S3 Ep145: Aliza Sherman | Husband Had Motive, Lawyer Had Opportunity (Part 2)

Crime Weekly

True Crime

4.7 • 10.7K Ratings

🗓️ 27 March 2026

⏱️ 135 minutes

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Summary

On a Sunday evening in March of 2013, 53 year old Aliza Sherman went to meet with her divorce lawyer in downtown Cleveland, just days before her long and bitter divorce was set to go to trial. She never made it inside. Instead, she was found stabbed to death on the sidewalk outside the office door. Her purse was still with her, her SUV was parked nearby, she was still wearing all of her jewelry. Nothing about it looked like a random act of violence, yet nothing about it made any sense. For years, Aliza’s murder lingered in that terrible space between mystery and suspicion, where answers feel close enough to touch, but never close enough to hold. But as time passed, the case began to expose something even more chilling than the attack itself. Little by little, the names and details surrounding two men emerged, two men Aliza should have been able to trust more than almost anyone in her life. One was tied to the home and family she had built. The other was tied to the legal fight that was supposed to help set her free. And in that realization lies the deepest horror of this case: that the people with the closest access to your life, your fears, your plans, and your vulnerabilities may not be protecting you at all. This story is not just about who killed Aliza Sherman. It is about what can hide beneath the surface for years. About betrayal wrapped in familiarity. About trust handed to the wrong people. And about the devastating possibility that the people standing in your inner circle may be the very same people who are quietly working against you.Try our coffee! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.comBecome a Patreon member -- > ï½¿ https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeeklyShop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> ï½¿ https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shopYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcastWebsite: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.comInstagram: @CrimeWeeklyPodTwitter: @CrimeWeeklyPodFacebook: @CrimeWeeklyPodADS:1. PocketHose - Text CW to 64000 to get a FREE Pocket Pivot and a 10-Pattern Sprayer with the purchase of ANY Copperhead Hose!2. https://www.BollandBranch.com/CrimeWeekly - Take 20% off sitewide and get FREE shipping!3. https://www.HelloFresh.com/CrimeWeekly10FM - Get 10 FREE meals and a FREE Zwilling Knife on your third box!4. https://www.SKIMS.com/crimeweekly - Shop Stephanie's favorites at SKIMS! After checkout, let them know we sent you!5. https://www.MintMobile.com/CrimeWeekly - Get 3 Months of Premium Wireless for $15 a month!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Crime Weekly. I'm Stephanie Harlow. And I'm Derek Levaser.
0:17.0	Okay. So last week, we laid the groundwork for Elisa Sherman. We got to know her not just as a victim, but as a woman who was loved, trusted, and deeply important in the lives of the people around her. We also saw the reality of her marriage to Sanford Sherman, who she was married to for 30 years, years of conflict, control, fear, and a divorce that had turned into psychological warfare.
0:42.4	Elisa believed Sanford was hiding money, manipulating the system, and she felt that he was pushing her to the edge.
0:49.1	She even told people she feared he might kill her, but then she and a forensic accountant discovered new financial
0:55.0	information that armed her for the coming legal battle. But then only days before the divorce
1:00.3	went to court, Elisa was summoned to meet her lawyer, Gregory Moore, at his office. The office was
1:05.8	locked. Gregory Moore never came out, and within moments, Elisa was ambushed and stabbed to death.
1:11.7	So by the end of part one, we had two names standing at the center of this case, Sanford,
1:16.7	the husband that Alisa was trying to escape, and Gregory Moore, the lawyer who was supposed
1:21.3	to be helping her break free from this marriage and stop this two-year-long, horrible divorce. So that's kind of where we left
1:30.3	off. And I'm sure based on what we talked about, a lot of people were like, dude, Sanford did
1:36.7	this, right? Because it seems that way. And this kind of continues because it's not just what we already talked about.
1:46.0	There's more.
1:47.0	So in June of 2014, Elisa's daughter, Jennifer Sherman, sued her father, Sanford, for $2 million.
1:54.0	The lawsuit said that Jennifer, who was the co-executor of her mother, Elisa's estate, was seeking to recover money connected to that Merrill Lynch
2:01.6	account that Sanford Sherman had opened in Alisa's name in May of 2000. The lawsuit accused
2:07.4	Sanford of conversion, breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment, and civil conspiracy. So basically,
2:14.4	Jennifer and her lawyers were claiming that Sanford had wrongfully exercised control over money that did not belong to him.
2:20.7	He had forged Elisa's signature on the power of attorney form, which had been used to open and access the account.
2:27.9	He had unfairly and financially benefited from something that didn't belong to him, and he'd acted in concert with one or more
2:35.2	individuals to conceal Elisa's assets from her. The claim was that Sanford and other unidentified
2:41.4	co-conspirators created a document that made him power of attorney and he forged her signature.
	...

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