Navy SEAL Who Killed Virginia Couple In Ocean City With Wife 'For Fun' Denied Parole: Report

Publish date: 2024-05-18

Benjamin Sifrit, 44, was denied parole in his first public hearing since being sentenced to 38 years for the 2002 slayings of Martha Crutchley, 51, and Joshua Ford, 32, the outlet said. 

A jury cleared Sifrit, who had a swastika tattooed on his chest, of killing Ford, but Erika, 44, was convicted of both murders and is serving a life sentence plus 20 years. 

The Sifrits — who lived in Altoona, PA — met the Fairfax, VA tourists on a bus in Ocean City over Memorial Day weekend and went drinking at a bar later that night.

The four then went back to Sifrits' condo to use the hot tub, where he and his wife forced Crutchley and Ford into a bathroom, shot them, dismembered their bodies and threw the remains in the trash. Portions were found in a Delaware landfill several days later.

Prosecutors previously said that the Sifrits killed the couple "for fun," Fox45 reports.

The case has been highlighted in numerous programs including American Justice, Deadly Woman, Forensics Files, Sins and Secrets, Snapped and True Crime Daily. 

Author William Phelps even wrote a book entitled "Cruel Death" in July 2019 cataloging the event and it has been repeatedly mentioned on the Cleared Hot Podcast

Sifrit was eligible for parole in 2017, but postponed it, WTOP reports. His mandatory release date is 2030. Meanwhile, Erika is eligible for parole in 2024, the outlet reports. 

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