Erica Sykes is an aggressive, ambitious young news reporter for Miami's CBS station WFOR-TV. Her antics are often described as crazy by the CSI team and they generally find her annoying, especially Ryan Wolfe (apparently, she once dated him just to get information out of him). She targeted Ryan and broad casted him at close range, much to his annoyance but in the end, the team uses her tapes to find their suspect (episode 401, "From the Grave").
In the season 4 episode Free Fall, Ryan warned her to stay away from two former prisoners after he suspected that they are targets for murder. She refused to listen got shot in the process. It is Erica who revealed to Ryan that there was a mole in the lab in a special extended scene that was available on www.cbs.com after the episode Urban Hellraisers aired.
She also helps Ryan in a case regarding abuse of eminent domain, with the government evicting people from their homes before turning the land over to a private developer (episode 505, "Death Eminent").
In a later episode, however, she puts the life of Natalia's sister at risk by mentioning on the air that she is a victim in a kidnapping (episode 508, "Darkroom").
It is implied that CSI Boa Vista was jealous of Ryan and Erica's "closeness".
She is played by Amy Laughlin.