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 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