AK AK - Erin Gilbert, 24, Girdwood, 1 July 1995

She was tall -- almost 6 feet -- a basketball player. She was 25, smart and responsible. Working as a nanny in Anchorage, living with her sister, headed for beauty school in a few weeks.

Erin Gilbert went to the Girdwood Forest Fair on July 1, 1995, and vanished.

She was there, and then she was gone. No sign of what happened. It's been 11 years and still no clue.
Her family knew almost from the beginning that Erin was dead.

Searchers scoured the woods in case she went for a hike by herself and got in trouble. But she was not an outdoor person. She'd lived in Alaska only a year and never would have gone into the woods alone, said her sister, Catherine Newland.

In the days after her disappearance, Erin's dad spoke unconvincingly of a sudden vacation. But everyone knew she would never do that. Never walk away from her family, her job. As the days slipped away with no word, they knew. She was dead.

That kind of "knowing" is like not knowing. No real goodbye is possible because, well, maybe she's alive. Maybe it's amnesia, Families cling to silent hope and search faces in every crowd.

"It's like a part of my leg is missing," said Newland.

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/crime/story/7875623p-7769269c.html

Erin Marie Gilbert
Missing since July 1, 1995 from Girdwood, Anchorage Borough, Alaska.
Classification: Endangered Missing



Vital Statistics

• Date Of Birth: May 4, 1971
• Age at Time of Disappearance: 24 years old
• Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'11"; 145 lbs.
• Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown hair; hazel eyes.
• Clothing: She was wearing a black leather jacket, a black and white-striped shirt, black jeans and mountain boots.

Circumstances of Disappearance
Gilbert was last seen in the evening of July 1, 1995 at the Girdwood Forest Fair in Girdwood, when she became separated from her date. He said he last saw Gilbert at 6 p.m. after discovering he had left his car lights on and that the car wouldn't start.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1324dfak.html

Anyone have any more information? How close was this date's story checked out?

bykerladi said:

Anyone have any more information? How close was this date's story checked out?

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This is from the Charley Project:

Bumping. 11 years cold today.

If Iam not mistaking they was a serial murder operating in Alaska I think around that time but i forgot really the date's he was operating..Maybe this will ring the bell to a other nice Sleuth that know's..Iam pretty sure he was a baker by trade, like hunting big game, and had his own small airplane..I think why i can find anything else on him is because i saw this on TV on cold case or a other show like that...hope this little help's

welder 79 said:

If Iam not mistaking they was a serial murder operating in Alaska I think around that time but i forgot really the date's he was operating..Maybe this will ring the bell to a other nice Sleuth that know's..Iam pretty sure he was a baker by trade, like hunting big game, and had his own small airplane..I think why i can find anything else on him is because i saw this on TV on cold case or a other show like that...hope this little help's

Click to expand...

I remember seeing a sort of documentary about him.

Edited to add:
Try this to see if it fits who you remember seeing on TV
http://www.explorenorth.com/library/weekly/aa021100a.htm

docwho3 said:

I remember seeing a sort of documentary about him.

Edited to add:
Try this to see if it fits who you remember seeing on TV
http://www.explorenorth.com/library/weekly/aa021100a.htm

Click to expand...

.....docwho3 you won my hero of the day award!!! That's the guy I was thinking about...Sadly though this will be no help to these people looking about Erin....This guy's name was Robert Hansen and he was really operate way too long from 1971 to 1983..Sorry but sometime's just a little tip like that can break a case wide open...well we keep on looking until we find something..

In a little web searching for this case I got a unbelieve # ....Anchorage I got #1503 registered sex offender's in just Anchorage alone...Is this normal or do i need to get out of my state more offend??? Iam shocked...

welder 79 said:

In a little web searching for this case I got a unbelieve # ....Anchorage I got #1503 registered sex offender's in just Anchorage alone...Is this normal or do i need to get out of my state more offend??? Iam shocked...

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Considering there are almost 300,000 people in Anchorage, I don't think that's out of the ordinary.

Rle7 said:

Considering there are almost 300,000 people in Anchorage, I don't think that's out of the ordinary.

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...Thank's i never dreamed that city was that big....,,Iam was doing little web searching you know about 15 day's before Erin went missing a Tracie Denise Vicent 6/14/95 went missing in Anchorage...Cynthia jo St.John 2/27/95 missing from Fairbank's

Rle7 said:

Another girl was abducted from an Anchorage bus stop, raped, and murdered in a state park not far from Girdwood a year earlier. Her name was Bonnie Craig:​

http://www.unsolved.com/0241-Craig.html. ​

That case is also cold. I always wondered if these cases were related.​

Click to expand...

One September day 12 years ago, forensic scientist Chris Beheim walked slowly across the dirt and rocks at McHugh Creek, looking for traces of blood at the place where Bonnie Craig's raped and beaten body was found.

From the beginning, the investigation was like no other.

The city was captured by the death of the 18-year-old college student; Beheim was shocked at the savageness of the crime and angered that the killer was still out there.

He is a scientist, but this case was always more than swabs and samples and DNA parsing. It was personal.

Beheim's wife and stepson knew Bonnie from Service High School. And, like his whole family, the girl loved classical music and played in the orchestra. She lived nearby.

It was all a long time ago, but Beheim, who went on to become boss of the state crime lab, never forgot.

Then one November day last year, he sat down in the lab's library for a routine scan of automated returns from the national DNA database and realized he was looking at a match for the unidentified semen found on Bonnie's body. It was from someone in New Hampshire.

"Immediately, I recognized the case number," he said Tuesday, still sort of breathless, like a little kid bursting at the seams.

"I mean, I've been involved with thousands of cases over the years, having been there since 1978, but this is a case number that is etched in my memory."

He had to focus on reacting like a scientist, on controlling any unseemly excitement. He wanted to call Alaska State Troopers investigators. He wanted to call a former colleague who worked with him on the case. He wanted to shout it out to the world. Instead he followed protocol.

Within minutes of the discovery, lab staff was on the phone to New Hampshire authorities, asking them to confirm the match by checking the codes and profile numbers on the DNA for a Kenneth Dion, doing time there for robbery.

When New Hampshire authorities said there was no mistake, Beheim went straight to trooper boss Col. Julia Grimes. "Needless to say, she was very, very happy," he said.

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/crime/craig/story/8847158p-8747866c.html

Alaska State Trooper Missing Person Bulliten for Erin Gilbert
http://www.dps.alaska.gov/ast/abi/docs/bulletins/Gilbert.pdf

Alaska, Land of the Lost

In its rugged, lonely vastness, there are so many ways and places for people to disappear, so many reasons the missing are never found

http://articles.latimes.com/2005/feb/15/nation/na-vanished15/2

Rle7 said:

This is from the Charley Project:

Gilbert was last seen during the evening hours of July 1, 1995 at the Girdwood Forest Fair in Girdwood, Alaska. She was on a date when, at 6:00 p.m., her date discovered he had left his car lights on and the vehicle would not start. He became separated from Gilbert while he looked for help. Gilbert's date searched for her until 1:00 a.m. the following day before reporting her disappearance to police. She has never been heard from again. Few details are available in her case.


http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/g/gilbert_erin.html

The date was never charged with any crime in this case. I lived in Anchorage, Alaska at the time. I remember a huge search for her in Girdwood, but nothing was found.

Another girl was abducted from an Anchorage bus stop, raped, and murdered in a state park not far from Girdwood a year earlier. Her name was Bonnie Craig:
http://www.unsolved.com/0241-Craig.html.

That case is also cold. I always wondered if these cases were related.

​

Click to expand...

Bonnie doesn't have a thread on WS that I could find.

http://juneauempire.com/state/2011-...94-cold-case-murder-college-student-anchorage


Man goes on trial for 1994 cold case murder of college student in Anchorage
Posted: May 18, 2011 - 9:13pm

Defendant Kenneth Dion, 41, is charged with rape and murder in the death of Bonnie Craig almost 17 years ago.

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welder 79 said:

...Thank's i never dreamed that city was that big....,,Iam was doing little web searching you know about 15 day's before Erin went missing a Tracie Denise Vicent 6/14/95 went missing in Anchorage...Cynthia jo St.John 2/27/95 missing from Fairbank's

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Does anyone have time to make a post for Tracie Denise Vicent? Her daughter made a post on Charley Project FB page. I have my hand in too many cases.

Alaska doesn't seem to add their missing to NamUs
Surprised to see Erin is listed

Alaska Bureau of Investigation Active Missing Persons Bulletins

Roselvr said:

Does anyone have time to make a post for Tracie Denise Vicent? Her daughter made a post on Charley Project FB page. I have my hand in too many cases.

Alaska doesn't seem to add their missing to NamUs
Surprised to see Erin is listed

Alaska Bureau of Investigation Active Missing Persons Bulletins

Click to expand...

I made a post for her-
AK Tracie Denise Vicent 26; Anchorage June 14, 1995

Bumping, missing for 20 years.

The cold case unit for Alaska was closed down and this article mentions some of the cases, including Erin's disappearance.

http://anchoragepress.com/cover-news/end-watch

Stephanie Juarez of Everett, Washington, has been calling Gallen regularly. July 1 will be 20 years since her 24-year-old sister, Erin Gilbert, disappeared at the Girdwood Forest Fair.

“My dad, he still can’t talk about it,” she said. “There were three of us girls, Erin was the youngest. It’s been devastating.

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Wonder why they can't donate their time. They're all retired, should be collecting.

I am a bit surprised that so little has been said about the need to look more closely at Kenneth Dion, convicted in 2007 for the 1994 murder and rape of Bonnie Craig in Anchorage. According to the link below Dion was in Alaska until 1996 and, given the nature of the Craig offence and his subsequent (and prior) record it seems unlikely that he did not commit other offences whilst in Alaska;

http://www.sitnews.us/0507news/050207/050207_shns_dna_arrest.html

It is possible that he is alibied for the date of the Gilbert disappearance (since he was in and out of jail in Alaska for minor offences and parole violations), but I have seen no reference to such an alibi. I am also struck by the similar appearance of Gilbert and Craig.

Recent interview with Erin's sister, Stephanie:

https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/unfound/e/51095027?autoplay=true