JESSUP, Md. - A woman convicted along with her then-husband in connection to the 2002 killing and dismemberment of a Virginia couple in Ocean City will not be granted parole this year.
Erika and Benjamin Sifrit met Joshua Ford and Martha Crutchley, of Fairfax, Va. on their way to Seacrets in Ocean City on May 25, 2002. After spending the evening together, the two couples returned to the Sifrits’ condo. There, both Ford and Crutchley were killed and dismembered, though the Sifrits have maintained differing accounts of what exactly transpired.
The Sifrits then placed Ford’s and Crutchley’s remains in a Rehoboth Beach dumpster. The pair was eventually arrested while burglarizing an Ocean City restaurant days later, and police found Ford’s and Crutchley’s IDs in Erika Sifrit’s possession.
Erika Sifrit was sentenced to life plus 20 years for first and second-degree murder. She is currently serving her sentence at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in Jessup.
Benjamin Sifrit, sentenced to 38 years, was denied parole in April of 2022. In March of 2026, he requested a reduced sentence under Maryland’s recently passed Second Look Act.
A parole hearing was held on Monday, April 6, for Erika Sifrit, her first since she was incarcerated in 2003.
According to the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, Sifrit was not granted parole on Monday, though she will have another chance at a hearing in seven years. A spokesman with the department noted that this was not an outright “denial” of parole, but an order from the Maryland Parole Commission to schedule a rehearing in 2033.
A hearing on Benjamin Sifrit’s Second Look petition is slated for August.