Husband’s GPS led police to missing South Jersey woman’s body
Police found the body of a missing South Jersey woman in a Maryland pine grove by using GPS in her car to trace her husband's travels to the area.
According to the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office, Erica Crippen's body was found in Sykesville, Maryland Tuesday, hidden under a pile of branches in a grove of pine trees. Her mouth and nose had been covered with duct tape and her neck, hands and feet were bound with electrical cord.
The state of Maryland will conduct an autopsy.
Police searchers were able to do a forensics examination of the GPS device in the trunk of Erica's as it was driven by husband Kyle Crosby. They checked nearly 8,600 coordinates recorded by the device and determined he had spent a great deal of time along Old Frederick Road in Sykesville, which is located west of Baltimore and a two-hour drive from the 26-year-old's hometown of Mt. Laurel.
"A forensic exam of that GPS indicated that Mr. Crosby had been to several locations near Baltimore where we believed her body had been disposed of," Burlington County Prosecutor Robert Bernardi said.
He says trash from a Royal Farms fast food restaurant and gas station was found at the scene, which was significant.
“Our investigators had located some surveillance at a Royal Farms identifying Mr. Crosby as having been at it," he said.
Bernadi believes the body had been left in Maryland either late on Jan. 10 or early on Jan. 11.
“Her family can now give Erica the proper burial that they have longed to provide,” Bernardi said in a statement. "Domestic violence is a terrible scourge on our society. The result in this case was the ultimate evil. Kyle Crosby took the life of his wife, the woman he pledged to love and honor. We will seek justice for Erica, but that will never erase the pain of her loss felt so strongly by her family."
Kyle Crosby was arrested Jan. 12 in Camden County after a traffic stop and a foot pursuit, and was charged with his wife's murder the following day. Authorities had said they found items of "evidential value" in connection with Crippen's disappearance in the trunk of Kyle Crosby's vehicle's trunk, but did not elaborate.
Crippen and Crosby lived in Mount Laurel with their infant daughter and Crippen's 7-year-old daughter.
Crosby's mother, Jo Crosby, was charged this week with hindering and tampering with physical evidence. Burlington County Prosecutor's Office Detective Wayne Raynor says in a probable-cause statement that Jo Crosby texted with her son around the time of Crippen's disappearance. He says she deleted those texts to conceal incriminating information.
David Matthau and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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