Suvechha Sarkar
With the fall semester in full swing in September 2012, the University of Florida campus was buzzing with its usual energy when Christian S. Aguilar mysteriously disappeared. His then-girlfriend, Erika Friman, reached out for help, which unraveled his cruel murder due to obsession and betrayal. ABC’s ’20/20: Killer On Campus’ revisits the details of the harrowing crime with the officials and how Erika caught herself in the middle of the storm. It also traces the emotional toll it took on her and Christian’s family members.
Erika Friman Lost Christian Aguilar Due to the Obsession of Her Ex-boyfriend
Erika Friman met Christian S. Aguilar when they were just teenagers and attended Doral Academy Preparatory School. That was where they also met Pedro Bravo, and all three of them became tight-knit friends. Pedro and Erika began dating, but the latter broke up with him just before graduation after dating for almost three years. Both Erika and Christian moved to Gainesville and enrolled in Santa Fe Community College. Soon, romantic sparks began flying, and they started dating. In August 2012, Pedro had also moved to Gainesville since his closest friends lived there. However, everything changed on September 20, 2012, when Erika could not reach Christian over the call or via text after his outing with Pedro. She alerted his parents and the authorities, leading to a missing persons investigation.
However, detectives found conflicting accounts of Pedro’s last meeting with Christian, which raised red flags. He claimed to have known about Christian and Erika’s relationship, but the latter informed the police that the couple had planned to keep it a secret since Pedro had not taken his breakup quite well. Pedro alleged that he had no problem with their relationship, but the journal retrieved from his apartment proved otherwise. Police found a backpack in his apartment containing Pedro’s identification and wallet. The search continued as he alleged that he had beaten up Christian on that fateful day and left him behind before driving off. On October 12, 2012, two hunters discovered Christian’s remains, and upon investigation, they found that the soil at the scene matched the soil under Pedro’s tires.
Pedro’s phone data that day showed that he had put it in airplane mode for an extended period. There was footage of him buying a shovel and cleaning the underside of his blazer at a car wash facility at 1 am. Ultimately, Pedro was arrested on September 24, 2012, and charged with the first-degree murder of Christian, kidnapping, and poisoning, among the seven charges. It turned out that he had planned to kill Michael to win Erika back. His trial began on August 4, 2014, when Erika took the stand to testify. In August 2024, the jury found Pedro guilty of all seven charges. He was sentenced to life in prison without eligibility for parole for the murder charge and other consecutive sentences for the other charges. However, Pedro passed away in custody on March 12, 2025, at the Okeechobee Correctional Institution in Okeechobee, Florida.
Erika Friman Has Chosen a Quiet and Driven Life Fueled by Love and Loss
Even when Christian was missing, Erika Friman worked relentlessly side-by-side with his family by staying on the frontline of the search. She ensured that justice was served and even took to the stand to testify against Pedro during his trial. After Erika lost Christian to the unimaginable tragedy, she reminisced about the good times, recollecting how much he loved her. When she was interviewed, she expressed with great sorrow, “I think we would have gotten married eventually. I feel like he was not gonna stop loving me.” Further speaking on the crime that Pedro had committed, Erika expressed her grief, stating, “This was a person we knew. This was intentional. It makes it all so much worse. It’s like the knife just turns in your heart kind of thing.”
After enduring a heartbreak that shook the foundation of her young life, Erika has chosen to move forward with resilience. She graduated from the University of Florida in 2017 and explored various professional roles in the following years. In March 2020, she found a calling closer to her heart by joining the Heart of Florida United Way as a Donor and Volunteer Engagement Coordinator. Erika moved on in August 2021, before deepening her commitment to meaningful work by joining The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. She first became an Executive Associate and is currently a Senior People and Culture Associate there. Far from the spotlight, Erika seems to have found peace, dedicating herself to causes that uplift others and make a lasting difference. Above everything, she continues to hold Christian’s precious memories close to her heart.
Read More: Christian Aguilar: How Did He Die? Who Killed Him?
