- Erika Sifrit
Erika Elaine Sifrit (nee Grace, born on
February 3 ,1978 ), is acollege graduate and formerbusinesswoman serving alife sentence for murdering and dismembering aVirginia couple that she and herhusband met during a night of bar-hopping inOcean City, Maryland .Early life
Erika, the only child of well-to-do parents, grew up in
Roaring Spring, Pennsylvania . A starbasketball player at nearbyHollidaysburg Area High School , she also excelled in hergrades andschool activities. According to herparents , the rest of high school was a happy time for Erika. She was a strong student and an athleticcelebrity . She had plenty offriends , and she bought things for sickteachers , gave hugs to parents offriends , and made time for outings with hergrandparents . She wasn't known to have a dominatingpersonality , but rather someone happy to concedeattention to others. Someobservers speculated that Erika was also eager to please, probably to afault .After graduating from high school, and with top
college programs out of her reach, Erika chose Mary Washington College (nowUniversity of Mary Washington ) inFredericksburg, Virginia , to playbasketball . Her freshman year, she succeeded anAll-American point guard , but contributed right away. During her first two years, she was among thenation 's leading three-point shooters. However, in the fall of her junior year in1998 , Erika reportedly quit playing the sport she so loved. Erika was also anhonors student, and she would ultimately graduatecum laude from Mary Washington in2000 , with a degree inhistory . Later, she talked about applying tolaw school and signed on for aninternship in the district office of a local congressman.Life with B.J.
Erika met Benjamin Sifrit, or "B.J.," in the summer of
1999 . Sifrit was unlike anyone Erika had ever met - reckless and cocksure. A native ofTexas , he had lived an itinerant life; his father was abusiness executive who frequently changed jobs and locales. After graduating from high school, Benjamin enlisted in theNavy and within months was accepted into the rigorousNavy SEAL trainingprogram .No one seemed to know much about their
courtship , other than that it was fast and intense. Months later, though, Erika'sparents learned that she was capable of bigger surprises than quitting basketball. She brought B.J. home with her thatChristmas , and this time introduced him as herhusband . In fact, only two weeks after the visit toOcean City , Erika and B.J. had flown to Las Vegas to get married. Erika had kept it a secret all that time, even during her parents' several visits to see her at Mary Washington.Trouble ensued, and not only marital. B.J. was drummed out of the SEALS for reasons that remain unclear, and by the summer of
2000 he was on his way out of the Navy altogether. He was convicted at acourt martial on a variety of charges, including reckless driving, failure to appear for duty and swearing at his officers. He received a three-month sentence and a bad conductdischarge .After Sifrit's discharge, he and Erika took a six-week
vacation toSouth America . After their return, they thought of the idea of opening a business together, ascrapbook store because that had always been a hobby of Erika's. Her parents put up themoney , and in the spring of2001 , Memory Laine opened in a strip mall off one ofAltoona 's main thoroughfares.Later, Erika's parents became troubled at her behavior. They didn't like it when she began getting
tattoos , and they weren't too happy about theswastika tattooed on B.J.'s chest either. B.J. and Erika began keepingsnakes , including pythons namedBonnie and Clyde , and acobra called Hitler. B.J. also carried agun . They were beside themselves when he presented Erika with a .357Smith & Wesson revolver on her birthday. It was the gun that Ocean Citypolice officers would find her carrying.The Graces' concerns about their daughter grew into
alarm . She was working seven days a week and had lost more than 20 pounds; B.J. had told her she was heavy. She confided in her mother that she found it impossible to relax and asked her to call thefamily doctor on her behalf. She began takingPaxil , an antidepressantmedication that can also be beneficial foranxiety . Later her parents learned she was already taking anotheranxiety medication,Xanax , which is prescribed generally only for severe symptoms and for a short period.The Crime
On
Memorial Day weekend 2002 (May 25 andMay 26 ), Erika and B.J. packed up theirJeep Cherokee and headed off forOcean City to their condominium. After a night of partying, they met a couple fromVirginia , Joshua Ford and Martha Crutchley. Later, Ford and Crutchley went back to the condominium with the Sifrits. Sometime the nextmorning , B.J. accused the couple of stealing Erika'spurse , and he pulled agun on them. They locked themselves in abathroom , but, according to Erika, B.J. kicked open the door andshot them.On
May 31 , Ocean Citypolice caught the Sifrits as they were allegedly breaking into aHooters restaurant . Erika Sifrit reportedly told police about the slayings, saying her husband fatally shot the couple and dismembered the bodies before the Sifrits dropped them in aRehoboth Beach, Delaware trash bin . Parts of the bodies of the couple were found in a Delawarelandfill nine days after their slayings.Conviction
The Sifrits were indicted on a number of charges, including
burglary , theft and destruction ofproperty at the Hooters, and they also faced various gun counts.Jurors deliberated four hours before finding Erika guilty of first-degree murder for the death of Joshua Ford, and second-degree murder for the death of his
girlfriend , Martha Crutchley.B.J. was sentenced in
Montgomery County, Maryland to 35 years in prison for second-degree murder, first-degree assault and being an accessory after the fact in Crutchley's murder. Erika was convicted inFrederick County, Maryland of first-degree murder in Ford's death and second-degree murder for helping kill Crutchley.She was sentenced to life plus 20 years in prison. The
Supreme Court rejected a2005 appeal of her conviction and sentence. Erika Sifrit is serving her life sentence at Maryland Correctional Institute for Women.TV Shows
On
January 27 ,2008 , Erika Sifrit's story was profiled on the Oxygen channel’s true-crime series "Snapped ," which showcases women who commit or mastermindmurder . News of the television show came as a surprise to Erika'sattorney , who represented her attrial , her appellate lawyer and her lawyer who is handling her post-conviction proceeding.External links
*http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/503982.html
*http://www.ssristories.com/show.php?item=334
*http://wjz.com/topstories/Benjamin.Sifrit.Martha.2.424395.html
*http://www.wbaltv.com/news/1513541/detail.html
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