ERIKA ASHLEY LLOYD, DISAPPEARED JUNE 16, 2020, BODY FOUND JANUARY 31, 2021, WONDER VALLEY, CALIFORNIA

Revised April 2024

Erika Ashley Lloyd, 37, was a single mother with a 12-year-old son. On June 11th, 2020, Erika dropped her son off with her ex and on June 14th told her family and friends she was going on a "pandemic road trip".

She set out on a 500-mile, 7-hour trip from her home in Walnut Creek, heading to Joshua Tree National Park in California, a place that would be 100°F+ at that time of the year. Her crashed Honda Accord was found in the desert by the police near the intersection of Highway 62 and Shelton Road in Twentynine Palms. But Erika was nowhere to be seen. A search of the area and the campground where she was staying in Joshua failed to turn up any signs.

Erika’s remains were eventually found in January 2021 preceded by the discovery of another two sets of remains in October 2020 in the area where her car was found. One of these sets of remains was identified as a missing cyclist, James Escalante, who had vanished in the area in late June 2020 whilst searching for a friend of his girlfriend. He disappeared within days of Erika.

Three cases of mishap in the area near Twentynine Palms or is there something more mysterious happening? Some describe the area as having an “odd vibe”. The desert can be a brutal place at that time of the year, but the case has many strange and disturbing elements. Was this really a mental illness, an accident, or something more sinister?

There have been some strange disappearances and deaths in Joshua Tree National Park including:

The mysterious disappearance of Bill Ewasko in Joshua Tree National Park

The puzzling disappearance and death of Paul Miller in Joshua Tree National Park

Laura Bradbury - Strange Disappearances in U.S. National Parks

READ THE FULL ARTICLE BY LOGGING IN OR BECOMING A MEMBER HERE: The disturbing case of the death of Erika Lloyd on her pandemic road trip to Joshua National Park

Read more strange stories from California

The puzzling disappearance and death of Paul Miller in Joshua Tree National Park

The strange disappearance of George Penca in Yosemite National Park

The disturbing disappearance and death of Ranger Randy Morgenson in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

The weird disappearance of Deputy Jonathan Aujay at the Devil's Punchbowl

The strange disappearance of Harold Drake from Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park

The disturbing disappearance of Arvin Nelson in the Los Padres National Forest

The disturbing death of Katherine Wong at the Bear Valley Ski Resort

The disturbing death of Evelyn Consuela Rosemann in Yosemite National Park

The mysterious case of the Yuba County Five

The puzzling disappearance of Jared Negrete from Mount San Gorgonio

The strange death of Timothy Nolan in Yosemite National Park

The strange disappearance and death of Stephen Michael Morris in Shasta-Trinity

The disturbing death of Thomas Heng in Sequoia National Park

The strange death of Larry Conn in Kings Canyon National Park (Member Only)

The puzzling disappearance of Matthew Greene from the Ansel Adams Wilderness (Member Only)