Netflix’s Worst Neighbor Ever deals with the ultimate nightmare scenarios, from volatile driveway arguments to sudden, surprising violence. However, Episode 4 – the Season 1 finale, titled “The Executor” – introduces a more calculating individual whom you could easily deem a monster. Caroline Joanne Herrling (who also operated under the alias ‘Carrie Phenix’) did not just harass her neighbor; she coldly and systematically erased him, embedding herself into a Los Angeles neighborhood and preying on a vulnerable, elderly man named Charles Wilding. She conducted a massive estate fraud scheme – and it turned fatal.
This is a shocking, disturbing story, so much so that I was absolutely gobsmacked by the end of the episode.
The Disappearance of Charles Wilding: How the Scam Began
Herrling knew how to prey on the vulnerable; she knew exactly what she was looking for when profiling a victim to snare. She noticed her 70-year-old neighbor, Charles Wilding, was a recluse and had no family living nearby.
This reality makes the case even more sinister because she lured him into a trap, acting like a concerned, helpful neighbor just so she could gain access to his property and financial life. She used a classic con-artist tactic – the exact kind of manipulation we always fear our elderly relatives will fall for.
Alarm bells were raised when neighbors realized that Charles had not been seen since 2020. Herrling slowly took over the property and made the sensational claim that he had moved away, leaving her in charge as his executor.
You really have to wonder what type of person you have to be to go to these lengths to destroy anyone’s life, let alone someone who is elderly. It makes this story incredibly disturbing.
The Anonymous Tip That Blew the Case Open and Charles Wilding’s Death
Herrling went as far as she possibly could with her crimes. She forged Wilding’s will and power of attorney documents, subsequently selling off his assets so she could fund a lavish lifestyle.
But Herrling’s high life was finally upended by an anonymous tip. In October 2021, that tip led the LAPD to conduct a welfare check on Charles Wilding, which unearthed an awful truth. When investigators followed the forged financial paper trail, they discovered what actually happened to Charles.
Investigators found that after a burglar initially targeted Wilding’s home because it looked abandoned, Herrling and her co-conspirators broke in. Charles Wilding actually died around September 2020 of unknown causes. Herrling did not report the death; instead, she left his body to decompose for weeks while taking advantage of his finances and estate by committing fraud.
When Herrling and her co-conspirators were eventually spooked by the police welfare check, they moved Wilding’s decomposed body and tried to destroy the evidence by dissolving his remains in a concoction of different industrial chemicals.
But like the amateurs they were, their chemical mixture failed to completely dissolve the remains. Consequently, they went to even more evil lengths: they dismembered Wilding’s body, packed the severed pieces into vacuum-sealed plastic bags, and drove his remains across California to the Bay Area.
When I say I was absolutely floored by this revelation, it is nowhere near an exaggeration. It doesn’t make sense that anyone could act this way – I had to pause the show multiple times in disgust. To this day, Charles Wilding’s remains have never been recovered. It’s a sad, tragic story of a vulnerable old man taken advantage of, even in death. Herrling couldn’t even grant him dignity in passing.
Herrling’s evil did not stop there. Another investigation revealed that Herrling used the same identity theft ring to steal and sell a home out from under a separate victim without his consent, generating $1.5 million in fraudulent profit. This victim was already struggling with his mental health, and tragically took his own life once he learned he had lost his home to Herrling’s scam.
Where is Caroline Joanne Herrling Now?
The case against Herrling extended far beyond fraud; her crimes resulted in massive federal charges for her sophisticated identity theft and estate scam networks.
No one will be surprised that she was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. Interestingly, she showed a complete lack of remorse throughout the trial, making her story even more chilling.
The federal judge on the case explicitly told Herrling that Wilding was a human being, but she simply looked at him “like a cash register.”
Connecting back to the overall theme of the Netflix true-crime anthology, Worst Neighbor Ever serves as a stark reminder that you never truly know who you live next door to and that extremely predatory people are out there.
Caroline Joanne Herrling concealed herself as the good neighbor, and by the time her victims found out who she really was, it was too late.
The final episode is a powerful reminder of the importance of checking on elderly and isolated neighbors, as they are the most vulnerable to these highly manipulative predators.
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