Small Town Murder - Hooters, Hitler & Horribleness - Ocean City, Maryland

Episode Date: January 24, 2026

This week, in Ocean City, Maryland, a very pleasant, and upstanding couple runs into a younger couple, while on vaction. Everyone makes friends, and has a good time, but when the upstanding couple end... up missing, it seems like a mystery. That mystery is quickly solved, when the killers are caught, trying to steal mechandise from Hooters restaurant. They have more incriminating evidence on them than anyone has ever seen. Will all of the victims body parts ever be found??   Along the way, we find out that when there's an ocean, people don't need much else to do, that when someone names their snake "Hitler", they may have some problems, and that you can never quite clean up all the blood left behind, during a dismemberment!!   New episodes, every Wednesday & Friday nights!! Donate at patreon.com/crimeinsports or at paypal.com and use our email: crimeinsports@gmail.com Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder, Crime In Sports & Your Stupid Opinions!   Follow us on... instagram.com/smalltownmurder facebook.com/smalltownpod   Also, check out James & Jimmie's other shows, Crime In Sports & Your Stupid Opinions on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!!

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:01 Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yeah, and choo-choo. Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay, indeed. My name is James Petrogalo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wiseman. Thank you, folks, so much for joining us today on another absolutely crazy man.
Starting point is 00:00:35 This is one of those packing 10 pounds into a two-pound bag type of shit. What we got going on here. This is going to be wild stuff today. Before we get to that, though, in case you didn't hear the Wednesday announcement, we'd like to say starting next week, we're going to be on Netflix. You got it. Also, now, that doesn't change. If you like listening on audio, that's what you do. We'll change a goddamn thing.
Starting point is 00:00:57 One show note is the show comes out on Monday on Netflix. It is the only time the show will come out on Monday. We're only doing for release date. So, they don't. Got it. No, oh, is that how it's going to be from out? No, no, no, no, no. Yep, exactly. So that's a show note. But thank you guys for making this possible. We really appreciate it.
Starting point is 00:01:21 Say one more time. Obviously, we wouldn't be doing that. Oh, it'll be every Monday. Never on a Monday except for this coming Monday. The only time. And then it goes back to Wednesday nights, Friday nights, same exact times. Everything's the same. Except if you want to watch us, go do that. So thank you for that. Thank you for. To all the DMs. Yeah. Thank you to Libson. for allowing, you know, for being supportive of the movement, and all that kind of thing, and it's going to be great stuff. So thank you so much.
Starting point is 00:01:48 That said, shut up and give me murder.com. Oh, yeah. Head over there. Get your tickets to live shows. Come out and see us. May as well. Starting February 21st in Nashville. Get your tickets for that.
Starting point is 00:02:00 Nashville will be fun. Then Durham on May 6th. I love how you pretend like you didn't know we were going there. I didn't. I just found out. Like we haven't got over. March 6th. March 6th, Durham.
Starting point is 00:02:12 13 phone calls about the same fucking phone. Like you don't have plane tickets. Birthday weekend, let's go. Let's do it. March 7th, Atlanta, Phoenix sold out. Your stupid opinions has still got some tickets for Phoenix. Salt Lake City sold out. Denver has tickets. Buffalo sold out.
Starting point is 00:02:29 Royal Oak, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Dallas, San Jose, Sacramento. Terrytown, Boston, get your asses in there. Shut up and give me murder.com. All selling fast. Let's go. Selling fast. Get in there. Also get yourself Patreon.
Starting point is 00:02:40 Patreon.com slash crime. sports. You get everything, everything we put out. Anybody, $5 a month or above, you're going to get a huge catalog, a back catalog of bonus episodes you've never heard before immediately upon subscription. New ones every other week, one crime and sports, one small town murder, and you get them all. We wouldn't give you the kit without the caboodle. Oh, you get all the caboodles, baby. Now, for small town murder, crime and sports this week, we're going to do old-timey ads and weird article, one of my favorite things to do, newspaper stuff. It's a lot of fun. Then for small-town murder. It's Dean Coral Part 2.
Starting point is 00:03:11 Oh, boy. We got 27 bodies out of the ground, a dead murderer, and a crazy story to tell, and a connection to John Wayne Gacy also. So that's going to be a wild one. That's Patreon.com slash crime in sports, and in addition to all of that, you also get everything
Starting point is 00:03:27 we put out, crime and sports, your stupid opinion, small town murder, all ad free with your Patreon. And you get a shout out at the end of the regular show. So that said, that's I think it's a good deal. Patreon.com. slash crime and sports. There we go.
Starting point is 00:03:42 Let's get to this. I think it's time, everybody. Let's all clear the lungs. Arms to the sky, everyone. And let's all shout. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody. Oh, hey.
Starting point is 00:03:57 Let's go on a trip, shall we? All right. We are going to Maryland this week. Yeah? We're going to Ocean City, Maryland. I've heard of that. Sounds like there's a lot of ocean cities, too. Maryland?
Starting point is 00:04:10 Everywhere. Ocean cities. Like any state has ocean nearby, there's an ocean city there somewhere. But this sounds... Maryland has several.
Starting point is 00:04:18 No, no. Just the only one. This is in far-southeastern Maryland. Maryland is like three panhandles, basically. This is the far eastern panhandle, and this is one that comes... It's a panhandle on the end of a panhandle.
Starting point is 00:04:30 Really jutting out there. Really jutting out there. About two hours and 45 minutes to Baltimore. So it is as far away on the other side of the state as it could be. About two hours and 40 minutes to Largo, Maryland. Our last Maryland episode, the mother-daughter murders.
Starting point is 00:04:45 That was a crazy one. That was the one where there was two different pairs of mother-daughter got killed. They thought it was somebody with a little predilection for that. This is in Worcester County, and I hope they're pronouncing it the same as the Massachusetts does there. Area codes 410443 and 667. Good Lord. It's a lot for a small town. population of this town, it fluctuates a lot, we'll just say.
Starting point is 00:05:12 The permanent population is about 6,800 people, 68, 69 is the number. Yeah? But on a summer weekend, 350,000 people. Why? Oh, because Ocean City. Yeah, this is the people go here on vacation, and this is a, I mean, a hot spot for that. That many? That many.
Starting point is 00:05:32 So the 68, 69 that live there are the people, you know, selling the other three. Well, that's how they make a living, I'm sure. Yeah. Is off those people. Median household income here, and the reason why I say there are probably a lot of service people because it's lower than the national average. Really? $58,563. And then the median home cost does not help if that's what you make because that's $433,600.
Starting point is 00:05:58 Yeah. Because it is still Maryland. Yep. So if you live here and by the ocean, if you live here and you work in, you know, some tourist-based industry, you live in an apartment problem. or something like that. It's not very good. So a little bit of history. This land here was born.
Starting point is 00:06:15 Is your land? Is Nileland? From California. Yeah. So, Jesus, you are, you got that, the caboodle, it's like a fourth grade. I can't stop. It's fun. So this whole area was obtained by Thomas Fenwick from the indigenous people who
Starting point is 00:06:37 lived here to begin with. And then some other guy, Isaac Coffin, Isaac Coffin, just like C-O-F-F-I-N. He built a beachfront cottage to receive paying guests. And he was the first one. Oh, with like a bed and breakfast cafe? Yeah, he just put up a cottage. Who wants to rent it? Look at that.
Starting point is 00:06:56 Look at the ocean. So, yep, then they said, hey, we should make, like, you know, this should be a spot. So they cut it up into a bunch of lots and started doing that kind of thing. Nice move. Before 1870, this area was known as the ladies resort to the ocean. That's what everyone thought it was. It was all some ladies resort. I don't know what it was.
Starting point is 00:07:15 It was like a spa. A day spa? Like a brunch place or something. A lot of ladies and their feet getting touched. That's it. The Atlantic Hotel was the first major hotel in town. That opened in 1875. So it's been cranking for a while.
Starting point is 00:07:31 Some reviews of this town. Let's figure it out here. Here's five stars. I'm one of the very few people who actually live there. Yeah. I've grown up in Ocean City, very fortunate with easy access to the beach, grew up just running across the street to jump in the ocean and enjoy a sun-filled day of fun. Oh, boy.
Starting point is 00:07:49 You little prick. For people who grew up not near the ocean like us, it's like, you little bastard, how dare you? It's a very fun person, I'm sure. Jesus. It was never a dull moment with activities to do and a great supportive community. Really? Oh, yeah. It's dirty dancing every day, not just for the summer.
Starting point is 00:08:07 All the time. Three stars, Ocean City is a beautiful place, but it's slowly becoming less and less of a family-friendly place. Oh, great. Maybe I'll go there then. I wasn't interested before. No kids? I'm coming. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:20 Any family planning to vacation here who's not from around the area should, in all caps, avoid Ocean City during, quote, senior week. Now, that sounds like a bunch of filthy old people having orgies and shit, but it's not. it's when high school graduates flood Ocean City. Oh, my God. What could be worse? Horrifying. And then for time, we will just do one more. One star, this person is unhinged.
Starting point is 00:08:47 And what he says makes me believe it because he's crazy. So maybe this is what caused us crazy. Ocean City is full of radiation. Uh-oh. And you go, okay, what is there, nuclear waste buried nearby or something like that, something legitimate? Oh, no. quote, all the condos and hotels have 5G on top of them.
Starting point is 00:09:07 Oh, my God. Yep. Traffic lights are very high radiation. Traffic lights. Power lines are real high radiation. Over 300 towers in an in a 11 beach, if you believe. Buy yourself a meter, question mark. Check yourself into an institution, question mark.
Starting point is 00:09:28 Or stop selling those meters and doing it like this. Oh, either this guy sells radiation meters. Yeah, exactly. Or he's an insane, crazy lunatic. A actual cook. Things to do here, well, the goddamn beach. It's right there. That should be pretty obvious.
Starting point is 00:09:47 Sandwater, you get it. You get it. There's also the Oceans Calling Festival. They have a bunch of food and they have a shitload of bands. And this isn't, these are big people here. They're playing. Green Day, Lenny Kravitz. What?
Starting point is 00:10:02 The Black Crows, Nelly, O-A-R, cake. Of course, Nellie. I was going to say, where's ludicristen here? Cake, live, the fray. This is just 1997. They're getting live to come back. Yeah. Come back would be a good way to put it.
Starting point is 00:10:17 I wonder if that guy still has that long ponytail at the back of his bald head like a mongle. I fucking loved them. Oh, man. Fountains of Wayne, the 502s, the spin doctors. They're still going. Wow. Letters to Cleo. Bally Who, Bell, Izzy Escobar.
Starting point is 00:10:33 That's Friday. What? That's one day? That's one day. Saturday. Noah Kahan? I don't know. Vampire weekend. Good Charlotte, modest mouse, Jack's Manichin, Collective Soul. EnVogue. And Vogue? That's good because I saw the one lady in EnVogue was homeless, so that's good, actually.
Starting point is 00:10:51 At least she'll be homeless on the beach. She was living in her car. So, yeah, at least the weather's nice here. Franz Ferdinand, Natasha Bettingfield. DJ Jazzy Jeff just by himself. Natasha Betting Feet? Matt Kearney, Weedis, bumping uglies, Rachel Anna Dobkin. Then Sunday.
Starting point is 00:11:10 God damn, that's amazing. Fallout Boy, Weezer, Train, Devo, Vance Joy, Ziggy Marley, four non-blondes, Michelle Branch, Blind Melon. Wow. Guy died, didn't he? Burning Spear, Marcy Playground, Eric Hutchinson. Holy shit. That is an amazing weekend. It's a lot of people.
Starting point is 00:11:29 1898 and earlier. If you were like 17 and 1998, that is like you'd love to go to that show. Wet dreams. God damn. That said, let's talk about some murder, shall we? Here we go. Yeah. Okay. For this, we're going to go back to 2002 here.
Starting point is 00:11:47 And let's find out about some people in 2002. All right. Here's a young man named Joshua Ford. Okay. Joshua Ford is 32 years old. Sure. And the best thing I can say is a damn solid citizen this cat. Is that right?
Starting point is 00:12:00 He's an insurance underwriter from Boston. Now, don't hold that against him. You know, working in insurance. He's an Army veteran. He's a nice guy, raised in South Boston, too. He's a Southie guy. Sure. He's huge into karate since he's a young man, very young, since he was a child, very much into that.
Starting point is 00:12:18 How old was he in 2002? 2004? 2002. So he's born in 1970, which is prime karate time. When he came up, Bruce Lee was the biggest thing in the fucking world. Yeah. 70s was like all karate. And then it died a little bit.
Starting point is 00:12:33 Then karate kid resurged it. Right. And then a bunch of kids took karate and realize they still get their asses kicked if they have a green belt. It doesn't matter. Because we don't fight with discipline, motherfucker. I'll knock your teeth. When somebody punches you in the face, none of your, none of that shit matters anymore. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:49 Nice stance. I have a two by four. Yeah. Especially in Southie. Imagine people. Come on. Let's see a crane there, guy. Come on.
Starting point is 00:12:59 What do you got? What do you got over there? Come on. Yeah. I got brass knuckles. Let's see if it matches up. So after his military service, he was in the Army. He attended Norfolk State University in Virginia and became an insurance underwriter and mortgage broker.
Starting point is 00:13:18 Okay. So a real kind of just solid guy, you could say. Nothing crazy. He doesn't get arrested all the time or any crazy shit like that. He has a girlfriend also. Now, he's 32. Yeah. His girlfriend is 51 years old.
Starting point is 00:13:34 At a boy. That's interesting. Yeah, because you're always going out with people 20 years older than you. 20 years. Yeah. 20 years. Yeah. That's a long time.
Starting point is 00:13:45 You can see that the other way. You just don't see it this way very often. It's interesting. It's fine. And in 2002, less so. Yeah. Oh, totally. And I know, I just know how men's minds work.
Starting point is 00:13:56 And unless he's the nicest man in the face of the air, This ain't going to last. You know what I'm saying? Probably not. Probably not. He's going to eventually, yeah, she's going to, those are, yeah. But it's going well right now. These two get along great.
Starting point is 00:14:08 They're devoted to each other. His girlfriend is Martha Crutchley. She goes by Jeannie. Okay. Might be a middle name or something. She's 51 years old, like we said. She's an insurance executive from Kansas. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:14:22 And she has not missed a day of work in 20 years. Really? Miss perfect attendance over here. All the medals hanging for each year, I could say. Has not missed a day of work. She's like known for it. It's her claim to fame in the office. She's likely called in sick, but that's not missing a day of work.
Starting point is 00:14:40 No, no. Hasn't missed, hasn't called in sick. Nothing. So she has spread so many diseases around this office, I'm sure. That's what it is. Yeah. Whenever I see perfect attendance with kids, I'm like, you're telling me that kid's never been sick?
Starting point is 00:14:51 Give me a break. You are a reckless son of a bench. Yeah. But she came from Cunningham, Kansas. She worked as an insurance executive. out of Chantilly, Virginia. And that's they work together, they live together. Sure.
Starting point is 00:15:04 Her, him and her and Josh. Her colleagues say she, like I said, 20, I think it's 21 years. She never missed a day of work. Wow. They met in December 99. Because you go, how do these two get together? Yeah. With the age difference and stuff.
Starting point is 00:15:17 She hasn't missed a day of work since he was 10. Yeah. Since he was in the fifth grade. That's crazy. So they met at a company Christmas party while Jane, He was on a business trip in Boston. And they got immediately got a great connection. Both of them had been married once before.
Starting point is 00:15:39 Each of them had a child from previous relationships. I'm assuming of very different ages. Yeah. Her child could have probably had his child. Probably. But still, yeah. But they love each other. They moved in together in Fairfax County, Virginia, about April 2001.
Starting point is 00:15:56 Josh's brother, Mark, said they were just. just in love. He said they were gardening. They were doing everything that couples do that are in love. I love how gardening is the first thing he thinks of. They were gardening, you know, doing everything that couples do. Is that what you see as the pinnacle of couple success gardening? Pulling weeds. Real weird. It just wasn't like them to vanish. I'll talk about this. Okay. Now, October 2001, Josh is 23-year-old. old niece was found decapitated and buried in a shallow grave on Cape Cod. Oh my God.
Starting point is 00:16:36 Yeah, that was some deep shit for Josh. They went through a lot with that. Did they solve it? Well, they said that not only was her head missing, but reports indicated that her heart had been cut out of her body as well. Unsolved still that murder. No one ever got to it. So there's a real bad dude walking around out there somewhere.
Starting point is 00:16:55 Even today? They never solved it. So, I mean, it's been 24 years. I hope the guy's dead by now, but maybe not. Probably not. As we find out, like when we found the Gilgo Beach guy and all that, like, there's, they're still out there these guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:11 You know, what the hell? We don't know what's going on in Houston with all those bodies. Who knows? That's wild stuff. Memorial Day weekend 2002. So late May. Yeah. I always get them mixed up with Labor Day, too.
Starting point is 00:17:23 Yeah, I do too. I remember I was on Cape Cod for Labor Day one year, and a man screamed, Labor Day. And I'll never forget it as long as I live. I now know that that's in September. No shit. So Josh and Jeannie were trying to, they had a lot of grief over this, and Josh has been having a hard time. So they want to go away, have a good time. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:48 So they drove to Ocean City and checked into the Atlantis Condominiums, which is a beachfront. beautiful high-rise condominiums. They have a balcony that overlooks the ocean. Yeah. Just a couple shit like gardening down there. They can garden all over that bad boy. They're going to get some romas growing out there fast. That's the funniest thing I've ever heard.
Starting point is 00:18:09 Isn't that weird? That's the crazy thing to say. Such a strange line. So Josh calls his brother from the balcony saying, wow, this view is amazing. They stopped at the grocery store, stocked up the fridge, bought a bunch of toiletries and left shit on the bag, all on the because they're going out. What are we going to hang out in this condo? We're at the ocean. Let's go. So they get on a city bus. They ditch the car because they're going to go out partying that night. So smart. They're going on a bus. And on a city bus, they run into a young
Starting point is 00:18:38 couple. And they don't have exact change for the bus. They're like trying to, you know, I got $5. Like, does anybody have change for this? And Josh asks them, are you two going to, Jesus Christ, I hate these bar names? Are you two going to secrets? I'll give you a guess. how that's spelled, by the way. Is it with a kid? Oh, S-E-A? Yep. Secrets.
Starting point is 00:19:01 Yeah, that's the one. Jesus Christ. Are you two going to secrets? And like everyone on the whole bus was going to secrets, they thought. So the guy that they just met, he looked at, you know, he looked over and she shrugged. That guy looked over at his girlfriend. And he said, yeah. And so Josh said, sit down.
Starting point is 00:19:20 I'll get it. And he gave the driver exact change. Okay. Josh said, I can take you care of. take care of it. And then the young couple they meet said, all right, fine. We'll buy a drink when we get there.
Starting point is 00:19:30 I said, yeah, great. Sounds good. We're all on vacation. Who cares? You know what I mean? Long Island, even swap. Even swap. So they sat down in an empty seat next to the couple they just met,
Starting point is 00:19:42 sat down next to Jeannie and Josh. You know, Jeannie's looking smiling and happy and they're on vacation. You know, that's the way it is. So the one, the one. The woman from the couple they meet says, I'm Erica. And this is my husband Beige, BJ, Benjamin. Bege. Hi, I'm Beech.
Starting point is 00:20:07 I'm slang for blowjohn. Yeah. Don't call your husband Beech. Never. Jesus Christ. They kept saying it, Bege. Just call him Benny. For Christ's sake.
Starting point is 00:20:19 What's the problem? Ben, it's fine. Bejj? No. BJ is bad enough. but beege is even worse. That's like an excitable one. It's a douchebag who got a blowjob.
Starting point is 00:20:32 What happened last night? Gave me a good beager. She gave me a bead and I went on home. Yep. And she said, I'm Erica with a K by the way. Oh, God. You know. Am I writing you a card?
Starting point is 00:20:46 I just met you. Shut up. I don't care. What are we talking about? I'm not at a gas station looking for your little license. Fuck off. This is stupid. And, well, she says, I'm Jeannie and this is Josh.
Starting point is 00:20:58 And so the people she met are Erica Elaine, originally, Grace. Now it's Sifred. Oh. But it's Erica Elaine Grace. She was born February 3rd, 1978, so younger than them by far. She's from Pennsylvania, only child of Charlotte and Gerald, Grace. Gerald was a very successful contractor. So she grew up with some money.
Starting point is 00:21:22 Doing well, yeah. doing very well. They grew up, she grew up in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Oh. Friends say she wasn't spoiled,
Starting point is 00:21:30 but she always had every goddamn thing she needed, which is spoiled. If you grew up poor, that's spoiled. What exactly is spoiled? What would spoiled be? I don't like the color
Starting point is 00:21:43 of my Corvette anymore by me a new one. Yeah. Is that spoiled? To me, getting everything you need is spoiled. That's spoiled as fuck. If you're poor,
Starting point is 00:21:51 that's spoiled. Yeah. We grew up poor. So that's spoiled. Poor fuck. Look at this guy with school clothes. Look at this fucking asshole. That's how we grew up.
Starting point is 00:22:03 Oh, God, Jesus. So Erica does really well. She's a really good basketball player. Like, excellent basketball. This is so weird because our other show this week. We just had one. She's a basketball player, too. She's an honor student.
Starting point is 00:22:17 Stel's academically she does well. A friend of her said, you couldn't have met a nicer, more politely. light person than Erica. She was dedicated to her sport just as she was to her studies. All right. Wow. Can't beat that. But she also, under the surface, as a lot of perfectionist people have like that, she's got a lot of disorders going on inside of her because that's what makes you act like that. Otherwise, why you acting like that? You know what I mean? There's a sickness to success. Yeah. There's also you're a people and you're insecure as a child as you grow up. And if you're
Starting point is 00:22:52 just being rewarded, you don't understand how to fix those insecurities. So they just fester and get worse. Successful people are a fucking nightmare. That too. Yeah, that too. And also, usually this type of thing is a perfectionist mother wanting you to be burned by our father, either one. But I'm thinking he's a contractor. He's probably gone a lot. So I'm saying, your mother's probably around more with her. Just that kind of thing to make her like that. She's got some anxiety. She's got OCD issues. She, and this, this, oh, I feel bad because this is exactly, I've done this a million times. Stuff like this. She wouldn't go in for dinner unless she hit 10 free throws in a row. Yeah. That's the type of shit that I have going on in my life all the time.
Starting point is 00:23:36 She'd have to do things 20 times, step away, look at them and do them one more time. Sister, I feel you. I had a basketball hoop I would put in the street and we were on a, our street connected with another street, so it like ran into it. And as cars would pass us, I would try to get three layups in before the car went by. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If I could do that, then I'd go inside, and I can never fucking deal. Jimmy's been outside since 1986. He's recording this from the intersection.
Starting point is 00:24:06 If you hear a whoosh every once in a while, it's just a car flying by. Working on three layoffs. Now, and her father was the one who was really relentless about her success. You have to do this. You have to do that. Yeah. And this is a lot of times successful people put these weird things on their kids where you have to be as good as I am. And it's like, hey, calm down.
Starting point is 00:24:26 Sometimes better than me. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have to do more. When he didn't think she was getting enough playing time on her basketball team, she moved the family to a different school district. What? So get her in a different school. He's a contractor.
Starting point is 00:24:40 He built a 10-bedroom house with an indoor basketball court and hired her a private coach. You just play here. Yeah, I don't know what. That's crazy. So she ends up getting a partial athletic scholarship to go to Mary Washington College, which is now University of Mary Washington. This is in Fredericksburg, Virginia. And she was there. She was an honor student.
Starting point is 00:25:02 And she became one of the, in the women's division, one of the nation's best three-point shooters. Dang. Yeah. She graduated cum laude, come loud. Yeah. With a bachelor's degree in history and political science. She is an achiever this one. You glad.
Starting point is 00:25:20 Her friends say she's normal, level-headed, active, and outgoing, but has a hard time making friends due to her anxiety and kind of O-C-D shit and has a real inferiority complex. She's terrified of letting her parents down for a long time, it feels like. She meets a guy named Benjamin Adam Siffrit, S-I-F-R-I-T. The Beager. That's the guy. The Beech. The Beege. October 21, 1977.
Starting point is 00:25:46 he's born, he's from Iowa, and his parents are Elizabeth and Craig. He grew up moving around the Midwest and Texas. His dad was an executive and got jobs in different places. Hey, everybody, Jess, going to take a quick break from the show to tell you something better to feed your cat with Smalls. Smalls.com. That's right. It's a new year. New year for your cat, too. That's right. Brandy, she likes to walk around thinking she owns the joint, asking for fun.
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Starting point is 00:27:59 Make 2026 your cat's healthiest year yet. For a limited time, because you're a small-town murder listener, you get 60% off your first order plus free shipping when you head to smalls.com slash STM. One last time, that's 60% off your first. first order plus-free shipping when you had to smalls.com slash STF. Now back to the show. Hi, I'm Chris Gathard, and I'm very excited to tell you about beautiful anonymous, a podcast where I talk to random people on the phone. I tweet out a phone number, thousands of people try to call,
Starting point is 00:28:29 you talk to one of them, they stay anonymous, I can't hang up, that's all the rules. I never know what's going to happen. We get serious ones. I've talked with meth dealers on their way to prison. I've talked to people who survived mass shootings. Crazy funny ones. I talked to a guy with a goose laugh, somebody who dresses up as a lot. pirate on the weekends. I never know what's going to happen. It's a great show. Subscribe
Starting point is 00:28:48 today, beautiful anonymous. That happens. In high school, he worked on the, he was on the swim team and all of that. He also worked at a locksmith shop and he'll have some skills there. He ended up wanting to get into the service. Oh. Not service, the service. Yeah, way different. Service industry. No, not waiting tables, holding the gun. So he took his entrance exams for the Navy, or for the Marines, I guess. His scores were really high. Oh. So he basically ended up going into the Navy instead to go to seal training because his
Starting point is 00:29:25 scores were so high. Oh, wow. So, yeah. In 1996, he did the basic underwater demolition training. Sick. The seals do in California. Out of 60, 160 candidates who started, only 18 graduated. Uh-huh.
Starting point is 00:29:41 And BJ was one of those guys. He's just one of 18. The Beager is going to be a seal here. Fascinating. They said other seals that his work ethic was crazy. He's just drinking energy shakes and fucking doing that. They said that's what they were all doing, trying to keep up with the rigorous schedule. They said he'd stay up, drink until 3 a.m., get two hours of rest, and then be the best guy on a 10-mile run.
Starting point is 00:30:06 God damn. He's like Rick Flair, this fucking guy. What he is, except his dicks in his pants. You can just accept punishment, self-induced. He received a special award for being the top performer of his class. Then he completed 25 weeks of advanced medic training, including time working as an EMT in New York City and a month in the emergency room. So he's seen some gross shit too. Now, a guy, a man who served with BJ, that guy's wife, described BJ as meek around women, though.
Starting point is 00:30:37 You wouldn't think this guy would be meek, but he is. She said he was very shy around girls, not your typical ladies man. He wasn't violent, never ever violent. The craziest thing I ever knew about him was maybe driving fast. So he meets Erica in a bar in Fredericksburg. And, you know, they're just friends for a while. He's in the Navy, so he's not really concentrating on having a girlfriend right now. Then a few months later, they ran into each other at a party now.
Starting point is 00:31:04 Hey, I know you. Yeah, blah, blah, blah. They talked. And his friend's wife said, I have not. never seen him like that for a girl. He was goofy over her. Oh. I don't think goofy even describes it because, I mean, if you said,
Starting point is 00:31:18 give me a word for what this is, what I'm about to describe. It wouldn't be goofy. It'd be insane. Stupid would come to mind. Ill-conceived. Several. I can keep going. I'm on the edge of my fucking seat already, James.
Starting point is 00:31:32 They start dating, and within three weeks, they fly to Vegas and get married. Idiot. Three, yeah. You want to add? Fucking moron. Dip shit. Dip shits, dumbass. Very charitable, because he's about to give away all his shit.
Starting point is 00:31:47 Creightness. We could go on and on and on. So they got married at the Silver Bell Wedding Chapel. Didn't tell either of their families. Oh, my God. A hardcore. Oh, fucking no. Yeah, what are you thinking?
Starting point is 00:32:00 Don't do that. BJ called his parents afterwards to tell him he married a woman that they've never met before. Wow. Erica's father, who obviously had all of her, you know, had a lot of her shit mapped out what it seems like here, dreamed of walking his daughter down the aisle. And no. In her scrapbook, Erica wrote, best decision I ever made, you are my sunshine. Oh, my God. Don't tell you, Dad.
Starting point is 00:32:28 My sunshine, beech. Whenever you add beage to anything, it's going to make it sound really stupid. Isn't that the guy from a rest of the guy. It's just gemstones? Isn't that what they called him, Beech? Yeah, yeah. And I think that was, because they're picking on him. That's the idea.
Starting point is 00:32:42 He's a cock. Yeah. Bege. So the old Beger gets sent to Arkansas. The Navy sends him to Arkansas for training, which I don't know how the Navy would have any interest in Arkansas. There's no fucking water there. What are we doing? Mississippi over there?
Starting point is 00:32:59 Is the Arkansas River big enough? It's the Mississippi's on Arkansas. I don't know what they're doing in there. Erica lost it, though. this is she can't not be around beach so yeah she was convinced he was cheating in arkansas don't worry yeah yeah you have more teeth in the whole state what are you doing you're fine don't worry when he went to alaska for cold weather training she tracked him down and showed up at the base you are not allowed to do that at all it was against it was against regulations for
Starting point is 00:33:31 them to even tell their spouses where they were never mind have them show up there so So he's breaking many rules. Erica, you're going to get me so fired. Oh, my God. BJ had sent her coded messages telling her exactly where he was, and they got caught. He got in trouble. Erica said, I became deeply troubled and fearful of losing his love. I was so afraid he would leave me.
Starting point is 00:33:54 By 2000, he is kicked out of the Navy. He gets a bad conduct discharge. He is out. Out. Holy. He, for several things, absent without, leave. A-Wall, can't do that. It's ugly. My friend who says, start stories with, so I was A-Wall from the Navy, right?
Starting point is 00:34:13 It's an Italian guy from Philly, I know. Right. So I'm A-Wall from the Navy, right? And you know that story is going to go somewhere wild. It starts out with, so I'm A-Wall from the Navy. That's not even the story. Yeah. That was just a status of the time. I'm already underground. Yeah. Insubordination, poor performance, wearing unauthorized and safe. Whatever that was.
Starting point is 00:34:38 What do he put on his, he put like a Mickey Mouse hat on him or something, but British Brigade or something shit? He had his Navy enlisted classification and his 5-3-2-6 combatant swimmer, seal revoked. Oh. So then, that's bad.
Starting point is 00:34:55 So they moved to Pennsylvania, her hometown of Altoona. Altoona, yeah. That's where they go. You bet. They open up a, like a, kind of like a, curio shop almost
Starting point is 00:35:07 like a collectible shop basically a scrapbook store they called it with a bunch of shit called memory lane L-A-I-N-E because her middle name's Elaine right lane and her father of course
Starting point is 00:35:21 supported it yeah now not only does her father do it but she does a bunch of eBay collectible shit that she does she you know what her extensive memorabilia collection is it's from one particular place McDonald's
Starting point is 00:35:35 Hooters. Worse. What? At least McDonald's is an iconic brand. What are they have other than the shorts and the top? Hooters was just a drunk guy in Florida. His Jimmy Buffett record was skipping and he had a second to think about something. He goes, would have chicks with tits serve me terrible food?
Starting point is 00:35:54 I think I'd pay for that. And then this lady. And beers on tap. Plenty of them too. Wow. The memorabilia of a Hooters is. die cast NASCAR and the outfit. That's it.
Starting point is 00:36:09 And the hat. That stupid. They had a hat? The tangerine hat that says Hooters on it that they wear the braided rope on it. It looks like a cap, you know, like a sea hat. Yeah. So they're very, people call it her like obsession with Hooters. Hooters?
Starting point is 00:36:25 She was Hooters memorabilia obsession. That'll come in, that'll come up later. Trust me. Okay. So they went on a two month trip to South America. as newlyweds that was financed by the family, of course. Erica later admitted that the whole point of going there, why they said they wanted to go to South America,
Starting point is 00:36:43 was she developed huge addictions to Xanax and Valium. And in South America, she could buy as much of it as she wanted and smuggle it back into the country. So she could have a giant supply of Xanax and Valium. Oh, boy. So BJ gets even fucking weirder, as if being named BJ is not weird enough. What's his obsession in South America?
Starting point is 00:37:05 Well, in addition to the Hooters memorabilia that she collects, he got a giant swastika on his chest. They called it Ed Norton American History X fucking swastika on his chest. Enormous. Are you saying tattooed? Is crazy. Tattoo. No, he just drew it on with a Sharpie. You just said got it on his chest.
Starting point is 00:37:26 Well, I mean, what else do you do? Any fucking swastika is too big, first of all. Any swastika tattooed on you. It's crazy. Crazy. A giant one on your chest? Yeah. That should be automatically we should be able to put you down for that, I feel like.
Starting point is 00:37:44 Yeah, you can't have that. All of our grandfathers and great grandfathers had, no, you're fucking back of the head. Sorry. Unless it's life without and you're just trying to survive. That is not okay. If you're going to be in prison forever anyway and you're just trying to. You're trying to get bashed in by the. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:38:04 You're just trying to suck wind until your body stops. Still, no. Feel free. But if you're going to be in society, no. No. They both became obsessed with Hitler, obviously. Oh, boy. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:38:17 They kept exotic pets, including boa constrictors, pythons, and a cobra. Yeah. They had pythons named Bonnie and Clyde, fitting. They had a cobra named Hitler, fittingly. And another snake that they named HIV. So they're just assholes. These people are trashed, James. I'm going to say it.
Starting point is 00:38:42 Oh, they are, they go to Hooters all the time. That's their favorite place. Hedler and snakes. Oh, my. That's it. Hooters, Hitler, and HIV. The three H's. The three Hs.
Starting point is 00:38:55 I think Hooters, Hitler, and HIV should definitely be the name of this episode. I think it is. I think it is. So they would go there. She would. try to, like, trade tank tops with the waitresses. Like, I'll trade you my. She tried to buy them off of, like, off of, right off their tits.
Starting point is 00:39:13 She's trying to buy. I'm going to need you to take those out and cover them with my shirt. Yeah. They would drink like crazy. They're snorting mad pills. They'd use ecstasy and coke all the time, too, to supplement their Valium and Zanix. What the fuck happened? Burglarizing Hooters restaurants.
Starting point is 00:39:32 He's a locksmith, remember? Right. So they started doing that. And all she wants is the merch cabinet. Yeah. A journalist named M. William Phelps, who wrote cruel death about this case, said, I always described those two as hypergolic, hypergolic rocket fuel. By themselves, they're no problem.
Starting point is 00:39:54 But when you put them together, they explode. Like, they were both just looking for this other person to the other part of the primer that hardens it. You know what I mean? The activator. J.B. Weld. The Bege weld. The B.J. Weld. The B.J. Not the J.B. It's the J.B. It's the B.J. Weld. Then Eric, she started becoming abusive toward Erica. She later said. She told people that he was mentally and physically abusive. A racist, obviously. Clearly. Clearly. And a control freak. So in early May of 2002, B.J asked Erica if he could kill her. family. And she said, no, I can't have that. At one point, Erica became pregnant, and B.J, this is what Erica said, according to her. She told people that he said, quote, get an abortion or I'm going to dig it out of you. Ew. So she had an abortion. Dig it. Dig it. I'm going there with a spoon.
Starting point is 00:40:54 Late 2001, they get burned in a Coke deal. Oh, yeah. They go to buy a bunch of Coke. Turns out to be Ajax. Mm-hmm. So BJ is super mad. He's still. He starts planning to, it's a woman who sold him the Coke. He starts planning to kill this woman and dissolve her body in acid. Right. He purchased acid from a hardware store and tested it on a rat. And by the next day, it was almost completely dissolved. So he was like, this is going to work.
Starting point is 00:41:19 It'll work. Yeah, I know a mob guy who talked about that, people doing that with skulls and it works. It's gross. Getting burned in a Coke deal, James, finding out that that's Ajax is getting burned. Indeed. Oh, yeah. That's a terrible way to find out. So we don't know any other way about that.
Starting point is 00:41:37 We don't know how that worked out. Saturday, May 25th, 2002, though, they arrived in Ocean City, which was when our other guys were there, too, Jeannie and Josh. They check in a luxury penthouse at the Rainbow Condominiums owned by a friend of Erica's dad. Erica snorts some pills, drinks some beer. They go out to eat. Guess where, Jimmy? Hooters. They got a hooters here?
Starting point is 00:42:00 I'm going. Y'all got a hooters? Y'all got a hooters. She tried to trade tank tops with the waitresses. Of course she did. No takers. 9 p.m. they board a city bus to go to secrets, and that's when they meet Josh and Jeannie. They said, hey, we'll buy your drinks when we get there. They all go to secrets together. I don't think Josh and Jeannie know who they're hanging out with. I don't think so either.
Starting point is 00:42:20 Hey, open your shirt for a sec. Just checking and see if we have a giant slastic. If we went down to the beach first, we'd know exactly who you are. You'd know everything. So 9.30 p.m. to 2 a.m. They party. They drink. Erica's ducking out in the parking lot to snort more Xanax. B.J. vomits at the bar. Wow. He doesn't even get thrown out for that.
Starting point is 00:42:42 A bouncer then catches B.J. trying to pick the lock on the ATM and tells them to get the fuck out. Erica threatens to kill the bouncer, of course. Yeah. Obviously. 2 a.m. That's what Hooters used to be, you guys. That's Hooters.
Starting point is 00:42:59 You could throw up on the floor. That's secrets. That's secrets. Oh. Yeah. They went to, that's drinking in secrets. They were already ate at Hooters. No.
Starting point is 00:43:07 All right. They're already, he threw up from the Hooters. That's not the booze. That's the Hooters. So at 2 a.m., they return, I don't know why Josh and Jeannie would still want to hang out with these people who had to leave the club because they got kicked out. That's crazy. They returned to Josh and Jeannie's a condo to grab some weed. Josh and Jeannie brought some weed with them.
Starting point is 00:43:26 I knew I like these people. Yeah. There's four wine glasses out later, so we know they all had some wine. Then they walk two blocks. over to the Siffrat's penthouse. By 2.30, they're arriving at the penthouse. They keep drinking. They're smoking weed. Josh and Jeannie change into bathing suits for the hot tub.
Starting point is 00:43:46 Okay, so everything seems to be going swell here. Good times. 301, Erica says her purse is missing. My purse is missing. Which any nightmare girl who's on a lot of drugs, their purse is always missing. Their phone's missing. It's always around 2.3 a.m. too. When they're on drugs and drunk, that's what I mean.
Starting point is 00:44:03 their purse. And I'm not saying that to be sexist. If it was a guy, if they had a purse, it'd be missing. Trust me. They have something else missing. Three a.m. His wallets usually. What I do with my wallet? If it's not in your back pocket, bro, then I don't know what to tell you. So she makes, she calls 911 at 3 a.m. 301 a. And her voice is slurred. And she says, there are people in the house who I don't know and my purse is suddenly missing. And I'm afraid I'm going to have a robbery here. I'm up in an upstairs room and they don't know where I am. Okay.
Starting point is 00:44:38 So 911 says, okay. And she says, ah, there are people in my apartment. Oh. And the dispatcher says, ma'am, did you want the police? Yeah. And she says, yes, I did. But I think there's a third person on the line right now. So, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:44:56 Oh, boy. They give her another number and then she hangs up. No address was ever given, no police ever responded to this. She never called back. Just sounded like a drunk lady who lost her purse, essentially, called. They probably get that a lot in a resort town. This is not the lost and found. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:45:13 That is until a couple days later when Josh and Jeannie, no one hears from them. What? So they're reported missing. Uh-huh. And people, no one can find them. Like literally the Ocean City, Maryland police start printing up flyers to look, wanting a lost person. here lost people.
Starting point is 00:45:32 Then let's fast forward almost a week, May 31st, 2002. Okay. This is just after midnight. A silent alarm is tripped at the Hooters on 123th Street in Ocean City. This is insanity. Nice. It's not there anymore, though, right? It's closed.
Starting point is 00:45:52 Maybe not. Who knows? I think they're all closed, right? Did they? No, I think they're still open. They claim bankruptcy, but they're never closing. Oh, they're restructed. You can't keep Hooters down, Jimmy.
Starting point is 00:46:02 What are you talking about? I think they're all going away. Probably, who knows. It's crazy that business model didn't have longevity. Weird. Hey, want to feel like your Florida trash all the time? Come into a Hooters. Want to come objectify a woman?
Starting point is 00:46:19 Well, yeah, there's strip clubs everywhere. Yeah, but those... Very successful. These women are not asking to be, you know what I mean? Hooters walks a strange line where they're like, Hey, look, we got chicks and short shorts with their big racks hanging out, but it's a family place. How dare you, oh, go on them. It's so weird.
Starting point is 00:46:36 Don't look at them like that, but bring your kids. It's a weirdest business bottle of all the time. These are nice women. They're nice girls. So the officers who respond pull up and find these two fucking idiots, Erica and the beecher, loading merchandise into a Jeep Cherokee. Oh, my God. T-shirt, sweatshirts, hats, racks of cigarettes.
Starting point is 00:46:58 they're putting in there. Wow. BJ, when they pull up, he realizes, fuck, we can't run. They're right here, the cop. So he puts his hands up and he goes, can we just put the stuff back? No, you can't.
Starting point is 00:47:13 Yeah, he said, come on. All right, we won't take it. Okay, fine. Never mind. If we don't take it, then it's not illegal, right? I'll fix the lock I just broke. Don't worry about it. Holy shit.
Starting point is 00:47:27 So they search BJ. they find a 9mm handgun tucked in his pants, fully loaded one in the chamber. Wow. Oh, yeah, in the chamber, ready to go. A shoulder holster that was empty because it's in his pants. This is how dumb he is. He's got a holster on him and he puts the gun in his pants.
Starting point is 00:47:44 I don't know. I don't ask questions. I'm going to put this next to the most important part of my body. Even though I have the exact thing that it should be safely contained in. It's designed to hold it. Put it next to my nuts. a hunting knife. They search Erica.
Starting point is 00:48:01 She's got a 357 Smith & Wesson revolver tucked in the back of her jeans. That's a hand cannon. A buck knife clipped to the front of her pants. What are these people? Fucking Crocodile Dundee in the Outback? What's happening? What is this?
Starting point is 00:48:14 Inside the Jeep, they find another 40, a loaded 45 caliber handgun in the center console. Ski masks, zip ties for handcuffs, gloves, tape, lock picking supplies. Erica starts hyperventilating and tells the officer she's having a panic attack and needs her Xanax and Paxil from her purse. Which you shouldn't be drinking and doing coke and all that. Probably shouldn't be doing both of those at the same time. Yeah, if you're doing the serotonin uptake rehabit, whatever the fuck it is.
Starting point is 00:48:46 You shouldn't be doing that. These Bonnie and Clyde are more savage than Bonnie and Clyde. They had... They're crazy. Clyde had a pretty nasty gun, but I think she just carried a 22 or something. Oh, no, these people are, this is a hardcore, this is a fucking serial killer kit they have here. The officer said, okay, and went to go get her medication out of her purse. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:07 Now, I don't know if that is just to be able to search her purse without anything. So either way, he opens the pouch and starts digging, and he finds four spent 357 shell casings. Round, yeah. One live round. Uh-huh. Two Virginia driver's licenses that don't belong to Erica or BJ. Uh-oh. They do belong to Joshua Ford and Martha Crutchley, though.
Starting point is 00:49:30 Old Jeannie. A sergeant arrived on the scene, and he had just seen the missing person's flyer for these people that he's looking at their driver's licenses right now. So the detective said the hair stands up in the back of your neck. We knew he had a bad situation. Yeah. All of this from there's a disturbance at the Hooters. That's unexpected. The silent alarm.
Starting point is 00:49:52 Wow. Could just be the wind rattling the door? Nope. It's these dips shit. It's these. Also in the purse, Josh and Jeannie's Social Security cards, a Bally Total Fitness membership card with Josh's photo,
Starting point is 00:50:04 and a blood-stained ring. This is not good. So they go back to the rainbow condominiums where the couple, where they were staying here, these two idiots, Erica and the Beager. And they, that the couple's missing IDs means they can go there without a warrant and search for them.
Starting point is 00:50:22 Because they say they might have missing people. Right. So they do. And they were hoping they, be like tied up in the back with the zip ties or something. But the one cop said, going down the hallway, we didn't know if we were going to find our missing persons or whether we were going to find more suspects. They get in there, everything looks clean. Nothing.
Starting point is 00:50:40 Looks clean. But then they do kind of a more, just look around. There's no people. Now they're like, okay, let's look in more detail. And they see something on the coffee table, which is two partially flattened bullets, dollar bills or money of some kind rolled up to snort with, white powder and a stack of photographs. Right on top of the photographs is Josh and Jeannie Crutchley smile and pictures that were taken. The cop said it nearly knocked us over.
Starting point is 00:51:10 We expected to find crucial evidence. We never expected crucial evidence like that to just be sitting out. At that point, it was like, well, I think we know what happened here. I think we got this all locked down pretty much. So they bring in crime scene technicians. they find that there are brand there's a brand new door on the bathroom. Brand new. Oh.
Starting point is 00:51:31 Fresh paint on the walls. Uh-huh. Cleaning supplies all over the floor. Bloodstains still found on the countertop underside of the counter, floor, the floor under the vanity, the back of the vanity drawer, under the mirror, the baseball. All the places that murderers don't think to clean. All the places that are fucking impot. You got to pry the base. boards up. You've got so much work to do when a murder is hard work.
Starting point is 00:51:57 It's not going to be easy, man. Not you, asshole. Murderer asshole. If you're going to be lazy, this isn't a gig for you. That's why Dexter lined the whole fucking room, man. See how much he put into that? That's what you got to do. It's a pathetic. Or you rebuild. Yeah, under the base. Yeah, under the hot tub faucet, under the hot tub step on a sailboat candle holder on the window and in the shower. So much blood. A dried line of blood between the tile and the vanity he kicked toe kick, a piece of human scalp with dark hair still attached found in the sink drain. Oh my God. More hair, tissue and coagulated blood in the dryer lint trap.
Starting point is 00:52:36 A patched hole in the wall that went completely through to the bedroom. Josh's palm print on the window, I think when he's trying to escape. All of these samples matched the DNA of either Josh or Jeannie, by the way. Oh, boy. In the dryer lint trap. That's the first time I've ever heard that. They washed their clothes. Hair is still on them.
Starting point is 00:52:55 The detective said the crazy thing is we have what represents one loading of a gun and we have all the empty casings and one round left over. And we have all the bullets. It's just crazy. You never get that in a murder case. You never get everything. This is like, this is a dream. They just lined it up.
Starting point is 00:53:12 This is like an exercise in like a class for detectives. Oops, you found all the evidence. Look at you. James, this is how important antidepressants and Xanax are. You can go in my purse and find everything you need to convict me. Just get me my fucking bills. Get me my shit. Please, I need it now.
Starting point is 00:53:31 Addiction's crazy. It's wild. So, BJ immediately asks for a lawyer. Doesn't say a fucking word. All right. Erica says a lot of words. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:53:41 She's a mess. And she gives confessions, contradictory statements. It's wild. She talked to everybody, every cop who would listen to her. Really? Some of them didn't line up. one of the detectives said it was really pulling teeth with this girl. She didn't give you anything until she thought you had something you already knew.
Starting point is 00:54:02 She thought you already knew it. She'd tell you. So they had to bullshit her basically. First she said she didn't know the missing couple at all. Then they said, well, we have the IDs. And she said, well, maybe BJ found them somewhere. But after hours of interrogation, she admitted Josh and Jeannie went to the penthouse. when they asked her about the probability of them being alive right now,
Starting point is 00:54:23 she said, 50-50. Why would she even say that? Eventually, she agreed to take them to the dumpsters where the bodies had been disposed of. Eventually, she admits they're dead and they killed them. This is in Delaware. Oh, they drove states away. On the ride to Delaware, she is acting wild.
Starting point is 00:54:43 The detective said, Erica was sitting in the car right next to me, and she didn't seem concerned at all about this double homicide. She was more concerned about how I felt about her. Did I think she was pretty? Did I think she was a good person?
Starting point is 00:54:57 She had no remorse for these victims whatsoever. She's like Kelly Cochran. That's exactly what she reminds me up. If you guys look up Kelly Cochran shit on YouTube, she's flirting with these cops. She's multiple murder charges, all this. She's trying to get the cops to want to fuck her. It's weird.
Starting point is 00:55:11 Do you think I'm pretty? Do you think, how do you feel about me? Is what I like to know. Do you like my? hair like this. Am I a good person or no? Oh, okay. So just before they arrived, that's when they get a call
Starting point is 00:55:25 saying there's so much murder scene shit in this penthouse. So that's, she's guilty as shit. So he said, the cop said he knew she was lying, he starts yelling at her and then she broke down and says exactly what happened. She says about,
Starting point is 00:55:41 she said, this is where we threw them at the dumpsters. Quote, we cut the heads off the arms in the legs. 50, 50. 50. So the cop said that was a double take. It was like, what did you just tell me?
Starting point is 00:55:54 You just remember these people? The dumpsters had already been emptied, but they police tracked the contents through to a landfill in Delaware. Yeah. And we'll talk about that. Here's the story. Okay. They, BJ and Erica started accusing Josh and Jeannie of stealing Erica's purse.
Starting point is 00:56:13 Because they seem like purse themes, those two. B.J. grabbed his gun. which is Erica's 357 revolver, forced them to strip naked at gunpoint, demanding to know where the purse is. Probably not down their pants, I wouldn't think. So Josh and Jeannie managed to break away
Starting point is 00:56:28 and barricade themselves in the master bathroom. Josh tried to open the window, hoping they could climb onto the balcony and get somebody's attention, but it wouldn't budge. That's why the palm print was found on the glass. It was him trying to open it. Erica said she ran out onto the balcony
Starting point is 00:56:43 where she could see through the bathroom window, and she watched Josh and Jeannie cowering inside. BJ asked her, what do you want me to do? And Erica said her response was, this took a while to come out, but she finally said what happened. She said she told him, quote, just fucking do it. And she clarified, kill him. Just kill him. She's what she meant. So BJ fired through the bathroom door.
Starting point is 00:57:10 The first shot hit Josh in the shoulder. Then BJ kicked the door in with a lot of force. the doorknob dented the metal corner bead on the drywall by over an inch. Wow. He kicked it the fuck in. Now, Josh has also been in the Army. He's not a pussy or anything here. He told BJ that,
Starting point is 00:57:27 where would you do this to a fellow veteran? Right. He tried to play that. And BJ said, See you later, motherfucker, and shot him in the head. Erica said Joshua didn't die immediately. He was gurgling and there was blood coming out of his mouth. Jeannie was curled up in a fetal position on the bathroom floor
Starting point is 00:57:46 kind of hiding behind Josh's body, essentially. So B.J. fired the gun at her. He missed the first time. I wonder why he got kicked out of the seals. That's why he got kicked out. Jesus. The bullet went through the wall and into the bedroom. That's the one he patched over and repainted. Then he got closer, put the gun to her shoulder,
Starting point is 00:58:03 and fired down through her body, which went through her long. Oh, my God, with a 357. Yep. But that is not how she died. Erica told Erica said BJ told her to go outside
Starting point is 00:58:17 and check if the stolen items her purse had been thrown off the balcony when she came back up BJ told her to use the knife
Starting point is 00:58:25 to make sure Jeannie was dead so Erica stabbed Jeannie twice in the side and then BJ told Erica her purse
Starting point is 00:58:35 and all of her stolen shit is actually under the bed and he put them there what the fuck this is a setup that he did.
Starting point is 00:58:43 He did this to be able to kill people. Yeah, and get her on board with it. If you know your partner's so unstable that she will want blood because her purse is missing, I guess that would work. I don't know if I buy this, but who knows? But now they're like, what do we do? There's two dead people here. What the fuck?
Starting point is 00:59:00 It's Memorial Day weekend. Not like we can take her out the front in a carpet or anything. There's 300,000 people here. So you can't do that. So BJ said, okay, we got a plan. around 4 a.m., Erica said she went to the dollar tree and bought black garbage bags, which is a red flag immediately at 4 a.m. BJ was going to work in the bathroom when she got back. He used knives and a hacksaw, severed the heads, arms, and legs from both bodies, wrapped the pieces in trash bags, plastic containers, and military kit bags.
Starting point is 00:59:33 At some point, BJ called her into the bathroom. She said he was completely naked. In one hand, he had Josh's head. and he had genies in the other hand. Oh, my word. She said he had a full erection. What? Full erection, two heads.
Starting point is 00:59:49 And he said to her, quote, take a picture. I want to send it to my buddies. What buddies would want to see your dick and two heads? I cannot believe this. Jimmy, do you want to see either of those things? Neither. She then claimed,
Starting point is 01:00:07 Erica said she wouldn't do it. She then claimed that BJ, Oh my God. Raped Jeannie's Headless Corpse Okay. And asked her to cook one of Josh's legs.
Starting point is 01:00:19 Oh my God. Which she said she would. So they loaded the body parts into the Jeep Cherokee and drove 30 miles to Delaware where they deposited the remains in a dumpster behind a food lion grocery store.
Starting point is 01:00:33 Nice. They said if it smells, they have old food, it won't matter. It'll just assume, yeah. Went home and went to sleep. Next day, they got cleaning supplies. Did all of that.
Starting point is 01:00:43 BJ scrubbed all the surfaces in the bathroom. Not all of them very well. Right. Patched the bullet hole in the wall and repainted. Lucky he's handy. This would be a totally different cleanup. The bathroom door had been destroyed. It's got a bullet hole in it and it's kicked in.
Starting point is 01:00:56 So they went to Home Depot and bought a replacement. He's got to buy a tape measure and everything. You got to know how big that door. Yeah, you can make it plum. This is crazy. So a Home Depot employee later said that Erica was carrying a triangular piece of wood, which was a chunk of the destroyed door. And the employee said, they said,
Starting point is 01:01:14 did she say anything to you about this triangular shaped piece of wood? And she said, do you believe that's all that's left of my door? And the employee said, that must have been some party. And she laughed and said, I guess you could call it that. Oh, boy. So then they go back to partying after this. Really?
Starting point is 01:01:32 Photos of everything. Everything. Pictures of eating pizza and crabs, playing miniature golf. Yeah. tanning with a swastika on your chest? How did he, how did no one come up and just, if I see a guy with a giant swastika tattoo laying with his eyes closed, he's going to awake to his fucking nose being driven into his fucking skull.
Starting point is 01:01:54 I'm sorry. Fuck you. This guy's a fucking asshole. He's going to wake up terribly. Tuesday, May 28th, Erica gets a new tattoo of a cobra on her left side exactly where she stabbed Jeannie. Were they out of swastikas? I think they were all out. They're like,
Starting point is 01:02:10 Iron Crosses are all out this week. We don't have any. We are statutes our quota today. In multiple photos, Erica is wearing something on her neck, and it's Josh Ford's ring. No. Still caked in blood.
Starting point is 01:02:26 What is she doing? Wednesday, May 29th, they were back at a bar. They met a man named Todd Wright and eventually convinced him to call a female friend to join them. This woman, Melissa Sealing, agreed to have one.
Starting point is 01:02:39 one drink, but she was talked to and back to going to the penthouse that they had to, quote, help BJ get Erica upstairs in her drunken state. When they got inside, they said Erica's demeanor changed. She sobered up instantly and began showing Melissa her jewelry. Hey, look what I got.
Starting point is 01:02:55 Then Erica couldn't find her purse. Oh, boy. She accused Todd and Melissa of stealing it. BJ pulled out a gun and became very, very angry. Melissa said, he said if we ripped him off like the other people who were here, he'd do the same thing to us that he did to them,
Starting point is 01:03:13 referring to the hole in the door, the bullet hole. And she noticed that the bathroom door was off its hinges and had a hole in it. So apparently, Melissa had searched the entire couch earlier. The purse wasn't there. But after BJ moved a cushion, he, quote, found it. Uh-huh. So they believed Erica had been moving it around to set it up. Then, this is how to, how did Todd of Melissa get out of this situation?
Starting point is 01:03:37 Yeah. You know what they said? they said, we need to go fuck somewhere. We have to get out of here. We got to go fuck. I'm so horny. Too horny to die. That's what they are.
Starting point is 01:03:49 So the detective said that's what really put all the dominoes in one line. They took what worked in the murder of Jeannie and Josh and applied that to Melissa's selling because they got away with it and they were going to do it again. I believe if they weren't stopped, there were definitely more to come. Oh, these two are natural born killers. Absolutely. Unbelievable. June 3rd, 2002, a landfill in. in Delaware.
Starting point is 01:04:11 Mid-90s, by the way, hot as fuck. Yeah. Outside. 7.30 a.m. The detective said, it's possible to get a conviction without a body. No body, no crime. You know that.
Starting point is 01:04:22 But it's always a stronger case if you do. Right. And until you have a body, the victim's family always holds out hope that someday that person's going to come back. So they were like, this is going to be a law. It's a fucking landfill. It's going to be a long day.
Starting point is 01:04:34 They said the dig had barely begun when a bulldozer finds a human leg. Oh, shit. It's Jeannie's leg. Hours later, they find Josh's torso and both arms. That's all they ever found. Oh, God. So these poor people, their families, all they ever got back of Jeannie was a leg.
Starting point is 01:04:54 And a torso in arms. And the rest of them is sitting there with coffee grounds and fucking diapers? That's fucked up. It's horrible. Then they find a guy who was a Navy seal with Beech. and he said that this was, they had a conversation, a hypothetical one about the best way to dispose of a body. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:05:16 And this guy said, BJ said he would put down plastic, chop off the limbs and head with a knife, and place the body parts in separate bags. That's what he told me. Yeah. So they off the first step. Yeah. They offer Erica a deal.
Starting point is 01:05:30 If she cooperated and testifies against BJ and passes a polygraph confirming her a version of events, they wouldn't prosecute her for murder. her attorney said, God damn it, take that. Jesus Christ. She shows up for the polygraph. Before the machine is hooked up, she does a pre-interview or pre-test interview with secret service agents who are there for some reason.
Starting point is 01:05:51 Maybe social security cards got taken. That might be like currency. That might be what they did. They said apparently Erica believed whatever she said in the pre-polygraph interview couldn't be used against her. But the deal only protected her statements made during the polygraph and not before. So she told the truth. This is when she finally said that she told BJ just fucking do it.
Starting point is 01:06:12 And she admitted that she was the one who told him to kill him. She also revealed that she was standing right behind BJ when he shot Josh in the head. She stabbed Jeannie with the knife, helped wrap and dispose of the body parts. And BJ had told her, boy, you really did a number on her throat. She never took the polygraph because the deal was off now. They're like, no, no, no. We thought you were the secondary. You were just as involved.
Starting point is 01:06:36 never mind. Now we're prosecuting you to the fullest extent. 13 count indictments, including two counts each of first-degree murder. By the way, they're also going to be charged with another robbery because they're suspected of stealing hats and t-shirts from a hooters in Spotsylvania, Maryland on May 11. Just can't help yourself. Can't help it. So BJ's trial comes up. I mean, what the fuck are you going to do?
Starting point is 01:07:01 Their strategy is Erica's nuts and she did everything. And I had nothing to do with it. Yeah. Good luck. have all of this physical evidence, all of this. I mean, they're both just knee deep in everything you could imagine. They have his old friend saying that he told me he would chop shit up and do all of that. They have Melissa Selling talking about the missing purse game and I'll do to you what I did to the others and showing the bullet hole in the wall. Yeah. You know, it's not good. B.J. takes
Starting point is 01:07:29 the stand. What does he have to say? He said he'd been asleep in the car when the killings happen and he only just helped to help to dismember and dispose of the bodies to protect his wife. My Erica is out of her fucking mind. Yeah. How did Erica, who's petite, how'd she fucking kick the door in so it went through the other wall? Ten hours of deliberation. Seven men, seven woman five man jury, they find him guilty of second degree murder on Jeannie. And first degree assault.
Starting point is 01:08:00 In the Josh Ford murder, they find him not guilty of all charges, except. accessory after the fact. So she only gets one murder because she was standing behind him? He. That's BJ. Shut the fuck up. That's BJ. Sentencing later. Now, Erica says that they fucked her over, the Secret Service and all that, but they dismiss everything because it was all in
Starting point is 01:08:20 writing. She had a lawyer. She should have known better, basically. What she's really concerned is getting her shit back. What? Yeah, she says she wants her belongings back that were confiscated after her arrest, including dozens of Hooters' restaurant tank tops. Not kidding. Diamond jewelry. She wants, what is it?
Starting point is 01:08:41 Hooters Duffel bag. 30 Hooters tank tops, quote, from my collection. Coach bags, a scrapbook of more than 20 items of jewelry, including a half-carat diamond solitaire engagement ring, a gold wedding band, white gold tennis bracelet,
Starting point is 01:08:56 white gold antique diamond ring and a tag watch. Yeah. They were like, if we don't need it for appeals or whatever. In her trial, it's bad. I mean, she's got a pen pal that she's been writing that has all of her statements on it, too. I mean, she is just pretty fucked here.
Starting point is 01:09:13 This is not wonderful. They say that, you know, she lowered them. She said, Erica Siffred is on trial in this case and no one else. In other words, if she tries to blame it on Beager. No, they also emphasize the Maryland law of aiding and abetting. If someone assists a crime to the point of helping another succeed, they're as guilty as the, you know, ones themselves. Murder weapon belonged to her. Fingerprints were on the outside of the bathroom window.
Starting point is 01:09:37 She was watching them. Victim's IDs were in her purse. She wore a bloodstained ring around her neck for days. She got a cobra tattoo in the same spot. She stabbed Jeannie. Vacation photos show her smiling, eating crabs. Right. And her quote, just fucking do it.
Starting point is 01:09:53 Not great, man. No. They fight about the pictures. They fight about all that stuff. The defense strategy, BJ's crazy and he did it. Okay. All right. Four hours of deliberation from the jury. On the Jeannie, on the Josh Ford killing, they find her guilty of first-degree murder.
Starting point is 01:10:11 Oh, boy. Crutchley murder, they find her, Jeannie's murder. They find her guilty of second-degree murder. Also, theft, weapons, charges, and burglary related to Hooters. She's getting hammered. Yep. She was acquitted of using a handgun to kill Joshua Ford. The jury believes the aiding and abetting thing. Wow. Erica's mother said, I didn't see the evidence that way, but I guess they did.
Starting point is 01:10:36 What are you talking about? She said, what the fuck? Okay. BJ sentencing. Judge Paul Weinstein comes out of retirement specifically to sentence him. And he says, hi, I'm Judge Weinstein. Let's let's just pop that swastika, A. Let's talk about that chest fees.
Starting point is 01:10:54 He said, it's one of the few instances in 20 years when I disagree with the jury's verdict. This is on BJ. This was nothing more than thrill-killing. for you and your wife. You're a butcher. You cut these people up for no good reason. And told BJ, if not for master lawyering, you'd be facing a life sentence. You crazy Nazi asshole may fuck off 38 years in prison.
Starting point is 01:11:18 That's not near enough. The judge also said put a note in the file asking to be notified when he comes up for parole so he could personally oppose it. He hates this fucking guy. Erica here, the judge says that she, She exercised control in the relationship, convincing him not to eat the victims and shit like that. So he says, you, Zanick sniffing asshole, may fuck off life plus 20 years. That's pretty good.
Starting point is 01:11:45 Yep. Josh's ring gets returned to the family, by the way. Now, on appeals, they both appeal a bunch. Their appeals are all exhausted. They're all fucked out. 2010, BJ files for divorce from prison. What? Why?
Starting point is 01:12:01 If these crazy kids can't make it, which is. chance to the rest of us have. What's the problem? 2017, BJ can have a parole hearing, but he chooses not to have it. Smart. And so it's postponed for five years. April, 22, he has an hour, 40 minute hearing, and four representatives of the victims attended and said, go fuck yourself. Parole denied. His mandatory release date, if he's not paroled, is 2030. This guy will be on the street within four years.
Starting point is 01:12:28 Holy shit. That's terrifying, considering he's going to come looking for us, possibly. I don't know. In my defense, I think that she made you trash, Beach. Yeah. Well, they made each other trash, I think. No, your tattoos, stupid. Fuck you, man. Yes. Erica was also denied parole in 2024. Okay. The Worcester County State's attorney later said, I'm not aware of any case in the history
Starting point is 01:12:53 of Worcester County as heinous as this before and certainly not since. It was just a horrible, horrible case, and it lives with many of us still. The lead detective said, we know that. The rest of the parts were there. It was just we didn't have the resources to continue to dig and dig and dig. It haunts us that we worked for years but never found the heads. And we never had definite answer of how she was killed. It was the one thing we could never figure out.
Starting point is 01:13:15 They didn't have scientific evidence of it. So there you go, everybody. That is Ocean City, Maryland. Very quickly. Netflix on the 26th, Monday, it'll be the only time it comes out on Monday. Celebrates, good stuff. Shut up and give me murder.com. Get everything.
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Starting point is 01:14:02 Thank you.

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