Just after sunset on September 29, 2020, 8-year-old Mark and 11-year-old Jacob Iskander were skating across Triunfo Canyon Road with their mother in Westlake Village when tragedy struck. As the boys followed behind crossing at Saddle Mountain Drive, they were hit and killed by a speeding vehicle. Both boys died instantly.
Multiple eyewitnesses described a “high-speed convoy” of vehicles racing down Triunfo at dangerous speeds. Several said they heard not one, but two distinct impacts, separated by three to five seconds. Yet, despite the clear implication that more than one vehicle was involved, only one driver was arrested that night: Rebecca Grossman. Only one vehicle was impounded and examined, her 2018 white Mercedes.
After the crash, Grossman’s airbags deployed. Her Mercedes emergency crash system triggered, alerting emergency responders. In shock, she pulled the car to the side of the road and spoke to the Mercedes emergency operator, who instructed her to remain by her vehicle and wait for authorities – exactly what Grossman did.
Then she called to Scott Erickson with whom she was with at Julio’s restaurant shortly before the accident and was ahead of her by seconds in the #2 lane heading to her home to watch the Presidential debate.
“Something terrible has happened,” she said.
Erickson’s response was chilling: “Did you see the kids?”
Shocked by the question, Grossman shouted “NO”, then hung up to look at her vehicle.
How did Erickson know children were involved? And if he did know, why didn’t he stop?
Instead of pulling over, Erickson kept driving. Witnesses say he returned later, lingering near the crash scene, blending in with the crowd as authorities gathered witness statements and physical evidence. He never identified himself as the driver of the car directly ahead of Grossman. No one questioned him. No one stopped him. He vanished into the chaos while investigators zeroed in on one suspect and one car.
According to reports, Grossman’s daughter was meeting a Postmates delivery driver who was blocked by the road closure. She spotted Erickson watching the scene unfold, and was told by authorities to go back to her home. When she did, she soon noticed Erickson follow her back to the Westlake house two blocks away. There, she had a brief and disturbing interaction with him. Talking to himself he said “Why did she stop?” and then coldly told her “You never saw me here.”
Erickson quickly called former MLB player Royce Clayton, who had been with both Erickson and Grossman earlier that evening at Julio’s restaurant. Clayton had separated from the pair to run to the store and was expected to meet them later at Grossman’s house where they planned to watch the Presidential debate. Sources say Erickson told Clayton what happened and not to go to Grossman’s home.
Erickson’s next move that night was meeting privately with high-profile attorney Frankie Longo whose firm Longo & Longo LLP handles criminal matters. Longo is no stranger to serious charges and you don’t consult with with someone like Longo unless you have a reason to believe you need representation.
If you were not involved in the accident and your vehicle has no damage, why lawyer up the night of the crash?
“THE FIRST 48”
In the world of homicide investigations, there’s a phrase that defines the race against time: The First 48. Investigators agree that the first 48 hours after a fatal incident are the most critical. Witnesses’ memories are still intact. Physical evidence is fresh and untainted. Suspects haven’t had time to construct airtight alibis or destroy evidence.
But when those hours are squandered, when the wrong narrative is cemented prematurely, the damage is often permanent. And in this case, that’s exactly what happened.
That night, multiple news stations reported that two vehicles were involved in the fatal crash stating, “One driver has been taken into custody, the other remains unknown” suggesting authorities were searching for a second driver, when in fact, they were not.
Mainstream media continued referencing a second vehicle in the days following the incident. Yet despite these public reports and multiple eyewitness accounts, the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station failed to pursue those leads in the critical hours following the crash, or secure evidence found at the scene that could have held the second driver accountable.
IDENTIFY AND DENY
Roughly 24 hours after the crash, a retired LASD detective named Scott Butler, who also happens to be Royce Clayton’s cousin, contacted the LASD Homicide Bureau, fully expecting his report to trigger a full-scale follow-up. Instead, he was directed back to Lost Hills Station. Butler spoke to Deputy Cory Gaudet and told him Clayton might have information on the accident. He made it clear: Erickson was involved and may have been the lead vehicle in the collision.
Gaudet immediately contacted Royce Clayton. Sources confirm Clayton corroborated Erickson’s involvement and that he was driving ahead of Grossman just moments before the crash and that Erickson had gone back to the scene after he parked his car at Grossman’s house.
As the crucial 48-hour window ticked away, Sergeant Scott Shean took over as lead investigator dismissing Erickson’s involvement entirely, without ever conducting a forensic inspection of his vehicle or a formal interview despite confirming Erickson was ahead of Grossman in the same lane, mere seconds before the impact.
A fog light inconsistent with Grossman’s car, and license plate frames that didn’t match Grossman’s Mercedes were initially documented, then mysteriously “missing” after the official evidence list was filed. Both of Erickson’s Mercedes had fog light covers.
Sergeant Shean and Sergeant Kelly, reviewed security footage from The Boathouse restaurant and a neighboring private residence the next day. The videos clearly showed multiple vehicles, including one ahead of Grossman’s that matched Erickson’s. Instead of collecting the footage properly, they recorded it on their personal cell phones and failed to instruct the owners to preserve the original video. As a result, potential key evidence was lost forever.
Even more troubling, the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Department never inspected Erickson’s vehicle, no forensic analysis, no impound, no follow-up. A critical lead was ignored, and potentially key evidence was lost forever.
In any credible fatal traffic investigation, the most basic protocol is clear: identify all vehicles involved. Locate them. Inspect them. Impound them. Investigators determine the sequence of events, point of impact, speed, and which vehicle hit what, and when.
Earlier that day, Erickson and Clayton had been drinking at the Stonehouse, before meeting Grossman at Julio’s before the fatal crash. Erickson had a reputation for always having a drink in hand, yet in court, prosecutors brushed off his prior DUI from 11 years earlier as if it was irrelevant when we was witnessed consuming alcohol throughout the day up until right before the fatal accident. Grossman was not charged with DUI, yet the media continued to call her “drunk.” Meanwhile, the prosecution weaponized the concept of implied malice against Grossman, despite the fact that she wasn’t even convicted of a DUI in this case.
But in this case, those fundamentals were thrown out the window. A second car, repeatedly described by witnesses and supported by physical evidence and video surveillance at the scene, was outright ignored.
The car, driven by Erickson, was mere seconds ahead of Grossman at the moment of impact. Erickson not only had immediate knowledge of what happened, he also appeared to take calculated steps to cover his tracks.
Why is this detail so important? Because Scott Erickson owned two black Mercedes SUVs: a 2007 ML450 with a front metal bumper guard and a 2016 GLC63 AMG. When questioned, Erickson told authorities he was driving the older 2007 model that night. But it was later revealed he had actually been behind the wheel of the 2016 AMG SUV.
If he wasn’t involved in the accident, and his vehicle had no damage, why lie about which car he was driving?
It wasn’t until October 8th, nine days after the crash, that investigators finally contacted Scott Erickson. By then, the trail was cold. Witnesses had dispersed, memories had faded, and crucial physical evidence, that could definitively prove Erickson was the first vehicle to hit the children, had conveniently vanished.
Before the crash, Erickson was regularly seen driving his 2016 AMG Mercedes. But after the collision, he suddenly switched to using the older 2007 model, and quietly hid the 2016 vehicle at his friend Chris Pollock’s property.
Instead of peeling back the layers of what happened on Triunfo Canyon Road that night, LASD honed in on Grossman and never looked back. That decision, whether motivated by incompetence, influence, or politics – or all of the above – ensured that critical evidence disappeared and Scott Erickson walked away untouched.
Whatever damage may have existed on Erickson’s vehicle was likely wiped from existence in the first 48 hours. The window to question, inspect, or charge a central figure in a fatal double homicide was squandered. Whether through gross negligence or intentional omission, this was a catastrophic failure of investigative integrity.
The fact that this car wasn’t pursued is a deliberate blind spot that rewrites the outcome of a case, and denies a family the full truth.
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