Rotten Mango - #158: The Headless Bodies In The Bathtub (Killer Couple Erika & BJ Sifrit Part 2)

Episode Date: April 24, 2022

The couple’s vacation in Ocean City was supposed to help them fall in love again. Marriage is tough - they lost that spark. They were even staying in the penthouse of a beautiful oceanfront hotel. The penthouse bathroom had a hot tub that they were certain was going to help ignite their romance again. But the night ended with two headless bodies in the tub. They were dismembered. And honestly, it was exactly what the couple felt they needed. They were in love again. 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

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Welcome to this week's mini-sode of Rotten Mango. I'm your host, Stephanie Sue, and welcome to part 2 of Erica and Benjamin Sifrit, the Hooters Killers couple. Just to give you a quick refresher, in part 1 we talked about Erica and Benjamin Sifrit, the Hooters Killers couple. Just to give you a quick refresher, in part one we talked about Erica and Benjamin. Erica is daddy's little girl. She's got severe problems with her insecurities, possessiveness, drug abuse, anxiety disorders, OCD, as well as this intense need to want to control her husband.

BJ, her husband, is indeed very hard to control. He is an ex-naviesel that got kicked out essentially for trying to injure his fellow comrades, like he tried to run them over with his car. He also can't get an erection unless he's thrill-seeking. He will literally rob a hooters and then masturbate right after because that's the only thing that gets him off. The couple rarely have sex, because BJ's just not that into it. So the two of them they get married, within three weeks of knowing each other, which is kind of crazy if you ask me.

And boom, they have two pet snakes named Bonnie and Clyde. They've got a cobra named Hitler after their role model, so you really know where this episode's going. They're racist. They're unpredictable. They're angry. And it's hard to understand who's the one in charge. Erica is unreliable and she's wanting everyone to believe that she's just this small little

girl bullied by her ex-naviceal husband. But, I want to say more clues point to the fact that she might be the one in charge. Like, she might be the one calling the shots. Whatever the case, both of them are incredibly dangerous, sadistic, and homicidal. So now the couple, they're on vacation in Ocean City, Maryland. They're abusing drugs, getting drunk. They meet this really nice couple in the bar, named Joshua and Jeannie. Josh and Jeannie actually paid for Erica and BJ's bus fare because they didn't have

it. And BJ and Erica, they thank them by inviting them over to their penthouse suite in the rainbow condos, and promptly accuse them of stealing Erica's purse. Along with 200 pills of Xanax of $15,000 yellow diamond, among stother things, which I mean this doesn't make sense at all. Because this couple, Josh and Jeannie, they have been nice to them all night long. They're not the type, but more importantly, Josh and Jeannie, they have been nice to them all night long, they're not the type, but more importantly, Josh and Jeannie's stuff was searched and Erica's purse, which is a pretty big bag, was nowhere near on them.

I mean, BJ even made the couple strip down naked to prove that they stole it, but they couldn't find Erica's things. It's pretty clear to every single person in that room, even at the time that this is happening, that Josh and Jeannie did not take Erica's purse. So regardless, BJ takes Erica's gun. Order the couple to get naked. And then has them run into the bathroom. Josh and Jeannie managed to run in there and slam the door shut and lock the bathroom door,

preventing BJ and Erica from entering. BJ's on the other side of this bathroom door trying to cajole them into coming out. He's like, come out, it's okay, let's talk about it. I'll put the gun away. Erica runs downstairs. She said that she was freaking out, allegedly. And if you guys remember part one, Erica is not the most trustworthy person. So it's, I don't even trust her with her own emotions.

She said she was freaking out allegedly and is trying to find her purse so that BJ can calm the fork down. She said she knew that something bad was gonna happen because she could see it in his eyes, which to me is confusing because she's the one that instigated the whole thing. Remember she's like BJ, my purse has gone, my stuff has gone, what are we gonna do? All my cash has gone, my pills! And he got so riled up, he whipped out her gun. But as she's downstairs, she's suddenly claiming, or I'm so panicked, I need to de-escalate the situation, I need to be the freaking peacemaker or something. And while she's searching for her purse,

she hears boom, boom. She knew what the sounds were. I mean, there were gunshots. So she runs back upstairs and welcome to version one of Erica's story. This is the first time she tells it. She said she runs upstairs screaming at BJ. No, no, no, what the fuck did you just do? And BJ's trying to kick the door open, shooting through it, trying to kill Josh and Jeannie.

And she claims BJ was aroused by the fact that Josh and Jeannie were in their begging for their lives. Something about their screams were turning on her husband. I mean, they're pleased they're begging for survival with something that BJ was just so into he couldn't get enough of it. Now it's said at this point, Josh and Jeannie managed to open the bathroom window and they're screaming, help us, help us out the window. It's 3 a.m. nobody's listening.

They're just trying to get somebody's attention. BJ seemed like he almost wanted Erica's approval before he did something, or maybe he wanted the decision to be theirs. Do you know what I mean? You're committing a crime. You don't wanna be the only one so you're kind of roping everyone in.

You're like, no, Stephanie, I don't know what you mean. I don't commit crimes. You're roping everyone in. You're like, we should do this, don't know what you mean. I don't commit crimes. You're roping everyone in. You're like, we should do this, right? Like, I don't want to be the only one that makes this decision. So maybe it's that, or maybe she's someone pulling the strings. It's hard to say, because he leans on the door

and allegedly he says, hey, I'm just going to fucking waste them. Is that okay? So I don't know if you guys play like Grand Theft Auto, but I think waste them. It's just a really weird way of saying kill them. I see. Like a really disgusting... And I'm not saying video games are linked to violence, but I'm just saying that's the only place I really heard it.

So he's like, I'm just gonna fucking Wastem, is that okay? Is that okay with you? To which Erica, this two seconds ago, she was screaming downstairs because I need to find my person, I need to be the peacemaker. Two seconds ago She looks at him and responds Just fucking do it She was nonchalant She said you got them fucking naked, you put a gun to their heads, just fucking do it then

Get it over with And that's her story? Yeah! Yeah! What? So it's implying that they're already in trouble anyway, I mean, what? Obviously, neither of them make sense, but this is just... Obviously, you deserve prison time for what you've done so far.

But no, that doesn't mean you might as well. Might as well commit a double homicide? That's not what that means. Erica at this point had already called 911 according to their timelines, which a quick refresher from part one. She made a series of bizarre phone calls to 911 where she said, hey, I think a robber is gonna happen.

But she's, she's claimed she's scared. She claimed she's hiding, but she's not whispering. She actually doesn't sound scared at all. She seems calm and not that bothered. So they've already called the police. The couple believe the cops are already on their way. Why not just kill them, finish the job, get it over with. The police are already gonna their way. Why not just kill them? Finish the job, get it over with.

The police are already gonna be mad at us. It's these little details that make everyone believe that Erica was actually the dominant one in the relationship. I mean, this is all speculation, but it feels like to a lot of people, she's quietly pulling the strengths, no? And she's pushing BJ to give the reaction that she's looking for. But later, she's gonna describe describe every single situation as if BJ is the dominant one and he's abusing her and basing her around. Ooh, ex Navy SEAL. So real quick on why Erica's version of events don't make any sense.

Erica's fingerprints were found on the outer glass of the bathroom window. We what? Yeah, so the window could be accessed from the balcony. The balcony ends before the bathroom window, so you can't climb out onto the balcony, does that make sense? So imagine the balcony, and right next to it is the bathroom window, but the balcony does not extend under the bathroom window.

So she can lean over the balcony railing and start looking through the bathroom window. And her fingerprints were found on the outer glass of that bathroom window. That means what she's leaning over to the handrail to peek through the window. Why would she do that? To see if they're dead. Or the police theory was that Erica's outside peeping through the bathroom window, telling BJ where to shoot through the door. So the bathroom is pretty big.

It's not a powder room. It's not just like a straight linear section. It's got a hot tub in there. It's like a double vanity. It's a relatively big bathroom. So you're gonna need some guidance if you're just shooting blindly through the door. Oh my gosh.

So BJ's just shooting through the door, trying to hit Josh and Jeannie. Erica is most likely looking through the window, guiding him. I mean, that's what the police think. But then, cue the record scratch. Forget everything we just talked about, because Erica has a new story to tell. Welcome to version two.

In version two, everything is a bit different because Erica claims BJ has been waiting for this moment. Oh yeah, he's been talking about wanting to kill someone for a while now. I mean, just two weeks before their vacation, BJ came out to me and he said, Hey, babe, random question. Can I kill your entire family? And Erica obviously was like, let me think about it. No, I don't know what she said.

I'm hoping she said no, but I won't put anything past her. BJ allegedly told her he wanted to kill her parents, her grandparents, and her wealthy aunt. Then, Erica would inherit all their wealth. She had no cousins, no siblings, all their money would be hers. BJ and Erica would fly to Argentina to be with each other again, and they'd be filthy rich. Obviously that didn't happen, and now here they are standing outside the bathroom door

with Josh and Jeannie on the other side. Now here's the thing. BJ could have easily kicked the door down. I mean, how many times did I say X Navy SEAL? And you can't even kick down an interior door? That makes no sense. According to Erica, he didn't want to. He wanted to prolong the joy. He was playing a game. He was living this thrill. He could hear Josh banging

from the other side. Why are you doing this? He was screaming. And BJ got up close. Put his ear near the door. Listen. Leand back and fired the gun where he assumed Josh was. And then he immediately backed away, and with all his might he kicked the door open with so much force that BJ himself fell back, the door flung open and the handle broke off like it literally was broken off the frickin' frames the bolts. Jeannie was in there screaming and Josh was quiet.

He had been shot. Through the door, so BJ walks in, points the gun at Josh's head and says, now are you gonna tell me where our shit is? Josh, like I said, is this, you know, he has a black belt in karate, he's this ex-army guy. He's honestly a really nice person in his free time. He just, he counsels kids, like he teaches kids karate. And now he's, he's got a gun of death.

Like he's not a thief. What are you even saying? And he's in all this pain. He's rapidly losing blood. And at first he can't even answer. But soon he mustered his enough strength to say, I was in the army. You're in the Navy, man.

Why are you doing this? Why are you doing this to us? Erica said BJ squatted down, got directly in front of Josh's face, like a drill sergeant, and said, see later mother fucker and shot him. Josh slumped over and he was dead. If you're not already angry and emotional from this, Erica would later say, and this is going to piss you off because I, the the rage is gonna boil in your body. She said, I felt sad that Josh was dead

because he was cute. I was sort of hoping something did happen at Secret's that night in the bathroom. I wonder if Josh was Jewish because BJ doesn't like insert aggressive racial slur or Jewish people, but she said it more derogatory or people with diseases. He believes every single slur that offends everyone across the globe and people with cancer are polluting the gene pool. But I guess in the moment Erica felt something about the murders because she claimed she peed her pants and left the room.

She didn't want to witness the rest of what was going to happen. She kept referring to it as the killings. BJ walks out of the bathroom, flexed his muscles like a bodybuilder, yelling and laughing. And so Erica was looking at this and she said he's covered in blood, he looked like it was on purpose, like he grabbed blood with his hand and just smeared it all over his body. It wasn't from the splatter of the gunshot. It seemed like he did it. At this point, Jeannie still alive in the bathroom. So BJ runs back in excitedly is how Erica describes it, almost skipping, almost hopping in there. And he says, Hey, Erica, come in here, come in here. She said she didn't want to go, but she had to. So

she reluctantly pakes inside the bathroom. she sees Josh has blood coming out of his mouth It was almost like this gurgling of blood and she claims she was in shock She runs back out and she's like I can't do this and BJ runs out after her grabs her arm Looks down and he notices that she wet her pants And she says well, he made fun of me. He said you fucking pussy, you pissed your pants. Oh my god. You little bitch. Meanwhile, Jeanie is now curled up in a fetal position under the bathroom counter. I mean, Josh's body is in front of her almost as a shield. She's naked. She's whimpering. She's crying. She's scared for her life. BJ walks over in full view of Erica and fires a bullet. But he misses.

in full view of Erica and fires a bullet, but he misses. So this is weird. Keep in mind, BJ is a qualified expert marksman with high ranking in the military for shooting. Even amongst his Navy SEALs, he was known as exceptional for his ability to shoot. So now he's standing point blank range and misses. I think even someone who really doesn't know what they were doing with the gun

would have would have would have a really hard time missing a shot like that. And I'm not saying, oh, he missed this spot where he wanted to shoot Jeannie. He missed her completely like that's weird. So there's two guesses, right? Is the first one is he's mentally torching her. He wants her to feel the anxiety, feel the pure panic, the terror that would, I can't even imagine, right?

The second guess is maybe he wasn't the one that shot, I can't even imagine, right? The second guess is, maybe he wasn't the one that shot. Maybe he was Erica. And because this is her version of events. She's not the one shooting. Okay, you know, fascinating. So it's either one and I think both are horrendous. So Erica says he fires again, holds the gun up to Genie's left shoulder and shoots down at her. There was blood everywhere. On the floor, all over the couple's bodies, the blinds were splattered with blood, the walls, the hot tub, everything had blood. Here's an odd thing to note though.

The police later said that none of this made sense. There were zero traces of blood or even bleach on the carpets outside of the bathroom. I mean, think about it, if there's that much blood, you would think some of it would transfer to the adjacent bedroom because the minute that you step out of that bathroom, it's carpeting in the bedroom. Especially if you allegedly have Erica running in and out, BJ chasing her, making fun of her,

wetting herself, I mean, my best guess is neither of them ever left the bathroom. So now Erica claims the bathroom is a blood bath. The entire thing is filled with blood. So here are some key differences in version one. Version one Erica says, she felt like she was losing her mind. She said, I walked away, but I'm pretty certain, somewhere at some time, at some point,

BJ slit Jeanie's throat. But then in version two, Erica's like, well, he told me. He told me straight up, baby, open your knife like I taught you. Get down there and check to see if she's dead. I need to make sure she's dead, so get down there and make sure. Erica said she did as she was told. She opened up her knife, got down on one knee, and began cutting Jeannie deep. Is how she put it.

She said she cut Jeannie on the right side of her abdomen above her hip. And Jeannie started bleeding so profusely that the blood got all over Erica's clothes, but she kept going. Interestingly enough, even as Erica is describing version two, this graphic, bloody, brutal scene of her cutting into another woman for no reason at all, she showed zero emotion to the police. None. She never said, oh my god, I had to do it.

I was forced to, he made me do it. She never said it was the worst thing I ever felt so bad, but I was terrified for my own life. She just was emotionally telling it. She also ended it with, well, I thought she was dead because she didn't move when I cut her. I mean, that's so strange. If somebody asked me to check someone is dead, I don't think I would check by cutting

into them. So she cuts into this other human being, she gets up and she's still worried about the damn freaking purse. I am sick of this. I am so sick of her. I'm so sick of her, freaking purse. She's like, oh my god, where's my stuff? What do I do?

BJ allegedly looked at her and calmly said, with a little slice smile. Look under the bed. Huh? Erica rushes out, seemingly not leaving another drop of blood on the carpet outside, lifts up the blanket, hanging over the edge of the bed, and there it was, staring back at her, her missing purse. This is what Erica claims. She thinks BJ hid her stuff under the bed to mess with her, to insinuate that he probably

did this so that the two of them could be so upset with Jeanne and Josh and try to kill them. Which I don't know. To me it's like if hiding your purse makes you kill someone, that's a personal problem. That is not a purse problem. That's a U-problem. But let's say that made sense. The rest of it doesn't make sense because the police investigated and you know how much

space there was between the floor and the bed is half an inch. Half an inch of space. Half an inch. I mean, to the police, to a lot of people, it just seemed like Eric is making up whatever things come to mind to throw as much blame on to BJS possible. So it's, they're saying it's almost impossible to hide it. Yeah, it's almost, it's literally physically impossible to hide your purse. And then second of all, you said that you were covered in blood.

There was blood-soaked bathroom. You kept running in and out of there. You checked under the bed. You got no blood on the carpeting. Right. So you even checked under the bed? That was a made up story then. Yeah, it's definitely not true.

But she's trying to throw it on to BJ. Like, he hid my purse. He's the one that set this whole thing up. He's the one that put into motion all of these events. So now version one and version two of the rest of what happens remains pretty consistent. They're like, we need to get rid of the bodies. Holy shit. Ericka said B.J. ordered her, bringing me some garbage bags. He, this is how she describes it. She said that he was so pumped up. He was like yelling at her, barking orders. He was like, give me some garbage bags you will see.

Like, just really jacked up. So she runs downstairs. Again, seemingly no blood anywhere. Brings the trash bags. And he looks at them and he looks at her and says, they're white, you stupid bitch. What am I gonna do with white bags? They're fucking white. Go get me the black ones.

So Erica's standing there covered in blood with her little urine patch because you can see that she peed herself through her pants, running up and down the penthouse. And now she's tasked with finding black garbage bags at four in the morning. She claims she really didn't wanna do this.

She said, beach, I don't wanna leave. I can't leave, I'm too scared. I can't even drive right now, please. I'm so scared, I don't wanna leave. Go get some black garbage bags now. She's leaving the apartment. Yeah She said it wasn't a choice. It was in order. So she drove to a local dollar store and found black garbage bags.

Apparently she went in with the same clothes covered in blood. The one that she peed herself in Went to a dollar store that was apparently open all night. I mean, I get it. It's Ocean City, but it's a tourist spot. I still think it's highly unlikely. I mean, this isn't Vegas, even in Vegas. I don't even know if dollar stores are open at 4 a.m. Maybe they are. Yeah, but it more importantly, you're walking around with luck, soaked cloak. Exactly. So the idea that nobody, nobody said anything, nobody saw anything, nobody later reported, oh my God, I saw this woman. Yeah.

I mean, nothing. It is like 4 a.m. Such comes back with these freaking garbage bags and I don't think that the police found any receipt. I don't even think she gave them a specific dollar store that she went to. She was like, I don't know, I was like losing my mind obviously because of the murderers. I was just driving around and I found a dollar store. Anyways, Erica's story continues as follows. When she gets back, BJ is but as naked.

He's holding two knives that she bought him for Valentine's Day. He had gotten the bodies on the tub and he asked her, are these the first dead bodies you've ever seen? Why don't you take a minute? Look at it. It's pretty sighting it. Just take a minute and look. No, no, I'm going downstairs.

Yeah, it's probably better anyway. Because if the police come, then you need to be down there and you need to distract them, so they don't come upstairs. Erica claims she knew what BJ was about to do. He was going to decapitate the victims. I don't know how she knows this. I don't know if he told her. I don't know if he had talked about it before, but she said she knew. So she's like, I don't want to see the decapitation I got to go. So she runs downstairs terrified. And she claims that she sat there like a baby. She rocked herself back and forth holding herself scared to death.

I mean, again, very suspicious story. Erica said after comforting herself, she heard BJ scream her name. She runs up and BJ is standing there fully but naked, holding two decapitated heads. Josh's detached head in one hand, Jeanne's detached head in the other, and the rest of their bodies were in the bathtub,

the headless bodies. BJ smiling and it was this evil, evil smile. And he says, Erica, will you take my picture? Get your camera and take my picture. I'd like to send this photo around to my buddies. Erica felt sick. So she claims. She said she screamed.

You asshole, don't call me back up here again. Again. A very strange reaction to this type of thing. BJ yelled after her, you baby, you big, big, baby. I can't believe you're missing this. I can't believe you're not watching me do this right now. Zoeiaka runs back downstairs and starts crying and comforting herself.

She said she would occasionally go back up to check up on BJ, and he was smearing blood on the walls like he's an artist like It's almost like she's describing these horror scenes every time she pops her head in he's painting the walls with blood And he's like isn't that cool. It's like the movies Then she'd go downstairs and then she'd come back upstairs and suddenly he was dismembering people Then she'd go downstairs and she told the police That another time that she came back up.

BJ had taken Jeanne's head, inserted the water spout into her decapitated head, grabbed her headless corpse and participated in necrophilia. She claims that he forced her to watch. So then she runs back downstairs and he kept calling her back up. And in her version of the fence, it just seems like he's just doing so much things in the span of like a couple hours Which I'm not doubting that these things didn't happen or that they need to pay for every single crime that they committed I am all on board on that But I'm just doubting that Erica wasn't involved to the degree that she claims

To me that just doesn't make sense So she runs back up and she sees that B.J. has completely dismembered the bodies. He's already placed the arms and the legs into the plastic bags and Jeanne's torso was in a bag, but he's struggling with Josh's torso. He's like, I need help. You need to help me put this in a garbage bag.

And she's like, I, no way, I can't help you with that. B.J. do it yourself. I'm not touching that. So she watches B. watches BJ and I quote, pick it up like a sack of potatoes and place it in a garbage bag. That's what she said about Josh's torso. And while she's standing there, according to her,

he walks over to a garbage bag, grabs a leg. You know how if you were to get a wooden board and you're playing karate and they kind of ram your knee through it to break the board in half. He did that with his foot. So he kicked through this detached leg and he broke the bone in half like a piece of wood.

That's what Erica claims. And he asked her, can we have this for dinner? What? I want you to cook this. No, no way. Erica said to her knowledge, BJ never cooked the body or drank any blood from the bodies. But it's just a really weird, like I can't imagine, listen, I don't trust Erica for what it's worth, but I do feel like this is something that's so bizarre to make up.

It would just be weird. Who even makes this up? So anyways, BJ grabs his Navy bags and they're made of canvas. They're larger in size and they're stronger than plastic. They need to put the trash bags in there so that nothing popped out leaked or poked out. Because you know garbage bags, imagine you sitting in a garbage bag like your limbs are going to bust open and it's going to fall out. So he's packing up the body parts into his ex-navy bags,

which is just terrifying to think that this is someone who was protecting our country at one point. And now he's killing citizens, just killing people. Erica said that she looked around the bathroom, and it was a horror movie. She couldn't walk anywhere without splashing blood. There were organs floating in the pool inside the hot tub in a pool of blood.

Body parts all over the place. Blood on the walls, the blinds, the countertops tissue like not not actual tissue but body tissue everywhere, red everywhere. The sun is coming up, the red is shining brighter and by now it's around six in the morning. They need to get all the body parts into the Jeep and they need to do it fast. They need to dump them in a grocery store. That's what BJ said. He said, in high school, he used to work in a grocery store. And the dumpsters, they go to the land and tells more frequently than other businesses.

And you would expect a lot of sense coming from a grocery store dumpster, a lot of running food, running meats, a lot of flies, a lot of maggots. So they put them, the body parts, into the army bags, and then they had these big plastic storage tubs. You know the ones you get at the container store, like Target, which who brings those around? That makes people feel like this was planned in the sense of not specifically for Josh and

Jeanne, but anyone that they could find. So they put the Navy canvas bags into these storage containers, and they need to get them into the jeep without leaking any blood. BJ showers in the bathroom first and afterwards they haul everything into the car and they start to drive. Erica claims she passed out on the way to the first dump site. 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 going to 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 going to rob 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 Odyssey originals documentary podcast series available 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. She said she snorted so much Xanax throughout the night that she was knocked out. Okay, she had been up for 24 hours straight at this point. When she finally wakes up, the Jeep is parked. BJ is putting all the body parts into two different dumpsters. He even jumped into the dumpsters and smeared sloppy Joe Mix and other rotting foods all over the bags with the bodies, hoping it would disguise the smell and nobody would get curious enough

to open it up and investigate. Erica said at one point, BJ hissed at her. Get your ass out of there and help me. She refused, she's like, nope, I'm going back to sleep. So she's kind of explaining it as if like, aren't I an amazing person? I didn't even help. I don't know what's worse.

The fact that you can even sleep right now, that's almost worse. So she goes back to sleep. When he's done, he jumps into the car and he's like, you know where we are? No. Delaware. I'll bring you back here tomorrow so we can go shopping. They've got some good outlets out here. At one point, BJ told her, I've never been that excited in my life. What do you mean? What are you talking about? Sexually, you know? So they get back to the condo and BJ takes a four-hour nap and Erica, she'd already slept the entire car ride, so she's not sleepy, she's anxious. She's trying to clean what she can down stairs, but that smell

of blood was getting to her, she was feeling nauseous. She shook BJ awake, we need to clean now, it's starting to smell, you need to get the blood out of here. So BJ smoked the most productive drug in the world. Metawanna, okay, and he went upstairs. And he's not that, he's not in a rush at all. They still had another week left at the hotel. No need to be frantic, no need to freak out, we still got six whole days to clean the bathroom. Easy, peasy. They had gotten rid of most of what Josh and Genie's things, but Erica wanted to keep a few things.

Trovees essentially. Their IDs, their social security cards, she claimed BJ wanted to keep a few things. Trophies, essentially. Their IDs, their social security cards, she claimed BJ wanted to keep a few things too, like Josh's ring, which he put around a chain and gave to Erica to wear. So she wore Josh's ring like a necklace. He even allegedly dug out the bullet that he had killed Josh with so that he could save it.

And it only gets worse because the cleanup processes not sick in the sense of, I'm sure there's a lot of cleanup, but sick in how they do everything. So they go to the hardware store and they start buying these supplies, which Erica complains about. Yeah, she's complaining.

She's like, the supplies were too heavy. BJ made me carry them up to the penthouse like he always does. And she's saying this as if she's getting sympathy points from the police. Oh, you know, even with groceries, he would just sit on the couch and I would have to bring them all in. We threw bleach on the floor of the bathroom and it was so intense, the smell of bleach

that I threw up again. There was still organ and tissue particles everywhere. So I didn't want to help be, you know, this was all his doing. I thought, I should really work on my tan. Back home, Erica would go to the tanning salon every single day. But the new, you know, but now the past 30 hours were so rough. Her tan was fading and the world was ending. So she went out onto the balcony to sunbathe. To sunbathe. She said it only took a few hours for BJ to clean the bathroom

and after sunbathing when she walked in to check the progress, it only looked like somebody had a bloody nose or something. It didn't even compare to what happened. Which side note, all the bloody chlorox wipes the tissues, the body tissues, the organ pieces, they just threw it in trash bags and down the trash shoot of the apartment. The next day they go to Home Depot to get paint for the walls in the new bathroom door, and through all of this, Erica claims BJ forced her to take pictures of everything. And she was too scared to say no to him. He was just acting so crazy.

Looking back, our little scrapbook queen documented everything, everything after the murders. Their trip to Home Depot, where they stopped to eat and drink. Even the remodel process, she documented everything they did together. I mean, it's hard to believe that she was forced to take all these pictures. But she claimed, I was running so much Xanax, I was so scared of BJ. I just did everything I was told. I documented every little thing because I was scared he was going to kill me. But in all the photos, the two of them are just smiling, hugging, and kissing.

There's even photos of Erica eating chicken wings, drinking beers, playing mini golf, a picture of Erica getting a tattoo of a cobra on her hip, the place where she made the first cut on Jeannie. She said that that was the only thing BJ really complimented her on. He always looked down on her and said that she was overweight, even though she was like 95 pounds, said that she was fat and ugly and had weird hair, but he always complimented her on her tattoo. There's even a picture of Erica and BJ, each of them with a giant pile of crab legs in

front of them. That photo was taken only 20 hours after the murders. In all the pictures, you could see around Erica's neck was Josh's ring, which had a tiny little spot of blood on the inside. And in Erica's beloved sacred purse, she kept Genie and Josh's IDs, as well as a bloody knife that she used to cut them. Erica said I had to do this for BJ, because he loved me. He laid down with me at night, he worked with me, and you know, why would anyone else want me? I didn't want to be alone, I didn't think anybody else would want me. So that's why. I mean, that's a horrible excuse, and you're a horrible person. Erica tried to explain that during the whole week I was petrified of him. I didn't know day-to-day what was gonna happen after that week.

So of course everybody's got the burning question of, why an Erica just leave? I mean, this sounds so dumb and so infuriating. Why did you not just leave? She had this to say. One time BJ told me the true way to hurt someone and it just stuck with me okay. He said if you want to hurt someone or there's someone that you hate you just go and kill their whole family so that they have to live without them. And he said that he was gonna film it all. You film yourself like torturing their family and then you mail it to them. You mail them the tape and they have to live with this and without their family forever and they have to watch the way that their family died being tortured. So obviously, I was scared

that BJ would torture my parents. And that's why I went to Secret's Bar. And that's why Secret's Bar, the place that Josh and Genie were there helping out the couple and that's how they met. She said that's why she went back there to eat hot wings and crab legs and wore Josh's ring around her neck because she was so terrified. I mean, after the murders, the two of them are having a wild time in Ocean City. They're even kicked out of clubs for being so wild. Erika even waved her gun at the security guard when she was kicked out, she's screaming,

spitting, shouting, I'll kill you! I'll fucking kill you! I'll kill you! She thought the whole idea was hilarious. She was laughing after being kicked out of secrets. And that's when the couple ran into a guy named Todd. Todd was also drunk, and the three of them they hit it off. They seemed like old, long, last, you know,

long-lost friends, which is something that happens to everyone when their drunk it seems. And they're like, hey, Todd, wanna go hit another bar? Here, follow us. We can drive. So the three of them, they'll pile into the Jeep, but on the way to the bar, the Jeep gets a flat tire because BJ is so freaking drunk. And he's like, oh, shoot, they'll pile into the Jeep, but on the way to the bar, the Jeep gets a flat tire because BJ is so frickin drunk. And he's like, oh, shoot, we gotta put on the spare. I've got the spare and the trunk, we gotta go do it. So the three of them are standing there with the spare tire on the side of the road, and they're all so drunk that they can't even put on the spare tire. So Todd's sitting there, I think, and really hard. We can't call the police. No we can't. We can't call triple A. No we cannot. Because we're not supposed to be drinking and driving. That'll get us in trouble.

Okay we can't ask for a friendly pass or buy because what if they see that we're drunk and we can't change this bit and then they're gonna call the cops. Ugh everyone's just gonna call the cops because we're drinking and driving with wrong with people. Wait, I remember. I have a close friend that lives nearby. Oh my god, I can just call her to come help me. So he calls his friend Karen. And she knew right off the bat that Todd was drunk. He's slurring his words. And Karen isn't really a partier like this.

I mean, she was annoyed. But at the same time, she's thinking, if I don't help, my friend is just stranded. Like my drunk friend is just stranded. Okay, fine, I'll come. So she pulls up in her car next to the jeep, and immediately she's probably shaking her head. Todd, you are so frickin' drunk, what the heck?

He's not only slurring his words, but he's cross-eyed, he's stumbling. Karen sees the other couple with Todd and Erica the women. She was very drunk too, she's giggling and stumbling all over the place with Todd. It seems like the two of them are some sort of like middle school kids drinking for the first time. Karen is so over it. BJ the other couple seems to be less drunk. I mean, I guess that's nice since he was the one driving, but he still seems pretty drunk. Karen helps BJ change the tires. While Erica and Todd do nothing to assist, and they're just giggling. Hey, what's your name again? Karen? Well, thank you so much, Karen.

Can we at least buy you a drink? For helping us out, please, I feel so bad. Sounds nice, right? But Karen just felt uneasy about the whole thing. It just felt off in some sort of way. She said it felt like BJ and Erica, they would seem completely out of it and dream on one second and stumbling and he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he Sorry, I'd rather not, I'm pretty busy. Todd stumbled over. Come on, Karen! Let's just go get one drink.

Please, just one! Todd, you really don't need another drink. Let's just go home. I'll take you home, Todd. No home, please, Karen. Let's just go with them. Even Erica and B.J. are joining in on begging her. They kept saying things like, come on, just one drink! Just one drink!

And Karen's annoyed, but she felt like there was no getting out of it. Okay, fine. Yeah, just one drink, all right guys? All right. Karen was anxious, I mean, it's past midnight now, and she finds herself driving to a place called Fish Tales for a freaking drink with these strangers and her drunk friend, and the whole car ride there, she's thinking, one drink,

and I'm freaking out of there, I'm scadaddling. Are they sharing rights? No, so the Jeep is going with the three in Karen's loan. So at Fish Tales Karen said, Erica whipped out her little camera and starts taking pictures of everyone. She was directing, come on Karen, get in there with Todd and BJ so I can take a picture.

Karen said at no time did it seem like BJ was insisting Erica take the photos. It seemed like Erica was doing it all on her own, directing everyone. She seemed eager to document the night. At one point, Karen noticed BJ had a bloody lip, some blood stains on his lower teeth and swelling near his chin. She didn't notice it earlier because it was, you know, dark, fixing the flat tire, and now she's sitting across from him. Hey,

what happened to you? Oh, this, I hit my mouth on the steering wheel when we hit the curb and we got that flat tire. I was drunk. So, you know, I barely knew what I was going. Okay, Karen was so over it. I mean, she was so sick of these reckless, horrible people, but side she was going to Hawaii in two days. She wanted to get out of there. She needed to pack. She needed to clean the house. She ordered a drink but she didn't even touch it, instead Todd ended up drinking her old glass. Okay, well, you guys should probably call it taxi, you guys are in no shape to drive. Erica looked at her with a party face.

Come with us then, you can drive us. No, you guys should really call it taxi. Please, we're staying at the rainbow condo. It's like five minutes away. Please, can you just follow us back to our condo? Are they planning for another killing? It seems like it, yeah. So Karen wants to talk to BJ to see if he's in any shape to drive, which he wasn't.

In fact, Erica seemed to be a lot more alert than him now. And he also said this really cryptic message. He told Karen, I can't control Erica. And she thought I was so random. Like, what are you talking about? I'm just asking if you can drive to the condo. So she's like, okay, what, what does that have anything to do with this? Erica, my wife, I can't control that girl. If she wants to drive and she gets pulled over, my girl packs heat. You know what that means? Heat. Are you getting this? She'll kill a cop. Karen's eyes were wide like, uh, what? She did not sign up for this. She had no idea what type of people she was dealing with until just now and she's terrified.

She realized no matter what she said, these people are gonna drive back to the condo in their Jeep and they are not to be reasoned with. So all she could do was follow them and make sure they make it back without killing themselves or someone else. So she agrees to follow the Jeep in her own car to the Rainbow condo. She's not agreeing to get out and go into the condo, just make sure that they park safe. She could see BJ was driving or rather trying to drive because he's like swarming in and out of lane, slowing down, speeding up, just bouncing the Jeep all over the road. They pull in to the rainbow parking lot, thankfully,

not killing anybody. And Karen briefly puts her car in park and she's debating if she should take Todd with her, but he's in the Jeep. So she's contemplating, okay, do I yell at Todd to get in my car and I can take him home? Do you think he'll call a taxi? I mean, she's thinking all these things. BJ runs up to her car window. Taps. Hey, please, can I get your help? Erica's totally out of it, and can you help me carry her upstairs, please? We're staying in the penthouse.

If you could just help me get Erica into the stairwell and the elevator, that's it. That would be amazing. I mean, how do you refuse to help that? It's not like he's asking you to stay. It was a hard thing to say no to. At most, people are not thinking that these are murders. They're just thinking, oh god, what a messy couple, what a messy

night. I don't like them. I never want to see them again. But how do you say no? Yeah, and she seems just overly nice. Yeah, she said she felt like she couldn't refuse to help. So she gets out, walks over to the couple's Jeep, opens up the door, and Erica's in the passenger seat seemingly unconscious. BJ tries to pick her up, but she slips from his grip and she bangs her head on the jeep door. Karen's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa's well-being or if he was hurting her, dropping her around, hitting her head, bonk, and her here. Either he really didn't give a fork or he didn't even notice what he was doing. God, I'm just thinking there's no way. There's no way all I have to do is help them to the elevator.

I at least have to help BJ get Erica into the bed, into the condo. This is freaking annoying. Perhaps this was all BJ and Erica's plan. I mean, all things considered. Remember at Fish Tales, Erica was the most conscious one, and suddenly she's passed out. I mean, I get it. Alcohol and drugs work in weird ways, but... sweared.

BJ's also a really buff guy. Erica barely weighed 100 pounds. If he wanted to get a picture up in one arm, Karen and the other, regardless of how drunk he was. So BJ and Karen,, regardless of how drunk he was. So, BJ and Karen, they start carrying Erica into the lobby. Todd is stumbling about closely behind them, and he was probably in the worst shape. Yeah, worse than Erica. So, they get all the way to the top floor penthouse.

And when they get to the penthouse door, this is where I was shocking. Erica magically comes out of her drunk in Stumber, stands up on her own two feet, and starts rummaging through her purse looking for her keys. Excuse me, what? No way. Like, just immediately gets up from being blacked out by drugs and alcohol to standing up on her own, digging around in her purse. As if she'd just been a learn and awake this whole time. If you guys have ever been super drunk, that just doesn't happen, like that's bizarre.

So Karyn's creeped out and shocked and almost like, oh my god, which just happened. Erica finds her keys, inserts them into the keyhole on her first try. Opens up the door, no problem. I mean, it was just so strange. Two seconds ago, she was dead weight and unconscious. And now she's leading them into the penthouse. She throws her purse on the table and heads to the laundry room to check up on the washing machine.

Again, have you guys ever been super drunk? That's the last thing you're thinking about. And she's like, ah, BJ, the clothes are still soaking wet. You need to fix this. We need to finish the laundry. Karen and Todd didn't know that the washing machine was clogged by Jeannie and Josh's hair. Erica walks out of the laundry room,

took Karen by the arm, and starts showing her around. Like a tour guide, like a freaking realtor. I mean, Karen couldn't help but be impressed by the penthouse. It was beautiful. She had never been somewhere so luxurious. And as they're walking around, which Erica was walking normally now, Erica gave her a brief history of the building and bragged.

You know, my dad built this building. Like he built part of it and he made this penthouse just for me when I vacation. She was beyond sober. She seemed like she didn't even take a sip of alcohol the whole night. It was bizarre. It was strange. So at this point, B.J. and Todd are drinking more beers on the whole night. It was bizarre, it was strange. So at this point, B.J. and Todd are drinking more beers on the kitchen table. Erica is leading Karen into the bedroom, going through her suitcase.

Oh, and then this is my new bikini showing off her fit. Oh, this is my gold necklace that my dad got me for like my senior graduation. It's a bit strange. She was just showing off random things. Oh, and I have this ring that my grandmother gave me. It's in my purse. It's beautiful. Let me just find it so I can wait. Where's my purse? No. Erica is digging around looking for her back, but she couldn't find it. Karen was curious. The whole thing was weird. Karen remembered Erica throwing it on the table when they walked in, but maybe Erica had brought it on the table when they walked in, but maybe Erica had brought it into the upstairs bedroom. So Erica looks at Karen panicked.

Look, we really need to find this purse. It's very important to me that we find this purse. My grandmother's ring is inside of it, okay? At this point, BJ notices that Erica's nervous and freaking out. Hey, babe, what's going on? Beige, we need to find my purse. These people, their IDs are in my purse. Karen had no idea what that even meant. She didn't really understand, but Erica was alluding to the fact that Josh and Jeanne's IDs were in her purse.

But she sounded like she's actually frantic. She sounded actually frantic, but Karen said she didn't like it where it was going because she felt B.J. and Erica had some sort of understanding. Something that they knew that Todd and Karen didn't know. It's almost like they were playing a game. So Karen suggests, okay, let's spread out, let's look for the purse.

So they all start looking around the main floor of the condo, turning the pillows from the couch over under the tables in the kitchen, literally everywhere. Karen went to search the main bathroom when she noticed the bathroom door had been taken off its hinges and placed next to the doorframe, and she ignored it. As she's walking past, she did a quick double take like, wait, does that door have bullet holes in it? No, that's probably something else. That would be crazy. Why would a door have bullet holes in it? She didn't think

much of it. She continued searching for Erica's purse. B.J. comes upstairs and suggests the two girls go down to the Jeep to look for the purse. I mean Karen knew that the purse wasn't in the Jeep she even said. No, but we couldn't have gotten into the condor without her keys, which were in her purse. I saw it. I'm not even drunk. I literally didn't even have a drink. But B.J. kept insisting, go look for the purse.

Okay, whatever. Fine. So Karen goes down there with Erica, and I mean, she knew it's not going to be in the car. Karen was freaking out being alone with Erica. I mean, I get it. It's stressful, but Erica was in this strange, almost possessed state, wildly running around mumbling to herself, stressing to Karen nonstop about how nothing was as important as finding that purse. So after they can't find it in the Jeep, Karen knew they wouldn't. They rushed back upstairs. Karen's inner head alarm start going off. B.J. is standing there. Kaki and Peculeer, that's what she said. That's the best way she could describe it as if he knew something that nobody else knew.

So either Erica was putting on the show of her life or B.J. messed with her like the previous time, like hiding her purse as Erica alleged, it was also strange. Karen looked at BJ closer and she was terrified. She noticed he had a gun tucked in his pants. Now here's what's interesting. Karen is not the type of person where you could tell she's scared.

Some people are like that, I'm a very outwardly expressive person, whereas my sister, if she's in pain or if she's scared, you won't know. She'll just be straight faced. She won't look panic like her eyes won't be wide, she won't be super alert, like looking around. My sister is the type to kind of sit there and just observe. She almost gets more calm. And that's the type of person Karen was, and this is really important later.

So she said nothing, even when she saw that gun gun. Instead she just kept looking for the purse. B.J. walks up to Karen while she's going through the couch cushions, he grabs her, spins her around, grabs her by the face with his big hands, and now there knows to knows as if he's about to kiss her. Nothing was romantic about this by the way, it was incredibly aggressive. And in a very flat tone he said to her, it's very, very, very important that we find this purse. It's like he was trying to be as scary as possible. He was, he was stone cold sober. Karen got the message.

The message was, something very, very bad is gonna happen if they don't find that purse. But Karen knew that wouldn't find it unless BJ wanted them to. That was the vibe she was getting. BJ was implying that Karen or Todd had stolen the purse, and Karen looked him in the eye and said, BJ look, there's no reason for me to take her purse.

I helped you put your car back on the road. I'm not a liar or a thief. And he looked at her and said, well, it's very important that we locate the purse. Nothing else matters at this point. So everyone keeps searching. BJ's getting angry at the moment, stomping around, mumbling things to himself, making sure that Karen and Todd

were well aware that he had a gun. In fact, he took it out, and he never pointed it at them, but he would just kind of whip it around in the air. Just kind of like wave it to point. Did you guys check over there, and he would point the guns at the bathroom? What about over there? And then to the opposite side?

Todd was still drunk, but he was sober enough to realize that his life was at stake So he's kind of clumsily stumbling around near Karen and staying quiet Erica was rubbing her head thinking and not saying anything Now here's what's interesting Erica knew exactly what happened just five nights ago with Josh and Jeannie when she quote lost her purse and now the events were repeating and BJ was working himself into a state and she just stood there. She didn't say a word, she didn't try to de-escalate the situation. But it started with her. Yes, she starts it all.

She knows what's going on. Exactly, like if that were me and that happened, I would just never mention a lost purse. Ever again. Yeah, but that's what this leads me to think that she's the one that wanted them to be in that state. So BJ turns to Karen and Todd angry and says, if you're ripping a soft, we've had other people try ripping a soft. If you've ripped a soft like the other people who were here, I'll do the same damn thing

to you that I did to them. And his eyes move across the room, to the bathroom door, that's off the hinges, with the bullet holes. And he continues his speech, those people were bad people. I'm ridding the earth of bad people. They came into my place and ripped me off, and no more will they do that. And he's waving his gun around. Everybody back downstairs to search. No. So they all run downstairs and they do that. It means, waving his gun around. Everybody back downstairs to search.

No. So they all run downstairs and they spread out. Karen was aware that at this point, Erica went into the bathroom by herself. So she follows her in there, hoping to talk to her about everything, like woman to woman, without BJ around just her and Erica. So Karen walks in and tells Erica, and not emotional, very straightforward. Hey, I don't like to be around guns. They make me really uncomfortable.

I'll do whatever I can to help you find your purse, but you're going to have to ask BJ to put that gun away. Erica stares at Karen and walks out. She didn't even acknowledge what Karen had just said. She pretended she didn't hear her. And in the living room, Erica looked at Karen, looked at BJ and said in the most whining, condescending voice, patronizing really. BJ, can you put your gun away? It's scary." And then she started laughing.

Like she's making fun of... Karen. Okay, so what the fork is not? Karen goes back to searching when she heard BJ say, oh, look what I found. Karen walked out and saw BJ push a cushion from the couch forward and pulled the purse out. She's like, that makes no sense. We search that couch inside and out a million times. What the fork? But what doesn't matter as long as everything is fine now. So everybody takes a break.

They go out onto the balcony. The energy is a lot more calm. BJ sits down next to Karen and says, so why are you so afraid of guns? What? I mean, nobody likes a gun pointed at them, you know, it's pretty standard knowledge. And he laughed. Well, guns are portrayed as bad on TV, but most people don't even understand how they work. He took out his gun and he took it apart. And he was doing this as he's smoking some weed and Erica's snorting some Xanax and Erica sits down on BJ's lap

And he tells everyone in the room. Well, we need to go have some sex now Karen was like, stop. I got you jumped up. Well, that's my freaking cue Do you want me to take Todd or you want me to leave a mirror? Erica's like, you can leave a mirror and without even a goodbye Karen's out. She's sick of this. I mean bye Just a few blocks away though, she gets a call. It's Todd. Why did you leave me here? Todd, I'm gonna freaking kill you.

You were taking so long. I will pick me up. Uh, okay, fine. But you have to meet me on the street. I'm not going back up there. So Karen turns around and finds Todd stumbling around. She gets him in the car, he knocks out, drops him off, she goes to Hawaii a few days later,

and she had no idea what horror she nearly escaped that night. So why didn't the couple kill them? It's hard to say, but most people think, and I believe too, it's that Todd was too intoxicated to give them the reaction they wanted. He was so drunk, he wasn't outwardly showing that he was scared. He was aware that, he wasn't outwardly showing that he was scared. He was aware that his life was at stake to a degree, but it wasn't really hitting him.

He's just stumbling around like, go right, where's the booze? I can't find the purse, the purse is gone. And then Karen, she's outwardly a very stoic person. She's not showing the fear on her face. She's looking BJ in the eye saying, I don't really like this. I don't know where the freaking purse is. Like, let looking BJ in the eye saying, I don't really like this. I don't know where the frickin' person is. Like, let me help you find the purse. I didn't steal the purse. So there was just that building of excitement wasn't there for the couple.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So like, their motive is to get this reaction. This panicked fear from people. Yeah. Like a freak out, but Karen and Todd were just not freaking out. For them to feel turned off or turned on enough to kill. So it's about the game. I mean, it's really not about just having the opportunity because at that point, you know,

Karen and Todd are in the hotel room. They're armed. They could easily take control of the situation. Like they put on the whole show of, find my purpose, find the purse is to get that rear. Yeah. And it's like that increase of suspense and torture for the victims because you're like, fuck, I need to find this purse, where could the purse be? I don't know where the purse is. It's not even my purse. Wednesday, May 29th, Jeannie fails to show up to work. And this is weird for everyone,

because Jeannie is super punctual. She's never late. She never misses a meeting. In fact, she's the one that's scheduled a meeting for everyone that day, and she missed it without even a phone call. So her co-workers immediately call the Virginia State Police. The Ocean City Police drive to Atlantis condos Where Josh and Jeannie were staying and he saw Jeannie's car there He just had this sinking feeling. He went into the couple's room And that sinking feeling was confirmed something very bad it happened The room looked like someone just stepped out. Nothing was packed, nothing was taken, everything was organized. It looked like Josh and Jeannie went out for dinner and never came back. He noticed a receipt on

the table for all the groceries the couple purchased. On Saturday, he checked the refrigerator. Everything was still there, unopened, unused. So nobody had been in the unit seemingly since Saturday. The police had no strong leads. They had no strong leads even two days later when they get a call. The local hooters was being robbed. Yeah, if you remember for part one, Erica was a weird one. She had a lot of strange quirks, if you could call it that. She had an obsession with anything hooters related. She loved their employee tank top. She paid top dollar for them. She would rob retail stores, residential homes, ATMs, but her favorite was to rob Hooters gift shops.

So the couple decide to rob an ocean city Hooters. They set off the silent alarm. The police come. The couple are in the process of like taking mugs and churns. And the police pull up, and the two of them are arrested. And BJ's trying to reason with the police like, wait, why can't I just put the stuff back? I mean, we stole it, but we didn't leave the property yet, so if I just put it back, it means we didn't steal it anymore.

They're like, yeah, no, that's not how it works. They handcuff him, they find the gun in his butt crack. The couple are a fan of sticking really powerful weapons in between their butt cheeks, so Erica knew that they were busted. She starts panicking, officer, officer. I have anxiety problems. I haven't taken my medicine.

I need it. I need you to get it from me from a purse. Maybe she was having an anxiety attack. Maybe it was triggered from coming down from her Xanax and alcohol high. She kept screaming, I need my Xanax. I need it. It's in my purse. I take it twice a day. I need it.

I had one this morning, but I missed my dose a night. Please. Ma'am, please try to relax. No, I'm having a panic attack. I need it. I can't relax. The officer starts romaging through Erica's purse. And inside, he finds four used bullet shells

and one live round. That's odd. He keeps looking, but he doesn't find the pills. He finds a few IDs that don't belong to BJ or Erica. In fact, he knew these people. He had just been working on a missing person's case for Josh and Jeannie. Oh my goodness.

And now here are their IDs. He also finds Jeannie and Josh's social security cards, and the robbery quickly goes from a class A felony to murder charges. Honestly, if Erica never instructed the officer to get her medication, the case might never have been solved. The two of them are taken into questioning and Erica just denies it all. She's like, I don't know these people.

Maybe my husband put their ideas in my purse. What would I know? Erica seemed to have an answer for everything. I'll be it, they were really dumb answers, but answers nonetheless. Meanwhile, BJ refused to answer any questions and he just kept saying, I don't know, talked to my wife. Which again, leads everyone to believe that Erica was the one in charge. So Erica panics and she tells the police, okay I'll tell you guys everything if you drop

the robbery charges. Which sounds so dumb. So you're gonna tell them everything about the murder you guys committed as long as you don't get in trouble for robbing a hooters? I mean she genuinely thought that she could dump all the blame on BJ and walk away from this whole ordeal with zero charges on her record. She pretty much told the police, while she thought Jeannie and Josh stole her purse, BJ got mad, chopped them up and disposed of their bodies. The police did not believe her. Her stories never made sense and her body language was weird. I mean, no version of the story made any sense.

So they tried to mess with her head and they told her, well your husband told us everything, we know the truth, we know your lying. And instead of reacting like a normal person, which is what, what would you have possibly said that's the freaking truth I swear? She starts crying and asking them, do you like me? Do you like me? Do you think I'm pretty? Do you think I'm pretty? Do you like me? No freaking way. It was scary and bizarre. And she just kept talking and rambling and changing up her stories. In some version, she was downstairs and she didn't even witness the murders. And in the middle of her story, she would just be like, do you like me though?

Do you think I'm pretty though? Yeah, because that's what matters right now, Erica. She would stop her story randomly to say things like, I played college basketball, everybody loved me. Do you like me? The detective was so fed up, yes. You know, all you've done is ask me if I like you and how pretty you are and talk about your college basketball days.

I want to know, what do you think of yourself? Me? I'm a great person, everybody likes me. Do you always try to do the right thing, Erica? Yes, always. So the police, they locate Genie and Josh's bodies in the landfills. And during all of this, you might think Erica's parents are finally woken up to the reality, that their daughter is a horrendous monster.

But no, in fact, they made it hard for the police to do their jobs. They took all of Erica's things, put them in a storage shed, and Grant, Erica's grandma's property so it'd be harder for the police to get a warrant, which it was for the time being. The family also hired the best lawyer they could find, and finally, when the police are searching through Erica's stuff, Erica's dad panicked, quickly put something in his pocket. The officer was like,

I freaking saw that, give me that, what did you just do? It was a marijuana pipe, and the police are sitting there dumbfounded. Like, are you not getting this? We are here searching for evidence of a double homicide. Do you think we give a shit about some pipe with pot residue in it? We're talking double homicide right now. So anyways, the couple, they were going to be tried separately for murder, and they had

two very different ways of going into trial. Erica's was just strange. So she claimed that she kept having these daydreams of Josh. This is horrendous, and I don't even know what to say. She told her attorney that she keeps having these daydreams where Josh is handsome and dressed well and he has this great body and he's a black belt in karate who's 30 years old, and Josh wasn't dead in her daydreams. In fact, they were together as boyfriend and girlfriend.

Jeannie and BJ were nowhere in the picture, and life was great. She said she felt like she was in love with Joshua and wanted to be with him. She fixed Satan on the fact that in her dreams, Josh kept calling her beautiful and looked at her in a way that BJ never looked at her. She had daydreams of Josh putting his hands all over her, dancing with her, telling her how pretty she was and how much she meant to him. She wrote about all of this while she was in prison for Josh and Jeanne's murder. I-I-it's so sick I don't even know how to describe that.

But eventually she moved on from fantasizing about dating the man she murdered into starting a penpal correspondence with another inmate. And the letters were incredibly sexual, like this is what she's doing leading up to the murder trial. Erica considered the two of them to be dating, so let's call him Jimmy, that's fake name, but she called him her Lava, L-U-V-A, Lava. She wrote to him about how she had sex with about 25 men, but only made love with BJ. She was scared of not being able to satisfy Jimmy, because he told her he had been with at least 2,000 women in his life.

But Erica said she was not one to back down from a challenge and she was determined to at least give him paper sex. So like I guess just write him nasty things. She signed off on the letters as your wifey. She said, Jimmy, you can have me for the rest of your life if you want. She wrote that he could insert nasty action with his chocolate insert nasty word, insert more nasty actions with her insert genitals anytime he pleases. It was really explicit. I mean, people are dead and this is what she's writing while

in prison waiting for trial. She talked about how she had taken on two guys at the same time in one night and it was awesome. She said double penetration was great. She wrote to Jimmy about how small her insert Word was and how the two of them were gonna get a house on the beach and do it five to six times a day She wrote in one. Yes. I have a beautiful plump. It's sickening how I fantasize about you all day I have a huge Lips for you to suck on and then open them up with your fingers and it's always shaving clean It's fresh PUSSY Do you get hard reading my letters?

She wrote about how she writes them in her cell Squeezing her thighs together to feel her blank throbbing. She also ended it with, if you need cash, my parents will send it. She also had a nickname for Jimmy's private part. She called his genitals Mr. Chocolate. She said how she would love to tend to Mr. Chocolate 24-7 at his request, as long as he doesn't break my heart. Okay.

She wrote him little fantasies, like role plays about how she would sneak into the locker room, thinking it was empty, but she would forget something, and Jimmy would be in the showers, and you guessed it, nasty stuff happens. In another letter, she complained about how BJ had sex with Genie's decapitated headless body, and told her that it was better than any sex

that they ever had as a married couple. So BJ's trial starts first, and he testified. So he testified, and he mainly focused body and told her that it was better than any sex that they ever had as a married couple. So BJ's trial starts first, and he testified. So he testified, and he mainly focused on the Navy. How during Navy SEAL training, your brainwashing to becoming a robot, that you only performed the most gruesome gory tasks without even batting an eye. He said that the Navy screwed him up. He never explicitly stated that SEAL training was the reason or for the fault of what happened,

but it was heavily implied. So there's a lot of Navy seals out there that do everything in their power and literally do the most dangerous things in the world to protect us and our freedom. And this guy is like, yeah, that's the reason I killed people in a bathroom on vacation. For no reason at all. He also stated how Erica was negatively impacting his career. She would always have breakdowns and stop eating and not being able to function and not go anywhere or do anything. Erica would later say it was BJ that made her starve. That he was the one that hated her being fat.

He called her fat if she was ever over like 90 pounds, which was so bad, and how he would force her to take meth to suppress her hunger. The BJ said no, it wasn't me. She was the one that wanted to do all these things. I feel inclined to believe BJ on this one because even in Erica's letters to Jimmy in prison, she wrote about how she has no tolerance for it. And I quote, fat people and fatness. She said, how can they stand the extra weight?

I would never allow myself to get to that point. And then BJ dropped another bombshell in court. He said he wasn't there for the murders. So let me explain it gets messy. So to preface, I think that they're both equally guilty of the murders. I mean, the domestic violence accusations, I also feel inclined to believe that they're both horrible to each other and horrible people in general. They're both guilty in my eyes, but BJ says to jog your memory. After leaving secrets with Josh and Jeannie, they had to pick up the weed. In BJ's version, they were driving in the Jeep.

So they all hop up in the car, drive to Atlanta's condos, pick up the weed, but all of them want to walk to Rainbow, the Rainbow condos on the beach, because it'll be beautiful, it'll see Nick, but the Jeep just can't stay, so BJ offers, okay, I will drive and you three walk on the beach and I'll meet you guys there. BJ gets to the Rainbow condo's anything so he gets there first, because he doesn't have a key

and he decides to wait in the Jeep until everybody gets there. But he falls asleep, it's like 2am. He said he honestly had no idea how long he slept. He just assumed he'd be woken up by them tapping on the window like 10 minutes later But he later found out he was asleep for hours He said he woke up to Erica tapping on the window. What what's going on? Where's Josh and Jeannie? Erica looked at him and said we have to get out of here. What why what's going on? We have to leave

Erica was calm collected not overly emotional. Come on BJ get up. We got to go. We have to leave. Erica was calm, collected, not overly emotional. Come on, BJ, get up, we gotta go, we have to leave. Why, what's wrong? We have a problem. BJ said he never saw Erica act this way and he was confused and scared. Why, why do we need to leave? I mean, she was making it clear that they not only had to leave the condo but the state, like leave the city, get the hell out ASAP. BJ was not getting it.

And this sent Erica off into a panic, she started screaming, why would you there for me? Why wouldn't you there? I needed you. Why wouldn't you there? You weren't there." He's like, okay, I can't do this right now. I need to go upstairs and wash my face for something. So BJ said Erica hesitated but she followed him up. He walks into the condo first. There's two dead people in the bathroom. Joshua Ford and Jeanne Crutchley. BJ told the jury he bent down and checked their pulses as he was taught in the Navy. He thought Joshua shot in the bathroom. Joshua Ford and Jeanne Crutchley. B.J. told the jury he bent down and checked their pulses as he was taught in the Navy. He thought Josh was shot in the head, and for Jeanne, he couldn't really tell. They were both covered in blood.

He walked out, sat on the edge of the bed, dropped his head into his hands, and began thinking, what do we do now? Too dead people. Obviously, my wife is responsible. What's the right thing to do? He said it was like 30 minutes of pure silence. He thought, either I can help my wife is responsible. What's the right thing to do? He said it was like 30 minutes of pure silence. He thought either I can help my wife Or I can not help my wife and abandon her and go to the police In the end he chose to help his wife

He said he helped her in the only way that he claims he knows how to dispose of the dead bodies by dismembering them Did she actually take photo of him holding the... No, she didn't. But there was rumors because she claims he wanted it really badly. Oh, I see. This part is hard to believe because Erica is a hundred pounds. So you're telling me she overpowered two people, one of them who was ex-military because remember Josh used to be in the army, he had a black belt in karate.

I mean, even if Erica was the only one with the gun, it's hard to believe that she did this all on her own. I don't know. Maybe she caught them by surprise, but it still doesn't make sense. Yeah, because the second girl, Karen, was she called to the court or? Yes, I believe so, but it wasn't really related because. Right, but I would believe her event of the her story, which BJ is there.

Yes, exactly. And the way that they treated them, I would say it's probably how they treated the other couple too, right? Yeah. Agreed. So I think BJ was there. I don't think he was asleep. So he's lying again.

But according to the jurors, he seemed very credible. I know. That doesn't mean he's necessarily telling the truth. It just means that he might believe his own lies, or he's better at lying. So BJ was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Jeanne. Shockingly, he was cleared of all murder charges against Joshua Ford. I mean, it's shocking because it makes zero sense. If the jury believes part of BJ's story, which they apparently did, then they believe

that he fell asleep in the Jeep and was woken up by Erica, his wife, who killed the two people, right? But according to the jury, BJ is responsible for Genie's death in some way. So does that mean Genie was alive when he walked back up into the penthouse? So she just waited for 15 minutes while Erica ran down to get help? She was just waiting around to be killed? Or maybe she was too injured to run her call for help? I mean, it's a strange, strange conviction. So now it's Erica's turn.

This starts June of 2003, her trial. Erica does not take the stand, because her legal team realized she had already confessed to the police various different versions. Even the fact that she told the police, she told BJ to just fucking do it. I mean, if she took the stand, it was the perfect opportunity for prosecutors

to show off how much Erica lied. The jury found Erica guilty of second-degree murder for Jeannie and guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Joshua Ford. She was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years. BJ was sentenced to just 38 years in prison. So BJ filed for divorce from Erica in prison in 2010. He's eligible for parole as of 2021, but thankfully they rejected it. Erica will be eligible for parole in 2024. While in prison, Erica's cellmates consider her the roommate from hell. They said that she goes into deep details about the murders and she allegedly told them it's fun to wear the jewelry of her victims. She allegedly told them that she has no remorse whatsoever, she doesn't feel like she did

anything wrong, and they said Erica probably killed more people. So one very chilling theory that the police have is Erica kept mentioning their trip to Chilly to get Xanax and she said that BJ and her really bonded on that trip. It just insinuated and felt like there was a lot more going on in Chile, like they killed more people. I mean the fact there was no blood found outside the bathroom, it makes you think that maybe they had a process to it. Maybe they already had everything they needed, such as the black garbage bags. They had a plan, a system that they used, how to clean the blood in a way that it was contained in one area. Also, in later letters in prison, Erica would refer to BJ as her serial killer X, which

just reinforces this horrifying theory. Erica told her cellmates allegedly that she had to contain herself from laughing, anytime her victim's families would speak out in court. Well, I hope she keeps that same upbeat energy when she gets denied parole in two years, because it does not seem like she will get out in court. Well, I hope she keeps that same upbeat energy when she gets denied parole in two years because it does not seem like she will get out anytime soon. And I hope that is a good laugh. Well, I guess I never say never though, because the justice system is pretty messed up. Have you listened to our Mel Ignato case yet? Maybe she will get out. And that is the very disgusting story of Erica and Benjamin Cifer.

It's fascinating because what some people will do with the comfort and privilege that they grow up with is just weird. She had nothing she ever needed in life. Her dad bought her like $15,000 diamond ring she had. Her parents' support, they were involved in her life, they weren't just throwing money at her. They cared about her. Maybe too much. I also think it's really strange

that, do you think I'm pretty? Do you like me? Like, that's her go-to place when she feels like I'm back in a corner. That's so odd. How do you explain that kind of behavior? I think she never really had any situation where she had to face consequences.

Maybe she feels like her attractiveness and people always like her so they never really are harsh to her. So in that moment where finally someone is being harsh to her and backing her in a corner she's like, wait, wait, do you like me though? Maybe like that's how she does it with the parent. Like, do you love me? Do you you guys still love me though? Do you like me? Oh my god, I ask that all the time. What are your thoughts on this one? And I will see you guys on Wednesday for the still love Mido, do you like me? Oh my god, I ask that all the time. What are your thoughts on this one? And I will see you guys on Wednesday for the main episode.

Bye.