The series Worst Neighbor Ever brings audiences into a deeply unsettling neighborhood conflict—but participant Baskin says the woman at the heart of the case did not initially strike her as someone to fear.
Baskin, who is featured in the newest installment of Netflix’s true-crime anthology franchise Worst Neighbor Ever, told Oxygen exclusively that Caroline Herrling—also known as Carrie Phenix—came across as pleasant and ordinary when they first crossed paths. That impression, however, began to change around 2020.
“She was very innocent,” Baskin recalled. “She seemed very normal, very sweet. We would always walk our dogs at the same time. Nothing was suspicious about her.”
By 2020, Baskin said, Herrling’s behavior appeared to take a dramatic turn.
“And then around (the) COVID (pandemic) in 2020 is when there was a major shift in her,” she said. “We believe that she started using methamphetamines.”
The episode centers on Herrling’s alarming criminal case. Prosecutors alleged that after she found Charles Wilding, a wealthy property owner in Sherman Oaks, Calif., dead inside his home, she did not notify authorities. Instead, they said, she transported his body to her apartment in West Los Angeles. Federal prosecutors said Herrling and others involved tried to break down Wilding’s remains using chemicals before dismembering the body, all while pursuing a broader scheme to seize his estate and target what officials described as “vulnerable victims.”
In hindsight, Baskin said warning signs were there, even if she did not recognize them at the time.
“We started to notice her hanging out with a suspicious crowd,” she said, describing people wearing ankle monitors and sporting “prison” style tattoos outside the apartment building. Baskin said she also observed Herrling avoiding eye contact, dressing differently and falling behind on rent.
Soon afterward, packages began disappearing from residents’ doorsteps, and a neighbor’s bicycle was stolen from the garage, Baskin said.
“So things like that started happening,” Baskin said.
Still, she never imagined the crimes authorities would later accuse Herrling of committing.
Baskin said she first learned about the allegations from a news article sent to her by a friend. Suddenly, nights she had dismissed as strange but harmless took on a chilling new meaning.
“I thought she was doing normal meth activities, like rearranging furniture,” Baskin said, explaining she had mistaken loud sawing noises for furniture being dragged across the floor. “Not chopping up bodies or doing millions in wire fraud.”
Watching Worst Neighbor Ever brought back even more disturbing details.
“I didn’t know that she pulled (Wilding’s) teeth out and crushed them,” Baskin said. “It gives me chills just thinking about it. It’s horrifying that that was going on like 50 feet away from me.”
Herrling pleaded guilty in March 2023 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and was later sentenced to 240 months in federal prison. Looking back, Baskin said she is grateful her former neighbor is no longer living in the apartment complex.
“We were all so relieved to have her gone,” she said. “Even though we didn’t know what we know now, we still were being terrorized.”
