Morbid - The Murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier

Episode Date: December 28, 2022

Just two days before Christmas in 1996 the body of 39 year old, french filmmaker, wife, daughter and mother Sophie Toscan Du Plantier was found not far from her vacation home. Her cottage in Schull was supposed to be her happy getaway, but would soon turn into an absolute nightmare. This was a classic tale of a tight knit community that was absolutely shocked, terrified and deeply saddened by this heinous crime. Unfortunately the investigation was a shaky one which led to two countries and families arguing back and forth. In the end, even though someone was convicted, there were still doubts and no one has been put behind bars to serve a sentence for Sophie’s murder. Thank you to the glorious David White for research assistance on this case!ReferencesCoulter, Carol. 2003. "Bailey admits violence to partner:." The Irish Times, December 10: 3.—. 2003. "Bailey was 'the subject of trial by media', says his lawyer." The Irish Times, December 9: 3.Dooley, Edna. 2001. Homicide in Ireland, 1992-1996. Study, Dublin: Government of Ireland.Foster, Nick. 2021. Murder at Roaringwater. Leicester: W.F. Howes Ltd.Fox, Kara, and Antoine Crouin. 2019. More than two decades after a woman was killed in an Irish village, French prosecutors hope to close the case. May 26. Accessed November 27, 2022. https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/26/europe/sophie-toscan-du-plantier-trial-ian-bailey-france-intl.Hogan, Dick. 1997. "Dead woman's last days re-created." The Irish Times, January 21: 7.—. 1997. "Expatriates go where living is easy." The Irish Times, January 18: 7.—. 1997. "Two held in Cork murder inquiry released." The Irish Times, February 11: 1.Jacobson, Philip. 1998. "Deadlock." The Sunday Times, June 7.Marlowe, Lara. 1997. "Husband of murdered woman files criminal proceedings." The Irish Times, February 6: 6.Marlowe, Lara, Connor Lally, and Olivia Kelleher. 2018. "Son of murder victim welcomes GSoc report: Investigation's failings did not amount to conspiracy, says Toscan du Plantier's son." The Irish Times, August 4: 2.O'Brien, Carl. 2003. "Woman says she was 'terrorised' by Ian Bailey." The Irish Times, December 18: 6.O'Connor, Alison. 1997. "Brutal murder shocks holiday haven." The Irish Times, January 4: 4.—. 1996. "Man known to French woman may be on video." The Irish Times, December 30: 4.O'Riordan, Alison. 2020. "High Court rejects French request for Bailey to be extradited to serve 25-year murder sentence." The Irish Times, October 13: 4.Roche, Barry. 2010. "Bailey had met Toscan du Plantier says producer." The Irish Times, February 4: 1.—. 2006. "Bailey witness accuses gardai." The Irish Times, February 24: 4.—. 2006. "Family of murdered woman to abandon action." The Irish Times, April 27: 2.—. 2019. "From Paris to west Cork and back: The story of the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder investigation." The Irish Times, May 31.The Irish Times. 1996. "Murder investigation as body of French woman is found in Cork." The Irish Times, December 24: 1.The Mirror. 1997. "Why murder victim lay out for 24 hours." The Mirror, January 1. Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash KelleyListener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra LallyListener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, weirdos. I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is morbid. The mini episode. Mini, mini, mini, mini, mini, mini, mini, mini, mini, mini. Mini morbid, mini morbid, mini morbid, mini. But is it really going to be? You know what? I said that the bus one was going to be a mini and it definitely wasn't.

So I'm not going to make any promises here. Yeah, but that bus episode rocked people's worlds. That bus episode is still touching my soul to this moment. Every time I see a school bus now, I'm like, Ed? Is Ed? Is that you? I know. I'm like, are you guys safe?

Is everybody okay? Yeah, that thing ruined everybody, including us. But, you know, this one is also kind of a life ruiner, but not in the same way. And it doesn't really have a happy ending. Yay, glad that it's seven in the morning and you're going to fuck me, right? I mean, don't worry. People get arrested in shit, but like, bad shit happens. All right. So, so sure you just like, let's get it? Yes, because I currently have some kind of cold that makes me sound like a frog that has just drank acid.

So we're not going to do a whole lot of talk before this because my voice might give out by the end of it. So let's do it. Okay. All right. So today I'm going to talk about the case of Benjamin and Erica. Sifret. Are they twins? No. Oh. They are a married couple. At the time of the crimes, they were 24 years old. They were married and seemingly happy, totally normal couple by all accounts until, you know, right before this crime occurred, they took a sharp turn. The couple met at a bar when Erica was a senior at Mary Washington College in Virginia. She graduated cum laude from this college with a degree in political science.

She was a basketball player her entire life. She played through college. She even, I think, was considering going pro, but she was too small. Bummer. Yeah, total bummer. Erica came from money. She was an only child born to Charlotte and Gerald Grace. Her father was a successful contractor.

Everyone around her said she was super normal, outgoing, bubbly, happy. Nothing to really report. She was just a normal kid. Benjamin was a former almost Navy SEAL. It's been reported in some places that he was a former Navy SEAL, but he never actually graduated the total program and did the total training to become a Navy SEAL. So was he a Navy SEAL or no?

No. Okay. It's early. I literally just said that he wasn't. You said that he didn't. I don't know. I'm confused. So he was not a Navy SEAL.

He was a former almost Navy SEAL. You're supposed to say, Ash, you're pretty. You're so pretty, Ash. It's like the eagle cubs all over again. It is. It really is. Eagles do not have cubs, but you're so pretty. Being you.

Being you. So in 1997, he graduated first in his class of, like, the first part of the training, but he did not complete all the stuff to become an actual Navy SEAL, which is probably the hardest thing that you can possibly do. It's probably why he didn't become a Navy SEAL. Yeah, because I don't think he was really one to stick with positive things in his life. He's a douche, huh? He's a big doucher.

Knew it. His parents were Elizabeth and Craig Sifred. He grew up kind of like low middle class, and he was from Minnesota. Three weeks after the two met at a bar, Benjamin asked Erica to marry him and they eloped in Las Vegas. They were 20 years old at the time. I'm sorry, how many weeks? After three weeks. No, my answer's no.

Yeah, Erica's answer was, hell yeah. Oh, actually, excuse me, mine would be nah. Nah, sir, nah. No, three weeks is less than a month. Unless that rock is popping. I don't even know if he gave her. I mean, I don't know. Oh, if there's no rock, get the fuck out of my face with that proposal.

You hear that, fellas? I don't give a fuck. I mean, love is love, man. There's no love if there's no rock. Wow. You hear that, fellas? All right. So, yeah, they were both 20 years old, which is pretty young, but, you know, people have made it at 20 years old after getting married.

I'm not going to judge. So after college, Erica took that political science degree and she opened up a scrapbook store. That's really cute. Yeah. She uses that scrapbooking skill later in a not cute way. Oh, is she a douche too? Big doucher. Is this like a fucking Carla Homoka and what's his face kind of relationship?

Paul Bernardo, sure is. It's a killer couple situation. Dan-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-ha. Wow. That just came out of you. Like, wow. That was like the sunrise. That was like the sunrise.

Love that. That's what I meant it to be. Yeah, so they're a killer couple. They, basically when they moved back, which I'll get into in a second, but they moved back home and Erica's father bought her a scrapbook store. So she really hustled. I think I know this case. Do you?

The scrapbook makes it feel familiar. She's actually called Little Miss Scrapbook. Yeah. Super cute, right? So once they were married, Benjamin's family, in particular, saw a big change in him. His mother, Elizabeth, said that once he met Erica and once they got married, he stopped calling. He barely saw any of his family. People thought that she may have been abusive.

she was incredibly controlling and possessive. And he kind of was being isolated by like out. Like, you know how this happens in abuse cases where the person who's doing the abusing will isolate the other person from family and friends. Because then they're like, I'm all you have. You can't go anywhere. And people felt like this is what she was doing to him. Now, he's a piece of shit. Just putting that out there.

He has total control over his own actions. It just seems like she was kind of the one steering the relationship a little. let somebody try to do that shit to me. Mm-mm. Mm-mm. I would. So she hated that he was gone a lot with his military training schedule. And actually when they met, I think one of the things he said to him was like,

you shouldn't get involved with me because I'm gone a lot and I'm training to be a Navy SEAL. You know, I won't be able to give you the attention you deserve. And she still was like, no, you're going to be with me. Like this from the get-go, she was like, nope. I win. Like, you're going to be with me. And he was like, I love a lady that knows what she wants. And then he was like, oh, God, I'm terrified. Pretty much. I'm pretty sure that's how good. Like I said, he was training a ton, traveling a ton, and she was possessive as fuck.

She would call him constantly when he was away and he was constantly getting trouble with his superiors because of it. She would claim to have anxiety attacks and make him come home all the time. Once when he was in Alaska for training, she flew up there, unexpected. and they were both sent home because it was against the rules for that to happen, so he immediately got in trouble. Well, that sucks. Maybe Eric is why he didn't become a fucking Navy SEAL. I think actually, people do say that when he got in the relationship with her, that like he stopped becoming so driven towards that. But again, he made this choice. So whatever, Benjamin. Now, suddenly he turned into a complete asshole according to his military comrades.

and people around him. He got a swastika tattoo? Yeah. Not allowed. No. Not even okay on any level. And was kicked out of the military for insubordination and going AWOL. And he was kicked out for like inappropriate insignia.

Which if any of our military listeners or are, you know, some of our mods and our Facebook group are military dudes. if anybody can give us insight on what that means. I don't know if that means the swastika tattoo. Like, I don't, insignia, I don't know. But if somebody can let me know what that means, I couldn't really find a lot about it. But yeah, those are the things he was kicked out for.

He was dishonorably discharged with a bad contact discharge. So no honorable discharge for him. Bad, bad, all the bad. So much bad. And so now he's out of a job. So Erica's dad bought her the scrapbook store. and they are now back in her hometown of Altoona, Pennsylvania. Because that's what happens, apparently.

You just move back to your hometown and your dad buys you a scrapbook store. Right? Did you hear that, Dad? I'm going to need a scrapbook store. Yeah. I mean, that's just what happens. Sounds weird, but this is when shit went crazy. Scrapbook stores are mayhem, apparently.

You know what's funny? Is this really just sounds like, I mean, minus the swastika. Oh, swastika. Mine is the swastika tattoo. It really sounds like the beginning of a Hallmark movie. Actually, it kind of does. It's like we're going to move home and work on our marriage and our happiness. And I'm going to make a scrapbook store.

And this really mysterious man is going to come in and he's Santa. And in the end, you know what, he's Santa. That's the end of every Christmas Hallmark movie is. And he's not like in the six sense. The Sixth Sense makes you think that every horror. movie ends with like the person was dead the whole time. Every Hallmark movie is he was Santa the whole time. They're always Santa.

Always. Just remember that guys. They're always Santa. So the couple suddenly out of no, like just as soon as they moved back, they're already on this like trajectory, I think, but all of a sudden when they moved back, they turned their lives into a bootleg version of natural born killers. Erica got a tattoo on her hip that was inspired by natural. Born killers, which great movie, but like, maybe don't get inspired by it.

What was her tattoo? It was a cross on her hip. Oh. You haven't seen that movie, have you? I plead the fifth. She has not seen that movie, folks. People yell at me. People yell at her for that, because that's a great movie.

You need to see that movie. They got super into alcohol and drugs, mainly pills and cocaine. Both of them got a ton of guns and also got pets. snakes that they named Hitler, HIV, Bonnie and Clyde. I don't even have a comment. Like, Bonnie and Clyde, I get Hitler and HIV. What the fuck? That's some shit.

Like, that right there is immediately when friends and family need to be like, all right, let's lock them in a room because some bad shit's going to happen right now. Let's lock them in separate rooms. Yeah, or lock them in a room. Let them, whatever happens to each other. Let it happen. Hitler, HIV. And then Bonnie and Clyde.

I know Bonnie and Clyde were criminals, but they're much more like jaunty than fucking Hitler and HIV. I just, I'm trying to think of something to say, but all my brain, the wheels are turning and HIV is just not funny for a snake name. No. Neither is Hitler. Hitler either. My brain wheels are just turning.

My brain wheels. So this is when they started comming. committing petty theft together. And it looked like they were just doing a complete 180, like, trying to turn into these, like, badass, uh, Mallory and Mickey wannabes. Um, no one knew who they were anymore. No one could recognize them anymore. All their friends, like, friends from high school of hers were like, who the fuck are you?

Like, you were this outgoing, like, basketball star. And now you're, like, pretending that you're Mallory. Um, now Erica's newest interest is, uh, interesting. to say the least. She started obsessively collecting Hooters merchandise. What the fuck? Why? Why?

Yeah. It was just her shit, man. Wait. There's only like four shirts, right? Well, I think they have like shot glasses and I don't know what else. I'm assuming. I'm just thinking about their restaurants. I thought they just had like that white tank top in the shorts and that was it. No, I think there's more.

I think there's a vast array of Hooters merch out there. So now to get this stuff for her, the couples started breaking into Hooters all over and stealing it. Listen, I would steal the chicken wings. I heard they good. I heard they good. Again, they were 24 years old at this point. Because scrapbooking and stealing Hooters merch is incredibly tiring business. Erica and Ben decide in May 2002 that they need to take a little vacation, you know?

So in May 2002, they headed to Ocean City, Maryland for Sun and Fun. And mischief and mayhem. Exactly. On May 25th, the couple met another couple, Joshua Ford and Martha Jeannie Crutchley. They were on vacation from Fairfax, Virginia. Martha was an insurance exec. Joshua was a mortgage broker. They were this happy, adorable couple.

The two couples actually met when they were all getting on board a resort shuttle bus that would take them to several bars for the evening. Erica and Benjamin didn't have the correct change for the bus fare, so Joshua offered to pay for both of them to get on the bus. They were total strangers. Joshua was just that good of a person. Oh, no. Oh, no, is right. The prosecutor in the case was quoted as saying, quote, Joshua Ford offered a pay for their

bus fee because they didn't have the right change. and they said, quote, well, we'll buy you a drink at Secrets, where we're all going. I think they got together sort of as two couples that met and hit it off, which how many times have you been on vacation or somewhere, like out somewhere and you like meet, you know, you meet someone or if you're with like a significant other, you two meet another couple, you guys hit it off, you like hang out for a little while you're out. Like it happens all the time. Yeah, it's totally happened.

Yeah. It's like a normal thing and you don't think anything is going to come. out of it. It's like the circle of life. Sure. I mean, yeah. It's early. I was like, what? It's like, it's like how life works.

It's how life works. Exactly. There you go. I like that better. It is early, guys. So Eric and Benjamin tell Joshua, we'll buy you a drink because you're so kind. And they all head to a bar called Secrets. that was spelled S-E-A-C-R-E-T-S. So like, secrets. Like, secrets by the sea.

I'm vomiting. I just thought that was funny. This is not funny, though, the next things. So they hit it off right away. They spend the entire night partying together, drinking, hanging out, you know, again, things that you do normally with people you meet on vacation, you're just hanging out the whole time,

you think you've hit it off and made, like, a friend. That's all. You haven't. In this case you have not. Apparently at one point they were all having a super good time. Now the night starts coming to a close. And as everyone's heading out, Erica and Benjamin asked Joshua and Martha

if they want to come have a nightcap at their rental condo. They're basically, and they have like a penthouse rental condo. So they're basically saying, you know, we have drinks back at the condo. We have weed at the condo. We have a hot tub at the condo. Let's continue this parte. To which I would have said,

A, let's get it. I would have said, fuck no I'm not going back to your condo this is why I will die first this is where we differ now apparently at one point they're all having a good time sitting in the hot tub Erica suddenly gets out goes into the condo

and then starts freaking out saying that her purse is missing screaming about how Martha and Joshua had to be the ones to take it now they're still in the condo so where the fuck would they have put this purse that's what's crazy like they did not think this through at all. No. Because it's like, dude, they're still in your house. Like, they didn't leave your house with your purse. Where would he just, like, shove it down his pants? Like, where did it go?

It's at the bottom of the hot tub. Yeah. Like, that doesn't make any sense. So now, Joshua and Martha are like, what the fuck. We definitely didn't steal your purse because where the fuck would we stash it? It's nowhere. Um, we're like, they're like, we're still in your fucking condo, you fucking psycho. But instead, I think they were probably nicer about it. And we're like, we really didn't steal your purse. Like, I don't know what to tell you. Well, now Benjamin grabs his 357 magnum and starts pointing it at Joshua and Martha and screaming at them that they stole his wife's purse,

give it back, like, I'm going to kill you, blah, blah. Meanwhile, Erica called 911 screaming that they stole her purse, but then hung up before giving an address or allowing the call to be traced for location, which is just a weird move. Yeah, that, this is like premeditated. Oh, for sure. This whole thing is premeditated. Now, Erica and Benjamin are psychotic at this point and waving a gun at them and threatening them for no fucking reason.

So Joshua grabs Martha and they run into the bathroom where they lock themselves in because they're fucking terrified. Oh, no. According to True Crime Daily, Erica then leaned over the balcony so she could wash them cowering and terrified in the bathroom through the window. Jesus Christ Yeah she's fucked She then waits and yells to Ben When she sees that one of them is in range To shoot at them from the door

So she's literally looking through the window being like Shoot like when one of them moves towards the door Oh my God Yeah so she tells him shoot He shoots Joshua straight through the head twice through the bathroom door Boom he drops dead Oh my god poor Martha Yes

So now Ben then kicks open the door and Martha is cowering under the sink and begging for her life. This all escalated so quickly. It did. It's insane. This whole thing. And all the people that worked this case were like, this is the most bonkers shit I have ever seen.

That's, I mean, I wonder how much fucking Coke they blew that night. That's what I'm wondering. This is definitely like Coke fueled. Ben then shoots Joshua twice more in front of Martha. And then Erica repeatedly stabs Martha to death. Yeah. So now to get rid of the bodies, they decide the best course of action is to dismember them completely. Yeah, best thing to do. That's always the best course of action, right?

Using a huge knife, they sod the couple into pieces. At one point, according to Erica, Ben held up Joshua and Martha's severed heads and asked her to take a picture of him smiling with them. But she refused. Yeah, no, not a good photo. No, that is not a Kodak moment. That was funny. I'm funny. Together they also discussed whether they should cook and eat one of them.

No, no, no. They decided against doing a domer in this case, bringing it back. Is cannibalism the theme of the week? It is. This week brought to you by cannibalism. Awesome. I'll add it to our sponsors at the end of our episode notes. For 15% off a human leg, you can use code morbid.

Use promo code morbid. That's not funny. No, not funny at all. And they decided not to do that. So according to Erica, they did not eat any of the people. They meticulously cleaned up the bathroom as best they could, because that's where they dismembered the bodies in the bathtub. Then they put the parts into trash bags,

and off they went in the Jeep to Delaware with the bags in tow. They got to a landfill. and threw the various body parts into a dumpster with a ton of trash. Rude. Very rude. Eat the rude. Don't throw things among my people. Oh, you can't spell trash without ash.

Hey-oh. Now after this, they go mini golfing. What? Excuse me? Did you just hear how I said it? I was like, wait. What? You looked like that meme of that guy going,

That's how I feel. Yeah, obviously. Go video golfing after that. As one does. Right? So over the next couple of days, they did vacation things. Like go out to eat, go to the beach, take lots of happy photos. Erica, actually, and this is really terrible.

Erica took Joshua's ring when they were dismembering the bodies and put it on a chain which she wore around her neck for the remainder of the vacation. What happened in her childhood? Well, even worse, in one photo, you can see these vacation photos online, I'll post them on the Instagram. In one photo, she's wearing the ring on her neck, like in the photo, smiling.

And you're looking at it like, that is a person that you murdered's ring. And everyone, all the investigators said, when that ring was recovered, it still had his dried blood on it. Oh my God. That's foul. So in the picture you can see her smiling with Benjamin and she's got a necklace on with a ring on it.

That's Joshua's ring. And it's caked in his blood. Sister. Like that's beyond. They kept the knives they used to dismember them in their pockets. And when they were caught, they had them still with blood, skin, and hair on them. Fowl. So they were walking around with these not cleaned just because they liked that they had them.

Like these two people were balked. What happened? In the meantime, Erica also got another tattoo on her side in exactly the same spot where she first stabbed Martha. What was the tattoo? I'm actually not sure, but either way. Fuck. They also got pragmatic about things. Ben bought and installed a new bathroom door in their condo because there was bullet holes in the old one.

And they spotlessly cleaned the condo to eradicate any evidence. there's actually a photo of Ben in the Home Depot parking lot where they got the door and he's happily holding the door over his head and smiling. What? Yeah, like that's just not okay. We don't need to celebrate new doors if the old door is because we killed somebody. That's what they are evil. Like these people are straight up evil. Like they can't even begin.

They've ruined a case for themselves when they get caught because it's like you can't pretend that you were. Which Erica does, spoiler alert later, she tries to pretend like, oh, I was this abused woman, and I was just going like, fuck right off, Erica. You are in photos with Joshua's fucking ring, bloody and around your fucking neck, you dumb bitch. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So now they're cleaned up as best they can. They've walked around for a couple of days with their victim's rings around their neck, and now they want to do it again. Oh, no, did what? Oh, no, did what?

So they meet a couple Melissa selling and Justin Wright. They do the exact same thing. They befriend them, hang for the night at a bar, and then invite them back to the condo for a nightcap. Now, oh, wow, Erica's purse is missing again. Benjamin brandishes a gun at them, and when things get insane, they let Justin and Melissa run out because Ben suddenly realized that their rental,

was up soon and it didn't leave them time to clean up after another massacre. That's the only reason they let them go. You realize that like during the time that you're massacring somebody or like about to? What I what I envision in my head is that all this chaos happening and like guns and screaming and all that. And then he suddenly just like gazes over at the counter and sees that like checkout time is at 10 a.m. And he's like, oh shit, this won't work. Like that's how I see it going down. I like that. He's like, oh, you know what? Ain't nobody got time for this. And he's like, oh, you know what? We got to wrap this up. We can't do this because we don't have time to clean. The jig. The jig is up. It is 100% up. So they let them go.

And the couple later testified that before they ran out of there, Ben grabbed Melissa and brought her to the bathroom door, which had not yet been replaced with the new one. He pointed at the bullet holes and said, quote, see that? We had a couple in here just a few nights ago who tried to rip us off. I killed them. I shot them right through that door. Nifty. That's when you're like, oh, we befriended the wrong people. That's definitely when.

Like, we're not going to be lifelong vacation pals. I'm not going to send you a postcard from our next destination. No. Now, remember that Erica is a scrapbooker of the highest order. Remember. Well, she kept a fucking scrubs. scrapbook of the murder. Like literally put, like wrote things like how she felt, how it went down, pictures of the people, like literally made a scrapbook in the, in the rental condo.

She wrote that her and Benjamin were the modern day Bonnie and Clyde criminal couple. And she put the, she had kept the bullets that they had taken out of the bodies and she was like gluing them in. Yeah. Nope. Yeah. Now Joshua and Martha's friends, family and co-workers, are getting concerned at this point because they didn't return from vacation. They didn't return to work and that was very unlike them. No one could get a hold of them so they were reported as missing persons. Flyers and pictures of them were distributed all over the area but nothing was happening. And actually to this day, the people that worked on this case said if this next thing didn't happen. happen, they may have never been caught. And they said that they think they would have kept going and become serial killers. What happened?

Oh, it's funny. So the Friday after Joshua and Martha were killed, their murderers did something so stupid and amazing that it will go down as the worst way to get caught next to BTK's floppy disk fuck up. I'm so excited. So remember how Erica has an inexplicable obsession with Hooters merch? Yes. I was literally just going to say, how could I forget? How could you forget?

Well, feeling like they just got away with a Mickey and Mallory-style murder, Erica and Ben decide to stop, break into a hooters, and steal some sweet-ass booby merch. So they stop at the hooters on 1.23rd Street and set off a silent alarm like fucking idiots. Cops arrive and probably joke the entire way there because who breaks into a fucking hooters to steal merchandise. Now this is where it gets good. Erica starts having a fucking panic attack because being a raging sociopathic asshole is taxing on your psyche, I imagine.

I was going to say, do you know? I don't know for sure, but I'm just taking context clues. Educated guess. Just an educated guess. While having a moment, she asked one of the police officers to go into her purse and get her anxiety medication. She's like, I have Xanax in there, I need it. Well, the dumb criminal award goes to Erica

because while he's in there, he sees five spent shell casings, and oh, Joshua and Martha's fucking IDs. Bitch. Now, these are two missing people that the entire place is searching for actively, and he's like, oh, here's their IDs. Found them. Got them. So now they search their car and find handcuffs, the Magnum Gun, two other guns,

ski masks, and gloves. So they're like, huh, this might be more than two dead. on me stealing boob shirts. I'd say so. I would say so. So now the police take them downtown and search their condo. They found Erica's fucking scrapbook

documenting the entire crime and also found two bullets sitting on the coffee table. The bullets also had Josh's blood on it. Blood is in the grout in the bathroom because they didn't do a good job cleaning up. Fucking grout will get you every time.

And Josh's palm print was on the window. They also found blood in a drop. in the bathroom. Martha and Joshua's keys and photos. So now they're like, yeah, this is fishy. This adds up. Something went down here. So they arrested them immediately,

and they 100% immediately turn on each other because true love. Love. Just love. For Mickey and Mallory wannabes, they sure belly flopped when it came to the whole, like, loyalty till we die thing. Yeah, I'd say so. So now Erica is pretending that she was abused, forced into it.

Ben did it all. Ben's claiming he was abused. He was forced into it. Neither one of them were forced into it. They were probably abusing each other. They were both possessive assholes. They both walked around with fucking shit from the murders. So neither one of them felt bad or was forced into it.

So fuck both of you. I'm saying. In her interview, Erica says, quote, he made them strip at gunpoint. And I was like, oh my God. I had no idea what was going on. He told me that Josh said, I was in the army and you were in the Navy. What are you doing?

Why are you doing this? And he looked them in the face and said, see you later, motherfucker. And he shot him in the head. Literally, go fuck yourself. Like, no, first of all, that's not how it happened because the bullet holes are in the door. Like they have forensics that shows this. And also, Ben already admitted that they should. shot them through the door, but like, good try, Erica. And also I love how she's like, and he said,

see you later, motherfucker. Like, it's like, no, you are not in natural born killers. This is real life. Like, you didn't do, no, that didn't happen. I think she's very confused. I think she needs to, she should have just become an actress. Like, you want this theatrical life? Why didn't you just become an actress and pretend that you're a killer? Her method acting would have got real weird. That's very true. At one point, they were going to give Erica a plea deal to. to testify against Ben because she was mildly convincing in the beginning. No. But then as they spoke more to her, the cops were like, we, it was pretty quick that we started

being like, you definitely had a bigger part in this than you're saying. Yeah, like the scrapbook didn't fucking tell you that. Exactly. She said she would lead them to the bodies if she got a deal. And they agreed as long as she passed a lie detector test. What do you think happened? She files up. She failed with flying colors.

And obviously we all know what we think of lie detector tests, but in this case, I'm going to go with it. Remember, she was found with a knife used to dismember the victims on her person. The knife legit had blood and hair on it, and it was in her fucking pocket when she was arrested, and she was found with Joss's bloody ring around her neck. So they know she's not this abused little shrinking violet. She's fucking 100% evil fucking crazy broad.

Yes, indeed. They discovered some of Josh and Martha's body parts in the landfill, and the plea deal was completely off at this point. They continued to say that they were innocent and that the other one did it. They were totally going against each other in their separate trials because true love. And Detective Brent Case, who worked on this case, said, quote, One of our intents from the beginning was to be completely thorough. Never in my life, even now, did I feel more compelled to put somebody behind bars. These people were so evil.

If they were to get out, it would have been devastating. It was craziness. It was Manson crazy. Whoa. I'm saying. Now, Benjamin was convicted of one count of first-degree murder for the murder of Josh, and was sentenced to 38 years. Erica was convicted of both murders and sentenced to life plus 20 years.

Perfect. So she's not getting out anytime soon. What's crazy is that Ben divorced Erica, seven years after they were put in prison. Like, why the hell did they wait seven years when they literally were throwing each other to the wolves like the second they got caught? Maybe he just like didn't have time or like, not like he had time. I was like he has nothing but time.

But like maybe like other like law proceedings were going on. Yeah. And maybe it just like didn't even occur to them that they could get divorced maybe. Yeah, maybe you didn't, I didn't know that you could get divorced while you were in jail. Yeah. Because people divorce each other from prison. So yeah, that's what happened. Benjamin is eligible for parole in 2021.

No, thank you. No, do not let that fucker out, guys. And Erica is eligible in 2024, but I don't see either one of them getting out. I mean, this was all premeditated. They're both dicks. That was a whirlwind. I mean, this guy has a swastika tattoo.

Like, I don't think he makes good choices. No. So, yeah, so hopefully they never get out. And poor Joshua and Martha, just on vacation trying to make new vacation friends. And they were so nice. They were just like, let me pay for this. And like, let's have a great vacay. Exactly.

It's like they, this is why I've said it before and I'll say it again, guys. Don't help anyone. Don't make friends. Just don't do it. That's, I mean, that's what, we started this with the Ted Bundy episode. Just never help anyone. If someone's like, can you help me with this? Be like, no, because you're going to murder me.

And then they'll be like, No, I'm not. And you'll be like, that jaunty tone says otherwise, sir. Or they'll be very confused and frightened of you and they won't ask you again. So then you get out of it either way. True. Because they'll be like, why would you even say that? That's weird.

I'm saying. So yeah, that's the story of Erica and Benjamin Sifrit. And look, that was a real mini morbid, kind of. Wasn't an ash mini, but. So, yeah, so we hope you liked this moment. many. We will see some of you at our live show on Tuesday in a couple of days. We're really excited for that. Get ready. And we also have some exciting news this week. So stay tuned. And I'm going to tell you to maybe check out our social media on Monday, November, what is that? 18th.

18th on Monday, November 18th, because maybe something fun is going to be announced. I don't know. I know nothing. We know nothing. But yeah. So if you want to stay tuned for that, it will definitely be hitting the Instagram I heard from a little birdie. And you can go to our Instagram at. At Morbid Podcast.

I'm sure we'll also put it on Twitter if the bird says so. At a morbid podcast. We probably won't email you about it, but you can email us about it. Morbid Podcast at gmail.com. Talk about the exciting news that might be happening in the Facebook group. Which is an amazing place and I love you guys. Morbid colon, a true crime podcast. I don't think we'll announce it on our website, but there is merch there now.

We will announce it on our website at Morbidpodcast.com. Elena runs that shit. I think that's all we have. Yeah. We hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that you meet this man's and he's like, hey, I'm on EVC, and then he's like, actually, never mind, I'm not a Navy seal. And she's like, well, I'm a basketball star.

Actually, never mind. I'm a scrapbooker now. And let's go commit some fucking murder on vacation. And then it's going to get so gnarly and crazy and scary and weird. And then I'm going to scrapbook about it and don't keep it so weird that you scrapbook about murder because that's just fucked up. Bye. Yeah, don't do that. That's real fucked.

Bye. Now, the worst part about this whole thing, well, there's many bad parts about this thing. But one of the things that really, like, haunts everybody is there's no real motive that was given for this. It's like they just wanted to do it because they thought it was a cool thing to do. That's literally it. Like obviously there's no good reason for murder, good validation,

but they didn't give a motive and people are just like, this was just a thrill kill, which is, I mean, it's pretty obvious by the scrapbook and by them walking around with the victims, like with the things they used to dismember them with the ring on the string.

I mean, they literally walked around with pieces of the victims on them. So this was a 100% just thrill kill for the hell of it. This is them watching fucking natural born killers being fucked up, wanting to be those two people. So fucking crazy that people will do these things for no other reason just for the thrill of it. This is a lot. It's a lot.