Saturday, March 06, 1999
Volunteers renew search for Erica
BY JANICE MORSE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
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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KETTERING, Ohio — About 75 searchers are expected to reconvene today at “ground zero,” the spot where 9-year-old Erica Nicole Baker vanished nearly a month ago, said Yvonne Sexton, a volunteer for the organization dedicated to finding the girl.
Erica disappeared from this Dayton suburb while walking her dog on Feb. 7, a rainy Sunday afternoon, near Indian Riffle Park and the Kettering Recreation Center, not far from her home. Professional searchers covered nearly 150 square miles in fruitless attempts to find Erica, and volunteers are repeating the process.
“We're just going to keep doing it until we find her. It has to be done,” Mrs. Sexton said Friday. “We're trying to find anything. Sometimes it takes two or three times going over an area.”
Mrs. Sexton said local police, who think a stranger abducted Erica, have given their blessing to this additional search effort. Officer Larry Warren, Kettering police spokesman, has said investigators have found no physical evidence linked to Erica's disappearance. Detectives were looking at six to eight “premium leads,” but they have narrowed the field to three, Officer Warren said.
Police would not elaborate on the leads.
Although the searchers fanning out today are unpaid volunteers, “most of them have search and rescue experience,” Mrs. Sexton said. Besides foot searchers, dogs and airplanes are also expected to be involved.
The goal is to search until about 4:30 p.m., and “to cover as much territory as we can,” Mrs. Sexton said.
Volunteers may decide to repeat the process weekly until the girl is found, she said.
Contributions to help support Erica's family and the search efforts may be made to: the Erica N. Baker Fund, Account No. 0777660, Countywide Credit Union, 2089 Dayton-Xenia Road, Beavercreek OH 45434.
Butler County sheriff's investigators had no new information Friday on an alleged con artist who may have been misusing Erica's name to solicit funds in the Hamilton area.
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