KETTERING, Ohio — Ever since 9-year-old Erica Baker vanished while walking her dog in this Dayton suburb in February 1999,her family has watched promising leads about her fate come and go.

Erica Baker

        On Friday, Erica's loved ones expressed their frustration over a lawyer's reported refusal to tell a grand jury whether her deceased client revealed information about Erica's disappearance.

        “I feel this is probably going to be the one last chance for us to find out what really happened to Erica,” said Erica's father, Greg, 37.

        Erica's case, which has drawn national attention, is a rare child abduction not linked to a relative — and the only such case in this middle-class city in more than 20 years. Now the latest developments are stirring debate over an Ohio law that allows attorney-client privilege to be broken after a client's death.

        Pam Schmidt, Erica's grandmother, said the controversy would end with a simple answer: “Just tell me where she is.”

        Authorities declined to comment Friday, citing laws requiring secrecy of grand jury proceedings and the admonition of Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Michael T. Hall. “The judge told the parties involved that he did not want this matter discussed with the press,” said Jim Knight, spokesman for the Montgomery County Prosecutor's Office.

        The Baker family said they learned from a Dayton Daily News report that Judge Hall had found Federal Defender Beth Lewis in contempt for refusing to answer a grand jury's questions about what Jan Marie Franks, 32, may have told her about Erica. Ms. Franks died of a drug overdose in December, and prosecutors are trying to compel Ms. Lewis' testimony under an apparently untested provision of Ohio law, the newspaper said.

        Discussions between lawyer and client, normally considered confidential, may be revealed if the client dies and if a surviving spouse or trustee approves of the disclosure. Erica's loved ones are grateful that Ms. Franks' husband, Shane Nolan Franks, 29, provided that consent, Ms. Schmidt said.

        Ms. Lewis was allowed to remain free for five weeks while the Ohio 2nd District Court of Appeals considers the case, the newspaper said. The appeals court's Web site says the case's records are contained in a sealed envelope, “locked in the cabinet in the clerk's office to be opened by court personnel only.”

        Ms. Schmidt said Ms. Franks' name has been popping up since at least 2000. Tipsters have said Ms. Franks kept talking about being among three people who were in a van that accidentally struck Erica. Then some of the occupants panicked, “picked up the victim and disposed of her remains,” Ms. Schmidt said.

        That account doesn't make sense, Ms. Schmidt says. Striking a pedestrian would have left bodily fluids, which search dogs didn't detect even though they were dispatched shortly after Erica disappeared.

        But Ms. Schmidt says she thinks Ms. Lewis' client did reveal something.

        “It isn't anything personal (against Ms. Lewis). I just want to know where my granddaughter is — and we use every tool we can to find her,” Ms. Schmidt said.

        Ms. Lewis didn't return a telephone message Friday; Steven Keller of Columbus, federal public defender for the Southern District of Ohio, declined to comment.

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