery store after stealing things from inside.
He didn’t say much about Erica except that “something could have happened.”
Christian did reveal that he sold his van less than a month after Erica went missing, and although investigators were able to track down his van, when they tested it for evidence, they did not find anything to indicate Erica was connected to it.
Then, years went by without investigators interacting with Christian, until April 6th, 2004, when they approached him with more questions about Erica.
This time, his story changed, and investigators put him under surveillance, figuring his whereabouts in the days after might take them to a burial site.
That wasn’t the case though, and 3 months later he was arrested on an unrelated charge. Investigators took the opportunity to again ask him about Erica.
Finally, Christian gave them more information. He claimed Jan drove his van the day Erica went missing, and while they were making their getaway after stealing from the grocery store, Jan hit Erica.
The trio allegedly put Erica inside the van and later buried her somewhere in the area of Huffman Dam.
Investigators took Christian to Huffman Dam, where he tried to find the burial spot, but he couldn’t.
