Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
They exchange vows to love cherish and murder
Benjamin and erika sifrit were joined together in unholy martrimony
police say the husband and wife where thrill killers to make trolling the trendy bars in the vacation hamlet of ocean city maryland to qeunch their thirst for blood.
By all accounts the 23 year old seemed to be a typical middle-class married couple ,set to succeed in anything.they wanted to do in life.
Benjamin completed Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training class 212 in 1997, but due to bad conduct discharge for repeatedly being absent without leave, insubordination, poor performance and wearing unauthorized insignia, had his Navy Enlisted Classification (NEC) 5326 Combatant Swimmer (SEAL) revoked.
Erika was an honors student and basketball star at Mary Washington College. her father even built an indoor basketballs so she could practice anytime she wants. one of the things that erica used to to do was she wouldn´t go in for dinner unless she hit ten free throws in a row .she would pusch herself,her father would pusch her. so the relationship between dad and daughter that erica was gonna be somebody in sports when she got older .
They met in her senior year of c ollege three weeks later the loivers eloped to vegas .she´s delirious happy about their quickie, wedding and in her scrapbook ,erica exlaims ” best decision i have ever made .
another exerpt she writes ” you are my sunshine.” the newlyweds appear to be the all- american couple.but dark secrets fueled their marriage ,the seemingly uppstanding former Navy SEAL had actually been court-martialed for going awol and insubordination his life in a downward spiral after booted out of the military.
erika´s petite size dashes her hoop dreams of turning pro, she opens her own scracpbook store. indulges in prescriptions drugs and in another rather bizarre infatuation. erica develops an aobsession with hooters memorabilia . they both began to break into hooters all over the place.
scott collins : i always describe those two is like hypergolic rocket fuel ,by themselves they´re no problem but wehen you put them toghether ,they explode.
M.william phelps:they just bang ! they hit it off one feeds the others ego and as lovers non -stop,as friends they´re inseparable as drinking buddies .wow do they party
investigative journalist and william phelps is the true crime author of cruel death about the Sifrits he says they were indeed a lethal cocktail.
M.william phelps:as drug buddies, boy do they start doing some serious drugs,mainly it´s pills and cocaine that´s what their love is .
LT .Richard Moreck: she did have a jealous streak when it came to her husband. yes.very,very possessive.
The sifrit´s were always looking for another thrill to keep the party going now they ´re about up the ante and gets their kicks by killing.
M.william phelps: murder became another drug for them ,because the cocaine,the pills ,the drinking it wasn´t working anymore ,even the sex wasn´t working for them.
The sifrit´s go on a weeks Oceanside vacation and soon lock in on their pray.insurance executive martha margene” Geney” crutchley and her boyfriend joshua ford . a mortgage banker .
M.william phelps:joshua is from boston a young guy young 30s ,just divorded. geney is older early 50s and they hit it off and they just loved each other ,they weren´t married but joshua and geney were living togethet ,they started a home they were gardening , they were doing everything couples do that are in love..
geney and joshua met the sifrit´ on the shuttle bus to the popular seaside bar secrets.
scott collins :joshua ford offered to pay their bus fee because they didn´t have the right change and they said”well we´ll buy you a drink at secretss where they all going. i think they got togethe as two couples that met had sort of hit it off.
Geney and joshua hadn´ta clue that they were about to raise a glass and party with two homicidal maniacs.
M.william phelps:and they start to have a party at secret, they say” you know what , why dont you come up to the condo.we´ll continue this party after the bar closes .we got a hot tub , we got some weed .we will have a couple of drinks, get to know each other .”
it was here in this frewheeliong party town of ocean city maryland ,boasting breathtaking vistas of the the Atlantic Ocean that erika and benjamin sifrit´s were about to play out their ultimate sick fantasy.
the couple zeros in
on Geney crutchey and joshua ford
at this party bar called called secrets
they´re lured back to the sifrit´s luxury pentohouse with promisess of a good time.
Arcangelo M. tuminelli : benjamin was a stick of dynamite and erika was the match .
and the raw evil of the sifrit´s was about to explode.
M.william phelps: what happens next is as horror show, music playing and the drinks are fly – in and they´re in the hot tub. they´re having a ball and something happens .
Erika gets out of the hot tub, she goes upstairs and and she screams,she says´” where´s my pocketbook,somebody took my pocketbook.” right avway benjamin gets up out of the tube and he gotes to get his , 3.57 magnum and he points it , and start waving it around saying” where´s my wife´s pocketbook,which one of you took it.”
in a twisted move erika calls 811 . claiming geney and joshua had stolen her purse .
911 call
operator :what´s your 911…do you have an emergency?
erika: yeas . i have an emergency at my apartment ,there are people in my house who i dont know and my purse i ssuddenly missing and i ´m afraid i ´m going to have a robbery up here.
operator: okej… are the people in your apartement at this time?
erika: yeas.
operator: i´ll conect you to the police stay on the line.
erika: hey… .
operator: what?
erika: i am upstairs in the bedroom where they dont know where i am .
operator: okay i´ll connect you to the police , you can tell them.okay?
erika: okay
operator: ocean city police.
erika : hello,there are people in ….
The phone calls suddenly before police can get the adress and cops never respond
M.william phelps: all they´re doing is messing with these people.that´s what they doing they playing a game . it´s anonther thrill for benjamon and erika.
Now the true horror begins.
M.william phelps: joshua runs into the bathroom with Geney and slams the door shut.
but erika smells blood , she leans around from the balcony where she can see the couple cowering through the bathroom window. the sifrit´s are a tsunami of evil , nothing can stop them now.
M.william phelps: erika and benjamin at this point have gone out of their minds , they´re locked in this game this thrill ride that they want to go on and the two victims in all of this are in the bathroom now. erika looks in the bathroom to tell benjamin when to fire the weapon, benjamin fires the weapon and it goes right through joshua´s head. and drops him immediately.
Benjamin kicks in the door. Geney crutchley is crouching under the vanity
M.william phelps: she´s terrified her lover the man she lives with,this beautiful person has been shot dead for what?for nothing.
her pleas for mercy , the psycho killers cut her down maryland debputy state´s attorney scott collins says the thrill kill couple was now facing the task of getting rid of the evidence. -two bloody bodies in their penthouse with no place to hide them .
scott collins: i´s memorial day weekend there´s a hundred thousand other people in Ocean city. your on the top floor of a 20 -some storey condo and you have two dead bodies ,you can´t through them over the shoulder and take the elevantor down. to the parket lot .
the sifrit´s come up with a plan to remove their victims piece by piece.
scott collins: he had no choice, they had to dismember these bodies to get them out of there.
the high-rise where sifrit´s butcher Geney and Joshua,so. what else is eerie about this case?
LT .Richard Moreck:just a lack of remorse or at least a lack of concern and each day for the suspects after the commission of the crime was just another day in their life a happpy-go- lucky smiling enjoying Ocean city and going about their buisness as if nothing ever happened.
the body parts are put in garbage bags and carted down
to their jeep cherokee,the cross maryland into delaware and dispose of Geney and joshuas body parts in dumpsters that wind up in this massive delaware landfill.
M.william phelps:what do they do next , they go out and they play miniature golf.
the maniacal couple takes a break to smile for a selfie only hours after the slaughter .look closely at this one.
right there
hanging from the chain around erika´s neck. is joshu´s ring.still caked in his own blod.
while the sifrit´s are snapping selfies around town .friends of Geney and joshua are starting to worry
and wonder what happened to them.
LT .Richard Moreck:not only was a lo lot of character as i remember she had never missed a day of work .
They vanished and the cops are frantically trying to find them .the ocean city police departement wasted no time printing out flyers and and posting them all over the beach town.
while cops are desperately searching,erika and benjamin are covering their tracks here he is buying a new bathroom door at home depot replace the one destroyed by a bullet hole. they also grab cleaning supplies to scrub away the ocean of blood in the bathroom,but police say the sifret´s weren´t done. they were gearing up for another thrill kill.
LT .Richard Moreck: after the cleanup was complete they actually had another couple that they brought up to the condominium and played the same type of scenario with that couple.
This is the lucky couple and cops say melissa and justin escaped by the skin of their teeth one possible reason the sifrit´s let them escape was simply they were out of time and had to get back home. another theory is the couple lefter before things got out of control.
scott collins: it was only by the luck and grace of god that the two people that they accosted the second time later in the week were able to get out of there with there lives.
The sifrit´s pulled off their first kills together .the dismemered bodies have been stuffed in trash bags ,their final resting place of garbage deposite miles away.
this monsters are convinced cops will never connect to the disappareance of Geney crutchely and joshua ford.
erika keeps a scrapbook of the evil handiwork boasting they arethe modern -day Bonnie and Clyde.
showing off souvenirs of their crimes .
M.william Phelps : to scrapbook your life is one thing , now she wants these victims of murder that she perpetrated to be part of her ,she wears the neckles with one of the rings taken from one of the victims .it´s still got blood on it . the knife she used to dismember these people is tucked in her pocket , it still has flesh and blood on it.it´s one of the most horrific crimes i´ve ever seen and i´ve seen everything
DET.BRETT CASE: they were certeain they had gotten away with it ,they were dertain they got away with murder and they went right back to what they were normally done which was petty crimes if you will compared to what they had done.
But it´s erika´s freaky fetish for hooters memorabilia that leads to their arrest , just as they were hightailing it out of town the couple makes one last pit stop to break into a closed hooters they trip the stores silent alarm,
police rushed to the scene , they´ve just caught two burglars not two thrill killers. erikas defense attorney Arcangelo tuminelli says after erika was caught she flipped out at the crime scene.
Arcangelo M. tuminelli :when they were arrested coming out of hooters ,she became very panicky and asked the police officer for some xanax that she said she needed .
and that moment broke the case wide open .
DET.BRETT CASE: so the officers obliged but they´re gonna look to the purse first.in doing so, they see five rounds of spent rounds of 38 ammunition and next to that is two identification cards for virginia driver´s licenses four our two missing people. at that point the hair stands up in the back of you neck.
LT .Richard Moreck: in the car with the flex-cufs was gloves and masks.if it wasn´t for that moment he saw those licenses he´d remembered the photos from the lookout and he knew it was the missing people.
and this is joshua ford´s ring.
M.william phelps:you can see it in the police photograph of her sitting there on the curb is that knife on her neck is that ring.
if it hadn´t been for the missing persons flyers and a police lookout alert sent out only hours earlier in the day ,the sifrit´s would only face burglary and charges and worse they would be free to kill again.
LT .Richard Moreck: i do believe if they weren´t stopped on this one there were definitely more to come.
scott collins: erika had told us of course that benjamin did it ,that´s where she came up as the innocent abused wife with this crazy monster that´s killing and dismembering people.
in this so -called audio confession to cops erica plays the frightened witness to the killings.
police interrrogation
erika: he has navy seal friends . i definitely would not want him to know that i was here talking to you and i f i go up and testify and for some reason you guys don´t get him locked up,my family will end up like joshua and geney.
detective: dead?
erika recounts how her husband benjamin killed joshua ford in their penthouse bathroom .
police interrogation
erika: he made them strip at gunpoint and iwas like, ” oh my god!” i was like, had no idea what was going on .and he told me that josh said ” i was i n the army , you were in the navy , why are you doing this ? why are you doing this? and BJ said that he looked a him in the dace and he said ” see you later m ***** ! and he shot him in the head.
cops aren´t buying her tangled tails one bit, they know she was in the thick of it.she was the one conducting the carnage.
police interrogation :
detective: geney would have not been shot yet.
erika:she was just whimpering and she curled up in a ball and he missed her ther first time and the second time he hit her right here…
detective :for the record she is gesturing at her left schest
erika: she had curled up behind joshua´s body….oh my god … i am getting like really panicked .
detective: do you need to take a break?
erika: ´i´m ok. BJ told me she was just whipering like a baby .
erica acts like she is appealed at all the gore .
police interrogation
detective: what do you see in the bathroom?
erika: it looks like a bad horror film…there is blood completely soaked everywere. there are spots that if you stepped, it would splash. there wer puddles of blood.
and while benjamin was buchering the bodies in the tub
police interrogation :
erika: i´m laying downstairs and i´m like curled up on the couch ,just petrified and i hear him say “come up here ” i go up there and he´s like ” take my picture” and he´s holding their heads
detective: joshua´s head in one hand geney´s head in the other hand and wants you to take his picture?
2nd detective:and what was whe wearing?
erika: nothing.
Each pointed a finger at the other at their seperate trials
the disgraced Navy SEAL claimed he was napping in their jeep while the carnage unfolded in the end
erika was sentenced to life plus 20 years. Benjamin washanded just 38 years because he was never convicted in joshuas death .The jury believed that erika killed him.
DET.BRETT CASE:i think she´s the matsermind, i think he was the muscle ,he did what she asked and he took care of business if you will but she was the cause of all the drama.
M.william phelps:i believe benjamin and erika were caught at the beginning of what we´re gonna be probably a serial killing couple.
the sifrit´s marriage is certainly forged in hell .
seven years after their conviction apparently this sifrit couple had enough one another, benjamin divorced erika while behind bars. now he´s eligible for parole in 2021 and erika will be eligible for parole in 2024.