Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Worst Roommate Ever s2. (L to R) Janie and Rachel in Worst Roommate Ever s2. Courtesy of Netflix
Netflix’s true-crime docuseries, Worst Roommate Ever, is back with another unsettling season. The second chapter kicks off with the bizarre story of a woman who poisoned her best friend of 25 years with a strain of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. What happened between Janie and Rachel, and where is Janie Ridd now?
Season 2 of Worst Roommate Ever returns with more harrowing accounts of seemingly harmless roommates who turn lethal.
The first episode, “My BFF Tried to Kill Me,” follows a woman named Rachel (only identified by her first name) who moves in with a woman named Janie Ridd. They become best friends and co-parent Rachel’s young son together. After sharing a home for several years, Rachel gets deathly ill numerous times without any explanation. Her roommate also develops an obsession with parenting Rachel’s young son while she’s sick.
“I really have a hard time believing that the person that I’ve known for 25 years, my best friend and roommate, could do what she did,” Rachel says at the start of the docuseries. “It was evil. It was plotted and planned so perfectly.”
Learn about what happened in the Janie Ridd case that was featured in Season 2, Episode 1, of Netflix’s Worst Roommate Ever.
How Did Rachel and Janie Ridd Meet?
Worst Roommate Ever s2. (L to R) Janie and Rachel in Worst Roommate Ever s2. Courtesy of Netflix
Rachel and Janie first crossed paths in 1995 when Rachel was 22 and Janie was 26. In “My BFF Tried to Kill Me,” Rachel describes Janie as a nice person who is a little shy and introverted. Rachel had just gone through a divorce and moved back into her parent’s home when they started to hang out socially. Meanwhile, Janie was living in an apartment that had been broken into, and she didn’t want to live alone.
At first, Rachel said she felt “very safe” living with her friend and roommate. But when Rachel started making new friends and dating, Janie allegedly displayed controlling and jealous behavior. Janie defended her actions by saying that they were family and she didn’t want to lose Rachel.
Rachel worked as a paramedic for six years until she herniated a disc in 2010. She also discovered that she was pregnant at the same time. “For the first time in our friendship, Janie had 100% control over me because I didn’t have a job, I was pregnant, I had a back injury, and I was in so much pain, I needed her,” Rachel said in the docuseries.
Rachel gave birth to her son, Ryder, in 2010. As a single mother, she decided to get a large insurance policy so that whoever had control of Ryder would get the money for his care. Ryder has autism and is conversationally nonverbal. Janie was listed as Ryder’s guardian in Rachel’s will.
Unfortunately, Rachel herniated a disc again during her delivery. She needed to get surgery in 2015 after doctors told her that she was at risk of being permanently disabled. Janie took care of Ryder and acted like his second mother. Janie enrolled them in a program that paid Janie to help with Ryder, which Rachel said became “a significant part of her income.” Janie’s main focus became taking care of Ryder, and she even let people believe at his school that she was his parent.
They started fighting over who would have Ryder, and on June 20, 2018, Rachel received a letter Janie was suing her for custody of Ryder. Rachel called the authorities, who informed her that Janie filed a protective order. Ryder was returned to Rachel’s custody 10 days later after Child Protective Services concluded that her roommate was lying.
How Did Janie Ridd Allegedly Poison Rachel?
Worst Roommate Ever s2. Rachel in Worst Roommate Ever s2. Courtesy of Netflix
Rachel moved back in with Janie after the custody incident, and her roommate was helping after her neck surgery, including tending to her post-surgery incisions. Janie was strangely rubbing the site, ultimately resulting in more pain for Rachel. It turns out she had a massive infection caused by MRSA, a type of staph bacteria that can be resistant to several antibiotics. After she recovered, Rachel woke up in the hospital again and was told
