A Millville woman is charged with killing her sister in Upper Township in 2023 and attempting to make it look like a drug overdose, according to the affidavit of probable cause related to her arrest.

Sarah Errickson, 36, is currently lodged in the Cape May County Correctional Center after a detention hearing on Monday, Feb. 3. Errickson is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree conspiracy.

According to the affidavit, she had an accomplice, Joseph Augustus Ragan IV, 22, of Philadelphia, who was arrested Jan. 30 Ottumwa, Iowa. Ragan is in the Wapello County, Iowa, jail awaiting extradition to Cape May County and is also charged with first-degree murder and first-degree conspiracy.

Errickson, with Ragan as an accomplice, is accused of giving her sister, Emily Cruddas, who was 21 at the time, prescription Xanax. She then injected her with about a dozen bags of fentanyl, the affidavit of probable cause said.

The incident happened Feb. 16, 2023, in an Upper Township home shared by the sisters.

The State Police were called to the home on East Sunrise Road the next day, Feb. 17, 2023, just before 5 p.m., for a reported overdose. Police found Cruddas with no pulse, and her body was cold to the touch. She was pronounced dead at the scene. According to a local press article, three bags of drugs stamped “White House” were near Cruddas’ body.

The affidavit said Ragan contacted the State Police and asked to make a statement in relation to Cruddas’ death. He was interviewed on March 6, 2023, when he was read his Miranda rights and waived the right to have an attorney present.

At that time, Ragan told police Cruddas had attempted suicide on Feb. 11 and was admitted to the hospital. While she was in the hospital, Errickson, Ragan and Timothy Barrus, Errickson’s former boyfriend, searched through Cruddas’ cellphone. Ragan allegedly said there was a lot of evidence on the phone that would have incriminated Errickson.

Ragan told police that since Cruddas had just attempted suicide, he told Errickson it would be better to make her death look like a suicide.

“Errickson plotted that upon Cruddas’ release, she would kill Cruddas and make the death appear to be a suicide,” the affidavit of probable cause said.

The affidavit described the events of Feb. 16, 2023, when it said Errickson gave Cruddas two capsules filled with crushed Xanax. At the same time, Ragan said, he saw Errickson prepare a hypodermic syringe with 10 to 15 bags of heroin, which was later determined to be fentanyl.

Errickson, Ragan and Barrus then entered Cruddas’ bedroom, where she was unconscious. Ragan told Errickson that Cruddas’ eyes were open, and he placed his hand over her mouth while Errickson injected 10 to 12 bags of heroin into Cruddas’ left hand between the thumb and index finger. Ragan told police he stayed with Cruddas for about seven hours, until she died at approximately 6 a.m. on Feb. 17.

On May 5, 2023, the cause of death was amended to be the toxic effects of fentanyl, and the manner of death amended from pending investigation to undetermined.

Nearly a year later, on April 19, 2024, a man named Stanley Vannote turned over a backpack that had been given to him by Barrus. The backpack contained an orange tool box that held 18 cellphones and 15 wax folds containing suspected heroin, which bore the same stamp, “White House,” the stamp found on the three wax folds left on the nightstand next to Cruddas’ body. There was also a note in the backpack that contained a plan listing the events surrounding Cruddas’ death.

On Jan. 23 this year, Cape May County detectives met with Barrus and his attorney, Robert Johnson, at the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office. According to the affidavit, Barrus corroborated Ragan’s prior statements and implicated Errickson and Ragan in carrying out the killing.

Barrus also described Errickson injecting her sister with the drugs, while Ragan held his hand over her mouth and told her, “Take your medicine.”

Barrus told detectives that Errickson told him Cruddas made statements causing her to lose her children and that Cruddas was trying to take her house. The affidavit said Barrus told detectives that Errickson had “mentioned multiple times killing her sister and other people by injecting them with a lethal dose of a CDS.”

Shortly after Barrus walked out of his interview with police Jan. 23, Errickson was arrested.

According to a Breaking AC article, at Errickson’s detention hearing Senior Assistant Prosecutor Ed Shim told Superior Court Judge Dorothy Garrabrandt the killing was not an impulsive act. It was alleged that the suspects waited some seven hours for Cruddas to die.

“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 was quoted as saying.

Defense attorney Kate Weigel said factors presented might make Barrus look suspicious but show no connection to her client. She said Errickson did not try to flee; she even visited Florida shortly after her sister’s death but returned home.

The judge said, in denying bail: “At any point during this timeline, the defendant could have stopped or gotten the victim help. She chose not to do so.”

Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 128.