A Texas mother is engaged in an extraordinary and agonizing legal battle, demanding that a touring anatomical exhibition perform DNA testing on one of its preserved cadavers, which she insists belongs to her 23-year-old son who died under deeply suspicious circumstances in 2012.
The central tragedy began on November 10, 2012, when 23-year-old Chris Erick was found deceased in his bed at his grandmother’s home in Midlothian, Texas, approximately 30 miles south of Dallas, where he had been residing. At the time, police informed his mother, Kim Erick, that her son had died peacefully in his sleep after suffering two heart attacks, which they attributed to an undiagnosed heart condition, as reported by CBS News. Two days later, after the grieving mother viewed his body at a local funeral home, Chris’s father and grandmother—without consulting her—arranged for his cremation, providing Erick with a necklace containing what she was told were his ashes.
‘Something Very Bad Happened’: An Initial Cover-Up
Despite the seemingly straightforward official explanation, Kim Erick remained deeply unsettled by the circumstances of her son’s death.
Her concerns intensified significantly when she received a set of police scene photographs. She claims these images revealed a series of troubling physical signs that were entirely omitted from the initial police report and medical examiner’s findings.
“Something very bad happened in that room!” she shared in a chilling Facebook post that included graphic images of the young man in his bed. “They had Chris in there for two days before he died. The medical examiner who did the autopsy said Chris suffered two separate heart attacks. In my opinion, Christopher was tortured for the two days he was held in his grandmother’s house in Midlothian Texas. That is where Christopher died.”
According to Erick, the photographs appeared to reveal extensive bruising, lacerations, and marks consistent with clear restraint across her son’s chest, arms, and abdomen. Most disturbingly, she claimed to see what looked like dry cyanide residue visible on his lips.
These troubling observations compelled her to press tirelessly for further toxicology testing. Approximately one month after her son’s death, the Dallas County Medical Examiner tested a preserved vial of Chris’s blood, CBS reported.
The results validated her worst suspicions: a lethal concentration of cyanide was found in Chris’s system, immediately prompting officials to revise the cause of death from natural cardiac arrest to cyanide toxicity. The official manner of death was subsequently changed to “undetermined.”
The Grand Jury Review and the Unanswered Questions
“The police made me feel crazy,” Erick (identified as Smith in earlier CBS reports) said at the time. “Finally, I got a letter from the district attorney that he was taking it to a grand jury to let them decide.”
In 2014, an Ellis County grand jury reviewed the case as part of a potential murder investigation. Ultimately, however, no criminal charges were filed, and the manner of death remained officially unchanged as “undetermined.”
“It’s not over. There’s too many unanswered questions. It’s a cover-up,” the grieving mother insisted.
The Appearance of ‘The Thinker’
Determined to uncover the truth abandoned by official channels, Erick launched her own exhaustive research, focusing specifically on a distinct skull fracture her son had sustained. That desperate investigation eventually led her to “Real Bodies,” a touring anatomy exhibition known for displaying real human cadavers preserved through a technique called plastination.
As she meticulously studied the publicly available images from the exhibit while it was displayed at Las Vegas’ Horseshoe Hotel, she was instantly startled by one particular figure. The plastinated body, publicly labeled “The Thinker,” appeared to display the exact same right-temple skull fracture she had seen documented in Chris’s medical and police records.
Additionally, she noted that the shoulder area—the precise location where her son had a tattoo—had been surgically carved clean, which she believes may have been a deliberate and sinister attempt to conceal his identity. The specificity of the physical resemblance was too chilling and specific to ignore, transforming what began as a search for closure into a harrowing new chapter in her investigation.
A Mother’s Agonizing Claim
“I knew it was him. It was so unbelievably painful to look at. My words cannot describe how this shook me and my family to its core. I was actually looking at pictures of my son’s skinned, butchered body. It is gut-wrenching,” she told The Express.
Later, on Facebook, the mother shared a post along with several side-by-side comparison photos of the deceased Chris and the plastinated body, posting a heart-rending message: “I’m so sorry they did that to you baby!!!! I’m so so sorry!!!!!!!”
DNA Demands and Sudden Disappearance
Following her explosive public allegations, Erick launched a highly visible public campaign demanding that the exhibition provide DNA samples from the specimen for forensic testing.
Organizers of the Real Bodies exhibition swiftly rejected her request. They issued a statement denying any link between the specimen and her son, insisting that the figure had been legally sourced from China and had been on display for over 20 years—long before Chris’s death in 2012. They denied any factual basis for the claim, though they did extend condolences to the family, as reported by The Express.
However, shortly after Erick’s allegations gained public traction, the figure identified as “The Thinker” was quietly removed from the Las Vegas exhibit. Erick claims it was then transferred to Union City, Tennessee, before she lost all ability to trace its location. This sudden, unexplained disappearance of the body only served to deepen her suspicions and commitment to uncovering the full truth.
“Chris was never abandoned in life, and I don’t want him abandoned in death either,” she stated.
In July 2023, the discovery of more than 300 piles of unidentified cremated human remains in the Nevada desert provided Erick with a new avenue for investigation. She has publicly called for forensic testing of those remains to determine whether any contain traces of plastination compounds that could link back to her son’s body.
“I don’t want anyone else to go through what my family has gone through,” she concluded, her ongoing quest for justice and resolution continuing more than a decade after her son’s tragic and ambiguous death.
