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The 2002 Ocean City double homicide case of Josh Ford and Martha "Geney" Crutchley, a Fairfax, Virginia couple, took off as a missing person's case when the two failed to report to work after their mini vacation on Memorial Day weekend.
When authorities failed to locate the couple after a welfare check, they found their driver's licenses with the self-proclaimed Bonnie and Clyde, Benjamin and Erika Sifrit. The two were detained for an attempted burglary at a Hooters restaurant in the resort town. The Incriminating evidence pushed authorities to believe that the pair may have been up to something bigger and more wicked.
In an attempt to connect the dots, Ocean City police thought that there might be a hostage situation and rushed to the Sifrits' penthouse, located only a few blocks from where Josh and Geney had been residing, only to discover a crime scene that would ultimately turn their lives upside down. Little did they know that they were steps away from a literal butchering compound.
The case revealed harrowing details about the events of May 26, 2002. Read ahead to learn more about the details of Josh Ford and Geney Crutchley's murders, which were uncovered during the investigation. ID's People Magazine Investigates will narrate the case in an upcoming episode this Monday, August 22, 2022, at 9 pm ET.
Trigger warning: This article contains information about graphic violence.
Five appalling facts about Josh Ford and Geney Crutchley 2002 double homicide case
1) Josh Ford and Geney Crutchley spent a wild night with their killers
The Sifrits allegedly met Josh Ford and Geney Crutchley and welcomed them to their penthouse, located a few blocks away from the Condo the Virginia couple had rented.
As per authorities, things went horribly wrong that night. In one of her statements, Erika stated that when the couple took her purse, she and Benjamin started harassing them. Despite the fact that there was a lot of booze and drugs present, the environment was significantly more than a crazy party.
Describing the scene, investigative journalist M. William Phelps reportedly stated:
"The music is playing and the drinks are flying and they're in the hot tub and having a ball and something happens. Erica gets out of the hot tub and goes upstairs and she screams, 'Where's my pocket book? Somebody took my pocketbook.'"
He further added:
"Right away Benjamin gets up out of the tub and he goes to get his .357 Magnum and proceeds to start waving it around, and he says, 'Where's my wife's pocketbook, which one of you two took it?'"
In an attempt to flee the scene, Ford and Crutchley attempted to hide in the bathroom while the hostile couple was locked outside. Reports state that shots were fired and then the Sifrits broke down the bathroom door. Crutchley's cause of death remains unknown to date, however, Ford was shot twice and killed.
2) Their bodies were butchered and dumped in a bin
Authorities asserted that the Sifrits encountered a dilemma when it came to dealing with Josh Ford and Geney Crutchley's bodies after they had been killed. The blood-stained bathroom was also a considerable issue. BJ's experience as a Navy SEAL equipped him with the skills necessary to dissect Ford and Crutchley into manageable parts before they were stored or discarded thereof.
Erika reportedly testified, claiming that the body parts were tightly wrapped in trash bags, plastic containers, military kit bags, and any other available storage. Benjamin made a similar assertion during his trial. Erika also told authorities that her husband dumped the body parts in a dumpster outside a shop in Delaware, which then landed in a massive landfill.
3) Authorities never discovered Josh Ford and Geney Crutchley's full bodies
Upon discovering where the trash from that particular bin was taken, authorities assembled a team and then made their way towards the landfill. The landfill foreman assisted the police in pinpointing the location of the trash and starting their investigation.
Recalling the investigation, Ocean City Police Lt. Richard Moreck reportedly said:
"We had rakes, shovels, 25 or 30 guys to help. This dump is really weird because you know how flat the state of Delaware is, this is the only high spot I’ve ever seen in the state of Delaware. It was a mound of trash and when you got up there it was pretty huge. And it smelled, it was dusty, there were seagulls."
Officers soon discovered Crutchley's leg amid piles of various forms of rubble. They finally located Josh Ford's torso and both arms after spending several further hours searching into the night.
Moreck added:
"We know the rest of the parts were there, it’s just we didn’t have the resources to continue to dig and dig and dig. We did better than I would ever imagine finding as many body parts as we did, and we found stuff that was critical."
4) Geney's cause of death remains a mystery to date
51-year-old Geney Crutchley's cause of death was never determined, given that the Sifrits refused to talk about it to date. Lt. Richard Moreck claims that this mystery is one of the factors that bothers him the most even now, two decades after the incident occurred.
Moreck reportedly stated:
"It haunts us that we worked for years but we were upset we never found the heads. And we never had a definitive how she was killed. It was the one thing we could never figure out."
5) The Sifrits were found guilty in the double murder case of Josh Ford and Geney Crutchley
While Benjamin and Erika Sifrit, dubbed the "Thrill Kill Couple," tried to put the blame on each other, they were both found guilty in the double murder case of Josh Ford and Geney Crutchley.
Erika was upfront with the police from the outset, but Benjamin remained silent until he testified in his April 2003 trial. He accused his wife of carrying out the murders while he was outside sleeping in the car and only stepped in when it came time to dismember and dispose of the remains.
Benjamin received a sentence of 38 years for second-degree murder and first-degree assault in Crutchley's killing. He was cleared of all allegations relating to Ford. Erika, on the other hand, received a longer term. She was given life along with an additional 20 years for the first-degree murder of Josh Ford and second-degree murder of Crutchley.
As previously stated, People Magazine Investigates' upcoming episode, titled Natural Born Killers, will air on Investigation Discovery this Monday, August 22, 2022, at 9 pm ET.
