A Las Vegas museum is facing chilling allegations after a grieving mother claimed her son’s remains were used in a touring anatomy exhibition.
Kim Erick believes the body of her son, Chris Todd Erick, was plastinated and put on public display as part of the “Real Bodies” exhibit.
Chris was just 23 when he died in 2012. He was found in his bed at his grandmother’s home in Midlothian, Texas. According to police reports shared with CBS News, Chris suffered two heart attacks in his sleep linked to an undiagnosed cardiac condition.
While Kim was still reeling from the shock, Chris’s father and grandmother arranged for an immediate cremation. Kim was later given a necklace supposedly containing his ashes, but she remained unsettled.
Her suspicions intensified after she obtained police scene photographs that she claims contradicted the official reports. In a raw Facebook post, Kim expressed her belief that “something very bad happened in that room,” suggesting her son may have been held against his will and tortured prior to his death. While a 2014 homicide investigation found no evidence of foul play, Kim dismissed the findings as a “cover-up.”
Driven by years of her own research, Kim visited the “Real Bodies” exhibit in 2018. The display features human remains preserved through plastination, a process that removes skin to show muscle and bone. When she came across a seated figure known as “The Thinker,” Kim says she was struck by an immediate, agonizing recognition.
“I knew it was him,” she told The Sun. “It was unbelievably painful. My words cannot describe how this shook me and my family to its core. I was looking at pictures of my son’s skinned, butchered body. It is gut-wrenching.”
The museum has since responded to the claims, though the controversy continues to raise haunting questions about the origins of the bodies used in such exhibits and the unresolved grief of a mother who refuses to believe her son is truly gone.
The figure labeled “The Thinker” appeared to show the same right-temple skull fracture she had seen in Chris’s medical records.
She also pointed to the shoulder area—where her son reportedly had a tattoo—which she says had been carefully removed or carved away, something she believes could have been done to hide his identity. The similarities, she said, were too specific to ignore, and what began as a search for answers turned into a renewed investigation.
“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 said, according to the Express.
After making the discovery, Erick began a public campaign calling for DNA testing of the specimen. Organizers of the Real Bodies exhibition rejected the request, saying the figure was legally sourced from China and had been on display for more than 20 years—well before Chris’s death.
The exhibition’s owner, Imagine Exhibitions, Inc., later issued a statement to Lead Stories firmly denying the claims.
“We extend our sympathy to the family, but there is no factual basis for these allegations. The referenced specimen has been on continuous display in Las Vegas since 2004 and cannot be associated with the individual named in these claims,” they said.
“All specimens are ethically sourced and biologically unidentifiable.
“We remain committed to ensuring that all exhibits meet the highest ethical and legal standards.”
Lead Stories also published archived images of the specimen predating 2012, which they said supported the museum’s timeline.
They further noted that plastination can take up to a year, making it unlikely that Chris’s body could have been part of the exhibit so soon after his death.
Shortly after Erick’s allegations became public, “The Thinker” was quietly removed from the Las Vegas exhibition. She later claimed it was moved to Union City, Tennessee, after which she lost track of its location.
“Chris was never abandoned in life, and I don’t want him abandoned in death either,” she said.
In July 2023, more than 300 piles of unidentified cremated human remains were discovered in the Nevada desert. Erick has since called for forensic testing to determine whether any contain traces of plastination chemicals that could be linked to her son.