Mum told son took his own life shocked to ‘discover his body on display in museum’

‘It shook me and my family to its core’

Following her visit to the Real Bodies exhibition in Las Vegas, Kim Erick said that she noticed that the body she was looking at was strikingly similar to that of her son, Chris Todd Erick.

Kim’s son, Chris, died in 2012 aged 23, and his death was ruled a suicide.

While initially it was thought that he suffered two heart attacks in his sleep caused by a heart defect at his grandmother's home, Kim now thinks that this may not have been his cause of death.

The mother kas asked the police for case materials, which she alleges contained images of a chair with straps attached.

Her ex, Chris’ dad, she explains, had dealt with the cremation of their son due to her grief.

Days after her son’s body was found, she was given a necklace with a small amount of ashes inside.

However, she claims that there was no funeral and she has now contacted the Midlothian Police Department for the photos taken at the scene.

Chris had been covered in bruises and lacerations when he died, and there was noticeable dry cyanide salt on his lips, she claimed.

The examiner, following much pleading, tested a vial of his blood to appease her and shockingly found a lethal dose of cyanide in his system, which changed his cause of death to cyanide toxicity.

A murder probe was launched in 2014 by a grand jury in Ellis County District to find out if Chris was given cyanide, but couldn’t prove he was killed.

As a result, his death was ruled a suicide by “undetermined means” and the Midlothian Police Department confirmed there were no signs of foul play in Chris' death.

Kim, however, was left with the feeling that she knew exactly what had happened to Chris when she saw a plastinated body called the ‘Thinker’ at the Real Bodies display online in 2018.

At the exhibition, 20 perfectly preserved human specimens were put on display to give visitors an immersive view into human anatomy and physiology.

“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”, Kim, 54, told The Sun.

“I was actually looking at pictures of my son’s skinned, butchered body. It is gut-wrenching.”

She has now asked the exhibit to conduct DNA testing on the body, with the belief that the exhibition was displaying her son.

“As Chris’ mother, I recognise everything about him. Nothing was adding up. I needed to know the truth about what happened to my son”, she said.

“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.”

In order to conceal the identity of the body, she says that the area where Chris sported a tattoo had been shaved down.

The Sun was told by The Real Bodies exhibit in Las Vegas that “there is no factual basis for these allegations”.

“We extend our sympathy to the family, but the referenced specimen cannot be associated with the individual named in these claims”, they added.

According to the exhibit, the body was bought from China and has actually been on display for 20 years, long before Chris' death.