Erika Lloyd

Erika Lloyd was last seen by her roommates on June 14, 2020 when she set out for a “pandemic road trip”, according to Fox News.

Lloyd is from Walnut Creek, California, and a single mother with a 12-year-old boy. She was 37 years old at the time of her disappearance. Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department stated that Lloyd allegedly told her roommates she was heading out to Joshua Tree National Park to meet some people. However, authorities have not been able to identify any of the people that she might have been planning to meet.

According to Lloyd’s family, they lost contact with her on June 16, 2020 and reported her missing on June 17, 2020. According to KESQ, her car was found abandoned off Highway 62 and Shelton road, near Twentynine Palms and Joshua Tree National Park. Lloyd may have been in an accident due to the state in which her car was found – airbags deployed, and windows broken. 3 days after she was reported missing, a man by the name of Martin Cox, who lives in the area where her car was found, told authorities that he saw a woman who matched Lloyd’s description at a rest stop, west of the national park.

Erika Lloyd is described as being 5’04”, 125 pounds, having brown hair and blue eyes, and two distinct tattoos on her arm and back. Lloyd’s family enhanced their search efforts by hiring Doug Billings. Billings is a cave mine expert who helped find Erin Corwin’s body in a mine near Joshua Tree in 2014.

According to Billings, he spent more than 20 hours searching for signs of Lloyd, mapping areas where he tried to retrace her steps (figure 1). On a day that Billings spent searching for Lloyd, he came across a red bicycle that belonged to a man, James Escalante, who went missing on June 24, 2020 in around the same area as Lloyd.

On August 8, 2020, 2 skeletal remains were also found. According to Missing Persons of America, “One set of the skeletal remains was found about a quarter-mile south of Amboy Road and Wilson Road. The other set was discovered near Shelton Road and Highway 62, east of Twentynine Palms.” (Figure 2). “Erica’s car was seen driving by Luckie Park, Wilson and Amboy Rd is where one set of remains were found and Shelton Road is where the other remains were found.” (Figure 3).

One set of remains have been identified as James Escalante, and foul play has not been determined as cause of death. The gender of the other set of remains have not been made known, nor have they been identified. Erika Lloyd remains missing, and no new leads have been made since the findings of the two sets of remains.