Scott Thomas Erskine was born on December 22, 1962, in San Diego, California. He grew up in Southern California, where his early years were marked by a traumatic event. When Scott was just five years old, he ran into traffic on the Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach and was hit by a station wagon. This accident left him in a coma for 60 hours. After he woke up, he seemed to recover physically, but he began to have frequent headaches and "black-out" moments where he could not remember what he had been doing.

As he grew older, Scott's behavior became concerning. By the age of ten, he started to molest his six-year-old sister. He also began sexually assaulting his friends and would threaten them if they tried to tell anyone. His school life was troubled as well. Scott attended Southwest Junior High School in San Diego and was placed in special classes for students who were emotionally disturbed.

At the age of fifteen, Scott escaped from a juvenile detention facility and committed further acts of violence. He pulled a knife on a thirteen-year-old girl and assaulted her. The next day, he attacked a twenty-seven-year-old female jogger, using a knife again.

In 1980, while going to an interview for a camp counselor position, Scott beat a fourteen-year-old boy unconscious during an attempted rape. He also committed sexual violence against another inmate when he was in prison. Throughout this period, his mother pleaded for him to be sent to a mental institution, but he received a four-year prison sentence instead. He was paroled in 1984.

In September 2003, Scott Thomas Erskine went on trial for the murders of two boys, 9-year-old Jonathan Sellers and 13-year-old Charlie Keever. The trial featured photos of the crime scene. Sellers was found hanging from a tree branch, bound and gagged. His body showed signs of sexual assault. Nearby, Keever lay on the ground with his head resting on their clothes. He was also found bound and gagged, and had extensive bite marks on his genital area. The pathologist reported that Keever was alive when the bites were inflicted. Scattered around the crime scene were two cigarette butts with Erskine's DNA.

Erskine's public defender did not deny that he killed the boys. Instead, the defense focused on a serious car accident Erskine experienced as a child, arguing that it affected his mental capacity and his understanding of right and wrong. The jury convicted Erskine of murder on October 1, 2003. However, they could not agree on a sentence. Eleven jurors favored the death penalty, but one voted for life without parole. As a result, the judge declared a mistrial for the penalty phase.

In April 2004, a second jury was formed to determine Erskine's sentence. They decided on the death penalty. On September 1, 2004, a judge affirmed this verdict, and Erskine was sentenced to death. He was moved to San Quentin State Prison shortly afterward.

While awaiting his trial for the murders in California, investigators linked Erskine’s DNA to the 1989 murder of 26-year-old Renee Baker in Florida. He was charged in 2003 and sentenced to life without parole in August 2004. During this murder, Erskine broke Baker's neck and left her body near the bank of the Intracoastal Waterway. Authorities in Florida suspect he may be connected to more unsolved cases.

Scott Erskine died on July 3, 2020, after contracting COVID-19 in California. He was 57 years old. His death occurred on the same day as another death row inmate, Manuel Machado Alvarez, who also died from COVID-19 complications. Both inmates were hospitalized before their deaths.