Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
This is US Marine veteran Eric Banks , moments after this body cam footage officers would find his horrifying secret stuffed inside his bedroom wall.
Eric , who is also an active officer for Baltimore PD , think he can use his experience to cover up his vile murder .
What follows is amongst the disturbing collections of criminal case files ever uploaded to YouTube…
On july 7 th in Millersville , Maryland ,two officers arrived at the home of Eric Banks Jr , after his wife reported that their 15 year old son,Dasan was potentially missing.
The report was relatively standard for them ,but the reality awaiting them is more horrofying then they could have imagined.
Officers report hearing loud bangs from the upstairs of the home, however,nobody comes to answer the door.
After multiple minutes of waiting, and out of breath, Eric finally greets the officers.
Eric and his wife Latrice had both individually filed a protective order against each other , making it illegal to speak to one another without a police escort.
However , since Eric is not the biological father of Dasan, Latrice had custodial rights to him, which is why he was packing his belongings as he and Latrice were prepering to leave the residence.
Dasan’s disappearance on the very day he and his mom were supposed to move out makes the situation even more unusual .
So , officers continued to speaking with Eric,hoping to understand the family dynamic and gather any clues that might point where Dasan is.
But what Eric says next only raises suspicions even futher .
Sitting beside Eric are his two sons , 5 year old Evan Banks and three year old Tristan banks.
Officeres didn’t know it at the time, but these two would play a pivotal role in uncovering the horrifying scene that just happened inside their home.
But for now , officer Sutton goes back to his patrol vehicale to run a registration.
He identifies the suspect as 34 year old Eric Banks Jr., an officer for the Baltimore police departement.
He’s been an active officer since 2018 and also carries 10 years of service in the United States Marine.
After speaking with neighbors of Eric, who provided minimal additional information,officers would confront Eric once again , this time sternly to figure out what was going on.
It’s here that Eric would explain his alibi,one he had come up with just minutes ago….
Officers would spend another 15 minutes canvasing the area in hopes of finding Dasan,but would again come up clueless.
So they decided to try calling dason’s mother Latrice, but are unable get ahld of her either.
So, in a desperate attempt to find a relevant lead,they decide to ask Eric if he voluntarily consent to a search inside the home, hoping Dasan maybe hiding inside.
in an officer Adams report of the incident, he notes that at this point in their home search , Eric’s demeanor had changed ,he advised Eric to relax and let them freely search the home.
They proceed to make their way to the third floor of the home…
…The floor which stores Eric’s chilling secret.
Inside the hole in Eric’s bedroom lies Dasan’s deceased body, already cold to the touch, Eric forgot to fully close the hole before meeting with the officer.
The gruseome discovery would leave the two officers in shock.
They tried to keep their composure while transporting Eric to a patrol vehicle.
While Eric is being detained,officer Vos attempts life – saving measures on Dasan, noting that his condition appeared consistent with an unresponsive individual, he also notes that Dasan was shirtless and that his jeans were heavily soaked with moisture from an unknown source.
Outside the home , Eric is temporarily placed in the patrol vehicle, but within moments, the situation begins to spiral out of the officer’s control…
Without additional units on scene, officer Sutton struggles to keep Eric restrained,Sutton attempts to secure Eric’s handcuffs using a double lock, a mechanism that prevents cuffs from tightening or being manipulated.
However, Eric uses his police experience to exploit this ,and while his previoous attempts at evasion have failed, he’d make one more final far more violent attempt to get away.
Eric’s attempt to unholster officer Sutton’s service weapon, eventually managing to loosen it and nearly knocking it to the ground.
Fortunately, Eric’s handcuffs prevented him from causing any further harm.
As the chaotic scene finally settles, officer briefly discuss the frantic events that just unfolded.
EMS attempted to perfom CPR on Dasan, but it was too late.
Dasan was declared deceased shortly after by EMS,what officers uncovered with Dasan was only the beginning.
As the investigation deepens, Eric’s children would reveal further secrets , painting an even darker picture of the reality behind closed doors…
For now , the decision is made to take eric, his children and his exwife Latrice to the police station.
Police reports state that while Eric is being transported,he struck his head multiple times against the cage window bar ,causing a welt to his head and damage to the patrol vehicle.
Despite this, everyone would eventually make it to the station, each seperated into their own individual rooms, awaiting intense interrogation.
Eric would be left alone to hopefully calm down and collect his thoughts.
Meannwhile,detectives speak with both Latrice and her child , Evan,hoping to collect more information that can be used when speaking with their main suspects.
They start with Latrice , asking her what a kind of person Dasan was,at this point detectives are considering the possibility that he and Eric may have gotten into a fight that somehow escalated into tragedy.
But what Latrice describes denies that theory completely,and makes Dasan’s case even more heartbreaking.
Dasan was more of a quite person, until he got to know you,but he was always mannered.he talked to a lot of adults,but he was never disrespectful or any of that.he was very sweet and always willing to help.
Dasan’s autopsy report ruled his cause of death asphyxiation, which in combination with the bruises and marks on his face implied he was likely strangled to death.
Latrice makes it clear she believes Eric is responsible even though she didn’t witness the incident herself.
But her son Evan , seated just three doors down in his own interview room has information that could take the investigation even further .
Notice the harsh contrast between interview rooms.
Evan is sitting in the department’s safety room,a space created to provide comfort and reduce stress for victims and young children involved in sensitive cases.
His interviewer,Miwa, is a forensic interviewer from Maryland.trained specifically to speak with children and family members connected to a criminal investigation.
And because Evan is only seven years old ,you’ll notice a drastic difference in how his interview is conducted.
Miwa explains to Evan that everything is being recorded and that he is not in trouble, but rather just there to help them out.
She spends 15 minutes talking about movies and more of Evan’s interests to help him get more comfortable before discussing the day of Dasan’s murder.
Miwa would tell Evan to draw the last time he saw Dasan and he draw the staircase leading to the home’s loft .
The same staircase Eric has dragged Dasan’s body up .
Evan struggles to reveal the details of the events he saw that day, likely due to the discomfort of speaking with a stranger in a police station.
But the information he gave his mother on the day of the incidents provides far clear insight into the distrubing events he saw.
Evan said he saw his daddy bringing DJ upstairs, and said he was in the living room, his mother asked if DJ was sleeping, he said ” no, he wasn’t soring”.
Then Latice asked if DJ was moving , and Evans responds was ” no”.
And Evan also told his mother that daddy made him and Tristan go to the bathroom and cover their eyes .
But Latice said this was before, this was when the police first knocked at the door,Evan didn’t say anything about the knock because Eric told him to go in the bathroom first.
Latice was a little confused of like the order, she didn’t know if that’s maybe when he was going to let the police in-but Evan did say he saw that and that he was in the living room because he told his mom he was watching Loki.
In addition to these grim details, Latrice would go on to explain how Eric’s life had begun to collapse , all in synchrony.
Due to the protective peace order , Latrice had filed, Eric was suspended from the Baltimore police department…the very same day of Dasan’s death.
He had just seperated from his wife, was about to lose his children and was now left without a job.
Latrice also explained that the peace order she filed was not her first attempt to separate herself from Eric .
Months prior , Latrice filed her first peace protective order, writing ;
” i am in fear for my life and well-being because Eric Banks keeps trying to control,follow, and emotionally abuse myself and my sons”
The order was denied ,however and it wasn’t until months later that her second attempt was granted.
It was clear Eric’s life was falling apart leading up to Dasan’s death.
Eric had hidden his body,lied to officers regarding his whereabouts, and had a violent outburst once the body was discovered .
It’d be hard to assume that he wasn’t directly implicated in Dasan’s death ,but evidence alone wouldn’t be nearly enough to confess, after all,he was a police officer of 10 years and knew how criminal justice system worked just as well as any interrogator working against him.
But unfortunately for Eric , the interrogation he was about to undergo would crack even the most well -trained of suspects...
Eric is placed into an Arendelle county interview room 2B ,this room was designed for priority matters, exlusive to high -profile cases.
Because Eric had attempted to attack an officer earlier in the day , he’s been handcuffed to the table to restrict movement.
Eric is left alone for multiple hours as the detectives prepare for his interrogation.
While waiting , he can be seen glancing aroun the room multiple times,likely searching for a camera.
What Eric didn’t know is interview room 2B has a small camera placed in an unusual location, which Eric never managed to spot.
The primary investigator assigned to this case is det. Lewis Adrian, his prior service in the United states military likely factored into the department’s strategic choice to have him conduct the interview.
This shared background enables Adrian to establish rapport with Eric, a key component in the upcoming interaction.
After reading Eric his rights, the detectives would spend nearly an hour connecting with Eric and bonding over their chared military experience.
This friendly conversation appeared to take Eric out of the tense mental state.
It appeared that Eric sharing his favorite moments from the military gave him a sense of importance,like he had an identity he was proud of,or at least used to be.
But that moment is short – lived as he quickly brought back to the reality of why he sitting inside a police interrogation room.
At this point , the detectives had no reason to assume Eric was lying , he’d been open and honest with them the entire time and seemed rather friendly.
It isn’t until they begin discussing the day of the incident that investigators realize Eric’s perceived honesty had all been a calculated act….
This is the moment where Eric’s act begins, Notice how he begins looking blancly into the ceiling as he recounts critical moments.
For the last hour , Eric hardly looked up to the ceiling once.
Eric makes his story clear ,he had planned to end his life ,but coincidentally, Dasan had the same plan and did it first, it’s an extremely complex alibi.
And only becomes more unlikely after Eric explains why Dasan’s body ended up hidden inside his bedroom.
Objetively , Eric’s story hits all the points , he has an excuse for almost every suspicious detail,even finding a way to explain why blood was found all over his house, the issue is that these details are simply too coincidental to ever sound believable -and even Eric knows this.
The detectives decided to take a break and discuss what their next plans would be.
At this point,they both know Eric is lying to their faces,so, the goal for the rest of the interrogation will b e to get Eric to admit to his lies, and ultimately confess to the murder .
To do this ,they decide on Detective Adrien conducting the rest of the interrogation alone,since one- on – one confrontation is generally considered to be more effective.
Adrien would return with a clearly different demeanor from earlier. he’s stern and wastes no time in asserting that his nice cop act is over .
Eric would recount his story exactly the same as before,claiming he simply found Dasan dead and had nothing to do with it and it seemed as though detective Adrien had nothing concrete to combat Eric’s lies.
That was until he brought out Dasan’s autopsy report.
Note Eric’s lack of emotion when hearing this information, no tears are shed but rather an array of defensive rage,this alongside the countless red flags Eric’s portraying ,is a telltale sign for the detectives that a suspect is lying.
Eric understands the legal system well ,well enough to avoid offering a direct confession when confronted.
From investigator’s perspective, he knows that admitting involvement is the worst thing he can possibly do .
Well ,besides not asking for an attorney, but regardless, it’s going to take more than just a heated confrontation to make Eric crack .
As the detective leaves, Eric scans the room thoroughly and finally notices the camera hidden room 2B, moments after making eye contact with the camera ,he lets out one last desperate act…
” strangled? hell no”
Unfortunately , it’d be too late to act his way out of the murder.
Eric’s testimony wad flimsy at best , and detective Adrien decided to he’d gotten enough to wrap nearly five hours interview up.
Shortly thereafter, Eric was booked into the Anne Arendelle county detention center under charges of first-degree murder ,second- degree murder and child abuse resulting in death.
At trial ,Eric quickly accept a plea deal to second -degree murder as well as attempting to disarm a police officer.
And on October 4th,2022, he was sentenced to 42 years in prison.
If Eric serves his full sentence,he’ll be released in 2064.