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An MWC graduate and her husband are accused of killing a couple in Ocean City. Remains found in black plastic bags in a Delaware landfill have been identified as the victims, police say. Date published: 10/10/2002
By The Associated Press
SNOW HILL, Md. (AP) - DNA testing confirmed that human remains found in a Delaware landfill in June are those of two Virginia tourists killed in Ocean City over the Memorial Day weekend. Worchester County State's Attorney Joel Todd said Maryland State Police identified the remains as those of Martha Gene Crutchley, 51, and Joshua Ford, 32, both of Fairfax, Va. Erika and Benjamin Sifrit, both 24, of Altoona, Pa., were charged with the murders after police arrested them about a week later as they allegedly burglarized a Hooters restaurant in Ocean City. Erika Sifrit, a 2000 graduate of Mary Washington College, told police that her husband shot and killed Crutchley and Ford and dismembered their bodies, according to court documents. The couple dumped the remains in black plastic bags in a Rehoboth Beach, Del., trash bin, the documents say. On June 3, investigators found human remains in black plastic bags in a landfill in Hardscrabble, Del. Todd said DNA testing on the skeletal remains was necessary because the bodies had decomposed. The testing was done by Orchid Cellmark Laboratories in Germantown, which is nationally known for its work in the O.J. Simpson, JonBenet Ramsey and Unabomber cases. Cellmark sent the results to the Maryland State Police lab in Pikesville, which compared the evidence to known samples from the victims, confirming that the remains were those of Ford and Crutchley, Todd said. Police have not released a motive for the murders. Police said they found identification belonging to Crutchley and Ford in Erika Sifrit's purse when the Sifrits were arrested on May 31. Benjamin Sifrit's murder trial is scheduled for Dec. 9. Erika Sifrit's Dec. 2 trial will likely be rescheduled and moved to another county because of news coverage of the case.
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