OCEAN CITY — The male half of the most notorious couple’s in resort history was denied parole last week nearly 20 years after a grisly double homicide.
Benjamin Sifrit, now 44, and his wife Erika killed and dismembered a Virginia couple in a north-end condo in Ocean City on Memorial Day weekend in 2002. Benjamin Sifrit had a parole hearing last Thursday before the Maryland Patrol Commission at the Roxbury Correctional Facility in Hagerstown where he has been incarcerated since being convicted of second-degree murder for his role in the death of Martha Crutchley.
Benjamin Sifrit was sentenced to 38 years in prison, and was first eligible for parole in 2017, but chose to postpone that initial hearing. Last Thursday, a two-member panel of the parole commission heard the case with Sifrit present along with a correctional case manager. Representatives of the victims also participated virtually.
After the hearing, which lasted an hour and 40 minutes, the board members denied the request for parole, keeping Benjamin Sifrit behind bars at Roxbury. He is next eligible for a parole hearing in two years. His mandatory release date is in 2030, although he was eligible for a parole hearing after serving half of his 38-year sentence.
Benjamin Sifrit and his wife Erika were convicted in the deaths of Joshua Ford and Crutchley in a north-end penthouse condo in Ocean City on Memorial Day weekend in 2002. The Sifrits lured the couple to their penthouse condo where they were shot and killed after a ruse about a missing purse. The Sifrits then dismembered the deceased Ford and Crutchley and distributed remains in dumpsters in southern Delaware, portions of which were later found in a landfill.
Why is there a mandatory release date in 2030? I remember this case, and the sheer brutality of the murders was so shocking that he should never get out of jail.
Error in paper. BJ was convicted for 2002 crime and 38 year sentence would put the release date at 2040. He got a lighter sentence because he was convicted in liberal Montgomery County. His wife was convicted in Frederick County which is very similar in thinking to Worcester County, hence she got 2 life sentences plus 20 years. The gun was recovered from the small of Erika’s back and ballistic
test proved it matched the bullet removed from Ford’s torso which was recovered at the dump.
Items of victims recovered from Sifts were souvenirs. Erica even wore Ford’s ring on a necklace around her neck. Sick people.