Ericka Hogg

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2:10All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney and this is Voices for Justice.

2:30Today, I'm discussing the case of 39-year-old Erica Hogue. This case, Erica herself, is really shrouded in mystery. When she went missing, she was living an alternative lifestyle with a group many have likened to a cult. And the last person to see her has given conflicting stories about the day she went missing. This is the case of Erica Hogue. Erica Renee Hogue was born on June 7, 1979. She has several siblings, but was especially close to her sister Rachel before her disappearance. And Rachel was kind enough to speak with me for this episode. We did grow up together. We didn't always like each other.

3:12We were siblings. We fought a lot, but she was kind of like a mother for me, even though we were so close in age. And she taught me how to read. She read me bedtime stories. She always made sure that my teeth were brushed, you know. You know, the little things. We would have our arguments. It was just kid stuff. We got older, we grew closer. She was always there for me. Rachel told me that Erica was just extremely kind. someone who was always willing to help someone down to giving away their last dollar now eventually erica did get married and have two children that marriage would eventually end however and her two children went to go live with their father of course this was an extremely difficult time in her life and she just didn't feel like a lot of her family was providing her the support that she needed so erica set out to find a different kind of family which she found in the Rainbow Family of Living Light.

4:21This is a counterculture group with no leaders or organization. The Rainbow Family basically consists of individuals who describe themselves as hippies, activists, and peace promoters. And it seems like Erica really found her people with this group. And she often traveled to different states and worked with them. I asked Rachel what she thought of the Rainbow Family. I don't know a whole lot about that part of her life. I just know that she was always a caretaker and that the people I've met from that group, I don't want to call them a cult, but that's kind of what they are.

5:04They always sought her as like the mom. She took care of the kids. If a new kid came into the group or runaway, say, she would make sure they had something to eat somewhere safe to sleep and always encourage them to go home. She was a protector of anything that was vulnerable. According to reporting by Grace Weiler for Vice, the Rainbow family began in the late 1960s as really a hippie anti-war movement. In a 1993 Rolling Stone article, they describe themselves as, quote, the largest, best-coordinated, non-political, non-denominational, non-organization of like-minded individuals on the planet, end quote.

5:51Now, in my research, I did find that this group has seen some less-than-positive behavior from their members, including violence, theft, and a lot of drug use. I also encountered a few Reddit posts saying that members of this group vanish without ever returning. but the evidence to back that up was lacking. So there's a lot of positive out there about this group and a lot of negative. I'll let you make up your own mind. But either way, Erica's just trying to find her way. Trying to find community and traveling around with this rainbow family for a while. Which members exactly is a little unclear.

6:30Then around 2016, Erica starts dating a man named Larry Anthony Hopkins II. second. He went by Anthony or Hannibal. For anybody out there who may not know, or for my younger listeners out there, this is a reference to the 2001 movie Hannibal, which also starred Anthony Hopkins. But when Erica and Anthony weren't traveling around, they would usually stay with Rachel in Idaho. Rachel later told the podcast A Light for Erica that initially the couple appeared happy, but they did fight, and Anthony had a history of using meth, which Rachel did not approve of, and was of course concerned that her sister may use also.

7:09By the spring of 2018, Erica and Anthony were working on a legal weed farm and living in a camper on a remote property in the 7800 block of Deer Creek Road in Selma, Oregon. Now, Selma's actually an unincorporated community in Josephine County with just less than a thousand residents, so super small. It's close to the border of California and over four hours away from Portland. And it wasn't just Erica and Anthony living there. There were other people living on the property, including one neighbor named Ryan. I can't tell you exactly what amenities this camper did or did not have, but we do know that there appeared to be really no way to shower or bathe, so Ryan would let both Erica and Anthony bathe in his home.

7:57They lived what most people would consider a pretty alternative lifestyle. Erica would often walk around the property nude and just didn't care about many modern conveniences or technology. I've seen her get a lot of flack for this lifestyle, but I would argue this is a lifestyle a lot of people aspire to live. So I really encourage you to just keep your mind open for a minute during this episode. Now, Rachel has been extremely open about this. Erica was apparently not taking her medication to treat her schizophrenia. But Erica was going to her doctor's appointments and keeping in touch with Rachel, so she says that she wasn't overly concerned.

8:36Erica also never missed celebrating birthdays, Mother's Day, or Christmas with her kids. They meant the world to her, and maintaining this routine was essential to ensure she could spend time with them. In early May, Erica had plans to go to Oklahoma with Rachel to attend a family event, but just before the trip, Erica called Rachel to say that she couldn't make it. She said that she'd call Rachel back on Mother's Day, which was the 13th that year. But after Rachel got back from the event, Mother's Day had passed and she hadn't heard from Erica. This wasn't entirely surprising because Erica sometimes just didn't follow through on her plans to call.

9:13So Rachel takes a second, decides to wait a day or two before really worrying. But as time passed, Rachel didn't hear from Erica, which was unusual. Erica may not have always been punctual, but she always stayed in touch within a reasonable time frame. Then, on May 18th, Anthony called Rachel with news that made her stomach drop. Erica was missing. This episode of Voices for Justice is brought to you by Quince. I love giving gifts, and Quince really does make that so easy. They have something for everyone. From soft Mongolian cashmere sweaters for$50 that look and feel like designer pieces, silk tops and skirts for dressing up, perfectly cut denim for everyday wear, and outerwear that actually keeps you warm.

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11:33Did I burn down the joint? I don't think so. Then, Hulu has National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. We're all in for a very big Christmas treat. All of these and more streaming this holiday season. And right now, save big with our special Black Friday offer. Bundle Disney Plus and Hulu for just$4.99 a month for one year. Savings compared to current regular monthly price. And 12-1. Offer for ad-supported Disney Plus Hulu bundle only. Then$12.99 a month or then current regular monthly price. 18 plus terms apply. Anthony explains to Rachel that before Erica went missing, he thinks that she was going through a mental health crisis.

12:04He says that she appeared to be hallucinating and talking to people who were not there. He says he thought this happened because Erica was extremely upset that she wasn't able to celebrate Mother's Day with her kids. He says that he also threatened to contact Rachel or her parents if she didn't calm down, which he apparently did not do. But here is what he said happened. Erica had a doctor's appointment scheduled for the next day, so she went to their neighbor Ryan's house to take a bath as she normally did. When she got back to their camper, he says Erica told him that she was still upset and just needed some space.

12:39From here, he says he saw Erica go into the woods and she was gone. Now, we do have some conflicting reports about what Erica was wearing or whether she had any clothes on at all. Some reports say that she was either partially clothed or completely naked, while others say that she was wearing a green vest and purple moccasins. It's important to note that Anthony and Erica shared a cell phone, and she didn't take it with her, but she was believed to have taken a hat, lighter, and a homemade bong made from a Gatorade bottle. It seemed that she planned to get away in the woods for a bit to smoke some weed.

13:17Anthony told Rachel that he went for a walk, and when he came back, Erica still wasn't home, so he just went to sleep. And when he woke up the next morning, Erica was still missing. That's when he made the phone call. But Rachel just felt like something was seriously wrong this time. So she immediately left her job, packed her things, and drove to Oregon to search for her sister. She just had this strong gut feeling that she might not ever see Erica again. If she got into some kind of trouble or she just didn't want to be where she was, she would call me and I would go get her. But this time was different.

13:54I could just feel it in my gut. Anthony and Rachel reached out to the Josephine County Sheriff's Office, who then opened a missing persons case for Erica. But unfortunately, Rachel told me that they didn't take Erica's case seriously at all. And I'm not exaggerating. They didn't even send a search team until a year after she went missing. They act as though the way she lived, she was a transient. She dabbled in drugs. I'm not, you know, I'm not naive to the fact that she used drugs, but they just treated her like one less person to worry about because of the way she lived. What we do know is that Anthony told the police the same details he shared with Rachel.

14:41And their neighbor Ryan, who Erica had visited to take that bath, confirmed that she did come to his home that day to bathe, but he says he hadn't seen her since then. Ryan also mentioned that one of his guns disappeared around the same time that Erica went missing. Now, the podcast A Light for Erica has discussed this possibility that Erica may have taken the gun with the intention of harming herself, but Rachel has a hard time believing that Erica did that because she had a deep fear of guns. She says that she was so afraid of guns that she once jumped out of the car on a freeway after she found out Rachel had a gun with her.

15:18Now, I do think it's also worth noting that the gun apparently had a tactical flashlight attachment, which may have been helpful for her to see in the dark. But we don't really have a lot of information about this gun. We don't know if it's related to Erica's case at all or if it was ever recovered. But we do know that it had an effect on the investigation. They basically said that because Erica may have this gun, and because the woods were so dense, they just weren't going to search. So Rachel did it herself. She went door to door asking if anyone had seen Erica, but no one had. Eventually, she did find one person who says that they saw Erica at a local supermarket.

15:59But when Rachel went to get the surveillance footage from that market, they refused to give it to her, stating that the police had to request it. Of course, Rachel goes right to law enforcement and asks for that, but she says the sheriff's department didn't follow up. So, as the case stands, law enforcement isn't really doing much of anything at this point. And as we so often see, it fell on her family and loved ones to look for Erica. And as if that wasn't bad enough, Rachel says that she got some pushback from law enforcement on these efforts. I had over 100 people willing to come help me search when I went there.

16:39I had people willing to take their own time and money and do aerial searches. The county shut it down. They told us we could not do aerial searches. It was a no-fly zone or whatever. It seemed like every effort we were trying to make, they would shut it down. I asked Rachel why she thought this happened.

17:30Just mind-boggling to me. They told me not to search at all. That didn't stop me. But the people that were doing the aerial searches, they were grounded. There was nothing we could do about it. I searched all over that mountain on foot. Me and a group of friends. They did ground searches, went on hikes, and combed the riverbanks. They contacted hospitals, jails, coroners, psychiatric facilities, shelters, and more. Of course, they also spread the word on social media and put up flyers anywhere they could. But there was just no trace of Erica anywhere. Eventually, they called in more help. On May 20th, three days after Erica went missing, her family hired a private canine handler to search for her.

18:23And the dogs actually picked up on two different trails. One trail led over four hours away to Bend, Oregon, where Erica's children lived. The other led to the back of the property they were living on and into the woods about a mile or a mile and a half away, and it stopped at a group of mailboxes near the road. Which, of course, suggests that she may have gotten a ride from there. Oddly enough, none of these trails led back to Ryan's house where Erica had taken a bath earlier. Now, I do want to note here that Gwen Barringer, the host of A Light for Erica, later told the Ivy News that there have been debates about the handler's reputation and methods.

19:04Basically, they've been accused of just telling family members what they want to hear versus what the dogs actually found. So, these scent trail findings should absolutely be taken with a grain of salt. Then, finally, on May 24th, the Josephine County Sheriff's Office asked the public to help find Erica. This really appears to be the first time that authorities notify the public about Erica's disappearance, and according to police reports, they received three responses. One was from a woman in Selma who says that she saw Erica walking on Highway 199. This is about 11 miles, or more than a four-hour walk from where she went missing from, but this sighting and all the others have never been confirmed to be Erica.

19:51As the time crept by, Erica missed renewing her benefits, doctor's appointments, and her son's birthday. She also stopped accessing her bank account and social media. Meanwhile, Anthony was still on that property, living and working where he and Erica used to stay, and before long it came out that he'd text someone about the day that Erica went missing. In that message, he talks about how he thought Erica was going through a mental health crisis, but he adds new, different details. He says that on the 17th, he went to work, leaving Erica at home. He checked on her a few times throughout the day.

20:31At one point, she told him that she was going to lie down and go to sleep. He says the last time he checked on her, she was in bed crying. He went back to work, and when he came back a few hours later, Erica was gone. This is obviously pretty different from what Anthony had previously told Erica's family and the police. Now, not much seemed to happen with this, or if it did, we are not being told that. By the fall of 2018, Erica's case was transferred to the Oregon State police. They tell local news that they're still investigating Erica's disappearance as a missing person's case, but they say that the tips just weren't coming in anymore and the case had eventually gone stale.

21:15They added, quote, we've reviewed the report and any interviews, and right now nothing stands out that it was foul play, end quote. But one of Erica's friends told Kobe 5 News that they weren't so sure that foul play wasn't involved. This is unfortunately vague, which is why I said that this case is shrouded in so much mystery. But essentially, this friend comes forward and says that Erica had a relationship with someone in the past that was pretty volatile. This person is never named, but the friend said, quote, I feel like somebody did something to Erica that was not good, that was bad, and I feel like this person is still walking around.

21:57End quote. Rachel says that she does not want to point fingers. She just wants closure. Towards the end of 2018, a local woman from Selma named Gwen Barringer came across a missing poster for Erica. She felt a connection to her and just wanted to help. Gwen has since become a dedicated advocate for Erica's family. That's how I found Erica's case. It was through Gwen. She also does interviews right alongside Rachel. and has conducted a huge amount of work in this case and launched that podcast I've been talking about, A Light for Erica. It has been a great resource for this episode and I absolutely recommend that you go listen to that.

22:43Now, over these years, Anthony was arrested. He was being held on charges of reckless driving, reckless endangerment, and possession of meth. But he was released in early April 2019. Now, I can't argue that these charges are relevant, but I mention them because not long after, on April 20th, there's a major discovery found on the property. Anthony finds Erica's hat, the homemade bong, and a lighter at the edge of the property. It was less than 100 yards from where he said that he last saw Erica, and it does seem like these things were out there for quite a while because they were covered in moss.

23:22But the big question was, how were these not found during the searches? That's why Search and Rescue went out a year later, because her boyfriend had claimed that he found some clothing items of hers and a bong, a homemade bong that she had made. It was back behind the property, which, you know, was odd to me because I searched everywhere out there and I didn't come across anything. things. So, but, uh, I never got to see it personally. Um, when he found it, he called me and I told him not to touch it, to contact law enforcement. Of course he didn't, he picked it up. He took it back to his camper.

24:07I never got to see the items, but I was told that, um, it looked like they had been there for a long time. Like there was plant growth on them.

24:21And that's when Search and Rescue finally agreed to come out. I went back for that. I had some other family and friends come with me on that trip, but then they wouldn't allow us to help them search. But they did say that we could do our own search after they left, just not to disturb anything they might have found. Close your eyes, exhale, feel your body relax, and let go of whatever you're carrying today. Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-CONTACTS. Oh my gosh, they're so fast. And breathe. Oh, sorry.

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26:09We'll see you next time. Try now at windows.com slash copilot. On May 17th, search and rescue dogs were brought to the area, and they alerted to where the items were found. But nothing really came of this, they didn't find anything else or any trace of Erica, and eventually those searches were suspended. Since all of this happened, Anthony has moved to other states, and as far as the family can tell, he no longer lives in Oregon. I warned you guys that this one was shrouded in mystery, and unfortunately, that's really all we know about the investigation into Erica's disappearance. Rachel and Gwen are still trying to raise awareness about Erica's case, which brings me right to our call to action directly from Rachel.