In this fictional account, a museum in Las Vegas is firmly disputing disturbing allegations made by a grieving Texas woman who believes one of its preserved anatomical figures is the remains of her deceased son. The claim — which resurfaces online every few years — has reignited a long-running and painful quest for answers she has never been able to find.
Kim Erick has spent over a decade insisting that her son, Chris Todd Erick, who passed away in 2012 at 23 years old, somehow ended up as part of the Real Bodies exhibition. Her suspicion began with doubts about the official story of his death, and intensified years later when she saw a plastinated figure in the exhibit known as “The Thinker.”
Chris died in his sleep at his grandmother’s home in Midlothian, Texas — about 30 miles from Dallas. Authorities told Kim he had suffered two heart attacks brought on by a previously undetected heart condition. In the shock that followed, Chris’s father and grandmother arranged for him to be cremated before Kim felt ready to make decisions. She later received a necklace said to contain some of his ashes.
But the more she learned, the more unsettled she became. After receiving scene photographs from police, Kim said she noticed bruising and markings she felt were inconsistent with a natural death. She believed these injuries suggested mistreatment in the days before he died.
In a highly emotional Facebook post, she wrote that something “terrible” had happened in that room. She pushed for authorities to reopen the case, and although a 2014 homicide review investigated her claims, officials ultimately found no evidence of foul play. The original ruling stood. Kim remained unconvinced.
Her doubts grew stronger years later when she visited the Real Bodies exhibit in 2018. Among the displays, she found “The Thinker” — a seated, skinless human form. Instantly, she felt she recognized physical features that mirrored her son’s medical records, including what she believed was an identical fracture near his temple. She also noted that the area where Chris once had a tattoo appeared to have been removed.
That moment left her shaken. She later explained that seeing the figure felt like looking directly at her son’s dissected remains. It reignited her grief, and her determination.
Kim began a public campaign urging the exhibit to allow DNA testing of the figure.
Her request was denied immediately.
The operators of the exhibition, Imagine Exhibitions, Inc., issued a clear statement (in this fictional account) expressing sympathy but firmly rejecting the accusation. They explained that the figure in question had been legally acquired from China, had been part of the exhibit for more than twenty years, and had been displayed in Las Vegas long before Chris’s 2012 death.
Lead Stories, an online outlet, published archived photos showing “The Thinker” on display as early as 2004, and noted that plastination — the process used to preserve the bodies — can take up to a year. Based on recorded timelines, the mother’s theory was impossible.
But Kim’s concerns only grew when, shortly after her claims attracted online attention, “The Thinker” was quietly removed from the Las Vegas exhibit. She tracked it briefly to Union City, Tennessee — before losing all trace of it. This disappearance, to her, felt suspicious.
For Kim, the search is not only about truth — it is about honoring her son.
“My son was loved in life. I will not let him be lost in death,” she said.
Her fears re-emerged in mid-2023 when more than 300 piles of unidentified cremated remains were discovered in the Nevada desert. Kim has since called for forensic testing to see whether any of those remains contain chemical signs consistent with plastination.
Meanwhile, the museum and investigators maintain that documentation, timelines, and physical evidence fully refute her theory. But Kim continues her fight — powered by grief, suspicion, and the unshakeable resolve of a mother who refuses to let her son’s story end unanswered.