Killing for Kicks: Benjamin and Erika Sifrit

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As a motive for murder, thrill, in my opinion, is probably the most frightening. As sick and twisted as it is to kill a person for sexual gratification, as lust killers do, at least we can understand their motivations (if “understand” is the right word). There are those who kill for monetary gain, and those who kill out of jealousy and/or rage. While these murders are horrifying, they do not leave us mystified as to the killer’s reasoning behind their terrible deed. Killing for the thrill of it is a different story.

In the book, Different Crimes, Different Criminals: Understanding, Treating and Preventing Criminal Behavior, the authors describe the motives of a thrill killer as follows:

“The thrill killer's motive is the excitement of killing, where much of the pleasure is derived from the process of the kill rather than the kill itself. Thrill killers murder not because they are impelled to do so out of obligation to their community or even in response to voices in their heads. They simply enjoy the act of killing.”

As you probably guessed, this story is about thrill killers. A couple specifically, who prayed on two innocent people. Their reasoning was simple: they figured that sadistically toying with and then killing them would be something fun to do together.

A Promising Young Woman

Erika Elaine Grace was born in 1978 in Roaring Spring, Pennsylvania to Charlotte and Gerald Grace. An only child, Erika never wanted for anything, thanks to the wealth her father accumulated owning his own construction business.

In high school, Erika was a star basketball player and an honor roll student. She graduated in 1996 and went on to attend Mary Washington University in Fredericksburg, Virginia, having earned a partial athletic scholarship.

Erika excelled in college, both in athletics and academics. In 2000, she graduated cum laude with a degree in history. Erika appeared to have it all, but deep down, she was insecure and known to be easily influenced by those around her.

A Decidedly Bad Guy

It was sometime in 1998 that 20-year-old Erika met a man who would take advantage of these insecurities. Benjamin Sifrit, who went by BJ, was the same age as Erika. Initially, the two seemed to be a good fit. They had a lot in common, particularly athletics. Benjamin, originally from Estherville, Iowa, had been a competitive swimmer in high school and was employed as a lifeguard. When he graduated, he enrolled in the Navy and began SEAL training, which he excelled in.

Erika and Benjamin were a conventionally good looking couple, who both viewed health and fitness as a top priority in their lives.

But Benjamin had a dark side, perhaps best illustrated by the large swastika he had tattooed on his chest. While the vast majority of women would (rightfully) run for the hills on seeing this, Erika did not. Benjamin was manipulative and known for his bad temper, but could switch on the charm when he wanted to.

But at the end of the day, I imagine he mostly intimidated the women he pursued with his hulking physique and Nazi body art.

A shirtless Benjamin with his swastika tattoo (source: here)

After just a few weeks of dating, Benjamin proposed to Erika. To the dismay of her friends and family, she said yes. Erika had never been known as an impulsive or irresponsible person; agreeing to such a spontaneous and rushed marriage proposal just wasn’t like her at all. But I can imagine that she may well have been afraid to say no to BJ, for the reasons I just mentioned.

In 1998, Erika and Benjamin married. They didn’t invite anyone to their wedding ceremony, not even their parents.

Their honeymoon period was short lived. It wasn't long before Benjamin’s Navy career began falling apart. In 2000, he was court-martialed at North Carolina's Camp Lejeune for a variety of offenses including absence without leave and insubordination.

One Navy prosecutor said Benjamin seemed to have developed "utter disregard for authority."

The circumstances surrounding the collapse of his career are unclear, but apparently he left an assignment one day and sped off in a car, going 50 mph in a 15 mph zone.

Capt. E.F. Crail, serving as his defense counsel, said: "This is a sailor who was showing good qualities and got his SEAL qualification and everything. Apparently something happened in his last command where he lost that designation. He seems from that to have completely lost motivation for the Navy.”

He ended up being dishonorably discharged from the Navy on the grounds of bad conduct.

Unfortunately being a Nazi didn’t appear to have anything to do with it.

Scrapbooks, Snakes and Sketchy Pastimes

In early 2001, Erika and Benjamin, both 23 at this point, moved to Altoona, Pennsylvania, near where Erika grew up. This was the first time Erika’s parents met Benjamin. They were hardly thrilled by their daughter’s new husband.

Benjamin and Erika Sifrit (source: Murderpedia)

It was here that they opened up a scrapbooking store, which they called “Memory Lane”. The idea of the store was that customers would bring in photos and other memorable ‘scraps’, and Erika and Benjamin would put together scrapbooks for them.

They also started selling things on eBay, specifically merchandise they would steal when they broke into restaurants and stores after hours. They were particularly into robbing Hooters restaurants.

Erika seemed to be rapidly flying off the rails, eager to impress her new thug of a husband. She began drinking heavily and taking narcotics. She bought snakes for Benjamin to keep as pets, one of which they supposedly named Hitler. Erika’s friends were baffled by the bizarre changes in her behavior.

It was on Memorial Day Weekend, 2002, that Erika and Benjamin took their first trip together. They picked Ocean City, Maryland as their destination, renting a penthouse apartment downtown in the Rainbow Condominium complex.

A Vacation from Hell

Meanwhile, 51-year-old insurance underwriting supervisor, Martha Gene Crutchley (who went by Geney) and her boyfriend, 32-year-old investment banker Joshua Ford, were also heading to Ocean City for Memorial Day Weekend. The couple, who were from Fairfax, Virginia, had lived together for about a year. They were really looking forward to a fun and relaxing weekend together.

Geney Crutchley and Joshua Ford (source: Murderpedia)

On the evening of May 25, Josh and Geney got on a bus downtown. They planned to grab some dinner and drinks and just see where the night would take them. On the bus, they met an outgoing young couple, Benjamin and Erika Sifrit, who asked them if they’d like to join them at a nightclub called Seacrets. Josh and Geney agreed to join them.

The four had a good time together at the club, drinking, talking and dancing. As the club was getting ready to close for the night, BJ and Erika asked Josh and Geney to come back to the penthouse they were renting for more drinks. Josh and Geney happily obliged.

No one would hear from them again after that night. When they didn’t turn up at their respective jobs the following week, their coworkers became worried, and reported them missing.

Caught Redhanded

In the early hours of May 31, a Hooters in Ocean City was broken into. Police were alerted of the break in by a silent alarm, and made their way out to the restaurant. When they arrived, they immediately spotted two people, a man and a woman, leaving the building. Both carried large piles of Hooters merchandise.

The officers got out of their car and approached the thieves. It was Benjamin and Erika Sifrit. Along with the stolen merchandise, Erika was carrying a .357 Magnum revolver and a knife, and BJ was carrying a 9mm handgun and a knife.

The pair were arrested on the spot. At this point, Erika broke down, crying that she was having a panic attack and needed her anxiety medication from her purse. An officer began sifting through the purse, only to find something much more intriguing: ID cards belonging to Joshua Ford and Geney Crutchley, the couple from Virginia who had last been seen in Ocean City nearly a week ago.

BJ and Erika refused to talk about where the IDs came from. They were promptly taken to the station for questioning.

Meanwhile, police made their way to the penthouse Erika and BJ had been renting for their vacation, in hopes that they might find Josh and Geney.

They did not find the couple. They did, however, find pictures of Joshua and Geney on their vacation, and a key to the condo unit they had been staying in.

The search became more incriminating by the minute. The police found cocaine, and blood splatter in the master bedroom and in the bathroom. It also appeared that they had bought wall paste and paint, most likely to fill in and paint over a bullet hole in the bathroom wall.

There were several spent bullets found on a table inside the penthouse. Analysis of these revealed that they had been shot from the gun found on Erika. One of them had blood on it. DNA testing revealed that the blood belonged to Joshua Ford.

A Gruesome Discovery

During questioning, Benjamin refused to speak, asking for a lawyer right away. Erika, on the other hand, began talking immediately. In her story, her husband was the actual killer. Josh and Geney had come back to their penthouse after a night out, and she “suspected that the couple had stolen from her”, so Benjamin shot them. He had shot Joshua first in the head first. Then he shot Geney, who was curled up in a ball under the vanity table in the bathroom. All she had done was help him dispose of the bodies.

But this wasn’t the whole story. Josh and Geney’s bodies had not just been buried in the woods somewhere. They had been dismembered, put in garbage bags and then thrown in Ocean City dumpsters. Erika also pointed the finger at Benjamin for dismembering the couple.

Police searched landfills in Worcester County, Maryland and in nearby Sussex County, Delaware. Their search did yield results, but it’s not as though anyone felt good about the findings. Uncovering a murder victim’s dismembered body parts in a landfill is hardly a cause for celebration, but at least their families got some closure, albeit brutal.

All they recovered of Geney was one of her legs, while they recovered Josh’s torso and arms. To this day, the rest of their remains still have not been found. As a result, Geney’s cause of death was never officially determined. Three bullets were recovered from Josh’s remains, however. They had all been shot from the .357 Magnum found with Erika.

Erika and Benjamin were both charged with first degree murder in the deaths of Josh and Geney. They pleaded not guilty.

The Trials of BJ and Erika

On March 31, 2003, Benjamin Sifrit’s trial began. It was moved out of Worcester County to Montgomery County, due to the publicity the case received. The public and the tabloids were particularly intrigued by the attractive couple who appeared to have led impressive lives up to that point.

Unsurprisingly, BJ’s swastika tattoo also became a point of fascination. According to court documents, Erika had spoken of her husband’s obsession with power and control and how his views aligned with those of Hitler.

His attorney, William Brennan, attempted to undermine the narrative Erika had provided, that Benjamin was the driving force in the murders, and she only played a passive role. He told jurors in his opening statement that Erika was high on a cocktail of booze, anti-anxiety medication and diet pills, which drove her to murder. Benjamin stood by as his wife killed the couple. He helped dispose of their bodies, largely because he was scared of Erika’s erratic behavior.

Brennan told the jury that the “murder weapon” was the .357 Magnum revolver found on Erika’s person. He explained how ballistics tests on the gun showed that bullets fired from that gun killed Joshua Ford. I don’t really think the fact that this gun was found on Erika when they were caught is particularly indicative that she pulled the trigger.

The prosecution was led by Worcester County State's Attorney Joel Todd. Their star witness was a woman named Melissa Seling, who had spent an evening in Ocean City with Benjamin and Erika after a friend of hers, Justin Wright, who had just met them, asked her to come hang out with them.

Initially, Melissa appeared anxious and tearful as she told the court her story. But this didn’t last long; she soon settled in and was able to recount her experience with ease.

Melissa arrived at the location her friend told her to meet them. She found him with the couple in a car with a flat tire. They were all intoxicated and behaving strangely. Erika embraced her as though they were best friends, even though she had never met her in her life. BJ had blood smeared across his mouth, which he blamed on driving over a curb and splitting his lip on the steering wheel.

Like Joshua and Geney, Melissa and Justin had gone back to the penthouse Erika and Benjamin were renting. Melissa went on to describe to the court one of the most bizarre nights of her life. The couple were clearly unhinged.

Once they arrived, Erika took their pet snakes out to show her, and talked about her fondness for snorting anxiety medication. She then excitedly suggested they get in the hot tub together.

But her mood quickly changed. Initially, she was giddy and a bit manic. Then, just like that, she was furious, yelling about how she couldn’t find her purse. Benjamin, who had not been particularly animated up to that point, jumped up and demanded that whoever had taken the purse give it back. He flashed a handgun in his waistband. He pointed threateningly towards the bathroom door, which had the obvious shape of a bullet hole in it.

"He became very, very angry," Melissa said. "He said . . . if we ripped him off like the other people who were here, he would do the same thing to us that he did to them -- referring to the bullet hole in the door."

But the purse was there all along, Melissa told the jury. It was obvious that the two just enjoyed scaring people.

On cross-examination by Brennan, Melissa said that when she got in the car, Benjamin turned to her and said that he needed to drive, even though he was more drunk than Erika. He said, referring to Erika: “She packs heat. I can’t keep her under control. She’ll kill a cop.”

Melissa acknowledged that she told police she could not be sure if Benjamin had said that he killed the couple, if his wife killed the couple, or they both killed the couple.

In an exchange tense back and forth with the lawyer, Melissa argued that there was no difference.

"You're unsure whether or not he ever said he killed anyone, she killed anyone or they both killed anyone, isn't that right, Ms. Seling?" Brennan asked.

"No matter how you pick apart the words, he admitted to me throughout the night, in one way or another, that he was involved in the murder of those two people," Seling replied.

After deliberating for nearly 14 hours over two days, the jury found Benjamin guilty of second-degree murder with respect to Geney. He was ultimately acquitted of all charges in the murder of Joshua, much to the dismay of Judge Paul Weinstein.

On hearing the verdict, Joshua's brother Mark was enraged. He told the media he was totally disgusted with the verdict. He wanted BJ Sifrit to die in prison, he said.

Benjamin was also found guilty of being an accessory to murder after the fact for dismembering the bodies and throwing them in the trash, which he admitted to when testifying at trial.

"This was nothing more than a thrill killing that you and your wife committed," Judge Weinstein said to BJ. "You're a butcher. You murdered these people for no good reason.”

Judge Weinstein ultimately sentenced BJ to 38 years - 30 years for second-degree murder and first degree assault, and five years for the accessory to murder after the fact.

He also pleaded guilty to second-degree burglary for stealing from the Ocean City Hooters and carrying a dangerous weapon during the break-in.

Weinstein sentenced him to three years in prison for the burglary and ordered that the sentence run consecutively with the other charges.

"I don't know what possessed you to do what you did, and I don't know what possessed your wife to do what she did," Weinstein said.

"I do know that if it wasn't for the masterful job your lawyers did in this case, you would probably be facing a life sentence. But the jury has spoken, and I am bound by what the jury has said in this case. It's one of the few instances in 20 years that I disagree with the jury's verdict."

Weinstein acknowledged that Benjamin would be eligible for parole after serving half of his sentence. He put a note in the case file, in which he wrote that if he was still alive when he was up for parole, he would like to be notified so that he could oppose it. In Weinstein’s view, Benjamin Sifrit should never be a free man.

Erika’s trial began two months later, on June 2. It was moved out of Worcester County to Frederick County, for the same reasons that BJ’s trial was moved. Her attorneys said the .357 Magnum which BJ’s attorneys claimed she shot Joshua with was actually registered to her husband. However, like I said earlier, I’m not really sure how relevant this is; it’s not as though you can’t shoot a gun because it’s not registered to you.

Worcester County State's Attorney Joel Todd told jurors that Erika lured Joshua and Geney to their penthouse, where they toyed with them, terrorized them, and eventually killed them. They did it for no other reason than that the act of killing gave them a “rush”.

Todd told the jury that three bullets were recovered from Joshua, which had been shot from the .357 magnum BJ had given Erika. She shot at Geney once as she hid under a vanity table in the bathroom, but missed.

Erika kept trophies from her victims, Todd said, including the distinctive dragon ring Josh had been wearing the night he was killed. She actually wore the ring, which was stained with Joshua’s blood, around her neck. This could be seen in photos displayed by the prosecution of the couple at the beach in the days following the murders. They both look at ease and carefree in the pictures, demonstrating how little remorse they felt for what they had done.

She also kept the four spent shell casings as souvenirs, Todd added.

Erika claimed that their motive for the murders was that they believed the couple had stolen her purse, specifically, her prized red Coach bag with a ring belonging to her grandmother worth $10,000 inside.

Erika tried the same stunt again several days later with Melissa Seling. But as Melissa testified in BJ’s trial, Todd said, the purse was never missing.

Todd argued that even if there is doubt as to whether or not Erika physically pulled the trigger and killed Geney and Josh, there is plenty of evidence to show that she played a pivotal role in assisting her husband in the killings, which makes her equally guilty. He highlighted the legal principle of aiding and abetting in carrying out a crime.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the defendant and Benjamin Sifrit are a team. The whole episode was teamwork," Todd said.

As with Benjamin's trial, the defence used the same strategy in Erika’s trial, but obviously attempted to shift as much of the blame onto Benjamin and paint Erika as the bystander who was manipulated by her husband to help cover-up the murders.

One of Erika’s attorneys, Arcangelo Tuminelli, accused the prosecution of altering their theories between the two trials, in order to make Erika’s role appear greater than it really was.

They also painted her as a vulnerable and easily manipulated young woman. Addressing the pictures the prosecution had shown of Erika smiling and laughing at the beach in the days following her murders, Tuminelli explained that she was under the influence of high doses of Xanax and Paxil in the photos, which explained why she appeared so at ease.

"She's a fragile, psychologically weak young woman," Tuminelli said.

The defence and the prosecution sparred with one another, with Tuminelli accusing Todd of treating Erika unfairly simply because he didn’t like her.

“He knows Benjamin Sifrit was the killer,” Tuminelli said.

On June 10, Erika was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Joshua Ford and second-degree murder of Geney Crutchley.

At her sentencing, she was stony-faced and unemotional throughout the statements given by Joshua and Geney’s family members. It was only when her attorneys began talking about her life up to the point that she broke down sobbing.

She asked if she could apologize.

"Everything they said to me, I deserve that and so much more," she said of the harsh words spoken about her by the victims' relatives. "I don't feel worthy to stand here and ask their forgiveness. I can't fathom their loss. . . .I am so sorry."

Frederick County Circuit Court Judge G. Edward Dwyer Jr. remarked that there appeared to be two distinctly different Erika Sifrits, much like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

"These are senseless and horrible murders," Judge Dwyer said. “It’s a tragedy for everybody.”

Erika was sentenced to life in prison for the first-degree murder of Joshua, plus 20 years for the murder of Geney.

Melisa Ford, Joshua’s sister, said to Erika:

"I have such hatred in my heart for you. You stole so much from my family. I hope you and your family are haunted every day by your actions."

Anita Flickinger, Genie's sister, said: “It was not just the bodies of Genie and Josh you threw away, it was the last shred of your humanity.”

BJ and Erika divorced in August, 2010. Following their sentences, they both filed numerous appeals, none of which were successful.

BJ is eligible for parole this year (2021), but I couldn’t find any information about whether he has actually had a hearing. Erika will be eligible for parole in 2024.