Aurora police today named the woman whose body was found in the back of a Lexus SUV left on a neighborhood street in southwest Aurora five days ago.
All other aspects in the death of 36-year-old Cristy Lynn Erickson of Aurora remain a mystery or a police secret at this point.
Aurora police spokesman Bob Friel said the department isn’t commenting on any aspect of the findings of its major crimes unit so far, “to include cause of death, at this stage of the investigation.”
Police have classified Erickson’s death as suspicious.
Records show Erickson has divided her time between the Denver metro area and Chicago in recent years, and has previously worked for Pepperdine University and was president of a business called Windy City Scrapbooking from 2004 to 2007.
Public records show she has had money problems in recent years, and in 2009 an Arapahoe County man got a restraining order against Erickson to keep her away from him and his two sons, then 9 and 7. The protection order was lifted two weeks later.
Her body was discovered by a patrol officer who was investigating an unrelated burglary in the 4900 block of South Elkhart Way at about 4 a.m. Aug. 10..
The officer became suspicious of the dark lump under a covering in the cargo area of sport-utility vehicle.
Neighbors said the SUV had been parked there since at least Aug. 6. Erickson lives about 8 miles west of where she was found.
A video memorializing Erickson was uploaded to Facebook on Saturday.
The caption stated, “We all our so lucky to call you our mother/sister/aunt/cousin/daughter/friend. We will remember you as the greatest. Rest in peace my beautiful Auntie Cristy.”
Anyone with information can call Detective Gretchen Fronapfel at 303-739-6013 or Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867 or text 274637 (CRIMES) with the title DMCS.
