The body of a New Jersey mother missing since New Year's Eve has been found in Carroll County, Maryland.
Investigators say the body of 26-year-old Erica Crippen Crosby was found Tuesday afternoon by using a GPS device in her husband's vehicle. Her body was found in Sykesville, Maryland, northeast of Baltimore.
Crippen Crosby's hands and feet were bound with an electrical cord that also was around her neck. Duct tape was found on her face and nose.
Her husband, 28-year-old Kyle Crosby, was charged with her murder in January.
Erica had been last seen at a restaurant in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, with her husband on New Year's Eve. She posted a new photo on Facebook just before 11 p.m., and hadn't been heard from since.
Kyle Crosby told her family she was missing the following day.
He battled drug addiction and had gone on a drug binge in Camden with another woman after his wife went missing, her family told NBC10 in Philadelphia. Crosby and the woman sold some of Erica's clothing for drugs, they said.
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Investigators used the GPS in Crosby's vehicle to help track down the area in Sykesville, Maryland, where Crippen's body was dumped, Robert Bernardi, a prosecutor in Burlington County, New Jersey.
The couple had married last summer after Kyle was released from jail, said Erica's family. They lived in Mount Laurel with their infant daughter and Erica's 7-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.
"If you all were arguing you could have come to me or walked away," said Janiya Crippen, Erica's sister, in the wake of Erica's disappearance. "Kyle, she loved you! She loved you so much! She really wanted you to do better! He was in a rehabilitation center last month, trying to get clean. She loved him. And she wanted him to be a better father to her kid."
Kyle Crosby also faces a child endangerment charge, which authorities said stems from the level of care he provided to the children in the absence of his wife.
Crosby's 67-year-old mother, Jo, has been charged with hindering and tampering with physical evidence in the case.
Prosecutors said Tuesday that Jo Crosby helped her son conceal his wife's body but declined further comment on the allegations, citing the ongoing investigation.
