Four numbers on a receipt unravelled 2-year fraud plot where woman dissolved dead body and stole identity
Netflix’s Worst Neighbour Ever released today, the first spin-off of the successful true crime series Worst Ex Ever.
The Netflix documentary series covers four cases where neighbours got drawn into feuds or situations that went horrifically. These true crime horror stories range from blowing up a neighbour’s house in order to cash in life insurance money, to a man who was shot and killed in a house invasion following a feud with his neighbour.
The most shocking however involves a woman who stole the identity of an old man, Charles Wilding, after he was found dead in his apartment by her boyfriend, dissolving his body in acid to hide the evidence.
Caroline Herrling was served a 20-year prison sentence for her crime, remaining in prison to this day, but her plot began to unravel after a police officer spotted four numbers on a receipt.
Police began investigating Caroline after Wilding’s neighbours reported him missing and they received an anonymous tip that he was dead
Wilding had always been a reclusive man, with one of his neighbours speaking in the Netflix docuseries about how he refused help and kept to himself.
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Suspicions were aroused however when Caroline moved into his house, telling neighbours that he had moved to another residence whilst renovations were carried out, with neighbours not seeing him for months.
When police got involved there had already been a visit from adult services, with Caroline’s claims that she was the trustee of his estate causing the investigation to be dropped after a caseworker claimed to have spoken to someone they believed to be Wilding.
This was re-opened after an anonymous tip said that Wilding was dead, leading to LAPD detective Mark O’Connell picking the case back up. O’Connell contacted Caroline on the phone where she arranged for another man to lie and claim he was Wilding. This man provided a phone number to contact him on, but the detective’s suspicions were confirmed during a subsequent visit to Caroline’s flat.
Detective O’Connell spotted a receipt which showed that Caroline purchased the phone number she claimed belonged to Wilding
In Netflix’s Worst Neighbour Ever there is a recording of O’Connell’s later visit to Caroline’s apartment where he asks her to put Wilding on the phone so he can confirm he’s safe as she claimed.
Whilst she went upstairs to get her phone however he spots a receipt for a pre-paid phone, with the last four digits matching that of the number the man on the phone claiming to be Wilding had given him.
In court documents for Caroline’s eventual criminal case, the LAPD detective wrote: “I also observed a receipt on the table from T-Mobile. The receipt was for the purchase of a prepaid cellular phone on October 11, 2021.
“Only the last four numbers of the purchased prepaid phone were shown on the receipt--the same last four numbers as in the ‘Second Fake Wilding Number’ (how this phone number was described in court documents, leading me to believe that [Caroline] had purchased the prepaid phone, not that Wilding had done so unexpectedly as [Caroline] had earlier claimed.
“This is the same number provided by the male, who identified himself as "Charles Wilding".
“In my training and experience, criminals who want to hide their association with a cellular telephone prefer to purchase prepaid ones, like the Second Fake Wilding Number, because they do not require credit checks.
“The receipt was dated one day before the deadline I had given [Caroline] to produce Wilding or his contact information.”
This did not immediately cause her to be caught out, with her complicated web of lies taking roughly 18 months more to take apart sufficiently for her to be arrested. This included numerous forged documents and even the signature of a deceased lawyer used to cover up that she stole Wilding’s identity in order to control his $1 million estate.
Worst Neighbour Ever is available to stream on Netflix now.
A timeline of Caroline Herrling's horrific fraud
September 2020
Charles Wilding Jr. dies - investigators never ascertain the cause of death. His neighbours in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, are none the wiser, with Wilding reported to be a private man.
At some point that autumn, Caroline Herrling arrives at the property, telling neighbours Wilding is staying with friends in Carpinteria, Santa Barbara County, while she renovates his home.
December 2020
After not seeing Wilding for three months, neighbours request that the LAPD perform a welfare check.
Herrling repeats her story to police and gives them a landline number that doesn’t work. Adult Protective Services (APS) are also conducting their own investigation.
January 2021
A caseworker tells police they had spoken to someone they believed to be Wilding, and APS closes its investigation.
October 2021
The LAPD receive an anonymous tip-off claiming Wilding is dead, and his death has not been reported because people were using his death for financial gain.
The subsequent police investigation reveals forged documents, with people appearing to impersonate Wilding on the phone.
January 2023
Police get a federal warrant to search Herring’s apartment on Beverly Glen Boulevard and her home in West Hills.
They find stolen and forged driver’s licenses, birth certificates and passports. They also seize psilocybin mushrooms, heroin and methamphetamine, and 16 guns.
Days later, Herrling’s co-conspirator Matthew Jason Kroth confesses to breaking into Wilding’s home, finding him dead, and stealing from him.
He admits to identifying Wilding’s home because it looked uncared for, first breaking in when he was still alive and pretending to be conducting a welfare check to explain why he was there. He came back months later to find Wilding dead.
March 2023
Herrling pleads guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Kroth pleads guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
January 2024
Horrendous details emerge in sentencing documents. Herrling and her co-conspirators are revealed to have tried to dissolve Wilding’s body in acid, before dismembering it, placing it in vacuum-sealed bags, and throwing it into the San Francisco Bay. Wilding’s remains are never found.
March 2024
Herrling is sentenced to 20 years in prison and ordered to pay $3.88 million in restitution.
February 2026
Kroth is sentenced to 200 months in jail and ordered to pay $1.95 million in restitution.
Topics: Netflix, True Crime, Crime, TV and Film, Documentaries
Michael Slavin