The Murder of Brian Erickson, summer 1979

Brian Erickson, 28, was a drifter who last lived for a short period of time in the city of Berkeley, Alameda County, CA. About one month before his body was discovered, Brian's wallet was found in a storm drain in a neighborhood in South San Francisco, San Mateo County, CA. It is unclear if anything was taken or missing from the wallet.

On Monday, August 13, 1979, Brian was found dead in his white station wagon in the 500 block of King Dr in Daly City, San Mateo County. He had been murdered "by blunt force object." His body had been in his vehicle for several weeks before he was discovered.

This is the only information I could find online, namely from the Daly City cold case page. Crime Solvers Central also has a profile on him, though all of the information is from the same source. I could not find anything on Ancestry, FindAGrave, or Newspapers about him either. I have, however, created a FindAGrave memorial for Brian using what little information could be found, as he deserves to be remembered and his murderer brought to justice.

If you have information regarding Brian's murder, please call DCPD at (650) 991-8169 or use their Citizen's Online Police Reporting System.

Photo of Brian Erickson available on the Daly City Cold Cases page.

 

On a Reddit post of mine about Brian on the r/UnresolvedMysteries subreddit, a user commented the following: 

"After some trial and error, I found a Bruce Edward Erickson in the California Death Index. He died in San Mateo County on August 13, 1979.

ETA: He was born 1950, putting him in the right age range.

Since someone who died in California should be listed in the death index, I'm wondering if there is some sort of mix up with the first name."

From this information I was able to find more about Bruce Edward Erickson on Ancestry, including this obituary for him. According to the obit, Bruce was last known to be living in Berkeley, CA; the same is true for "Brian." The user who provided the original info further commented that, "there were several other Bruce Ericksons from Minnesota who were born about the same time." 

Despite this, it is uncertain if "Brian Erickson" is in fact Bruce Edward Erickson.

[Note: all sources for this post are hyperlinked in the body of the text.]