Questioninggeller
Illuminator
- Joined
- May 11, 2002
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THE MONTEL WILLIAMS SHOW
SHOW: The Montel Williams Show (5:00 PM ET) - SYND
November 19, 2003 Wednesday
LENGTH: 7041 words
HEADLINE: Sylvia Browne: vanished without a trace; psychic Sylvia Browne answers audience members' questions about missing loved ones
BODY:
HOST: Montel Williams
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Montel Williams, Diane Rappoport
SYLVIA BROWNE: VANISHED WITHOUT A TRACE
...
(Excerpt from videotape)
PAM: It's very important to me that everyone know that Erica is a real little girl. She's not just a poster. She's not just a picture. She's a little girl just like your little girl.
MISTY (Her 9-Year-Old Daughter Vanished In February, 1999): I've always said that Erica was my little social butterfly. She was never in one spot for longer than a couple seconds.
Erica's Dad: Erica was a full-of-life child. She was vibrant in every direction. She was Daddy's baby.
PAM: So it's amazing--it's almost five years, but when you allow yourself to talk about it, and if you let it get--it's the same as that very first moment.
(Graphic on screen)
February 7, 1999
PAM: And it was a Sunday afternoon in February. She wanted to take the dog for a walk. She called down to us and said, 'See you guys later' and walked out the door.
MISTY: She said, 'Bye, Mom, I love you.' That's the last time I saw her.
Erica's Dad: I finally got the call later that evening that she had come up missing, and the feeling that came over me was overwhelming.
PAM: As time passed, it got to be very dark, and Misty, the last time she came back, I could hear her outside screaming Erica's name. And, of course, there was no answer.
Erica's Dad: There has been thousands of searches and thousands and thousands of man-hours logged and people out looking. It's been ongoing to this day, right now. I mean, as--as we speak right now, as we're doing this taping right now, I have my search team out looking for my daughter.
MISTY: I think the most difficult part is the not knowing. I don't know anything. You know, four and a half years later, we still don't know anything, and it's very frustrating.
PAM: Erica is the first thing I think of in the morning and the last thing I think of as I go to sleep at night; I'm praying for her. Just to hold her one more time, I would give the very breath from my body for one more minute with her.
Erica's Dad: If you can hear me or see this in any way, shape or form, your daddy is not giving up, ever.
MISTY: Erica, wherever you are, know that I'll always love you. And I will never give up hope.
(End of excerpt)
WILLIAMS: Please welcome Erica's mom, Misty, and her grandmother, Pam, to the show.
MISTY: I miss her so much.
WILLIAMS: How do you go on every day, Misty?
MISTY: Erica has three older brothers who will kick me in the butt when I don't want to get out of bed. Some people ask me how I do it, and I said, 'I'm breathing, that's as much as I can tell you. I'm just breathing.'
WILLIAMS: The--no other clues, no other information? A witness saw her walking with the dog.
MISTY: We had somebody who was going to cooperate with the police who then died a few months later over a drug overdose, but that's the--we have people who failed lie detector tests, and that--that's not admissible in court, and they can't go anywhere with those leads because nobody else wants to volunteer other information.
WILLIAMS: But--OK. S...
Ms. BROWNE: See, this is--well, this is happy and this is sad, because she's not dead. OK?
MISTY: Yeah. OK.
Ms. BROWNE: Are you aware of anyone that was around that area that used to drive an old truck?
MISTY: Was it a black truck?
Ms. BROWNE: Yes.
MISTY: Yes.
Ms. BROWNE: But what I'm trying to say is she's in Michigan.
MISTY: Do you know, like, a name of a city in Michigan that she would be in?
Ms. BROWNE: It seems to be around Ann Arbor.
MISTY: Ann Arbor, Michigan.
PAM: Do you see anyone around her, Sylvia?
Ms. BROWNE: Yeah, there was a black woman.
PAM: Can you see how they convinced her to go with them? Or did they t--kidnap her? What did they do to get her with them?
Ms. BROWNE: No, they just--they just threw her in this...
PAM: They just took her.
Ms. BROWNE: ...truck. So I--see, what confuses me is you say this truck belonged to this other guy, but for some reason, this other guy I know knows...
PAM: Would we have known them? Would we recognize them if we saw them?
Ms. BROWNE: Yes, you would. I know you would.
PAM: C--do you...
WILLIAMS: Not known him as an acquaintance, but maybe have seen him.
Ms. BROWNE: But have seen him.
PAM: Does he...
Ms. BROWNE: Now the guy that's out, do you know where he is? Is there any way they can question him?
PAM: No, but we can certainly do that.
Ms. BROWNE: Because he seems to be in the same general area as you are.
PAM: So...
Ms. BROWNE: Do you see what I mean?
MISTY: She...
PAM: Oh, my God.
MISTY: That answers a lot. That--that actually answers a lot.
Ms. BROWNE: I would have no way of knowing about the black truck. I would have no way of knowing that, you know--I mean--and for a certain amount of money, or whatever, because they were looking for young girls--do you see what I mean?
MISTY: We have this scenario where they were using drugs and took her and sold her for drugs. We have that scenario.
Ms. BROWNE: Yeah, you're absolutely right.
PAM: And we always thought she was still alive. We still believe she's alive and that...
Ms. BROWNE: She is.
PAM: Because we don't feel any differently.
Ms. BROWNE: And, you know, know, so many times when this happens, I'm so depressed because--I mean, you know, people don't think it affects me. How could it not? I love children. In fact, Montel and I were talking about how it affects us so badly. And that's why I say that it's good and it's bad, 'cause at least she's still alive. But she is old enough to have some memory. Do you see what I mean?
PAM: Of us. Yes, of course.
Ms. BROWNE: I mean, if she was this big, then we'd have trouble. But she's got it in her memory. She has names and things in her memory.
PAM: Do you see a way that we could find her, that we could communicate with her?
Ms. BROWNE: I would call Ann Arbor police. I would circulate--you know how they will actually age the picture?
PAM: Yes, we have one of those.
MISTY: Yes, we do.
Ms. BROWNE: But I would go around Ann Arbor, Michigan.
PAM: OK.
Ms. BROWNE: How far is Michigan from where you are?
PAM: Oh, three or four hours. I would drive 10,000 hours to find Erica.
Ms. BROWNE: Oh, you and me both. I'd paddle across the Pacific Ocean for my kids, you know?
PAM: Exactly. Exactly.
WILLIAMS: I gotta take a little break. A little girl goes on her first date, and right before, she and her mother vanish. I'm gonna take a little break. We'll be back right after this.
....
Browne said the girl is alive and in Ann Arbor, Michigan. However, in Kettering, OH:
Dayton Daily News (Ohio)
October 9, 2005 Sunday
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A22
LENGTH: 887 words
HEADLINE: Conviction doesn't settle much in Erica Baker case;
Authorities still have no body, confusing story and a silent attorney
BYLINE: By Rob Modic
BODY:
DAYTON - Where is Erica Baker? Will we ever know? The trial last week and conviction Friday of Christian John Gabriel on felonies connected with moving and concealing the girl's body - she is presumed dead - disclosed little to investigators. "I don't think there were any new leads in the case," said Leon Daidone, assistant county prosecutor. Kettering Detective Robert Green, lead detective on the case, said Caesar Creek State Park, where Gabriel last claimed the girl's body was buried Feb. 7, 1999, may still hold secrets in the case. "We can't rule it out," Green said. "Caesar's Creek is a big area." And others may still be the target of investigation. "We believe other people were there," Montgomery County Prosecutor Mathias H. Heck Jr. said. One person whose name came up in the case is Clifford Butts.
Green told the jury last week that he did not begin looking at Gabriel until after he met with Butts in prison on July 12, 1999, five months after Erica disappeared near Indian Riffle School and Glengarry Drive in Kettering.
A grand jury considered evidence involving Butts, but declined to indict him Feb. 4 when it handed up two counts against Gabriel - gross abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. Gabriel drew the maximum six years in prison after he was convicted.
...
In some of his stories to police about how Erica died, Gabriel said Butts and his wife were in the van.
...
After his initial stories, Gabriel told police only he and Franks were in the van, and he was driving. He claimed Franks gave him directions to a wooded area where she stuck a shovel under his arm as he carried the little girl's limp body into the woods. He said he dug a shallow grave and buried her.
Much of Gabriel's statements made little or no sense.
Gabriel claimed he was driving the van at 25 to 30 mph west on Glengarry Drive when he saw the girl jump out from between parked cars. He could not recall seeing a dog.
A story he gave police months earlier had Franks driving the van at about the same speed and he recalled hearing a bump before they stopped. In either case, they would have been driving on wet pavement, yet Gabriel insisted he found the girl's "twisted" body beneath the van, unscarred with no wounds, tears or scuffs - and no blood.
...
In describing how he buried Erica's 60-pound body in a 2-foot-deep grave he dug with a shovel, Gabriel told police he patted the refilled dirt "flat" and pulled debris over it to conceal it.
...
(The man found guilty is currently appealing his conviction as of Jan 2007.)
Article with a little background: http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2002/09/20/loc_lawyer_must_testify.html
Erica's webpage: http://www.ericabakersearchteam.com/
and: http://hometown.aol.com/friendsoferica/
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