Forensic Files (HD) - Season 13, Episode 47 - Dirty Little Secret - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] up next a couple goes on vacation and is never heard from again they're not looking for a missing person
because adults don't go missing adults leave a trail and there's no trail okay police find
evidence the couple may have been shot hodge shock brain of ammunition is specifically designed for use against
human beings the last place they were seen was at a well-known nightclub in the resort town that was taken at
secrets nightclub the last night they were alive but there were other secrets that night
like what really happened to these two people [Music] it was at an office party where josh
ford and jeannie crutchley first met both had been married previously and the two were instantly attracted to one
another despite a considerable age difference josh was 32 years old jeannie was 51
and my normal response is if the shoe was on the other foot you wouldn't think twice about it
in joshua 4 genie crutchley found a younger man who was exciting fun to be around
who also wanted to do new things in life josh was a very successful mortgage broker
jeannie was an accountant for an insurance company after dating for two years they moved in
together sharing a house in fairfax virginia they were two spirits who really had the same
personalities so when those same two personalities clicked i don't think the age made
that much difference to them they just fell in love the couple rented a condo for the memorial day weekend
in ocean city maryland a well-known resort town along the atlantic shore but neither one
showed up for work when the holiday weekend was over they worked hard they never missed work
they were on time they did their jobs when jeannie didn't show up for work her co-workers were
really concerned and that's when they notified the ocean city police police went to their rented condo and
found genie's car in the parking lot it was obvious to the police right away that the car had been there
for an extended period of time in ocean city with the sand blowing around constantly sand begins to
accumulate very quickly and nothing was out of place in the condominium there's absolutely no sign of foul play
there wasn't any break in there wasn't any broken glass the place was relatively clean jeannie's car keys were
still in the condo so with their clothes computer and camera it was as if they'd gone out for a walk
and never came back it just looked like they just decided well let's go down the street and maybe go to
the bar or something like that that's exactly how i look neighbors at the condo didn't see or
hear anything unusual the entire memorial day weekend condos are more for private vacationers so you have the
outside entrances it's much more private a background check revealed josh and jeannie use their credit card to buy
drinks at the green turtle a sports bar on saturday night investigators found the waitress who
served josh and jeannie she recalled they were sitting alone she remembered the couple nothing
unusual she did remember that he was a fan of the celtics and was tuned into the game
from there investigators learned that josh and genie took a bus to a nearby club one of the hottest
nightclubs in ocean city where everybody just floods to secrets and that's where they were
heading the bus driver identified josh and jeannie from a photo lineup and said they were talking with another
couple on the bus a caucasian couple in their late twenties or early thirties they actually
when they got off the bus all four of them waited in line for over an hour to get in
witnesses saw the two couples drinking together and also saw them leave together
but there was no trace of josh and jeannie after that no cell phone activity no credit card activity no nothing these
people were just plucked off the face of the earth that day [Music] less than a week after josh ford and
jeannie crutchley went missing police were called to a hooters restaurant in ocean city maryland
a silent alarm went off after midnight telling police there was a robbery in progress
upon the officer arriving he finds a jeep backed up to the door and two people walking out with arm loads of stolen
merchandise the robbers a man and a woman were arrested on the spot they were so intoxicated that the male
the husband says to one of the officers thinking it would be okay can't we just put it all back and we'll be cool
benjamin and erica sifrit weren't your typical married couple they weren't your typical burglars
either erica sifrit comes from an upper middle class family great student excellent basketball
player statistically her three-point shooting was top five in the country her freshman
or sophomore year benjamin suffered or bj as he was known was a former navy seal who had finished
first in his class [Music] he was an expert shot he was the cream of the crop i was told by some of his seal buddies
that this was the type of guy who could go out all right drink all night long okay
stay out till five o'clock in the morning go back to the dorm sleep for an hour or two and do a
20-mile run the next day and beat everybody because it was up here he's motivated up here
neither one had ever been arrested before but inside their car police were surprised
by what they found these people are armed to the teeth she has a gun in her waistband
it's a 357 five shot revolver i mean he's got a sig sauer nine millimeter that's fully loaded ready to go
and then in the vehicle there's a 45 caliber hnk combat weapon so you know you look at looking at that
they mean business and the arresting officers discovered something else inside erica's purse
with the virginia driver's licenses of joshua ford and jeannie crutchley and automatically
the hair on the back of their neck stands up and they realize this is a lot bigger than just a burglary at
hooters with handguns when asked where she got the licenses erica said she and bj
found them and denied ever meeting or even seeing josh and jeannie it's very very
possible that they found these licenses on the beach or maybe they're planning a future
crime of maybe stealing someone's identity in the back of the sifrit's vehicle police found
ski masks and flex cuffs it makes you think maybe they've held these people hostage or taken them
hostage and they're holding them somewhere against their will investigators now had
probable cause to search the seyfritz nearby condo they found a lot more than they
bargained for on the table outside the dining room they find two spent bullets police also found
evidence that bj and erica lied to them they find a stack of photographs uh really a cache of photographs and on the
top is a picture of jeannie and joshua at secrets that was taken at secrets nightclub
the last night that they were alive one of the pictures in the siffritz condo showed a ring on josh ford's hand
in another picture taken two days after josh and jeannie went missing erica siffred is wearing josh's ring
on a chain around her neck and when she was arrested for the robbery police found that ring in her purse
even more damning police found in the separate's possession a key to the atlantis condominiums where
josh and jeannie had been staying they turned the key it unlocked the door it was the key to
josh and jeannie's unit police were now certain that the separates had something to do with josh and
jeannie's disappearance but what the last known photograph of josh ford and jeannie crutchley was taken
at the secrets nightclub from a photo lineup the bus driver identified b.j and erica
sifrit as the couple he saw with josh ford and jeannie crutchley when he dropped
them off at secrets and witnesses saw the two couples leave secrets together but what happened after that
investigators took a much closer forensic look in the bathroom of the siffritz condo
and there they noticed something i saw some orange colored substance on the tile i noticed a little bit running
down the side of the shower stall and when i saw that i thought well you know maybe this could be blood they pull out
the sink stopper for the washing sink and they find all kinds of hair attached to it
with blood and flesh underneath that sink investigators discovered a bullet hole
that went clear through the wall into the adjacent bedroom this matched the two bullets found
on the seyfritz coffee table one of them looked like i had some drywall dust in it
one oven looked like i had blood in the crews and joints and stuff like that on the large glass window inside the
bathroom crime scene technicians discovered a partial palm print tests on the blood in the bathroom and
on the mangle 357 slug found on the coffee table yielded a dna profile investigators took samples from josh and
jeannie's toothbrushes and hairbrushes and generated their dna profiles most of the dna that we tested came back
mixed dna both of joshua ford and jeannie crutchley the dna on the mangled 357 slug found
on the coffee table was josh's so that bullet had been in joshua ford's body at some point and
then dug out or pulled out and kept as a trophy by the separates we didn't have the bodies but we knew
that somebody had met a very brutal and gruesome end in that room [Music] bullets test fired from erika siffritz
357 revolver were compared to the damaged bullets when the hollow point expands soft tissue it'll mushroom out many
people might think that this expansion is damaged to a bullet and might prevent or even hinder
firearms examination however this is just simply not true the two bullets recovered from the
dining room table positively associated or in other words matched back to the 357
magnum revolver when faced with this evidence erika sifrit made a deal with prosecutors
she agreed to lead them to josh and jeannie's bodies and testify against b.j in exchange for a reduced charge
she told investigators they dismembered josh and jeannie's bodies and put them in dumpsters in the
neighboring state of delaware 10 miles away for investigators this was a lucky break
delaware has a unique system of dumping they know where everything they dump they know what plot it is at their
dumpsite eight days after josh and jeannie went missing parts of their dismembered bodies were
found bullets recovered from josh's body matched erica sifrit's gun josh's palm print matched the print on the bathroom
window in the separates condo incredibly josh ford and jeannie crutchley were random victims of a couple for whom
breaking the law had become a strange romantic obsession but just when investigators thought
the case had been solved erica came forward with a story they could hardly believe
i think she has her own evil side and i think he has his evil side together they were exposed like a civil
poor one's a match one's a fuse prosecutors made a deal with erica sifrit if she told them the truth about what
happened to josh ford and jeannie crutchley she would face a reduced charge one of the requirements
of the deal was that she had to pass a polygraph test originally she told prosecutors that she
had nothing to do with the murders that all she did was help dispose of the bodies
later however she changed her story she admitted during the pre-test interview that she was more involved in
the homicides than she had told us up to then she admitted taking the knife and stabbing jeannie
erica also admitted the tattoo on her abdomen had a special significance following
the stabbing of jeannie crutchly she got a tattoo on her side in the same place where she stabbed
jeannie crutchley and that was so she could forever be reminded of that night she was involved from the get-go and she
essentially admitted she ordered the killings so based on that you know we couldn't uh
couldn't continue with this deal first degree murder charges were filed against both
bj and erica sifrit each ended up turning on the other as the trials approached investigators struggled to find a motive
for the crime we believe that these murders were committed simply for the fun or the thrill of killing
we've come up with no other possible motive in this case the couple owned a scrap booking store near a mall in
altoona pennsylvania but two months before the murders they began turning to a life of crime according to erica
there was very little sexual contact between her and her husband b.j she told me that bj
thrived on the burglaries and doing things of risk and that's what got him off they start out burglarizing places close
to where erica and bj own the business that's not fun anymore okay so they upped the annie they needed
more thrill more thrill more thrill they were a strange strange couple together that's
for sure prosecutors say the separates were hunting for thrills when they met josh and jeannie
at secrets nightclub after some conversation they all decided to go back to the seyfritz condo
for more drinking conversation and a dip in the hot tub but the separates decided
to toy with josh and genie erica claimed her purse was missing with her expensive jewelry
inside [Music] anywhere and she wanted josh and genie to help look for it but only erica and bj
were in on the game [Music] if josh and jeannie found the purse they could live if not they'd have to pay the price
when josh and jeannie didn't find the purse bj accused them of stealing it you took it apart
where is it we don't have it prove it take your clothes off are you serious [Music]
josh and jeannie made a run for the bathroom and locked the door they tried to escape with josh leaving
his palm print on the window the evidence shows four shots were fired the first two went through the door and
hit josh in the torso erica said bj fired the third shot into josh's head prosecutors believe erica fired the
fourth shot towards genie and missed either accidentally or deliberately as part of their cruel game
[Music] the bullet went through the wall into the adjoining bedroom erica told prosecutors she stabbed
jeannie in the abdomen with a knife [Music] later when erica brought some rags and
detergent to clean up the blood she said bj was in the hot tub with the heads of their two victims
she said bj removed the slug from josh's head to keep it as a trophy over the next 24 hours the couple
dismembered the bodies placed them in garbage bags and put them in various dumpsters throughout delaware
they also went to a hardware store to buy a new bathroom door and more cleaning supplies to
repair the bathroom as best they could afterwards the couple acted as if nothing had
happened drinking beer having a great time going to miniature golf nobody would have
suspected them of being the animals they are erica wore josh's ring as a trophy and carried around their driver's
licenses and kept the slugs from the shootings i've never seen a crime like this where
a couple just kills another couple for the thrill of it they had nothing against these people
they did nothing to them they were chosen the story was so incredible that without forensic evidence no one
was likely to believe it even the best cleaning doesn't always get it up like in this case i mean there
was still blood there that was visible you just had to know what you were looking for erica and bj
were tried separately her defense was i didn't do it he did his defense was i didn't do it
she did in the absence of any physical evidence against him and the fact that erica's gun was used
in josh's murder bj was convicted of only one count of second degree murder he was sentenced
to 38 years in prison erica was convicted of both murders and sentenced to life in prison plus
20 years she had the gun in her possession she has you know the victim's identification in her purse
she has all the souvenirs if you will with her and her possession or in her purse
still bothers me why this case stands out i'll probably never see another case like this in my career
and hopefully in my lifetime without the forensic evidence it would have been difficult to get
a um a conviction of homicide in any degree as to these two defendants it was possible
um but it would have been much much more [Music] difficult you

Police get a clue about a couple who disappeared on Memorial Day weekend during an in-progress robbery. The evidence found solves a brutal crime.

Brief Summary

Josh Ford and Jeannie Crutchley vanished during a vacation; Benjamin and Erica Sifrit were later implicated in their brutal murders.

Key points

The Mysterious Disappearance. A couple goes on vacation and is never heard from again, leaving police baffled.
The Sifrits Arrested. Police arrest a couple for robbery, uncovering a shocking connection to the missing couple.
A Gruesome Discovery. Investigators find evidence of a brutal crime linked to the Sifrits, including dismembered bodies.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

They were just plucked off the face of the earth that day.

4:28WatchMar 5, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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Forensic Files (HD) - Season 13, Episode 47 - Dirty Little Secret - Full Episode | Forensic Files