Sunday, February 14, 1999
Hours, days drag for missing girl's family
Erica apparently abducted week ago
BY SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
KETTERING, Ohio — Every night, Greg Baker says goodbye to his daughter for the last time.
MISSING: ERICA BAKER
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 Erica Baker is 9 years old, 3 feet, 11 inches tall and weighs 65 pounds. She was last seen wearing a pink rain jacket, a pink Winnie-the-Pooh sweatshirt, blue jeans and white tennis shoes. She has blond hair and hazel eyes.
Information about Erica has been posted with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at: www.missingkids.com.
Anyone with information should call the Kettering police at (937) 296-2555, or (937) 296-2570, or email to erica@siscom.net.
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In his dreams, the 33-year-old man again hugs and kisses 9-year-old Erica as she says “Love you Daddy. See you next week.” The blond, hazel-eyed girl then grabs her bag of clothes, bounds from his brown-orange 1978 Chevy Caprice with her two brothers — and vanishes.
It was the last time Mr. Baker saw his daughter after a weekend visit. The memory replays each night.
“It's why I can't sleep,” Mr. Baker said.
Erica has been missing a week now. On Saturday, as police focused their criminal investigation, family members continued an agonizing wait. “Every day I wake up and wonder if they're going to tell me they found my little girl's body, or if they found her alive,” Mr. Baker said.
Erica's relatives say a half hour after Mr. Baker dropped Erica and her brothers off at their Pobst Drive home in Kettering last Sunday, she left to walk the family dog. They've been waiting for her return ever since.
Mr. Baker said he gets through his days by focusing on organizing a headquarters for volunteers in the Woodlane Plaza at Woodman Drive and East Dorothy Lane.
“Being torn between waiting for that call and nothing, is like a nightmare,” Mr. Baker said. “It's like a knife piercing the entire inside of your body.”
On Friday, police called off their official search with the Miami Valley Urban Search and Rescue Task Force, which blanketed a 6-mile radius from where Erica disappeared. On Saturday, between 30 and 50 detectives from Kettering, Dayton and other local police agencies, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, started following up on 500 leads, said Kettering Police Chief James O'Dell.
While Chief O'Dell says it is doubtful Erica will be found in the area, he remains positive. “But I am also a realist. I know the clock is ticking,” the chief said.
Police are considering Erica's disappearance an abduction.
Saturday afternoon, Erica's grandmother, Pam Schmidt, stood outside her Kettering home where Erica's family lives. Ms. Schmidt pleaded before television cameras for the girl's safe return.
“I believe you borrowed Erica because she's so special,” she said. But like her “borrower,” Erica is probably confused, sad and tired. And she wants to go home, Ms. Schmidt said.
“It's not too late to do the right thing. Please, bring Erica to a safe place,” she said.
After her plea, Ms. Schmidt went back into her home and recalled the last moments before Erica disappeared.
Erica and her two brothers had been dropped off about 2:45 p.m. last Sunday after visiting their father for the weekend.
Later, she yelled down the steps into the basement family room, where Ms. Schmidt watched television with Erica's mother.
“Mom. Can I walk Jaime?” the girl asked, referring to the family's white and gray Shih Tzu dog.
“No honey, you can't walk the dog. It's drizzling out there,” her mother, Misty Baker, replied.
“Mom. I'll put on my raincoat,” Erica called back.
“I wish I would have run upstairs and said, "No. You can't go,' ” Ms. Schmidt said, crying.
About 3:15 p.m. that day, Erica left with Jaime. A couple last saw them walking in nearby Indian Riffle Park. The dog was found within hours down the street by animal control officials. His leash trailed behind him.
Erica's brothers started looking through the neighborhood for her. They called police at 8:05 p.m. That's when an officer told them Jaime had been picked up in front of Kettering Middle School.
“That was an indication something was wrong,” Ms. Schmidt said Saturday, as Jaime ran with tail wagging around the kitchen table. Erica “would not have left Jaime. Jaime sleeps in her bed.”
Children learn how to escape abductionp>
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