Content Warning: This article contains details regarding domestic abuse and sexual assault that some readers might find disturbing.Robert Burns, in his 1784 poem “Man was Made to Mourn: A Dirge,” says, “Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.” In eight simple words, Burns expresses that which can not be expressed, the horror of how man can so callously treat another. When we hear tales of one unbelievable act of depravity inflicted upon our own by our own, it only barely registers before it is one-upped by another. Speaking to that is Netflix’s new docuseries, Worst Ex Ever, four episodes that detail the stories of terrifying abuse at the hands of significant others. Significant others that, once, professed love, only to flip the script to something far darker and contemptible. And what the brave survivors have to say is the stuff of nightmares.
‘Worst Ex Ever’ Exposes the Failings of the Justice System
From the same team that brought Worst Roommate Ever to Netflix, Worst Ex Ever shifts the focus from roommates to lovers, “from chilling betrayals to murder plots, this true-crime docuseries dissects the dark side of love through eyewitness testimonies.” Each episode interviews survivors, their families, and investigators to provide a thorough account of each horrifying case. The first episode, “Dating the Devil,” focuses on Ben Foster, a man with a violent history who intended to kill Justine Siemens, his girlfriend. The story of Foster, even before Siemens, is reprehensible. He was charged in 2017 for domestic violence on his ex-girlfriend, and then in 2019, holding his girlfriend captive for two weeks, which left her with seven broken ribs, two black eyes, and injuries inflicted by zip ties and duct tape used for restraint. For the latter, he was charged with five felonies but pleaded guilty to reduced charges and sentenced to 30 months in state prison. But in what proves to be a common theme that runs through Worst Ex Ever, the justice system failed, releasing Foster on the same day he was transferred to state prison after already having served 729 days while awaiting trial.
Now released, Foster moved to Oregon, where he met Siemens while working as a bartender. All was well in the early stages until she reported Foster to his employer after learning about his criminal history, which led to Foster being fired. That’s when Siemens came face-to-face with “the Devil,” with Foster stalking her, torturing her, and subjecting her to severe physical abuse. For three days, Foster held Siemens captive, only being rescued after managing to call a friend. When the police found Siemens, she was bound, naked, had a noose around her neck, and was beaten unconscious, so severely that Siemens reveals in the episode that she suffered from brain damage, had to relearn how to walk, and had to replace her teeth. Foster escaped, however, kicking off a manhunt. He altered his appearance and reached out for help in dodging the police. After being cornered by police, Foster killed himself after an hours-long standoff on January 31, 2023, never having to take accountability for the lives he destroyed along the way.
In ‘Worst Ex Ever,’ the Most Horrifying Stories Only Seem To Get Worse
“Betrayed by the Badge” follows the story of Seemona Sumasar, a financial adviser and franchise owner with a young daughter. Sumasar had little time for much else, but after meeting Jerry Ramrattan, an NYPD officer and detective, that changed, with the pair forming a romantic relationship. That is, until Ramrattan’s wife called Sumasar. It runs out that Ramrattan was little more than a con man, who was married and had three children. Despite the inevitable break-up, Sumasar allowed Ramrattan to stay in her basement for a few weeks. Weeks became months, and on March 8, 2009, Ramrattan forced himself on Sumasar, bound and gagged her with duct tape, and raped her. After several hours he fled, and was soon charged with rape and was being investigated for impersonating a police officer.
The sexual assault is already horrific, but what came next took things to an entirely new low. Now out on bail, Ramrattan relentlessly hounded Sumasar, trying to force her to stop cooperating with the rape investigation. When that didn’t work, he tried to frame Sumasar for armed robbery by staging a series of fictional crimes. That, too, didn’t work, but a new plan, implemented by Ramrattan with the help of two associates, reported armed robberies that painted Sumasar as the guilty party, did work (as per the previously cited Today). She was arrested in May 2010, and despite her claims of innocence and pointing to Ramrattan as the mastermind behind the ruse, police didn’t take her seriously and brushed it off, and even a solid alibi wasn’t enough to prevent Sumasar from being indicted on multiple counts of robbery, and faced 25 years in prison. After seven months, an informant called and backed up Sumasar’s claims of being framed, and she was released, settling for $2 million after filing a lawsuit. As for Ramrattan, he was convicted in January 2012.
The Netflix Docuseries Turns a Custody Battle Into a Crime Scene
As recounted in “Killing for Custody,”Eric Hill, a quiet, unassuming man, met Mei Li at work, and she introduced him to her daughter, Rosa. Eric and Rosa hit it off, and got married in April 2005. Their daughter was born the next year, but the joy of their first child was undermined by Eric needing to work two jobs, and Rosa threatening divorce after the arguments between them became more frequent. She began taking their daughter to her parents’ home, and in 2007 they separated. However, when Rosa refused to allow Eric to see their daughter on her first birthday, Eric sued for custody. As a result, Rosa began making up lies, first by emailing Eric’s work claiming he intended to carry out a shooting there, and another claiming Eric was abusive to their daughter. All the allegations were proven false, and the court gave full custody to Eric. Rosa, however, wasn’t going to make that easy… and didn’t.
On January 7, 2009, Rosa and Mei broke into Sally Hill‘s home, Eric’s 91-year-old grandmother, where they tased her, strangled her, and left her body in a trashcan covered in a tarp. Shortly after, Eric and his daughter arrived, but while searching for Sally he was attacked by Rosa and Mei, with Rosa pulling a gun. When police arrived, it was too difficult to make heads or tails out of what had happened, and everyone was taken into custody. Now out of the way, detectives were able to search the property, finding Sally’s body and a backpack that contained rope, crossbows, a hunting knife, a throwing star, and a crowbar, among other things. Rosa’s car was found half a block away, along with a samurai sword and leg irons inside. And there was more, much more, all of which led to detectives uncovering a sickening plan called “Operation Custody,” which would have pinned Sally’s murder on Eric, which Eric would be forced to write a confession too. Then, Eric would “kill himself” in despair, leaving Rosa Hill as the only legal custodian of their child. Ultimately, the plan only succeeded in seeing the mother and daughter sentenced to life in prison.
‘Worst Ex Ever’ Exposes How Cold-Blooded and Vicious Some People Can Be
The titular monster of “Married to a Monster” is one Kevin Lewis, husband of Amanda Canales and father to two daughters and a son. As their family grew, so too did Lewis’s dark side, which at first began with controlling behavior and snide remarks about his wife’s body while pregnant with their boy. Amanda attempted to dismiss his increasingly frequent mood swings as issues related to his past, but after Lewis went through her phone one day, he cornered Amanda in the closet and knocked her unconscious after jabbing her in the face. That was the final straw, and Amanda left Lewis, taking the children with her to another home, only for Lewis to blindside her sometime after, nearly killing her after striking her head repeatedly. The assault pushed Amanda to file for divorce, and for a restraining order against Lewis. That restraining order proved to be useless in stopping what came next.
Lewis paid Jerradon Phelps and Alexis Hale $2,400 to kill Amanda, and on September 20, 2017, the assailants entered the home. Amanda would be spared as she was away on a business trip, but her sister, Alisha Canales-McGuire, who was watching her children, was not and was shot multiple times. Phelps and Hale were taken in, but attempts to link Lewis, Phelps’ cousin, to the crime proved fruitless. At least until detectives received a tip regarding Hale’s bragging on social media about having killed someone. Detectives were then able to track Hales’ Snapchat videos to show the pair had travelled from Spokane to Everett, stopping at Lewis’ house, and carrying on to Amanda’s home, where neighborhood ring cameras and a nearby security camera were proof-positive of the trio’s guilt.
‘Worst Ex Ever’ Presents the Survivor’s Stories Without Glamorizing the Details
A true-crime documentary is often difficult to pull off without somehow glamorizing the players behind the crimes. One recent documentary that succeeded in this is another Netflix venture, American Murder: Laci Peterson, only for a competing documentary looking to exonerate the man convicted of the crime, Scott Peterson, to air on Peacock days later. The way Worst Ex Ever steps around this, though, is very clever. There are no live recreations of the events, but key moments in each four stories are dramatized with surprisingly effective animated sequences. It helps to accentuate the details given by the people involved without the unnecessary visceral element, effectively forcing the viewer to understand, to feel the emotion of the events without catering to a gratuitous dramatic visual that is simply disturbing to watch.
Worst Ex Ever also succeeds at offering an even-handed approach to each story. Guilty parties are just that, guilty parties, and that includes those in the justice system that failed the survivors. It isn’t a total damnation of that system, as the series takes its time in hearing from law enforcement individuals who were instrumental in seeing justice served as well. That even-handed approach extends to the stories themselves, with the inclusion of “Killing for Custody” that offers a rare look at the abuse of a man at the hands of a woman, a reality that doesn’t often get portrayed in media. Most importantly, Worst Ex Ever stands as a warning bell for viewers, detailing the signs to look for and the hope of coming out the other side. These survivors lived through their nightmare, and if their stories help even one person through their own, then Worst Ex Ever has succeeded in becoming more than just a true-crime docuseries.
If you or a loved one are involved in an abusive relationship, there is help. In the U.S., reach out to the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or on their website, https://www.thehotline.org/.
Worst Ex Ever is available to stream in the U.S. on Netflix
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