Convicted murderer Erika Sifrit has been refused parole in connection with the killing of a Fairfax, Virginia, couple in Ocean City, Maryland, in 2002, WTOP has learned.
After a two-hour hearing in a conference room at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in Jessup, a two-member panel of the Maryland Parole Commission ordered Sifrit to have a rehearing in April 2033.
Sifrit appeared in her first parole hearing since she was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years for her role in the 2002 murders of Joshua Ford and Martha Crutchley.
WTOP was the only news organization present during the hearing. Sifrit became eligible for the hearing under Maryland law after serving 20 years of her sentence.
In 2002, Sifrit and her then-husband Benjamin killed and dismembered Crutchley and Ford.
The couples met on a bus in Ocean City Memorial Day weekend, before a night of drinking at the Seacrets nightclub.
Participating at the hearing via teleconference was Melisa Ford, sister of Joshua Ford, and two other family members.
With Erika listening, but not allowed to respond, Melisa told Parole Commissioners Gayatri Gudibande and Robyn Lyles that she and her family have suffered “24 years of debilitating grief.”
Melisa said she was 8 months pregnant when her brother was killed.
”I barely remember the first months of my son’s life,” she said. “My son’s birthday is forever linked to my brother’s death.”
Melisa said Erika “senselessly murdered my brother, in an unprovoked act,” and said she was only eligible for parole because “she told the police where she threw his dismembered remains.”
Melisa also recalled that shortly after the killings, Erika wore her brother’s “ring around her neck as a trophy.” She told the board she hoped “parole will be denied today, and in the future — if we continue to suffer, so should she.”
‘I just wanted to keep partying’
The commissioners asked Erika to describe “what happened that night” when Crutchley and Ford were killed.
Before describing the chain of events, Erika said she wanted to make clear “how incredibly sorry I am that we are even here today. I’m so remorseful.”
Erika described a history of anxiety and an unending desire to please her husband, who she described as controlling and violent. She said the couple, from Altoona, Pennsylvania, married after only knowing each other for three weeks, much to her parents’ dismay.
“My husband and I ended up at Seacrets, where we partied. I was consuming a lot of alcohol, which was usual for me,” Erika said.
At last call, Erika said Benjamin invited Crutchley and Ford back to their rented condominium in the Rainbow.
”At last call, I thought, ‘So soon?’ I just wanted to keep partying,” Erika said.
Erika said as they left the club, the couple did not have plans to kill their newfound friends.
She said the four stopped at the Atlantis condominiums, where Crutchley and Ford were staying, to get bathing suits and smoke marijuana before arriving at the Rainbow.
”We were showing off the nice penthouse we were in — we were just kids,” Erika told the commissioners. “It wasn’t luring them back for this to happen,” referring to the killings.
What happened during the killings
When the foursome returned to the Rainbow, Erika said she noticed her purse had been moved. Noting her obsessive compulsive disorder, Erika said she was very sensitive to when items weren’t where she expected them to be.
Without telling her ex-husband, Erika called 911, and stated she feared the new acquaintances were stealing from them — “‘I’m afraid we’re going to have a robbery here,’” Erika said according to police and prosecutors. Police were never dispatched.
When Erika told Benjamin her purse was missing, “He took the gun from the nightstand, told them to strip down, and ordered them in the bathroom.”
She said the gun Benjamin was holding was the weapon he had purchased for her.
“I had never pointed the gun,” Erika said.
She said she sat on the bed, drunk and helpless.
”He shot through the door,” Erika said, hitting Ford. She said Benjamin entered the bathroom, and there were three more shots.
While Ford had been shot in the torso, Erika said Benjamin fired another shot into Ford’s head. The next shot missed, and the final shot hit Crutchley, according to Erika. Prosecutors have never been able to specify how Crutchley died.
On May 31, 2002, Ocean City Police responded to an alarm call from the closed-for-the-night Hooters Restaurant.
Inside Erika’s purse were Crutchley and Ford’s Virginia driver’s licenses, Ford’s ring and bullet fragments that had Ford’s DNA on them. The Sifrits were arrested.
‘Trying to do the right thing, but torn by this loyalty’
During her parole hearing, Erika said the first time she became aware that Crutchley and Ford were in danger was “When (Benjamin) held them at gunpoint, I knew he’d kill them,” she told the commissioners. “He told me, don’t ever point a gun at someone and not shoot them because then you give them the chance to shoot you.”
Despite testimony in various court filings that state Erika admitted to Detective Scott Bernal that she had cut Crutchley in the abdomen, “I did not participate in the dismemberment” of Ford and Crutchley, Erika said.
“I didn’t want to be part of what he was doing in the bathroom.”
Despite their troubled, “toxic marriage,” after Ford and Crutchley’s killings, Erika said she was determined to help Benjamin in the aftermath.
“After he killed them, I thought if I helped him clean up, he’ll never hurt me again,” Erika said. “I felt like I had a bond with him — maybe he would look at me as a partner.”
As the Sifrits began cleaning up the bathroom of their rented condominium, Erika said Benjamin asked her to bring garbage bags.
“We only had white trash bags, so I drove to the convenience store to get some dark ones,” Erika said. “Not a day goes by when I drove to the convenience store, when I don’t wish I had called someone, or my father.”
Soon after the couple was arrested, Erika led detectives to nearby businesses, where the couple had dumped garbage bags containing remains of Ford and Crutchley.
“I was trying to do the right thing, but I was also torn by this loyalty,” Erika said.
‘My moral compass was gone’
During her imprisonment, Erika said she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, saying her marriage included constant fear of abandonment.
”When you feel you’re not good enough, you’re constantly trying to show you’re worth it,” she said.
Erika said she has been working to overcome her addiction to drugs, even within the walls of the women’s prison.
In reviewing Erika’s institutional record, the commissioners said she had been cited with 25 infractions, mostly drug-related, as late as 2025, when she attempted to flush drugs down the toilet.
Erika said since that incident in March 2025, she has been “really trying to work on my addiction,” and her last six urinalyses have been clean.
In addition, Erika said her outlook and focus have changed.
“I have God as my center now, instead of a person,” she told the commissioners. “I realized I had to form my own identity, and I did that in here.”
Erika was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years in Frederick County, where the case was moved, convicted of first-degree murder in Ford’s death and of second-degree murder in Crutchley’s death.
In Benjamin Sifrit’s trial in Montgomery County, he was cleared of wrongdoing in Ford’s death, but convicted of second-degree murder in Crutchley’s death and sentenced to 38 years.
After recently petitioning for a reduced sentence under Maryland’s Second Look Act, Benjamin has a hearing scheduled for August 2026. In his petition, he acknowledged dismembering and disposing of the bodies. However, “To be clear, I have always, and still do, maintain my innocence regarding any act of murder.”
Asked if she believes her life sentence plus 20 years is fair, Erika answered yes.
”Those two families will always have an empty chair,” she said. “It’s opened my eyes to how much damage I have done.”
While accepting her sentence, Erika insisted she was not responsible for the death of Ford and Crutchley.
“I didn’t kill them. I didn’t want them to die. I tried to help police. I regret I didn’t do it sooner.”
After Erika answered questions, the commissioners met behind closed doors to deliberate.
In announcing their unanimous decision, Gudibande, a parole commissioner, told Erika they would order a rehearing in April 2033.
”It’s not a refusal, but some time needs to be served for the recent infractions,” Lyles, another parole commissioner, said, explaining Erika can petition for reconsideration of the 10-year delay within two years, if she has demonstrated new reasons she should be paroled.
Erika thanked the commissioners for hearing her case, and was escorted past a heavy gray electronic door, walking down the hallway in the facility that has been her home for 24 years, and perhaps the next decade.
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