The second season of “The Worst Roommate Ever,” which premiered on June 26 and has been a hit on Netflix, delves into the housing situations that lead to disastrous endings.
A woman who poisoned her best friend to gain custody of her son, a terrifying tenant who murdered his elderly roommate after gaining her trust, a woman who gave her roommate a traumatic brain injury after taking out life insurance on him, and a landlord who shot and dismembered his tenant are all subjects of the documentary series’ four episodes.
Who is Janie Ridd and where is she now?
The first episode of the new season centers on Janie Ridd, whose tumultuous 25-year friendship with a Salt Lake City woman that began when the two began living together ended with him serving time in prison for multiple attempted poisonings with antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Ridd was living with a woman called Rachel, a single mother with a son called Ryder.
After Rachel became ill, Mr. Ridd was made the beneficiary of her $500,000 life insurance policy. Rachel amended her will to give Mr. Ridd custody of Mr. Ryder in the event of her death. With Rachel no longer able to work, Mr. Ridd suddenly had “100 percent control” over her, she said.
Janie Ridd on the left and her friend Rachel on the right, both of whom are only known by their first names in “The Worst Roommate Ever.” Photograph taken in an undated photo. (Netflix)
“I just can’t believe that my best friend and roommate of 25 years would do something like that,” Rachel, who only gave her first name, told the Netflix show, “But it was heinous and evil. It was completely planned and orchestrated.”
Rachel said her condition had worsened, while Ridd “began to lead people to believe they were Ryder’s parent”.
Rachel developed a severe methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection in the wounds that Dr Ridd had treated and was subsequently hospitalised with repeated episodes of severe hypoglycemic episodes of unknown cause.
According to the documentary and an indictment filed in Utah’s 3rd District Court and reviewed by Fox News Digital, FBI Weapons of Mass Destruction Program officials began investigating Rid in October 2019 after he contacted a vendor selling vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA).
Rid contacted the supplier for three months, telling them she was a biology teacher and needed the bacteria, which experts say is more contagious and dangerous than MRSA, for a science experiment with her students. In fact, she worked at a career services center, according to the indictment.
“It was perfectly planned and orchestrated.”
FBI agents witnessed her receiving a package at her post office box in December 2019, then followed her back to work and questioned her about the contents. Agents searched the home where Ridd and Rachel lived, eventually finding a used insulin needle with Rachel’s DNA on it, explaining her previous hospitalization.
Rid was convicted in August 2020 of attempted intentional abuse of a disabled or elderly person and attempted possession or use of a weapon of mass destruction.
Ridd, now 55, was released in January 2022 after serving just 25 months of his sentence, according to the documentary.
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Scott Pettigrew
Scott Edmund Pettigrew, now 58, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for beating his 65-year-old roommate, Mimie Anita Cowen, to death. Friends of Cowen said Pettigrew was a “charming guy” who endeared himself to the elderly woman. Cowen had reportedly used Craigslist to find roommates to help pay the bills.
Cohen had not done background checks, and many of his roommates had stopped paying rent or had domestic problems, but Pettigrew, a former co-worker of Cohen’s at Walgreens, seemed calm and personable.
Shortly after moving into Cowen’s Cathedral City, California, home in 2016, Pettigrew began frequently stealing from the house and blaming another roommate. That roommate, who spoke in the documentary series, ended up serving time in jail after convincing Cowen to evict her from the house without going through the proper process and fabricating a story about Pettigrew assaulting her.
Scott Pettigrew initially appeared to be a personable, charming man before he murdered 65-year-old Anita Cowen in her apartment complex. (Netflix)
At that point, Pettigrew stopped paying rent, and Cowen sought a restraining order, citing other issues, but a judge ordered Pettigrew to stay five yards away from her, but allowed him to live in the house.
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In court documents, Cowen said he was “too scared to do anything but leave” and “Scott [was] He has intensified this behavior to keep me in constant fear of him and what he will do next. I do not want a next time.”
According to the documentary series, after Pettigrew’s dogs were ordered out of the house, he removed the garage door opener and blocked the front door, but police helped her inside and then left, saying they could not intervene in a civil matter.
Anita Cowen, seen in an undated photograph, was 65 when she was murdered by her tenant, Scott Pettigrew. (Netflix)
On June 14, 2019, Cowen’s family was unable to contact her and called Cathedral City police to check on her after she was found dead in her swimming pool with broken ribs and blunt force trauma to the head.
Pettigrew was still inside the house, naked and confused, and in conversations with police he blamed a third roommate for the murder.
However, Cowen had hidden a recorder in his home which recorded his final moments, giving prosecutors enough evidence to convict him.
Pettigrew was sentenced to 25 years to life in a substance abuse treatment facility and state prison in Corcoran, California, for murder, elder abuse and violating a protective order. Desert Sun He will not be eligible for parole until April 2033, according to reports.
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Tammy Fritz
After Tammy Fritz’s husband, Rich, died under suspicious circumstances, Fritz welcomed Rich’s best friend from the Army, James “Beau” Bowden, and their young son, Christian, into her home at Fort Carson, Colorado.
After his friend died in June 2001, Boden decided to leave the military immediately and moved in with the Fritz family, where he became a father figure to Christian.
Fritz was like family to Borden, but unbeknownst to him, she had taken out a life insurance policy in Fritz’s name.
Tammy Fritz is pictured here with her son Christian, now an adult and with a baby on the way, on an unknown date. Fritz was sentenced to 48 years in prison for her role in the attempted murder of James Borden. (Netflix)
After living in the house for four years, Bowden became seriously ill while drinking with Fritz, whose brother later said in a recorded phone call that she had laced Bowden’s drink with GHB or another substance to collect on his life insurance money.
On another occasion, a fire broke out in Bowden’s room. The source of the blaze was never found, and Fritz told his son it was caused by a games console that had been left overheating.
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Meanwhile, according to law enforcement sources interviewed in the documentary series, Fritz was using drugs heavily by 2009 and was under investigation for identity theft, credit card fraud and check fraud.
Around that time, Michelle Kay Heaston and Sean Richard Lago moved into Fritz’s house after she was fired from her job with a construction company for embezzling funds.
“‘Tammy is trying to kill me for money’? Yeah, there are definitely a lot of demons to sort out,” James Borden said. (Netflix)
Borden, unemployed and depressed, tells the Fritzes that he plans to return to Alaska with his parents and go back to college. Fritz, Christian, Borden, Heaston, and Lago go to one last party before Borden leaves.
When her son didn’t return to Alaska, Bowden’s mother called the apartment manager, who discovered the veteran unconscious and covered in blood. Bowden had suffered a traumatic brain injury and had no memory of what had happened.
According to the documentary, Fritz was convicted of attempted murder, aiding and abetting attempted murder, and conspiracy to murder. She was sentenced to 48 years in prison, for which she is currently serving. Two of her accomplices, Heaston and Lagoe, were also charged with participating in the attempted murder of Borden.
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Michael Dudley
Jessica Lewis and Austin Wenner were down-on-their-luck drug addicts who moved into the home of 65-year-old Michael Dudley in Burien, Washington. According to the documentary series, while Dudley appeared affable at first glance, he was a paranoid drug addict who ultimately murdered his tenant.
A group of teenagers discovered human bones stuffed into a suitcase off the coast of Duwamish Point, near Seattle, in June 2020. More bones were found in another duffel bag nearby, and a third bag was recovered from the Duwamish River four days later.
Another of Dudley’s residents told the filmmakers that Dudley was initially very kind to her, taking her to job interviews and looking after her dog, but that changed when she moved out and asked Dudley to look after her animals.
Austin Wenner and Jessica Lewis are seen in an undated photo. (Netflix)
Both dogs disappeared. One was found, but when the previous occupant came to collect it, Dudley admitted to killing the other dog after it had allegedly killed some of his pet chickens.
Wenner’s mother said that the month he was last seen, her son called her to say he’d seen “something he shouldn’t have seen” – that Dudley was receiving a package of weapons at the home they shared. Wenner and his girlfriend allegedly committed a number of petty crimes for their landlord, who had installed cameras on the property to keep an eye on visitors.
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Lewis’ aunt, Gina Jaschke, spoke of Dudley’s threatening behavior towards his tenants both in “The Worst Roommate Ever” and in interviews. West of Seattle. The suspect is accused of placing tracking devices on cars, killing animals to intimidate people and holding people at gunpoint.
Dudley shot and killed Lewis and Wenner in the home they shared, leaving their bodies there for several days before dismembering them. A witness who was offered a room at Dudley’s house after Wenner and Lewis disappeared solidified the charges against the homeowner. According to the documentary series, the witness found the bodies in one of the rooms in the house. During an argument, Dudley testified that “Dudley’s gun fired, but their gun didn’t fire.”
On the night the couple were killed, a neighbor called 911 after hearing gunshots and screams. However, when police responded to the home, there was no response when they opened the door, and they were unable to investigate without further evidence. After Dudley was arrested based on witness statements, his phone records revealed that the only time he had recently left the home was to visit a location that matched the location of the duffel bag containing the body parts.
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Dudley was sentenced to 46 years in prison for second-degree murder in April last year. Seattle Times He will not be eligible for parole until he is 104 years old, according to reports.
