Crimes, Killers, Cults and Beer: A True Crime Podcast · Dark Pass Productions

159 The Thrill Killer Couple, Benjamin and Erika Sifrit

·54 min·3 clips

After the affair, BJ threatened to burn down a woman’s house with her kids inside.

1. Crimes, Killers, Cults, and Beer covers Erica and Benjamin Sifrit and the 2002 Ocean City, Maryland murders of Joshua Ford and Martha Crutchley. 2. The host, Bill, runs this episode solo because Sandra is in Ireland, and he frames the case around the couple’s “Thrill Kill Couple” label. 3. The episode asks how Erica Sifrit and Benjamin “BJ” Sifrit went from young adults to a pair convicted in a double homicide. 4. Erica Grace was born on February 3, 1978 in Roaningspring, Pennsylvania to Charlotte Klotz and Gerald Grace. 5. The host says Erica moved to Hollidaysburg at 15, where Gerald, also called Mitch, ran a construction business and Charlotte, also called Cookie, stayed home. 6. Erica’s childhood is described as strict, with three hours of daily sports practice, punishment for a bad grade, and anxiety treated with Xanax and other medications. 7. Erica coped with scrapbooking, looked for love from “bad men,” and later attended college on an athletic path. 8. Benjamin Sifrit was born on October 21, 1977 in Esterville, Iowa to Craig and Buffy Sifrit and later lived in Minnesota and Texas. 9. BJ excelled as a swimmer, picked locks after being locked out at night as a teen, and joined the Navy in 1995 at age 18. 10. The host says BJ trained as a Navy SEAL, earned “honor man” status, and also showed troubling behavior involving a pigeon at a San Diego mall. 11. BJ met Erica in a bar in Virginia in 1999 while she studied law at Mary Washington University. 12. The couple married in Las Vegas three weeks after dating, and Erica’s attraction to BJ is tied to rebellion and control. 13. BJ’s affair in Arkansas ended his SEAL career, and later Navy discipline followed for going AWOL and wearing the trident without earning it. 14. BJ then threatened the affair partner over email, demanded that she deny sex with him, and said he would burn down her house with her children inside. 15. Drugs entered the relationship, and the host says Erica became a “full-blown druggie” while BJ chased a new thrill after losing the military path. 16. Erica and BJ opened a scrapbooking store in Altoona, Pennsylvania, bought and sold Hooters merchandise, and kept reptiles including spitting cobras and Nile crocodiles. 17. The story then shifts to Ocean City, Maryland, where the couple stayed in the Rainbow condominium penthouse and met Joshua Ford and Martha Crutchley after a bus-ride encounter. 18. A brief 911 call about a possible robbery precedes the later police discovery of missing guests, a silent-alarm Hooters burglary, zip ties, masks, gloves, and a parking pass for the Rainbow Condominium. 19. The episode mixes grim case details with comic asides, pop-culture references, and repeated host interruptions about doing a solo show. 20. Listeners who like true-crime stories with relationship dynamics and courtroom disputes will get the most from this episode, while listeners wanting a short, tightly edited narrative may skip it.

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