Geney Crutchley Case Study

Joshua Edward Ford and Martha Margene "Geney" Crutchley took a vacation in Ocean City, Maryland, during Memorial Day weekend in 2002. Joshua and Martha were never heard from again after a night out on Saturday, May 25, 2002. The last time the couple were seen was at Seacret’s Club leaving with another couple. After the Memorial Day weekend, when Joshua and Martha didn’t show up for work, co-workers and family were concerned. Police filed a missing person’s report and later discovered that Joshua and Martha had been brutally murdered by Erika and Benjamin Sifrit.

Joshua Edwards, a 32-year-old successful mortgage broker, and Martha a 51-year-old accountant for an insurance company meet at an officer party and both had been previously married.

They dated for two years before they moved in together into a house in Fairfax, Virginia. The couple decided to rent a condo in Ocean city, Maryland for the Memorial Day weekend. When neither showed up for work after the holiday weekend was over. Concerned co-workers notified the Ocean City Police of their disappearance.
The police reported to the rented condominium and found nothing out of place. No sign of a break-in or foul play. Car keys, clothes, computer, and camera of Joshua and Martha were still in the condominium. Also, Martha’s car was still in the parking lot of the condominium complex. Police questioned neighbors at the condominium and reported that they didn’t see or hear anything from Joshua and Martha the entire weekend. A background check on Joshua and Martha revealed that they used a credit card to buy drinks at The Green Turtle, a local sports bar, on the night they went missing. Investigators spoke to the waitress that served them and recalled nothing unusual from them and that the couple were sitting alone. From there, investigators learned that the couple took a bus to a nearby Seacret’s Club which is a popular night club in the Ocean City area.
The bus driver identified Joshua and Martha from a photo line-up and said they were talking to another couple while on the bus. He described them as a Caucasian couple in their late 20’s, early 30’s. When investigators got to Seacrest’s Club, witnesses saw the two couples drinking together and leaving together. No trace of Joshua and Martha were found after that, no cellphone or credit card activity had occurred. Leaving investigators to a dead end in the investigation.
Less than a week after Joshua and Martha were reported missing, police were called to a Hooter’s restaurant in Ocean City, Maryland where a silent alarm was tripped.

Police reported to a robbery in progress and found a Jeep backed up to the door of the restaurant upon arriving. Two suspects were walking out with handfuls of stolen merchandise. The robbers, a man and a woman, were arrested at the scene. These robbers were 23-year-olds, married couple Erika and Benjamin Sifrit.

Benjamin and Erika weren’t your typical criminals. Erika came from an upper-middle class family, an accomplished student with a bachelor's degree in history and political science and was a high school basketball star. Benjamin was a former U.S. Navy Seal, who finished first in his class, had an expert shot and was highly talked about among his colleagues. Neither Erika or Benjamin had no prior history of arrest.

Inside the Jeep, investigators were surprised to find that they were fully armed. In, 6 hour 9mm fully loaded, a 45-caliber combat weapon and in Erika’s waistband was a .357 five shot revolver. In the back of the vehicle were ski masks, gloves, and flex-cuffs. A search of Erika’s pursue uncovered the driver’s license of Joshua and Martha. When asked where Erika had found the licenses she claimed she found them at the beach and denied ever seeing them or meeting the couple. With the evidence found police were considered that they could be holding the couple hostage somewhere against their

will.
Police had probable cause to search Sifrit’s condominium, where they found two spent bullets on the dining room table. Photos of Joshua and Martha at Seacret’s Club the night they disappeared, proving to police that they had lied to them. One of the pictures showed a ring on Joshua’s hand that had a dragon carved into a silver band. In another picture, taken two days after Joshua and Martha’s disappearance, shows Erika wearing Joshua’s ring on a necklace. When they arrested her for the robbery they found Joshua’s ring in her purse and a key to the condominiums complex that Joshua and Martha were staying at. Police went to check to see if it opened the door to their condominium and it unlocked the door to Joshua and Martha’s room. Police were now certain that Erika and Benjamin Sifrit had something to do with Joshua and Martha’s disappearance.
The evidence against Erika and Benjamin started to pile up. The bus driver that identified Joshua and Martha, identified Erika and Benjamin as the couple they were talking to on the way to Seacret’s Club. Investigators took a closer look at the bathroom in the Sifrit’s condominium and noticed an orange color in the grout of the tile and orange running down the shower stall, which appeared to be blood. The forensic team pulled out the sink stopper and found hair, blood, and flesh. Also, underneath the stink, they discovered a bullet hole that went through the wall into the adjacent bedroom. A closer look at the two spent bullets uncovered that one of them had bits of drywall on it and the other had what appeared to be blood in the twisted groves. The forensic team located a partial palm print on the window in the bathroom. The forensic team took the evidence back to the labs to analysis.
Forensic teams test the blood in the bathroom and on the mangled slug; and yielded a DNA profile. Samples from Joshua’s and Martha’s toothbrush generated a DNA profile. When their profile was run against the samples found it unveiled that there was mixed DNA of Joshua and Martha on the bathroom floor. The DNA from the slug matched Joshua’s DNA; implying that the bullet had gone into Joshua’s body and dug out as a trophy. Bullets were tested fired from Erika’s revolver and were compared to the two bullets found in Sifrit’s table and displayed to be a match with the revolver. Even though no bodies had been found yet, the evidence still shows the something gruesome had occurred in the Sifrit’s bathroom.
When Erika was faced with this evidence she bargained to make a deal with prosecutors. She agreed to lead police to Joshua and Martha bodies and testify against Benjamin in exchange for a reduced charge. Erika told investigators she and Benjamin dismembered Joshua and Martha’s bodies and thrown them in dumpsters in the neighboring state of Delaware. Luckily for investigators, Delaware has a unique dumping system, everything they dump they know which plot it’s at in their landfill. The torso and arms of Joshua and Martha’s left leg were recovered eight days after they were reported missing. Bullets recovered from Joshua’s body matched Erika’s revolver. Joshua’s palm print matched the palm print on the window in the Sifrit’s bathroom.
Prosecutors offered Erika a deal, if she told the truth, she would get a reduced sentencing and as a requirement of this deal she must pass a polygraph test. In her original statements to police, she said she had nothing to do with the murder only that she helped dispose of the bodies. Later she changed her story, admitting she was more involved that she leads on. Erika admitted that she stabbed Martha with a knife and killed her. She also told police that the tattoo that she had on her abdomen was in the same place she stabbed Martha. She had gotten it following the murders so she would forever be reminded of that night. When Erika admitted to the murders the prosecutor couldn’t continue with the deal. Charges were filed against Erika and Benjamin for 1st - degree murder.
As the trial approached, investigators had trouble finding a motive for the murder. Investigators believed that the only possible motive for the murder was for the fun or the thrill of killing. Two months before committing the murders, Erika and Benjamin turned to a life of crime. The couple owned a scrapbooking store in Altoona, Pennsylvania and started robbing nearby businesses. Erika stated they started this because there was little sexual contact between her and Benjamin. Benjamin thrived on burglaries and risk to get him off. When burglary started to become not enough thrill, they wanted to move on to something more thrilling.
Prosecutors stated that Erika and Benjamin were on the hunt for thrills when meeting Joshua and Martha at Seacret’s Club. When Joshua and Martha went back to the Sifrit’s condominium, the couple decided to play a game with Joshua and Martha. Erika claimed that her purse was missing and wanted Joshua and Martha to help look for it. If they found the purse they could live, but if they didn’t they were going to die. Benjamin then accused Joshua and Martha of stealing the purse when they couldn’t find it. Benjamin made them strip their clothes off to prove it. Joshua and Martha made a run for the bathroom and locked the door. In an effort to escape, Joshua left his palm print on the bathroom window. Four shots were fired; the first two went through the door and hit Josh in the torso. The third shot hit Josh in the head, killing him instantly. Prosecutors believe that Erika fired the fourth shot towards Martha and missed either by accident of deliberately as part of their game. The bullet made a hole under the sink and went through the wall, into the adjacent bedroom. Erika told prosecutor she stabbed Martha in the abdomen with a knife, killing her.
Later, when Erika came back with cleaning supplies to clean the bathroom, Benjamin was soaking in the bathtub with the decapitated heads of their victims floating in the water. He then gave Erika the bullet that he dug out of Joshua’s head to keep as a trophy. Over the next 24 hours, the couple dismembered the bodies, placed them in garbage bags and tossed them in dumpsters throughout Delaware. Next, they went to a hardware store for a new bathroom door and cleaning supplies to repair the bathroom. Then the couple acted as nothing happened. They went on having a great time as Erika wore Joshua’s ring around her neck as a trophy.
When the trail started, Erika and Benjamin were tried separately. Erika and Benjamin turned against each other at trial and blamed the other for the murder. In absences of physical evidence against Benjamin and the fact that Erika’s revolver was used in Joshua’s murder; Benjamin was only convicted of one count of 2nd-degree murder and 1st-degree assault in the death of Martha Crutchley and was acquitted of all charges in the death of Joshua Ford. On July 7, 2003, he was sentenced to 38 years in prison at Roxbury Correctional in Hagerstown, Maryland. He will be eligible for parole in 2021.
On June 11, 2003, Erika was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Joshua Ford and second-degree murder in the death of Martha Crutchley. The revolver was in her possession along with all the trophies she kept from the murder. On August 14, 2003, she was sentenced to life plus 25 years in prison at the Patuxent Institution in Jessup, Maryland. She will be eligible for parole in 2024. In March 2010, Benjamin Sifrit filed for divorce, which was later granted in August 2010. Both Sifrits have filed numerous appeals, all of which have failed. In 2010, Benjamin Sifrit exhausted his last appeal. In 2014, Erika Sifrit's appeal, citing ineffectiveness of counsel, was denied.