Federal prosecutors unveil a disturbing tale involving Caroline Herrling, a woman who not only proved to be a truly awful neighbor but was also concealing a grim secret. Known to some as “Carrie Phenix,” Herrling’s actions unveil a chilling narrative that has shocked many.
The shocking revelation started when Herrling and her associates stumbled upon the body of a wealthy property owner from Sherman Oaks inside his dilapidated house. Instead of alerting the authorities, Herrling took a macabre turn and transported the deceased to her West Los Angeles apartment, as detailed in a statement issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Once there, she attempted to dissolve the body using chemicals, all the while scheming to claim the late man’s estate for herself. This heinous act was part of a broader pattern of exploiting “vulnerable victims,” according to prosecutors.
Neighbor Bella Baskin, reflecting on the immense shock she felt, shared her disbelief in Netflix’s Worst Neighbor Ever. “I couldn’t believe that I was only 50 feet away from her chopping up a body,” she said. “I never in a million years thought Carrie would be capable of all the things she did.”
Who Was Caroline Herrling?
Initially, her neighbor Bella Baskin thought of Carrie as the perfect neighbor—approachable yet not overly intrusive. This perception dramatically shifted once the stark reality of Carrie’s hidden life came to light.
“Carrie’s apartment was across from me, one apartment down. She had a vibe of being business casual,” Bella remembered in the docuseries. “She seemed very smiley and cheery and very normal.”
But by 2020—as they were all stuck at home during the COVID pandemic—Carrie’s neighbors noticed some unusual changes in her personality.
“She started to have dark circles under her eyes,” Bella said. “She started wearing, you know, hoodies. She didn’t make eye contact. She wasn’t friendly or talkative anymore.”
According to Bella, Carrie also began to hang out with “suspicious characters,” who often came into the small apartment building at all hours of the night. Carrie also began hosting regular parties, blaring loud music throughout the night and making loud noises.
During one late night party, Carrie’s neighbor Ashley Lee allegedly overheard her through the wall talking about keeping meth in the apartment.
“My automatic thought was just fear,” Ashley remembered. “I did not feel safe.”
Who Was Charles Wilding?
What Carrie’s neighbors didn’t know was that she would soon become embroiled in a disturbing missing persons investigation.
As LAPD homicide detective Mark O’Donnell explained in the docuseries, he received a call from a woman in October 2021 concerned about the welfare of Charles Wilding, the sole heir of a multi-million dollar estate. She feared that Charles may have been the victim of foul play.
O’Donnell learned that officers were initially dispatched to Charles’ Sherman Oaks home months earlier, in December 2020, after his worried neighbors hadn’t seen him for several days.
Police went to Charles’ home and found Carrie at the property. She told them in body camera footage replayed in the docuseries that Charles was staying in Carpinteria and she had been named the “trustee of the estate.”
Officers went inside the disheveled home to look for Charles, but didn’t find him. Now, months later, there was still no sign of the elderly man.
Concerned, O’Donnell said he reached out to Carrie and asked her to help him get in touch with the missing man.
Although a man claiming to be Charles did call him, per Worst Neighbors Ever, Carrie could never produce Charles in person, causing authorities to dig deeper.
Meanwhile, Carrie was evicted and moved into a West Hills home she claimed to be running as a sober living house—yet neighbors reported frequent visitors, loud music and a yard full of trash.
After investigators discovered she’d used money from her fraud schemes to purchase the property, they served a search warrant at the home and made a chilling discovery, according to the docuseries.
“It almost seemed like something out of a movie scene,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Brown said. “She had 16 firearms including assault rifles ziptied to her bedroom closet door. Many of them loaded and several of them being untraceable ghost guns.”
Investigators said they also found heroin, methamphetamine, police badges, FBI identification cards and numerous financial documents connected to Wilding’s estate.
What Happened to Charles Wilding?
They also found evidence that Carrie had been involved in defrauding other estates, in what federal prosecutors described as a “near-$3.9 million scheme.”
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Carrie and her co-conspirators “preyed on vulnerable victims by looking for properties in affluent neighborhoods that appeared unkempt.”
It was during one such mission that her co-conspirator Matthew Jason Kroth—who went by Jason—told investigators in an interrogation replayed in Worst Neighbor Ever that he stumbled upon Charles’ home and broke in, only to discover him already dead inside.
“I smelled a smell. It was bad,” Jason said. “And then I kinda shined the light up and I see old what’s-his-face.”
Prosecutors believe Charles died sometime in September 2020, per the statement, although the exact cause of death remains unknown.
Rather than report the death, Jason reached out to Carrie, who decided to gain control of his finances and estate by forging documents that gave herself power of attorney.
“Herrling and her co-conspirators moved the victim’s body to her apartment in West Los Angeles, where they attempted to dissolve his body in a concoction of chemicals, investigators found,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. “When that did not work, Herrling and her co-conspirators dismembered the body, placed the pieces in vacuum-sealed bags and moved the victim’s body to the Bay Area. Another member of the conspiracy who owned a sailboat assisted in disposing of the mutilated remains of the deceased victim into San Francisco Bay, the investigation revealed.”
Where is Caroline Herrling Now?
After the fraud scheme was exposed, Carrie pled guilty in March 2023 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She was sentenced to 240 months in a federal prison.
When handing down her sentence, U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong remarked that rather than seeing Charles as a “man and a human being” she saw him more as a “cash register,” prosecutors said.
She’s currently being housed at the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, according to prison records reviewed by Oxygen.
Where is Matthew Jason Kroth Now?
Jason pled guilty in October 2023 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. He was sentenced to 200 months in federal prison, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California.
He remains in custody at FCI Victorville in Victorville, California, according to prison records.
Carrie’s former neighbors were shocked to discover her criminal acts.
“In hindsight,” Bella said, “now I realize that you never really know who your neighbors.”