[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
Police in New Jersey thought that a 21-year-old woman named Emily Cruddas (pictured above, left) had died of an overdose back in 2023. They were all but ready to wrap up their investigation and close the case. That is, until her boyfriend came forward with a jaw-dropping admission.
According to multiple reports, Cruddas was pronounced dead by the New Jersey State Police back in February of 2023 after she reportedly overdosed on drugs. She’d just come home from a multi-day stay at a hospital after a suicide attempt she’d made following a miscarriage. That unborn baby belonged to Cruddas and her boyfriend, Joseph Ragan (pictured above, lower right).
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Per Law & Crime, it at first seemed natural to cops that Cruddas would have sadly died of an overdose after being crestfallen over her child’s death. But that all flipped on its head more than a month after her death, when Ragan came forward and said he was responsible for Cruddas’ death. And not only that, but HER OWN SISTER, 36-year-old Sarah Errickson (pictured above, top right), was also allegedly involved! Wait, WHAT?!
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An Unexpected Confession
According to WPVI and others citing a criminal complaint later filed by the cops, Ragan admitted to investigators that he and Errickson had planned in advance to kill Cruddas. On February 16, 2023 — just days after Emily’s release from the hospital following the suicide attempt — Errickson gave her two capsules. Inside the capsules were several crushed Xanax pills, Ragan told the police.
The boyfriend also claimed to officers that Errickson had previously prepared about a dozen bags of heroin laced with fentanyl, as well as a hypodermic syringe. While Cruddas was incapacitated after having taken the Xanax pills, Ragan claimed that he put his hand over his girlfriend’s mouth while Errickson allegedly injected the baggies of drugs straight into her sister’s left hand.
The whole time, Ragan claimed, he kept saying to his girlfriend:
“Take your drugs.”
OMG…
Sadly (but predictably), Cruddas died. Weeks after Ragan’s admission, the medical examiner reopened the autopsy report and modified Cruddas’ cause of death to “undetermined.” Subsequently, that reopened the entire case, and then things got even weirder…
A Sketchy Backpack
Fast forward about a year after that — to April 19, 2024. On that date, according to court documents cited by WPVI and others, an unnamed individual randomly gave a backpack to police officers. Inside the backpack were 18 different cell phones and 15 wax folds, all of which were suspected to contain heroin. Those folds were all stamped with the words “White House” on them, too.
That’s a critical detail, because it was the EXACT SAME “White House” stamp as one found on identical wax folds discovered on Cruddas’ nightstand next to her body following her death more than a year before. Creepy! But also a major clue!
And as if even that weren’t enough, cops also found a handwritten note in the backpack. Per the police affidavit in the case, the note included “a schedule or plan to the events that surround the suspicious death of Cruddas.”
Whoa!
While the unnamed individual who gave the backpack to cops has not been identified, a news outlet in Atlantic City, New Jersey has revealed the identity of the person who allegedly gave the backpack to that unknown person! Per BreakingAC.com, the sketchy backpack was handed over to the unnamed person — who then handed it over to cops — by a dude named Timothy Barrus. Oh, yeah — Timothy also just so happens to be Errickson’s ex-boyfriend!
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Cops finally managed to piece all this together last month, which was nearly two full years after Cruddas’ death. The timeline was finally moved along at that point because in late January, detectives were finally able to sit down with Barrus and his attorney. During that convo, Barrus told cops about the rumors he had heard about Cruddas’ death. Those rumors, BreakingAC.com reports, matched up perfectly with what Ragan had previously told cops nearly two years ago! DAMN!!!
An Inheritance Battle
But why would Ragan and Errickson allegedly kill Cruddas, anyway?
According to WPVI, Barrus told cops that the motive in the murder was that Errickson believed her much younger sister was “the cause of losing her children.” See, Errickson has two biological kids, per reports, but they are not in her custody and instead live with other family members.
Oh, and speaking of family, Barrus said to cops that Errickson also believed that her now-dead sister “was taking her home.” That, also per WPVI, is a reference to a fight the sisters had over the family home and an associated inheritance following their mother’s death a few years back.
According to the affidavit, Barrus claimed that Errickson was mad about a fight the two sisters were having over those assets. And not only that, but Barrus alleged that Errickson had previously spoken on multiple different occasions about wanting to kill her sister — and other people — by injecting them with lethal doses of drugs.
Jeez!!
By that point, with both Barrus’ and Ragan’s statements on hand, as well as the backpack, its handwritten letter, the heroin baggies, and Cruddas’ death no longer being viewed by medical examiners as a simple overdose, cops had enough to act.
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They arrested Errickson in southern New Jersey on that very same day late last month, and booked her into jail on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy, per WKXW.
Ragan was also arrested last week — in Ottumwa, Iowa. Cops way out there tracked him down, took him into custody, and hit him with the same charges.
‘Cold, Calculated, Deliberate’
Finally, two years after Cruddas’ death and countless man-hours into the investigation, Errickson and Ragan are behind bars. As the alleged killers faced down their first court dates this week, prosecutors explained the situation — and provided even more details about how it came to be.
According to NJ.com, Assistant Cape May County Prosecutor Ed Shim slammed Errickson after her first court appearance on the murder charge:
“This was not an impulsive act. This was a cold, calculated, deliberate murder of a family member fueled by revenge, and demonstrates this person’s disregard for human life, especially a family member.”
Shim also offered details on the inheritance battle that allegedly was the center of the motive behind Cruddas’ murder.
Per the prosecutor, the sisters’ mother left the family home to BOTH women upon her death in 2020. But amid all the acrimony between the sisters, and following Cruddas’ death three years later, the house was sold off for a cool $325,000 with Errickson being given every last penny of those proceeds. Per WKXW, Cruddas’ father (who is a different man from Errickson’s father, FYI) challenged that move in court, but lost.
And so, Errickson walked away with all the cash from the sale. But now, well, justice may yet be served.
‘Preyed On Her Sister’
Also during Errickson’s first court appearance, the presiding judge read her the proverbial riot act.
Per NJ.com, Judge Dorothy Garrabant made note of how Errickson allegedly went after a very vulnerable Cruddas just days after the younger woman had been released from the hospital following the miscarriage-related suicide attempt:
“This defendant preyed on her sister, and then waited until her sister was at her most vulnerable to put her plan into effect.”
However, per BreakingAC.com, Errickson’s legal team sees things a bit differently.
Her defense attorney Kate Weigel said during that same initial court appearance this week that the state still doesn’t have sufficient evidence against her client. Furthermore, part of the proof of Errickson’s alleged innocence is that she stayed in New Jersey for the last two years — while Ragan was the one who traveled all over the country, like how he was eventually arrested way out in Iowa!
Weigel said that Errickson might have had the opportunity to leave for good during a recent trip down to Florida, but she actually came back home instead:
“Even when Mr. Ragan was wandering around telling people my client killed her own sister, this is still where she came [back after a prior trip to Florida], Judge, because this is where she resides. She is innocent of these charges.”
From here, Errickson and Ragan will go through the various court dates and pre-trial motions leading to their day(s) in court.
Whew. What a f**king saga.
In the meantime, we’re just over here catching our breath after going down that winding and unsettling road. Above all, we’re heartbroken over Cruddas’ miscarriage, her suicide attempt, and her untimely death.
So sad…
If you or someone you know is experiencing substance abuse, help is available. Consider checking out the resources SAMHSA provides at https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/national-helpline or check out StartYourRecovery.org.
If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, help is available. Consider contacting the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, by calling, texting, or chatting, or go to 988lifeline.org.
For more information on violence against women, go to https://www.justice.gov/ovw/resources-for-survivors.
[Image via Facebook/Wapello County Jail/Cape May County Jail]
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