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A Las Vegas museum has pushed back forcefully against renewed claims from a Texas mother who insists that one of its plastinated human figures is actually the preserved body of her deceased son. The allegation, unsettling on its face, has resurfaced online years after first being raised and has reopened a deeply personal and unresolved chapter of grief, suspicion, and unanswered questions.
At the center of the controversy is Kim Erick, who has spent more than a decade questioning the circumstances surrounding the death of her son, Chris Todd Erick. Chris died in 2012 at the age of 23. While authorities ruled his death a suicide, his mother has never accepted that conclusion. Over the years, her doubts have evolved into a broader belief that something far more disturbing happened after his death.
According to Erick, the moment she saw the figure, she felt certain it was her son. She has claimed that specific physical characteristics—body proportions, posture, and facial structure—matched Chris in ways she found impossible to dismiss. What began as a visceral emotional reaction hardened into conviction. Erick came to believe that her son’s body had somehow been diverted into the plastination process without her consent.
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