Rotten Mango - #157: Hooters, Snakes, & Navy SEALs (Killer Couple: Erika & Benjamin Sifrit)

Episode Date: April 20, 2022

Being a marriage counselor is a tough job. I imagine the married couple Erika & BJ would tell very different stories about their couples vacation. BJ would say that he fell asleep in the car while his wife went into a hotel room with a couple they just met. He was heartbroken and devastated when he found out what she had done. Erika would argue that BJ was there the whole time - in fact, he wanted her to take pictures of him with the couple’s decapitated heads. Only, they weren’t talking to a counselor but to the police. Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rambles. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are, whenever we need it, download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier or pay to description starting at 12.99 per month. Butta being betta boo. Welcome to this week's main episode of Rotten Mango. I'm your host Stephanie Sue.

I imagine being a marriage counselor is a tough job. Okay, think about it. The long hours trying to mediate between two very emotional people, I imagine each part of the duo, potentially trio, have their own set of problems. They've got their own rules for their lives, their own perspective on things, and anonymous marriage counselor on Reddit once said. Most couples visiting, they've got one person who's trying to rebuild the relationship, and the other one who's already mentally packed up and left. The sessions usually turn into grief counseling for the one that hasn't figured out it's already over.

That is so depressing. That is so true, huh? Yeah, so depressing. So I guess like if both of them still want to be in the marriage, they were probably already working on it in private versus. Exactly. Then going to a marriage counselor or I feel like there are couples who start therapy, even when they're in a happy place. And that's just like a very productive way of handling your relationship.

Yeah. But most people go there because everything's falling apart. And they're like, last case resort before the divorce. I think the fascinating part of the job would be to sit there on that plush armchair and see each couple tell two very different stories. I imagine marriage counseling for BJ and Erica to go something like this. BJ and Erica. Yeah, his name is BJ. We're going to get into that. It's probably top five worst snake names I've heard recently. Maybe one of them is sitting on the chair, telling his wife about what actually happened

on their disastrous vacation. The husband BJ, he's upset. I fell asleep in the Jeep on vacation. I mean, it's been such a long day, and Erica, my wife, was she went inside with a couple that we met at the bar? She went inside the hotel with them. I don't know how long they were in the hotel together,

but she starts tapping on my Jeep window to wake me up and she's frantic. I saw her flirting with the guy at the bar, so obviously I was worried. She's begging me to come back up to the hotel room and she's screaming, why? Why BJ, why weren't you there for me? I needed you! Where were you? I was confused, because she knew that I was just asleep in the Jeep. She was fine with it. She should have woken me up the jeep. She was fine with it. She should have woken me up if she wanted me to come upstairs with her. Then I get into the hotel room and I find out what my wife had done. I sit on the edge of the bed with my head in my hands, emotional thinking, what do I do

now? I can't believe she did this to me. Erica was stunned at his side of the story. She's probably sitting there. Are you freaking kidding me right now? You know that's not what happened. You were in the hotel room with me the whole freaking time with the couple. You were there.

You were getting high while I was looking for my purse. You knew I was anxious looking for it but you decided to just sit there and hang out with them. And now, now you want to say you start out the edge of the bed emotional about everything that happened No, you weren't you got naked you picked up their decapitated heads and asked me to take pictures of you So you could send it to the Navy seal team, so don't sit there and lie What in the world? The only thing is

Eric and PJ were not talking to a marriage counselor. They were talking to the police. As always, full show notes are available at RodMangoPodcast.com, but there is this book on it called Cruel Death by M. William Phillips. This man is amazing. He's like a serial killer expert. He's written, I think, like close to 65 true crime books. He's one of my favorites. I've talked about him a lot before I mean this book is so row it does a great job at building suspense and I think honestly the most important thing is It gives a very detailed insight into Erica and BJ's mindset as they grow up and they develop into these deranged killers The author does an amazing job analyzing their actions, the mindset throughout the murder,

and explaining why some of the things don't make sense and the things that they likely lied about, because there's gonna be a lot of lies. So with that being said, side note, a lot of the events are described using Erica's confessions, but she changed her story multiple times. So that's included too, but I did my story multiple times. So that's included too,

but I did my best to make sure that it's easy to follow and to make it not so confusing. This is though a messy messy case and in the center of it we have one of the messiest couples that we will ever talk about. So let's get into it. It all started with robbing a hooters. Listen, Erica had her quirks. One of her strangest was probably her obsession with hooters. Yeah, she had a thing for it. Her friend said it definitely was more like a fetish. She had an obsession with collecting anything with the hooters logo.

She loved collecting the employee tank tops, which customers are not allowed to buy apparently. So you would have to bribe an employee. You would have to scour the internet by it on eBay. She would go to Hooter's locations and offer waitresses a ton of cash for their worn-out waitresses tank tops. She loved dining at Hooter's with her new husband B.J. Her purse that she carried with her was a frickin' Hooter's purse.

She just had an obsession. She's just a big fan. She just like, she kind of gets into an obsessive mode with things. She likes to obsessively collect. It's speculated that she had OCD. She claims she was diagnosed, but I do know that it's only been confirmed that she was diagnosed with anxiety disorders.

I mean, not only had she never had to work there, she never really had to work a day in her life. Erica's parents spoiled her with everything she wanted. So she just really loved hooters. And of course, while on vacation their idea of fun was not going to hooters, but it was robbing the local ocean city hooters. BJ would pick the lock, they would rush inside

with their guns shoved up their butt cracks. No really, that's where Erica always carried her gun in between her butt cheeks. They would really, that's where Erica always carried her gun. In between her butt cheeks. They would rush in, start excitedly looking around. You and me, baby, were bunny and Clyde. Anything you wanted, this hooters, it's all yours, baby. And Erica would squeal.

Sure, they focused on the money, but mainly they were there for the hooters' merch. The gift shop. Yeah. They didn't know that the police had been called from a silent alarm that they triggered. They would soon be arrested. Don't worry, we'll get into more details of this later. But they would soon be arrested.

An air could start screaming at the police. Stop, stop, stop, stop! I have anxiety, I'm gonna have a panic attack. You need to get into my hooters' purse and grab me my anti-anxiety meds right now. Grab them for me. It's in my purse. Now the police are just arresting them for a bizarre hooter's robbery, right?

I mean, they're probably not gonna get any jail time, probably a ton of fines considering how privileged they are. So the police go through her purse and they find the IDs of a missing couple. They would later find a camera. First, with recent pictures that looked innocent, the couple posing, smiling, eating crab, going out to eat, frolicing on the beach,

but just before those happy vacation picks, were pictures of them going to Home Depot, coming back to their hotel, and step-by-step pictures of them cleaning up a blood-soaked bathroom. Why did they record that? Or for the car? The bathroom where two headless bodies had just been lying in the tub.

They showed the body too. They didn't take pictures I don't think, but the police would find out everything. If you knew Erica growing up, this is not what you would imagine her life to become. In fact, you probably wouldn't believe the news. You might think that she was innocent. Sure, Erica with a K. Yeah, she's built up with a K is that annoying rich girl. She definitely did not do this. She's not the nicest, she's not the brightest,

but she's not going around killing people. Are you kidding? Like she grew up in a mansion, her daddy butter, whatever she want. What do you mean she's killing people? So Erica Grace was born in Pennsylvania as the only child to the well off Grace family. They spoiled her. She definitely was a case of only child syndrome is what people said.

So to give some context, her dad owned his own construction business. They did really well. Her mom, Cookie was a trophy wife in a sense. So Cookie was beautiful. She cared a ton about her looks, but she was really good to her husband. Cookie could have honestly gone out to go shopping all day, just spent tens of thousands of dollars every day in shopping, but she wanted to be home just in case her husband stopped by for lunch.

Which sounds abusive, which is sounds toxic, like she's expected to clean and have food on the table waiting for him at any moment. But on the contrary, she actually just wanted to spend time with her husband. She really loved him. So the two of them, they loved, they respected each other at times, Erica said, growing up, I felt like I was third wheeling my parents. It's like my dad lived for my mom. They had a really close relationship

and it could not break no matter what anyone did. So does she feel ignored or? But she wasn't ignored. That's the thing. Like don't feel bad for her. Erica grew up living her best life. Her friend said she was given things that other people let alone kids were never going to get in their lifetime. She had that all American life. She had good parents who not only spoiled her with material things, but they adored her. They were involved in her life. They took care of her. She grew up in this big, big house.

Erica herself even called it a mansion. Erica said, you know, my parents, grandparents, aunt, they all had a lot of money. I was definitely a material girl. Yes, she said material girl before it. Monserio girl. And now I can't get over it. The family house had a big yard, fancy cars, and the driveway at all times.

They could afford all the newest gadgets. And her parents weren't just showering her with material items. They were giving her all the attention. Erica said it was all too much. Not the material thing she loved that keep it coming. But her dad's standards for her. She said it was suffocating. For example, she wants to play basketball. She said it's fun. I was in middle school. I like basketball, okay? I just want to shoot some hoops. It's not that deep. But her dad was just one of those uptight people. He gives very much, get your ass up and work vibes.

He would say, no matter what your position, you can be the best. He would say, take me, for example. I got a job working in construction at the bottom of the ranks when I was 20. I was promoted to job superintendent at 22 and I started my own business that year. So when Erica told him,

hey, I'm kind of interested in playing basketball for middle school, he became her coach. And he got real intense about it. He had a new goal. She would become a professional basketball player. I mean, it's like you come home and you tell your parents, hey, I just had cherries at school and I really like it. And now they want you to take cherry farming seriously.

It's like what just happened. I just like cherries, it's not that big of a deal. But he's like abandoned all your aspirations. We're going headfirst. This is your life now. Mitch had some very interesting things to say about this. He would say, I mean, that's the way I am. Have you ever worked for anyone in an authority position who was not authoritative? I learned to be a take charge type of person. I'm not a good follower.

So I'm not a good assistant coach. So yeah, it's probably too bossy with basketball with Erica. I probably made her feel like I wanted her to play basketball. But in the end of the day, it's nothing she can handle. And this is what I believe. If there's something worth doing, it's worth doing to the best of your ability It could be a lot more abusive. Yeah, this is actually like it sounds like pretty good parenting like he's like

Hey hard work is a good thing and we're all like toxic So in high school, I don't know if this is coaching but Erica was not getting a lot of playtime on the high school basketball team So what is our good old pal Mitch do? Does he a train Erica Harder? Does he b? Higher a trainer that might be able to provide better insight than him. Or does he c? Move the whole family a town over into a massive mansion with a swimming pool in the back and an indoor basketball court in the garage. And then bully the high school basketball coach into giving you his job so you can put your daughter on the court for more of the games and take control over all her training needs.

Which one you think he did? Did I give it away? He became a coach? Yeah. Like on the side. Wow. Yeah. It's a little overbearing.

Yeah. It's a bit much. Okay. So he goes with the last one. Wow Yeah, it's a little overbearing. Yeah, it's a bit much So he goes with the last one He was to say the other parents hated Mitch He he was too much. He would have Eric up practicing in their private basketball court every single night And then she would go down energy drinks get through her homework And the next day when she got to school she would lie to all of her friends.

Oh my god, I barely studied. And then she would proceed to get straight A's. It's like Erica wanted to be the best, but she didn't want anyone to know that she was putting in the work. I'm not saying she needs to be bombarding people with post of hashtag hard work, hashtag hustle, hashtag meetings. When she secretly downed 2,930 energy drinks and stayed up all night, she would lie about it. Maybe. Why is that? Okay, I googled it. I googled it because you know what? I did fall into this in high school where I think it was a thing where everybody just says it. I didn't even study. I think it's almost like a reflex to say it like, Hey, how are you doing? You'd be in the hallway right before a

test and I think because you're so nervous, you don't actually have a conversation before the test. You're just standing around being like, oh my god, the test, I'm going to the test, right? So everyone's like, oh my god, I didn't study. So I'd be like, oh my god, me too. But then I'm thinking, and I'm like, wait, but I did study. But I did. But I also feel like if you say you studied, it's embarrassing at that point.

I do it loser. Because everyone's standing in a circle being like, oh my god, I didn't even study. But I did. But I also feel like if you say you studied, it's embarrassing at that point. I do a loser. Because everyone's standing in a circle being like, oh my god, I didn't even study. And then they're like, I was like a ball night doing this. And you're like, me too. I was definitely on the phone with Chad, for sure. Of like the football team?

Yeah. You were on the phone with him? That's weird. I was on the, okay. Like I think it's one of those things. But Google says, it has to do with if you're terrified of failure, a lot of students will lie because it's embarrassing. If you say you studied and you don't get a good grade, you will have a more intense, disappointing feeling

in yourself. Yes. So maybe that's why Eric could did it. I feel like that's kind of her personality. So maybe that's why Erica did it. I feel like that's kind of her her personality. So her dad did go on to hire a private coach. The best one money could buy and Mitch had dreams of Erica getting a basketball scholarship for college, not because they needed help paying for college. They just wanted her to succeed. So with all that training, all that work, honestly, Erica was pretty talented at basketball. But there was one thing that her daddy, no matter how much money he Threat the problem, could not get his little girl Erica. Can you take a gander? Can you take a guess? Boys? No. Oh. Hight, babe, height.

Okay, she just didn't have the height for basketball. Yeah, what was I thinking? Obviously, money can solve boys. Yeah. Are you thinking about boys? So after high school, she gets to college and joins their basketball team. And this is where things start going downhill. She grew up in like a rural part of Pennsylvania, so she wasn't growing up in the cities. She went to the University of Mary Washington,

and like a lot of kids that grow up sheltered and privileged, she was shocked in college. She was hit smack dab in the middle of the forehead with the reality that no Erica, you are not exceptional. In fact, you're maybe only slightly above average, if even that, you might just be mediocre and nothing's wrong with that. But, sorry to bring it to you.

Erica was humbled, seriously humbled, and her insecurity started amplifying. I mean, I really feel for her in this moment. I still hate her later, but in this moment, she was constantly chasing approval from her parents. So now in college, she just wanted everyone else to like her. She just wants chasing approval from her parents. So now in college, she just wanted everyone else to like her. She just wants the approval of everyone. She was obsessed with her appearance, with her grades, her basketball performance. Anytime she wasn't the best, her confidence would take another hit. And let me tell you, Erica took hits really weird and really hard. Kind of in alarming ways if I'm being honest with you.

You're like, explain, I will. When Erica's first college boyfriend broke up with her, she went up to a brick wall and started slamming her head onto it, until she started bleeding from the top of her head. Her friends had to call 911. As wild as that sounds, in the typical college sense, Erica wasn't wild at all. In fact, people considered her very tame. She was shy, she would go to the parties though. But she always found herself in a corner, just looking standoff-ish. She was scared to talk to someone and embarrass herself, but she would always hold a drink that she's not drinking,

just so it looks like she's doing something. I feel like we all have those moments where you pretend to be really into a piece of food, because you're really nervous. So she would grab where you like pretend to be really into a piece of food Because you're really nervous So she would grab the alcohol pretend to drink it and she would go to these bars to try to fit in and that's where she bumps into Benjamin Sifrit, but everyone called him BJ Yeah, does not make my handwritten list of top 100 nicknames BJ now when they first, there's no sparks flying. B.J. was not, and I repeat, B.J. was not interested in a B.J. from

America. So that's great. Erica was all over him though. He was just super focused in his life. He was a U.S. Navy SEAL. And everything in his life was on track. He had this vision. Anything that didn't contribute to his goals, they were not worth his time.

They weren't even worth his energy. So I'm sure he kindly rejected Erica, but she went back to her dorms and beat her head against a brick wall until she blood. I'm sure the girls in the dorm were comforting her or at least trying to listen. Erica, no guy is worth it. Literally, no guy is worth doing this to yourself over. Guys suck, we can agree on that, right? I heard no guy is worth it. Literally no guy is worth doing this to yourself over. Guys suck, we can agree on that, right? I mean sure he's like a jack's navy steal

and he's like a fat taller than you and you think he's hot, but everyone has their problems. I'm sure BJ has some problems. Shall we take a peek into BJ's problems? I say we shall. BJ was born the oldest of the three separate kids. And according to BJ's own family, I don't know how I'll regret this is. They said that they wear a super loving family unit.

Okay, sounds like my family too, sure. So growing up, B.J. was probably the most active of the bunch. He was a competitive swimmer. He had a job at the YMCA as a swim instructor. He worked at the local grocery store. He had a brief job as a lifeguard. But his favorite job of all was when he worked as an apprentice to a locksmith. Something about locksmiths and that line of work made me nervous.

Locksmithing intrigued BJ. He thought it was fun. He actually put his skills to use in a very terrifying legal way. His friends would come home. BJ would be sitting on the couch eating cereal. Oh hey! How was practice? I was waiting for you. I hope you don't mind. I love myself in. No, there's no lock that I can't get through.

Oh hey, Mrs. Wilson. How you doing? Like, it was just...what? So that's great. 18-year-old BJ is just breaking into homes. I mean, he thinks picking locks are fun. So what else does that's great. 18 year old BJ is just breaking into homes. I mean, he thinks picking luck so fun. So what else does he think is fun? Grenades. He's like, that sounds cool. Let me join the military so I can actually play with some grenades without getting arrested.

At first, he's thinking the army and he's like, wait, but the army is like the lowest of them all. I don't know if this is true. I heard there's a lot of competition between the branches of the military, and they all think that they're better than each other, and he's like, nah, I'm not going to join the Frickan Army. Everyone can get into the army. I'm going to join the Marines. He felt like it was more admirable to be a Marine. He also knew that it has one of the toughest, basic training of all the military branches to just get into being a Marine, but the more that he talked to recruiters, and even his own father, they told him,

instead of the Marines, why not try the Navy? Now, the Navy, the regular Navy, right, you're looking down on it, it's not the best, but you, you, sir, could potentially qualify to be a Navy SEAL. That sounds fancy. Oh yeah, probably one of the most well-respected, most prestigious special force operations around the world.

So as of 2020 the Navy itself has like 350,000 members members I say as if they're not Gracefully defending our country. Thank you so much for your service. The Navy SEALs is about 2,500 active duty Navy SEALs Wow, the process of being a Navy SEALs so like any time you see those YouTube videos of those Navy SEALs giving those morning motivation talks, yeah, a lot of respect actually, okay? There's only 2,500 of them in the whole country. Do you know, yeah, that are active, of course. Wow.

Yeah. Do you know what SEAL stands for? SEAL, not the animal. I thought it was because they, you know, they diving the water, they pretend to be a seal. No, it's for sea air land. All three. So they train for all three, not because most of the navy is based in the water. Oh wow, that is pretty cool. So you're like, that sounds fancy, sign me up. But okay,, special ops like the seals. They're gonna be better trained, more intelligent, and more skilled than the regular Navy.

I believe each military branch has their own special ops team. So the army, they have the Rangers, they've got the special forces, the Air Force has the PJs, and the Space Force just has like aliens. But I think most of us have heard of the mystical yet scary sounding Navy seals. I mean, they're always in the movies. They're always on YouTube reacting to movies about the Navy seals. Did I'm talking about? And it's because their training is fascinating.

Less than 1% of their trainees ever complete training and become a Navy seal. What's fascinating is that the Navy seal training, it's very hard to get kicked out of it. Unless you break a law, or maybe you're not holding up to their standards of training, which is pretty low in terms of your Navy SEAL training, most of the time people quit. So to even get into being trained to be a Navy SEAL, you have to qualify with an initial physical examination. This is how it goes. You're gonna die. Okay, you have to qualify with an initial physical examination. This is how it goes, you're gonna die.

Okay, you have to swim 500 yards in 12 and a half minutes or less, wearing all your gear. You gotta rest two minutes, two minutes. Then you have to do 42 push-ups in under two minutes. Then you get two minutes break. Then you have to do 50 sit-ups in under two minutes. Then you have to go straight into doing six pull ups, rest for 10 minutes, and then run one and a half miles

in all your boots and gear in less than 11.5 minutes. It's Jesus. So each thing one by one, I'm like, you know what, if I train for the rest of my life, I might be able to do one of these things, but you have to do them like timed. You only get two minute breaks here and there. That's it.

That is cool. So this is like the standard. Yeah. So anyone who can try to practice at home and see if they are qualified for it. Yeah. But don't try it at home and sue me. OK.

If you do qualify, you will be sent into BUDS training, which is basic underwater demolition training, which by the way, is not basic in any way. Like you're not going to be sipping on green juices, eating avocado toast, it's gonna be hard work. I mean, there is a benchmark that you have to hit. Your scores have to keep improving, otherwise you will be discharged from bud's training,

but majority of the trainees quit, and that's fascinating. Because I mean, at first glance, you're like, I would quit quit too but think about it. Think about who we're dealing with. A bunch of motivated already in the Navy hard strong, they pass the physical examination, their focus, determine every single one of them on day one, do not believe they'll drop out, no matter what. What is the basic training?

Oh, it lasts for weeks. It's a physical training. You have to learn how to swim with your hands and legs tied together. You have to swim in the ocean against currents, grab something from the bottom of the ocean with your teeth, with your hands and your legs still tied. You have to withstand cold temperatures.

So they'll take you into the Pacific Ocean, which is, I think the water temperature is in the 60s. And you just lay in the water, just freezing your butt off. You have to run down sandy beaches and wet clothes and boots, miles. Miles, have you tried even walking in the sand with no boots? Okay.

It's exercise. I love, like, at the beginning of this conversation, I was like, 25 of them? What if I make it? No. No. Yeah, you're like, I could do? What if I make it? No. Yeah. You're like, I could do a pull-up. How many did they, six pull-ups?

I could do that. What'd be cool if I, um, I'm a Navy SEAL. Yeah. Yeah, but you actually have to be under 28 to apply. I'm sorry. They have age limit. You live an age limit.

I mean, you can stay active, I think, for decades, but you have to be young when you enter. You have to do this practically every single day for months, cold temperatures, the wet beaches. A lot of people black out, a lot of people drown in shallow water because of the amount of tension and stress in your body. I don't even know how to function under that type of pressure and stress. And when you give up in the middle of the day there's a shame bell. You got to walk up to a silver bell and you got to ring it out. And you're talking about people who are so physically capable, so mentally prepared

for this and they have to ring it out. So with that being said BJ killed it. He was named Honour of the class, which means he was a top performer. And, oh, here's the fascinating thing that I actually found out through my investigative research on YouTube. There's a guy named Andy Stump that came up in my research wells, learning about the Navy SEAL training. And he did an interview on Joe Rogan's pod. Side note, this is not an endorsement of Jo Rogan. I'm just saying like this video came up. And Andy was actually in the same class as BJ. The same training class.

And Andy said a very cryptic message to Jo Rogan. He said, some of the best men that I've ever met in my life were Navy SEALs. And some of the most horrible, evil, sociopathic men I've ever met were also Navy SEALs. So you think she's talking about BJ? She even mentioned BJ. Oh he did?

Yeah, he said the honor man of our class went on to kill people so. Like just because they're a Navy SEAL, I mean yeah he's good at what he does. He's good at performing the tasks. He's good at the physical capabilities does not make him a good person. You would think that he is because he's defending our great country. He's a Navy SEAL. So BJ is that good? That good.

That's scary. Yeah, and he picks locks. So he's considered super successful as a Navy SEAL. His former SEAL peers later said he just had some weird stamina. I mean, it wasn't drugs. Like, they weren't insinuating he was doing drugs, but he was just a bizarre one in a million type people in the sense that other seals, they would be sleeping at 8 p.m.

Eating only healthy rice cakes, drinking energy shakes, protein shakes, going to bed early, still the next day they'd wake up and near the end of the day they would be struggling. But BJ could go out drinking all night long, hit the bars, go bar hopping, come back around 3 a.m. sleep for 2 hours, show up for drills and have no trouble at all. He could run 10 miles in ankle deep sand, no problem. Why would you break into these apartments? For money, for drugs, whatever was in there. Why aren't you afraid of getting caught at doing this? No, who's gonna catch us? What a police.

It was the height of the crack era, and instead of locking up drug dealers, some New York City cops had become them. I would suit up in my uniform and we're gonna want some drug dealers, and I know how to do it really well. This is the inside story of the biggest police corruption scandal in NYPD history and the investigation that uncovered it all.

Did you consider yourself a rat? 100% I saved my soul just like everybody else does. Listen to and follow the set, an Autosy Originals documentary podcast series now in the Odyssey app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your shows. I'm not a big guy man, but I love being that dirty mother f***er. So then BJ becomes a Navy SEAL and he's like, oh well I want to try this 25 week medic training. I think most of them have to go through it. It's called a Delta 18. I'm so scared of these names. It's basically a time to train how to work on your fellow injured soldiers out on the field. Even going as far as conducting autopsies on cadavers. So he conducted six to twelve disections in this training. The field training is all about making it look real. The military went to great lengths. Maybe this is why their budget is so big. It's not. It's for weapons. They went to great lengths to make it real for the seal trainers.

They used Hollywood kits with the best fake blood, best special effects. They wanted these navy seal trainees to walk into a field and everybody looked like they had just been blown up in real time because you need to desensitize the seal. They wanted the training to be as gruesome as possible. And after a while, it said that Navy seals become immune and cold to the effects of the injuries and the brutality on the field. I mean, this sounds bad, but that's the only way they can do their job.

Everything was about being a part of a well-oiled machine. Here's something fascinating that another Navy seal said. He said, the first day of training, you're always thinking about me, me, me. I'm going to become a Navy SEAL. But you get a swim buddy. The first, like, couple weeks of training, if you're within six feet away from that swim buddy, both of you guys get punished. So it teaches you us.

It's all about us. It's all about we. So you are the mechanic. This is the problem. You're part of fixing the problem. The problem could be your closest best friend's face has been blown off. All you have to do is fix it, that's it, you can't get emotional. BJ said, a seal should be able to look at his best friend injured, laying there, dying

on the ground, but still treat him like a task. Something that needs to be completed before he can move on. There's no room for any emotion. Eventually, the seal training graduated from using Hollywood effects to live animals. And according to BJ, he worked on a lot of goats and pigs. And sometimes BJ and his team would rush to a fake gruesome scene of a helicopter crash. But it wasn't fake because they would use live animals that were, had been slashed apart by a.k. helicopter blades and a lot of them

would be obliterated and you would just see blood and guts everywhere just smeared everywhere and you would try to save these goats and in the end they would all die. And once that was down the Navy SEAL trainees were sent to serve on an EMT ambulance squad in New York City. They would even do time in an emergency room in New York City for like a month because you would witness people dying, people stabbed, mained. I mean, you name it, he saw it all. And through all of this, BD never freaked out. He put on an outstanding performance. Apparently, he had a record that few ever achieved in the Navy. He even earned himself a good conduct metal and expert marksmanship status with his rifle and pistol, but then everything changed.

He couldn't stop thinking about that petite woman that he met at the bar. Erica Grace, what a name. He found her number and he reached out. The two immediately start dating and it wasn't good. I can't even say that there was a honeymoon period because there wasn't. It was almost like a snap happened in the two of them. Maybe more so BJ. He went from being this non-violent seal,

if I can even put those together, but like non-violent in the sense that he does his job as a seal, but he's not this aggressive person. He's like nice, right? He's quiet, he's reserved, he's shy with women, he's scared to talk to girls, but then suddenly, with Erica around, he becomes more and more aggressive. It's like he stopped giving a fork about the rest of his life.

It's clear that Erica was doing a lot, from the first week that the two start dating. She went around to all of BJ's girlfriends and asked them, can you stop talking to BJ? Because you guys are girls. I mean, it was comical, it was toxic, and comical in the sense of like, you're talking about full grown adults, and she's going around asking friends of his to stop talking to them. Erica would throw tantrums whenever BJ was late even 10 minutes to her house. She would open up her freezer and throw everything outside. Like, just chuck them at the wall.

This is the second week of dating. This is how she's behaving. I mean, this is not appropriate in any sense, but two weeks into dating, like, that's weird. Now, this is where it starts getting bad. And you know what, they really found each other. You run with your breed. That's how we say it in Korean.

Do you guys have a saying like that? Like a giri giri lora, which means breeds play, the same breed plays with each other. The same job a person plays with each other. So Erica starts freaking out when he goes to tell her that he's gonna go on a mission. He's like, I gotta go somewhere in Alaska. It's for the seals.

But I can't tell you, I repeat, I cannot tell you where in Alaska, I can just tell you the great big state of Alaska. It's against seal policy, I can't. This is the way it is. But Erica's like, I need to know, I need to know right now. He's like, okay, fine. For the sake of the argument, maybe it'll bring you peace of mind.

I mean, I know already from just knowing you two weeks, you're a super anxious person. Fine, I'm going to this town in Alaska. When you call, don't act like you know where I am. And I'll be back in a few weeks, okay, I love you. We'll guess who shows up the next day. In Alaska, in that specific town that she thought supposed to know where he is.

Erica. But, giri giri dora, which means the breed plays together. B.J. he's just as bad. He meets up with her and sneaks her into his room. So, of course they get caught. And you're talking about the Navy seals. Like you're not sneaking your girlfriend into your parents' suburban home. You're talking about the Navy seals like you're not sneaking your girlfriend into your parents suburban home You're talking about the Navy frickin seals

You're really trying to it's a bunch of like can you imagine woman successfully sneak into their base? Yeah, it's front of a thousand Navy seals. Yeah, we call her You know what kind of irony is that? Nobody catches her. Nobody notices anything. We would be a joke. This country would be a big joke, okay? Like they catch her and they're like, he's like, aren't what happened. It was the first of many, many bad marks on BJ's record.

It's like everything he spent his life working towards, he just spent a grueling year trying to get into the Navy SEALs and the minute that he meets Erica, it's all at the window. To me, it's fascinating because to be a Navy SEAL, I imagine you're going to be incredibly laser focused, goal oriented. I mean, your eyes are on the prize, you'll stay on the track. But I guess love really makes everyone do weird things. Do you think if this wasn't Erica?

Because I think BJ had it in him. Erica brought it out. Do you think it would have still come out with any other woman or was it Erica specifically? These are questions we'll have at the end of this. So Erica's friends said that they noticed changes in her too. She wasn't immune from this dumb love. She seemed frail, and tired. She looked thinner than ever,

and she looked like she was lacking a lot of energy. She seemed to be losing weight from the stress of constantly obsessing over her new boyfriend. I mean, her friends were even shocked that they were dating. Erica was always into these nerdy shy types. Not BJ. BJ is like tough rough. Um, the man, freaking Navy, CO guy, he was the opposite of shy nerdy. It was strange. But I guess her friends didn't really know her. Another thing that they predicted wrong was her wedding. When they were in high school, they all giggled around

about how they were going to have the wedding of their dreams. Each of them had a different style. Of course, Erica would top all of theirs. I mean, her father Mitch was rich, and he was so excited to give Erica the wedding of her dreams. This is Daddy's little girl. He couldn't wait to walk her down the aisle adorned with tens of thousands of dollars of fresh flowers in potentially a couture wedding gown like he wanted all of that for

his baby girl. I mean, she was going to have a fairy tale wedding. Everybody knew it. But instead, Erica ran off to Vegas and married BJ at the Oso Romantic Silver Bell wedding chapel. Listen, I'm not judging her for aloping or wanting to get married in a low key way. Off to Vegas and married BJ at the Oso Romantic Silver Bell Wedding Chapel. Listen, I'm not judging her for aloping or wanting to get married in a low key way, not make a fuss about it, but this is what I'm kind of judging her for. She had been dating BJ for three weeks.

They get married within three weeks of dating. I imagine her to tell her friends, but like when you know you just know. Okay, sounds like a recipe for disaster, but maybe there are soulmates. There have been couples that work out like that, right? So how did he propose then? What made you guys decide to get married without telling anyone? Or inviting anyone?

Is so out of nowhere, what happened there? She said, oh yeah. So like BJ, he dared me to marry him. So he didn't propose? No, he was like, I dare you to marry him. So he didn't propose? No, he was like, I dare you to marry me, I bet you won't. And I was like, are you kidding? I will. I bet no cap. I bet no cap, let's do it, R&.

You're telling me you married BJ. The guy that you know for three freaking seconds on a dare. Yeah, and I'm moving to North Carolina, he's stationed there. Bye. So the minute that they move in together, BJ realizes, what the fork I barely know this person, he realized it is hard to be married and living with someone he had just met, and someone with an anxiety disorder and potentially an obsessive compulsive disorder. She was even on a prescription of

Xanax and valium for it and Erica was definitely a very, very nervous, very worried person and it's really hard to live with people like that. I'm like that so my fiance might understand. He's patient and amazing though but BJ on the other hand, it drove him mad. It drove him up the wall. He felt like he was going crazy, so crazy in fact, that he cheated on Erica less than six months into their marriage. Let's talk about the hot steamy affair.

It all started on BJ's mission to Arkansas. I was going to say her ainess, but BJ, after his Navy SEAL TOP secrets, super-style operations, he went to a bar and he met a woman. How to one night stand and he thought, oh well, that will be that. But it evolved into something deeper. They kept in touch and BJ realized, ooh, I really like her. Does he come home to tell the truth? Does he tell Erica I need to leave you so I can be with the woman I love?

No. But he does buy his second phone to talk to his mistress with. So that's romantic. Erica found out anyway. Listen again, I don't know. Like if a Navy SEAL can't even hide in a fair, guys, we normal people don't even dry it. You can't do it, you'll never get away.

He was logged into his email on their shared computer. And there was some nasty, nasty, undeleted email threads. Like come on, Navy SEAL, what about stealth mode? The emails were incredibly explicit. Erica did not want to confront BJ just yet, so she emailed the woman back. As if the affair was still going on and confirmed it was true.

The mistress in return told Erica things about BJ and his bod. That only someone who had intimate relations with him and his bod would have known about. So Erica confronts him. She spirals into this diagnosed serious depression. She couldn't even get out of bed at times and he just had no remorse,

no guilt, nothing. He was just angry that he had to deal with a depressed wife. So he sent a scathing email to his mistress. He was upset with her. Why would you confirm the affair to my wife?

He said and I quote, Hey, bitch. No, he literally started. Hey would you confirm the affair to my wife? He said, and I quote, Hey bitch. No, he literally started it. Hey bitch, you better tell my wife I never fucked you. If you don't call my wife and tell her it was all a lie, I would drive down an Arkansas and amputate your bastard kids with a butcher. No, I'll do it with a butter knife

and board up the windows indoors and I'll torch down your house. Signed your worst enemy, BJ. Guess who's gonna turn this into the Navy Seals? The mistress, because why wouldn't she? This is terrifying. I mean, a Navy Seal is threatening to kill your kids and kill you and amputate your kids, are you kidding?

I would turn this into the Navy Seals. So they find out about this threatening email and this would be one of the many reasons he was discharged from the Navy. According to Erica, she started abusing her Xanax prescription after BJ's first affair. She said she was just anxious and depressed and she would do anything to feel a second of peace, but somehow that turned into her snorting and taking Xanax with alcohol. And that's how her addiction spiraled, which by the way I had to call my sister Nasc. I'm thinking, well, if she's swallowing the Xanax and snorting it

What's the difference you're still taking the Xanax and your sister is a pharmacist? Yeah I'm like she's a Chihuahua enthusiast. No, she's a pharmacist Okay, yeah, sorry She said in Common term she said snorting it the delivery hits faster it enters into your system faster So you're gonna get hit with it more. And then mixing it with alcohol is going to give you a very bad euphoric feeling. Euphoric sounds great, but bad because the minute that you're off it,

and it's incredibly temporary, you're going to feel a world of pain worse than you've ever felt before. So you're going to keep wanting to do it. It's highly addictive. And now with both of them... Don't do drugs. Yeah, don't do drugs is what she said. Unless prescribed and you do it according to the label. And what the pharmacist tells you. So with both of their pretty evil and weird personalities in this addiction, I mean they're on the fast lane for disaster. August of 2000, BJ was facing a discharge from the army. He had this whole list of offenses. He would yell, thank you, at his commanders, which in the Navy, that sounds so terrifying to do that. I think I'd rather cuss out my dad than a commanding officer in the Navy seal.

Like, can you imagine? It sounds dangerous. And then BJ tried to kill some people in the Navy. So that's cool. Let me explain. The base study was in, and I think all bases are manned by guards. So there's a bunch of guards with their guns outside. I mean, it's a military base. They check every single car entering and exiting the gate, standard procedure, even if you're part of the military. Will B.J. He decided it would be hilarious to drive his car 50 miles an hour straight into the human

fence of his fellow Navy comrades. They had to jump out the way to avoid being hit and possibly even killed. This is after he was discharged. Not yet. They got the letter and they were like, well, we don't want to discharge you yet because I guess it's like not that bad. And he's just going bozuk in there. Yeah.

So it got bad. He actually had to do this another time before they threw him into military jail. I have nothing to say about the military, I'm terrified. So his mom had to hire an attorney to get him out. Which I feel like we didn't get much backstory on BJ's mom and Erica, but I think it's safe to say that they hated each other. First of all, BJ's mom was freaking out that her son was losing her mind. He's in military jail, what are you talking about?

But Erica, she was also hysterical, and she kept telling BJ's mom what to do. And BJ's mom is sitting there thinking, first of all, you're freaking 20 years old. You've been married for like two fucking days, you know nothing about the Navy, shut the fork up. The argument escalated to the point where Erica pulled a gun on BJ's mom. And BJ's mom had to literally lock herself in the bedroom and call 911. Erica got a warning. BJ would later say, I did this all for Erica.

I was purposely trying to get discharged because she wanted me to be with her 24-7. If I wanted to be honorably discharged, which means the Navy and I are just separating ways, but we're on good terms, essentially, it would take up to a year sometimes. Yeah, it takes a while to be honorably discharged. Like, you have to file a bunch of paperwork. They got to replace you, I guess, and all these things. A lot of administrative work and takes like a year.

So their bright plan was BJ was trying to get kicked out on bad conduct charges. If he just up and leaves, that means he's AWOL. That means he's supposed to be there, but they don't know where the fork he is, and that's not good. In the end, Erica got what she wanted, as always. He was discharged from the US Navy with a bad conduct discharge, which honestly does not look good at all. And Erica was ecstatic when he came home. BJ was not.

I mean, this has been his entire life plan. Of course, he was reasonably sad. Erica noticed this and, being the good wife that she was, she said, why don't we go on a mission? Like your Navy days. You and me, I'll be your seal buddy. Erica begged her dad to pay for a two month trip for the couple to head to South America to cheer BJ up.

He's so sad dad, I just want to make him happy. Even though I'm the sole reason he's sad to begin with because I ruined his life. It's wild to me when partners knowingly, purposefully ruined their loved ones life and then sit there and try to cheer them up after. Like this is abusive toxic, it's wild. She's like, I gotta cheer him up, he was discharged boohoo. So Mitch did not care for BJ, but he wasn't the one to deny his daughter of anything. So he said, okay, yes, have fun guys.

I heard the weather is great in Chile. So the couple had down there and the whole mission was not to get their marriage back on track, was to not find happiness or find their souls, find themselves. They were on the hunt for something more valuable. Xanax. In Chile, with the right connections, you could buy 90 Xanax pills for the low cost of one dollar. I don't know how many pills she bought. I think in the thousands. What? She bought enough for at least the next year and a half plus more.

Now, this part, I couldn't find much credible information on, but I wanted to know how they brought it back into the US. I mean, that's a boatload of pills, I imagine. Maybe she stuck it up her butt. Let me explain. Erica loved sticking dangerous items up her butt. That was her thing. BJ allegedly convinced her to get a Smith and Wes and Magnum, which is a super powerful handgun.

And Erica, being the ever so careful person that she is, she would just keep sticking it in her purse, or she would stick it in the waistband of her pants in between her butt cheeks. I mean, she's just got this very serious weapon hiding in her ass. That doesn't sound safe. So anyway, wanna be Narcos, they get back to the US and Erica convinces BJ. We got to move back to Pennsylvania. We need to be near my parents.

My dad is gonna support my new business idea. I'm gonna open up a shop, a scrapbooking shop. It's gonna sell everything and anything scrapbooking related. Stickers, washi tape, pens, scrapbooks, paybars, everything! So they open up the scrapbook shop in the role model. And they would be in that shop 24-7. Erica was happy because BJ was there at 24-7. She had a Costco-sized bulk pack of Xanax waiting for her.

She was high on work every single day. She had her husband buy her side. That's all that mattered. I mean, the business was failing miserably, but why does that matter? That's all secondary to her in love story. It was actually a creepy shop. BJ would fall asleep on the floor. Now, if you've worked retail, you're like, okay, so he's behind the counter falling asleep.

Because the floor means anywhere the customer can visibly see you, but in this sense, I'm talking the actual floor. Like he would scare customers away, these innocent people just looking for flower stickers for their scrapbooks and boom, there's a body in aisle three. You're like, okay, this is terrifying, I gotta go. Erica thought it was cute. She thought she, BJ doesn't want to be out of her sight, I mean, it's so adorable. But even then, Erica's gotta to have her limits, right? Like, what if her dad wanted to hang out with BJ? Have some father and lost son in law bonding time.

Erica should be all for it, because I mean, you want the two most important men in your life to get along. So when BJ asks her, hey, can I go hunting with your dad? Yeah, he said we've been married for a year now and he still barely knows me. It'll be like a boys weekend, just me and him. Maybe another male friend of his, campfires, beers, guns, to Dostro. You know what I mean? Is that okay?

Um, no. Wait, what? Why not? It's your dad. Yeah, but I just don't want you to be away from me for that long. Maybe it's like a few days, and it's your dad. Like I'm with your dad the whole time. And as always, Erica would just go hysterical. She would scream, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, until BJ threw in the talent and okay, it's okay. Don't freak out. I won't go. Like it's fine.

Of course, Erica remembers this entire incident differently. I mean, it truly is marriage counseling at this point. We are the counselors. Erica essentially said, no, I never told him that. He just didn't want to go hunting with my dad. He threw me under the bus. He was being dramatic about spending an entire weekend with my dad, and he made it seem like I said no. I'm inclined to believe something in the middle. Because no matter how possessive Erica was, BJ still found time and ways to cheat on her. Each time, Erica would fall into a deep depression, she would turn to abusing more drugs, mixing more alcohol with Xanax. She was upset. Her sex life with BJ was non-existent, but he was out there cheating on her. Why doesn't he want to have sex with her?

They had sex maybe once a month. She would practically beg in for it. Like what does that mean? He would comfort her by saying, babe, sex is not what excites me. It's not what gets me off. If you want me to have sex with you, then fine. I will take time out of my day if that's what I have to do to make you happy. But it's not exciting. Honesty is great in a relationship, but I would cry. Like, okay, fine. Maybe he's not a super sexual person, nothing's wrong with that. But that wasn't the case here. BJ just didn't like sex with Erica because it wasn't thrilling. This guy needed wild things to excite him.

It seemed like he couldn't get a heart on without adrenaline being involved. He loved the thrill of shoplifting, drinking and smoking pot, cheating on his wife, going to strip clubs. The thrill is what made him sexually turned on. Sometimes, he would commit a theft and just start masturbating afterwards. But like any euphoric feeling, you have to up the ante to get the same baseline of bliss every single time.

So BJ would start swerving his car on purpose. Anytime he saw small animals on the road. He loved hearing that smack of the car, the small dog making impacts, the bump of the car as he ran it over. He liked it. It got him turned on. When the small animals came together to boycott his car, he was inksteed for another adrenaline rush. He would start fantasizing and making lists and he would title them 130 ways to torture someone. He would sit there with a physical list and add creative ways to do this.

He loved instigating police chases. He would drive around, pull up in front of police cars, rev his engine, take off like a little racer just skursker leaving a trail of smoke behind him. One time Erica was in the car and she was so scared he was going to crash into another car, a building, a pole. She peed herself. Yeah. Erica pees herself a lot.

We're going to get into it. He barely got a slap on the wrist. And when he finally got caught for racing cops, that just made him ball-seer. He got into the car one day, looked at Erica and said, let's go shoot assa insert super racial slur. What? Now this is Erica's story, so take it with a grain of salt.

She said, what? Come on, no one will ever know. What are you talking about? Listen, you've got to kill someone where there's no motive. That's the hardest for the police to solve. I mean, there's no real reason for the person to have been killed. Why don't we just go down to the ghetto and shoot us a insert racial slur? It'll be really fun. If this is true, VJ is horrendous. If this is false, even Erica's saying this is horrendous. Like, to even come up with this type of story, it's what are you doing?

Both of these people are just, I want to punch them. No, I want to go home, let's go home. Thankfully, they did go home. But it was just another instance of just showing both of their characters. It's something that kept coming up in their relationship allegedly. Now, here's the thing about Erica though.

She's stubborn. She's just as scary, if not scarier than BJ. She is not a victim in the sense that she's terrified, being abused, forced to stay with him, scared to leave. That's not what's happening here. Not at all. But first a funny little story on why you should never do drugs.

Oh, the couple went through a phase, where they love snorting cocaine. So they went out one night by a ton of coke. They spent a lot of money, it was in cheap. They get back to their apartment and they're setting up the line so excited. BJ was the first one to snort it up and the coke burned his nose. It made him cough. He was choking. He felt like he was dying! That ever happened before.

They realized that they were snorting Ajax. The household cleaner. What? Yeah, the one that slogan is stronger than dirt. They had been ripped off. BJ was embarrassed, which in turn made him furious. He rushes out of the house and Erica is chasing after him. Where are you going? Go into the cement store.

He bought a five-gallon giant bucket of acid, and he said I'm going to melt the drug dealers body in here after I fucking kill her. Let's test it out, shall we? BJ takes one of the rats that he used to feed their snakes, more on the snakes in a second. And the rat is alive and kicking, by the way. He puts it in the acid bath, and there was this big old smile on his face,

and he watched the rat freak out in pain, and he was enjoying it. The next day, the rat is completely gone. BJ was amazed. We don't know if BJ ever attempted to track down and harm the dealer because drug dealers, it's a very dangerous profession, and yeah, the cops are not gonna try that hard

to look for a missing drug dealer. Even if he didn't track down the drug dealer, I think it's a lot that he even went that far to buy the asset to obliterate a rat. BJ thinks, though, he'll be a very good dad. So after the whole rat debacle, he sits down Erica and says, listen, I want to have kids. Kids?

Yeah, I want you to get pregnant. What? I didn't even know you were thinking about kids. Did Erica know that he was only saying that he wanted kids out of pure boredom because he was seeking another thrill maybe. But she wasn't complaining. They start trying and Erica falls pregnant immediately. She was overjoyed.

Her parents were ecstatic. It seemed like pregnancy was just what Erica needed. She, at the time, was 5'6", and only 95 pounds. Now, with the drug set aside, people said she was eating better. She gained some pregnancy weight, she had that pregnancy glow, and for the first 3 and a half months, everything was going amazing. People even thought maybe Erica would change with becoming a mom.

So welcome to Marriage Counseling Session 3. The story split yet again. This is Erica's version. She said, I even let BJ go out with his seal buddies to hit the bars. Well, on one of those outings, BJ stumbles back home with his look on his face. And I knew that. Look, something was wrong. So I said, what, what is it? What's wrong? And he said, I don't want kids.

You thought I wanted to be a dad? You stupid whore. I don't want no kids. She said, you what? I was confused. He said, you heard me get rid of the kid. Erica started crying. She felt helpless and BJ screamed at her. Either we get it out here and now, or I'm going to dig it out of you with a coat hanger, or you can go to the clinic in the morning, your choice. The next morning, BJ forced Erica into the car, drove her to the clinic to get an abortion. She said it was one of the hardest things she'd ever done. She'd never gotten to even find out if it was a boy or a girl. Later,

Erica got a tattoo of a cross on her stomach. She said the most disturbing thing, though, was on the way home from the clinic. She put her head in BJ's lap on the drive and he was petting her head. He said, it's okay, allegedly, he said, it's okay. You pass the loyalty test. Everything is going to be okay from here on out. I'll take care of you now. You've proven your devotion to me. Now you can be my wife forever. You had to pass the test. I'm sorry I had to do this to you, but I had to see if you would. She said, but why would you do this? I never wanted a kid to begin with Erica. I just wanted to see how far you would. She said, but why would you do this? I never wanted a kid to begin with Erica. I just wanted to see how far you would go.

That's Erica's version. What about BJ's version? This one was backed up by one of BJ's Navy SEALS BUDDY's wives, okay? She was also pregnant at the time and she said that one day she gets a knock on the door. It's Erica, fellow pregnant woman. She's like, can you talk? Ah, sure, Erica, come in. Eric sits down, and she allegedly says, I just saw my therapist and I figured I could stop by since it's just around the corner. And I just wanted to let you know that we decided I should get an abortion.

Yeah, like BJ's been doing so much cocaine. I've been popping pills even when I was pregnant. It's just better this way. It probably won't even be safe for me to have the baby anyway. So I talked to my therapist and she agreed. The woman was like, oh my god, Erica, I'm so sorry to hear it, but you did the right thing, don't feel bad about it. And she said Erica seemed really sincere.

It didn't seem like BJ or anyone was forcing her to have an abortion, or even talk about it. So that's BJ's version. They're both doing drugs. The baby was probably not going to be okay. And Erica and BJ didn't want to stop doing drugs, so it was more of a mutual decision. Now, at the end of the day, I guess the only people that know what really happened are BJ and Erica. I honestly have no idea what to think, they're both a bit wild.

But Erica might be a little bit more wild. Let's talk about her strange quirks and fetishes. First, we know that she loves anything hooters. She loved jewelry as well. Now, that one's not quirky, but she liked to display all of her jewelry in her parents' house in the living room, in glass cases. Friends that came over said it looked like a jewelry store. It was weird.

Just bizarre. Like, who's living room is like that, you know? Erica always kept her favorite jewelry on her on all times. Like, she didn't wear it. That's the weird thing. Like, if you were like, oh, I always wear my favorite droolion on her on all times. Like she didn't wear it, that's the weird thing. Like if you were like, oh, I always wear my favorite droolary pieces, fine, but she would keep them in her coach purse. Everywhere she went, some friends said it felt like

she kept it on her because she relished in the fact that that she had it and others didn't. She was gloating over it almost. Like she got off on the fact that she had it and nobody else could get it. It's like the Lord of the Ring. Yes. My precious.

Yes, but she's not even wearing it. It's weird, right? Like, she always cared around a $15,000 yellow diamond. Yeah, just in her bag floating around. That's so dangerous. But now that she's getting older, she had moved out of her parents house. They weren't buying her as much jewelry. so the couple resorted to burglary, hooters,

retail stores. They would go on eBay and start selling the stolen items. Erica said at one point they were making like $4,000 a week, just selling stolen items, and she was loving every second of it. But then the thrill of that would wear off. They started breaking into homes and ATMs for fun. Remember BJ is an expert lock picker? One time they broke into this random guy's house and started taking pictures of the rooms

inside for no reason at all. Or at least no reason that we know of, which is even creepier. Erica even sat down on the toilet in the bathroom to get a little selfie. The owner came back home, pulled a gun on them and was like, ah, hey, it's my house. So with the gun pointed at the couple, BJ and Erica looked at each other and like, babe, I'm not a get-in wrong house. Oh man, we thought this was our house. I told you to make sure it's our house next time and they just walked out. They just walked out like they did nothing wrong. What in the world? Yeah. When that didn't even sound fun,

Erica always had her Xanax and BJ had his alcohol. They truly thought of themselves as Bonnie and Clyde. So we have to talk about their snakes. Not the cute little snakes, not the garden snakes. They had two pythons named Bonnie and Clyde. They also had a small alligator named Alabama and a cobra named Hitler. Hitler was their idol. No. Yes, so they were both openly racist. BJ even had a large swastika tattoo covering his entire left boob, which we already hate BJ, but what kind of tattoo artists agrees to do something like that?

I don't understand. Anyway, what a freaking couple. Erica later complained that throughout all of this, BJ was super mean to her. He was mentally and physically abusive. He would use her insecurities and disorders against her. So for example, whenever they left the house for work, he would freak out and say,

are you sure you locked the doors? I think the doors might be unlocked. Because he knew that Erica was very anxious. You know how I'm so anxious about stuff like that? So are you sure she's okay? We'll turn the car around no Did you turn the oven off this morning? I used it you didn't turn it off did you I used it She'd like wait turn the car around. I just need to go home. I can't so Erica would have these full blown panic attacks nearly every single morning She would call her dad to go drive by the apartment, check the locks, check the oven. I mean, he was so sick of her, he would lie every morning that he checked it, but he

really didn't. When the panic of that wore off, BJ started targeting Erica's looks. She seemed to have a disordered relationship with her body, and he would make comments on how much she weighed and what she wore. No, she's frail. Like the level of thinness she's at is potentially not the healthiest. Is what a lot of people were implying that actually knew her.

I'm not trying to say like she's unhealthy, but you get it. Sometimes they would go out to eat and Erica would be starving. She would be looking at the menu and BJ would not allow her to eat because she was, and I quote, a fat ass and overweight. So I know that took a while, but now we get the gist of their relationship. So let's talk about their homicidal vacation. May 25th, 2002. The couple packed up their Jeep, brought one of their pythons, not two, just one, I don't know why, to go with them to Ocean City, Maryland. It's like

the Vegas of Maryland, but not really the Vegas, because it's pretty damn compared to Vegas. But it's like their party city. It's near the ocean, it's nice. They really needed this. I mean, they had been working seven days a week at the store. And then every single night, they had to go out and shop lift, you know? So they could resell it on eBay.

They had to. It was exhausting, all that stealing, all that free money. And they were tired. They felt that this Ocean City trip would be good for them in their mental state. They could shop lift their too. A change of scenery, that's good for mental health. So they made their way over to Rainbow Condominiums. And this is a super upskill ocean front building at the time.

The couple rented the top floor penthouse, which was two stories overlooking the ocean. It was beautiful. But they were staying for free. So Mitch was friends with the owner. Mitch's company did a lot of construction for the place and whenever Erica and BJ needed a place to stay, Daddy would call up, and that's all he had to do to get them the penthouse. Erica knew that their vacation was off to a great start when BJ even helped haul their luggage upstairs. Apparently BJ never lifted a finger, ever around the house.

Not when they were traveling, he would walk into the hotel room carrying nothing while he left Erica to do all the heavy lifting. If this is true, it's even more messed up by the fact that BJ is ex-Navy Seale, probably well-built guy, and Erica is very thin and frail due to her pillidiction. So to get into their suite,

an Erica starts immediately snorting Xanax. BJ starts a downing beer. And after a minute, Erica says, beige, she calls him beige. Beige, I want to go to hooters. And BJ was feeling good. They were getting along. Why the hell not? He drives them to the closest hooters.

And Erica keeps asking around, trying to pay money for some tank tops. And when that doesn't work, she asks the waitresses, where can a girl go around here for a good time? And the waitress thought about it and said, um, probably secrets is the best. Ooh, sounds mysterious. So they go back to the rainbow, refill with more Xanax, leave to go on a bus because they were going to get super drunk, they don't want to drive. They get on to the bus, the driver looks them up and down. They're swaying. They're that intoxicated.

Exact change. BJ's starting. Sir, I just have this $5 bill. Sir. Sorry, exact change only. So BJ looks around the bus. Everyone's going to secrets. Like this is a party town. Does anybody have changed for a five? Most people on the bus are avoiding eye contact. I mean this this couple look too drunk, they looked like a hassle, right? But the couple near the front, I guess they felt bad. It was Joshua Ford and his girlfriend, Jeanie Crutchley. They said, are you guys going to secrets? Yeah, we are.

Oh, yeah, you guys sit down, I'll get it. Any hands, the bus driver, exact change for the fare. This guy named Joshua. BJ is feeling thankful and he's like, wow, thanks. I'll buy you guys drinks when we get to the bar. So the two couples, they sit next to each other and introduce themselves. Now here's what we know about the other couple.

Joshua Ford was a 32-year-old mortgage broker. He had a black belt in karate and a sauce spot for people in need. He was ex-army, a veteran, an honorably discharged, I believe. He loved volunteering. He worked closely with the Salvation Army, he worked with youth programs, he coached kids in karate classes, and at a fateful Christmas party, Joshua runs into Jeannie. And Jeannie is this established insurance executive, she was 48, Joshua was 29 at the time that they met,

and even with this 19 year age gap, nothing stopped them from falling in love. They move in together, and Jeannie was just full of life. Joshua was really attracted to that. Jeannie worked hard, but on the weekends she partied hard. Jeannie was not the type of woman that was in a rush to act her age. She was the true definition of, you're only as old as you feel. She didn't want to tie herself down, neither of them were in a rush to get married, they were just in love

and enjoying each other's company. They did have their struggles though. In October 2001, Joshua's brother Mark Ford got a call, that his 23 year old daughter Kelly was missing. So this is Joshua's niece. Later, her headless body was found in a shallow grife near Cape Cod. Oh my gosh. Her heart had been cut out. The police suspected that it was the work of a serial killer, but they had no suspects. Unfortunately, that wouldn't be the only time someone close to Mark Ford was brutally murdered. Because only a few months later, may of 2002, Josh and Jeannie would find themselves Labor Day weekend at Ocean City trying to have fun. So now the four

they're in line trying to get into secrets with this new couple that they just met and it's gonna be another hour until they get it. Erica was irritated. She did not like waiting. She didn't like that her high was wearing off. So what does she do? She grabs another random guy standing in line. Let's call him Matt. She's like, hey, Matt, come over with me. She drags him in between parked cars so that she could snort Xanax off his leg or something. She rushes off with this random guy in front of her husband,

and so the new friends, Joshua and Jeannie, and even a stranger leaned over to BJ and said, it doesn't bother you that your wife just walked off with another guy like that. He just said, I like her to do what she wants, and it doesn't bother me. So this is another indication that some people believe that maybe Erica was the one in charge. She later really works hard on having this narrative of, oh, I was so terrified of this ex-Navy seal.

I mean, of course, he's so much bigger than me. But it seems like mentally she was in control of the two. Erica would later say, well, BJ cheated on me so I can do whatever the hell I want and he can't get mad. That doesn't really sound like something someone that's terrified of someone in an abusive relationship would say.

So Erica hops back into line and starts hitting on a stranger in line. The woman that was with Matt. Again, all in front of BJ and her new friends. Erica's begging her to go to the bathroom like to do stuff. She declined. Side note, Erica had hoaxed up with women before.

She had a few three sums of BJ and other women. The deal was though that BJ could touch Erica, the two girls could touch each other, but BJ could not touch the other woman. So no fun in the bathroom. Erica would just have to wait in the club line like everybody else. Lonely and horny. When they get in, Erica's on a mission to be the messiest girl in the club. I mean, just knocking back drink after drink.

She's starting to black out. It's not even midnight yet. She starts bragging loudly how she got a gun pass security who were waving metal detector ones at everyone that entered. She would say, do you want to see it? And she would show them her butt crack and sure enough, there's a gun just hanging out in her pants. Jeannie overheard and she was like, huh, you smuggled a what?

My gun! Don't worry, we have another one in the penthouse whoy run said. But like don't worry, our snake Hitler is watching it. What? Hitler? So, she would apologize for the name of her snake, like that was like her whole routine. And Jeannie is still concerned Sure, she liked a party, but she's 51. She's mature responsible. She knew her limits

This is a young reckless couple that she's dealing with who like drugs, booze, guns and apparently hiller Why do you guys even need guns ocean city's pretty safe and Erica being the pick me she says oh? It was a gift from BJ. I'm around him and his Navy SEAL buddies so often the weapons they don't even scare me. Like with me, it's like, it's like if I sat around 10 SEALs drinking in some bar, they all have weapons and then there's 10 pistols

laying on the table and that's just the way it is, you know? Like I just got used to weapons. Okay, wow. Jeannie told Joshua she wasn't comfortable, but he ate, he eased her anxiety. Like it's okay, don't worry about them, they're just talking shit. Jeannie, like you know, they're young, they're just trying to be tough. Navy SEALs, all they do is talk shit. They won't actually do anything, come on, I was in the army, you know. Now, near the end of the night, Erica drags Joshua into the bathroom, spends about 20 minutes

with him, and it's alleged that Erica would make sexual promises to men and bars. She would say things like, hey, come over, we can continue the party at our penthouse. One time she straight up told a man, come to our condo after and I'll let you fuck me in the ass. I like it and my husband likes to watch. Some people have this theory that again, this proves Erica was one in charge. Again, BJ sucks too, don't worry, we're not excusing him, but it just seems weird. Other people think that this was Erica's way of trying to get BJ's attention.

She said that the only way he was interested in touching me was when there was excitement or other people involved. Jeannie was freaked out by them, but throughout the night, Erica just seemed to be this very lost and confused drunk person. And come on, the rainbow penthouse, hot tubs, drugs, I mean, when will they ever experience that type of opulence ever again? So why not? The couple decide to head on over to Rainbow. But first, can we stop by our place and pick up our weed?

We have really good weed, and we need to get our bathing suits in order to get into the hot tub at the Rainbow. So they get off the bus at Jeannie and Josh's stop, all four of them. And then once they pack up their weed, they start walking to the rainbow on the beach, which is only a few blocks away. At this point, it's like 2.30 in the morning. They get to the penthouse. Jeannie and Josh, they're overwhelmed. I mean, it's beautiful, it's spacious, two floors, everything's refined, glamorously decorated, beautiful! They all sit down and start working on getting high. Erica doesn't like weed, so she takes her Xanax.

Now, this is how Erica describes the rest of her night. This is her version of events. It's stranger than fiction because it just might be fiction. It might be fake. So please take everything with 5,490 pounds of salt, she is not the most reliable or truthful person out here at all by any means. She says, as the night progresses, everyone's doing their own thing, Jeanne's in the bathroom changing, Josh was taking a tour of the place, BJ's lounging near the balcony, and Erica starts feeling a prickle of anxiety. She starts looking around the room, her breathing is accelerating, and she was certain.

She's looking around my purse. My purse is gone. I put my coach purse into my brown hooters bag, and I'd always keep it in the same place in the condo, but now it's gone. Where the hell is it? Side note, it's like 3 a.m. in Erica's very high. She's in this panic, stricken, drug-induced, alcohol-soaked mind. She believed in that moment.

Someone had taken it. Her hooters bag with her wallet, her jewelry, everything inside. She's thinking to herself, what the hell, where's my shit, what the hell is going on? She starts panicking, looking around the first floor of the condo. She has not mentioned anything to anyone yet. Not even a, hey, have you guys seen my bag? Nothing. Just frantically searching by herself.

She looked under the couch cushions in the master bedroom, she was full on panicking, everything she had of value she kept in that bag. Her favorite jewelry, her wallet with her credit cards, her cash, 200 pills of Xanax, her $15,000 yellow diamond, everything. She starts freaking out she feels this anxiety attack coming, her pulse is racing, and all she's thinking is wait! A freaking minute. Are Josh and Jeannie robbing us?

She says her train of thought was to call 911. They're trying to scam us, they're stealing my things. I mean, I showed Jeannie my coach bag earlier, which means she knows that I have this purse with expensive drugs inside, with expensive things inside, and these people smoke weed. Of course, they're gonna like other drugs. Of course, they're gonna want 200 pills of Xanax that I brought on this trip. They're stealing from us.

She didn't even consider telling her husband, a-us-x-nav-e-seal. He could have likely taken on Josh and Jeannie. Like, I'm not saying physically, tackle them, but at least sit them down and say, hey, where's our stuff, you know? She also didn't think to confront Jeannie or Josh herself. She just called the cops, because her drugs were missing.

So she dials 911, which like, her story makes zero sense. We know that these 911 calls happened, but we don't know the truth of what happened other than the actual forensics. Do we have, we don't know what she said? Oh, we do. So if she's trying to be sneaky, this is the dumbest thing ever.

The condo is not big. Yeah, it's two floors, but have you ever been in a hotel? You can hear the neighbors. It's, I think it's less soundproof than apartment buildings typically. The walls are not soundproof. She can hear them downstairs. They can hear her upstairs.

It's not like the biggest thing in the world. So she calls 911 at 301 AM. Hello, Ocean City Police. Hello? Eric is not whispering, by the way. In fact, she's talking pretty loudly. So this is again, you're not trying to be in stealth mode. Oh my god, these people are robbing us.

Yes? Wait, I think someone's on the line listening. Can I have a direct line that I can call back at? Sure. The dispatch gives her the number, but has to repeat it slowly like 9,000 times because Erica is just not getting it It sounds like the dispatch is talking to a little child honestly Naira cuz said after this call she heard someone coming up the stairs so she hit

She was scared this part of the story doesn't make sense because what your husband is an ex Navy seal a very big guy Literally trained to handle and subdue people you have a loaded gun in your butt crack But your terrified so you hit. But listen, anxiety makes you do crazy things. So I don't know if it's the drugs, but it's just another weird part to our already weird version of events. So she says she hit, then she came back out and called 911 a second time. Later detectives believe that by the second time Erica called 911, two people were already

dead in the condo with their bodies in the bathtub to be dismembered. Erica was too calm while talking to dispatch. She said, I have an emergency in my apartment. She wasn't whispering, which she should have been if she had been hiding just a second ago. She also strangely said, there's people in my house that I don't know. My purse is suddenly missing and I think I'm gonna have a robbery here. Which is such an odd statement. I mean, who says that?

I think I'm going to have a robbery here. I feel like if it were me and I truly believed I was being robbed, I would be in a very hutch tone begging them to come. Please, I don't know what they're gonna do. I don't know if this is the end. I don't know if they're just gonna leave with the stuff. Please, can you just come before they leave? Please, please send someone fast like they're still here.

Instead, she just rambled and dragged her words spoke loudly and calmly. So they asked her, okay, so there's people in your apartment right now. Yes. Okay, I'm gonna connect you to the police, stay on the line. Hey, what? I'm upstairs inside a bedroom where they don't know

where I am though. Another odd statement. I mean, they know where you are. Let's be real. Like, they know that you're there. They might not know that you're in hiding, but they know you're in the room. You're not downstairs.

It's not like it's multiple rooms. Eric can never mention that our husband was still with the dangerous, very scary intruders either. I mean, it was just weird. OK, let me connect you with the police. The police get on the line and she says, hi, there's Pete. The line goes dead

as if someone hung up. Erica claims in that moment Josh came upstairs to ask her, hey, what's wrong? I've seen you. Nothing. Oh, who are you talking to? Erica said Josh was being so sweet, almost like he knew that I knew what was going on. He was trying to smooth me over by coming on to me. She claims, and it's hard to believe her, that he came over, put his hands around her waist and started kissing her neck, asking her what's wrong. We're all having a good time here, what's the matter, Erica? And she said, my shit is missing, where's my stuff?

What are you talking about? Look, my stuff is gone, my purse is not where I put it, it was moved, and everything of value is out of it, and my hooter's bag is gone. And Erica's screaming, she was moved, and everything of value is out of it, and my hooters bag is gone. And they are cascading, she was angry, she was causing a scene. I mean, okay, emotions are weird, but if I was just hiding a second ago and calling the police, and I think Josh and Jeannie

are scary and dangerous and robbing me, I would definitely not be getting heated. I'm just saying, so this whole story is bizarre, but she's also on drugs, so what do I know? Josh was confused, and he just kept saying, what are you saying? And he starts backing up from her at this point because honestly, she's the scary one.

And Erica starts calling, beige, beige, beige, come here! So BJ and Jeannie hear her from downstairs, say freak out, run up the stairs, and BJ's looking around eyes wide, frantic, what's wrong, what's wrong, what's going on, what the fuck is going on? Beige, my shit is missing.

And she said it like a girl telling her daddy about something she was mad about. Beach, all of our stuff is missing. Where's your gun? You know where I keep my gun. B.J. is referring to the fact that he also always kept it in his pants. He had been carrying it all night. And she said, no, Beach, tell me where your gun is. At this point, I imagine Josh and G need to be freaked out because the way she's asking

it sounds like she's playing a game. Leading him on to say something because immediately after BJ goes, oh, my gun is not where I put it, where's my gun? Do you take my gun? Did they take my gun? I mean, the gun is in his pants. It seems like they were just playing a game. BJ turned around, got straight up in Josh's face

like a drill sergeant like nose to nose. Where's our shit? Did you fucking take our shit? Erica's in the back screaming. Everything is gone, Beach. Our pills, our cash, our Julie. Everything's gone. Now, this is where Erica's story gets really unbelievable. She claims that she's saying these things, but at the same time, she was scared that B.J.

was getting angry and he was going to snap. Well, you're escalating the situation, Erica. You're hyping him up. You're egging him on. What are you even saying? She said she saw in B.J.'s eyes that he was going to snap and it made her so scared. Meanwhile, she's on this side. All the cash is gone, B.J. for Nito.

What are we going to say? They saw all our cash. Like, which one is it? I'm so scared. All the cash is gone, B. Chifanito. What are we gonna say? They stole all our cash. Like, which one is it? I'm so scared, he's only gonna get angry or? That's what she said. So B.J. is screaming. Give me your gun, Erica.

And she said, what? I don't think that's necessary. I said, give me your gun. Erica said she was scared of what would happen if she gave him her gun. So he reached for her to himself and started pointing at Josh and Jeannie waving it around. After thinking about it for a moment, he barked orders at them. Take off your clothes. They're like, what? Come on, please. I said,

f***ing take off your clothes. Josh and Jeannie are scared for their lives and they did as they were told. When they were naked, BJ asked them, do you want to die? Erica said, I had no idea BJ would flip out like this. I just knew that he was going to kill them. It was like this looking his eyes. OK. So instead of trying to call 911 again for the third time of the night or running out

or even trying to calm down your husband, you just watched it happen. In fact, you instigated it. So Erica said she kicked around Josh and Genie's clothes in hopes her jewelry would magically fall out of the pockets and the situation would be resolved. But both of them were wearing bathing suits. So that how they were hiding massive amounts of cash, 200 pills of Xanax, her coach purse

inside bathing suits, doesn't make any sense, but nothing came out. It's not here, Beach. Beach was even angrier now. He screamed, you son of a bitch. Jeanne ran up to Erica. And trying to talk to her woman to woman, she said, we didn't take your stuff Erica, we would never do that. You have to believe me, we've been good to you all night.

We paid your bus fare, we were having fun, we would never do that to you. You can check all of our stuff, we would never do that to you. Erica said nothing. She had her eyes on BJ the whole time. And he was thinking, she could and he was thinking. She could tell he was thinking. And after what felt like eternity, BJ waved his gun and told Josh and Jeannie, get in the bathroom. Go! Now, Josh and Jeannie were walking in front of the couple. So they thought this was their chance. They ran into the bathroom, closed the

door, locked it behind them so that BJ could not run in. And just for visualization purposes, the bathroom is pretty big, the hot tub is in the bathroom, so it's not like a small powder room. Now, according to Erica's version of events, once that bathroom door clicked shut, she heard the lock, she ran downstairs. She thought, I just need to look for my stuff. Her main goal was to find her stuff and hopefully it was just misplaced. And she could bring it up and show BJ, hey look, babe, it's okay, don't do anything crazy. Look, I found my stuff, it was just all a big misunderstanding.

But that's not at all what happened. She said in that moment when she went downstairs. She fancically turned over couch cushions, looking in drawers under tables, under couches. She heard, boom, boom, gunshots. She knew the sound, it came from her gun. She stopped to listen, boom, boom. She could hear screaming. She ran upstairs. And this is the start of how BJ and Erica ended up with two headless bodies in their bathtub and being accused of necrophilia and cannibalism. There was words circulating about a picture of BJ holding up two

decapitated heads and extras face smiling and we will get all into that in part two that will be out Sunday for the mini-sode. I try not to do these two part episodes. I think though this one was really emotionally exhausting in general. And I also didn't want to cram in so much information into one episode that it almost desensitized the gravity of the crime because that's the last thing I want for people to feel tired and exhausted. So stay tuned for Sunday's episode because these two are some of the most despicable people. And the fact that one of them was a US Navy SEAL, the other one was this privileged girl

girl, like you would look at her in high school and think that she's this normal person. And the fact is, they almost could have gotten away with it. So stay tuned for Sunday's episode and I will see you guys then. Stay safe. Bye.