Somerset is about 3 hours from Brooksville. I haven't seen anything about a possible relationship between the 2 cases, but just reading about them, they sound similar.
Brooksville is a very small town, population appx 600. THere is not even a stop light in town. Somerset has a population of appx 11000. Somerset is in the Lake Cumberland area, popular for tourists,boaters etc.
I have heard many rumors about Erica - in a town as small as ours it is expected. Rumors involving the man who killed himself (and his lovely girlfriend)after the psychic Sylvia Brown mentioned him on the Montel show. But according to the State Police, he had an alibi for the night of Erica's disappearance. I don't know what the alibi was, if it involved his girlfriend or not. But if his alibi did involve his girlfriend, it would make the murder/suicide make more sense. Their murder/suicide was a huge shock to the community and their families.
I would hate to think that her abductor is someone that lives in my hometown,someone I know personally. I would also hate to think that a serial killer is responsible for her dissappearance. Just living that close to evil frightens me. Every time I see a young girl walking up and down our new sidewalks, I think I hope she makes it home tonight. Sometimes I think that our residents have forgotten about Erica, the 10 year anniversary of her disappearance is coming up next month. I sure wish some evidence would come to light to give her poor mother some peace. The not knowing I'm sure is the worst.
Apparently there were a few people that were given lie detector tests, but nothing ever came from them. One person who refused the test was Shane Simcox. See
http://www.kypost.com/news/1997/simcox112197.html
He also worked on a hog farm at the time - I'm not sure where. Didn't serial killers Robert Pinckton and Belle Gunness use the hogs to dispose of the bodies of their victims. ANyone who has ever been around a hog knows that they will eat "anything".
Another case that has been noted to be similar to Erica's is Laney Gwinner, Laney disappeared from Fairfield OH about 75 miles from Brooksville.