STARING at the picture of a skinned cadaver in a macabre exhibition of human bodies, Kim Erick felt her blood run cold.
She was certain that she was looking at the remains of her son, Chris Todd Erick. He had passed away aged 23, his death ruled a suicide but shrouded in mystery amid a murder probe and allegations of a poison plot. Had his remains turned up… in a gruesome museum show?
Kim, 54, from Texas, tells The Sun: “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.”
Now, Kim is campaigning for the Real Bodies exhibit in Las Vegas to carry out DNA testing on the body – which has since vanished – in a bid to find the answers she so desperately needs.
The exhibition, inside the Horseshoe hotel, advertises itself as offering visitors an immersive journey through the human body with over 20 real, perfectly preserved human specimens on display.
Kim says: “As Chris’s mother, I recognise everything about him.
“Nothing was adding up. I needed to know the truth about what happened to my son.”
Chris and Kim shared a “very close bond” with the mum saying they were almost inseparable before she separated from his father.
Then, on November 10, 2012, Kim was plunged into every mother’s worst nightmare when Chris was found dead at his grandmother’s house in Midlothian, Texas.
She was told by police that he had died in his sleep after suffering from two heart attacks caused by a heart defect, and two days after his death Kim was able to see his body for the last time at a funeral home in Midlothian.
In the midst of her grief, Chris’s dad – Kim’s former partner – handled the cremation process.
But Kim claims a funeral was never arranged by the family.
A few days later, she was given a necklace with a small amount of ashes inside.
With a gut instinct that there was more to Chris’s death, Kim petitioned Midlothian Police Department for the photos taken at the scene – and a few weeks later, she was sent six pictures which, she says, show his body covered in bruises and lacerations.
She told The Sun: “The photos were very disturbing. [There was a chair with straps that matched] restraining marks across Chris’s arms, chest and abdomen.”
Kim says the right temple area of Chris’s skull was bashed in, and pictures allegedly showed dry cyanide salt on his lips.
After she pleaded with investigators to look deeper into Chris’s death, the medical examiner tested a vial of his blood and found a lethal amount of cyanide in his system.
His cause of death was then changed to cyanide toxicity, a month after he died.
The inconsistencies and the poisoning were enough for Kim to believe that Chris was murdered.
In 2014, a grand jury in Ellis County District launched a murder probe but found no evidence to support the allegations.
Investigators went on to rule his death as likely to have been a suicide, saying it was caused by “undetermined means”.
It meant his cause of death was changed three times – from natural to poisoning to suicide.
Midlothian Police Department confirmed to The Sun that they undertook both internal and external reviews into Chris’s death.
They found no signs of foul play.
But Kim was almost certain her beloved son would never take his own life, so she started to investigate herself.
After years of searching for clues, Kim says she received paperwork from the funeral directors where Chris was cremated, which she claims has missing signatures.
I knew it was him. It was so unbelievably painful to look at
Kim Erick
Then, in 2018, she came across a gut-wrenching find, which she says confirmed her years-long suspicions of foul play.
Kim had noticed news articles for the grand opening of the Real Bodies exhibition which features actual human organs, skin and bone all on public display.
The exhibition included cadavers that had been plastinated – a process to preserve bodies, in which water and fat is replaced with a polymer plastic. And Kim claims that one of them, known as The Thinker, had a striking resemblance to Chris.
Kim revealed: “It took years of research. There were many steps I took before realising Chris might be one of the plastinated bodies.
“I started looking online for the deep skull fracture I saw in Chris’s right temple of his head when he died.
“When I saw the plastinated body online in the news article with this same skull fracture… it was too painful to look closer.”
Another identifiable feature was the tattoo markings on Chris and the body found in the exhibition.
The spot where Chris’s artwork sat on his shoulder was shaved away on the body – an unusual act for plastinated bodies.
Typically, when a body is preserved the tattoo ink remains in the same spot due to it being deeply ingrained in the dermis layer of the skin.
The only way to remove the tattoo is to remove the skin it was set on – something Kim claims was done in order to hide the true identity of the body.
Kim never went to the exhibition as it was too far for her to travel, but she constantly tried to appeal for her suspected son to be handed to her.
Exhibition bosses insisted they had bought the body from China and so had no record of who it belonged to.
The Sun contacted the Real Bodies exhibit in Las Vegas, and they replied, saying “there is no factual basis for these allegations”.
They added: “We extend our sympathy to the family, but the referenced specimen cannot be associated with the individual named in these claims.”
The Thinker has been on display for over 20 years, the exhibit added.
Shortly after Kim flagged the discovery, she claims the contested body was quietly moved to Union City, Tennessee.
Chris was never abandoned in life and I don’t want him abandoned in death either
Kim Erick
“There is no evidence that the body ever arrived in Tennessee, and it has not been seen since,” says Kim, who has no intention of stopping until she has answers.
“Chris was never abandoned in life, and I don’t want him abandoned in death either.
“I know Chris is gone and there is no fixing that, but the remains of his body are important to us.”
Kim is now exploring the possibility that the body that disappeared from the display may be among 300 piles of human remains found in the Nevada desert in July.
None of the piles of ashes contains identifiable information, which has left investigators mystified as to whom they belong.
Kim declared: “I’d like to see the 300 piles of human cremains tested for DNA to determine who these people were.
“Test them for any signs of plastination materials that might be present in the remains.”
In 2021, it was claimed that a Real Bodies exhibition in Birmingham, England, used political prisoners executed in China as models.
Speaking in the House of Lords, Lord Alton of Liverpool said at the time the bodies used “were probably people who had been executed” in Asia.
The organisers later admitted they were given all the specimens from a firm in Dalian, China.
These used corpses were initially acquired from the local police force, according to a previous investigation by the New York Attorney General’s Office.
After 13 hard years of looking for answers Kim is still determined to uncover the truth.
“I don’t want anyone else to go through what my family has gone through,” she concluded.
