Where are Lyle & Erik Menendez now? Monster Season 2 brothers explained

Monster Season 2, aka Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, is just around the corner, with the Netflix series diving into the notorious case that led the brothers to where they are now.

The first installment of Ryan Murphy’s true crime series centered on Jeffrey Dahmer, and it debuted in 2022 to much controversy – some viewers felt the show “romanticized” the cannibalistic serial killer.

But that didn’t stop it from becoming a global sensation, with Monster renewed for not one but two more seasons. It’s just been revealed that the third will focus on one of the darkest cases in US history, Ed Gein. 

Before then, Monster Season 2 is set to examine the Menendez brothers, who killed their parents Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty” in 1989. Warning: some may find this content distressing.

Erik and Lyle Menendez are in the same prison

Erik and Lyle Menendez are both serving life sentences at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County, California. They are currently aged 53 and 56, respectively. 

At the time of their sentencing in 1996, the Menendez brothers asked to be kept in the same prison. However, the authorities tend to keep inmates who’d committed crimes together separate, and they did so in this case.

They continued to request to be together over the years, but it wasn’t until February 2018 that their wish was granted. Lyle was transferred from California’s Mule Creek State Prison to their current facility, where Erik has been imprisoned since 2013. 

They found love in prison

Both brothers have been able to find love behind bars. Erik and his now-wife Tammi Menendez initially communicated as pen pals before meeting in 1997 and getting married at Folsom State Prison in 1999.

Lyle spoke with his first wife, Anna Eriksson, during his highly-publicized first trial. After Anna wrote to him, they met in person and fell in love, tying the knot in 1996 during the brothers’ sentencing. 

However, the pair got divorced in 2001 after Anna found out Lyle had been cheating on her with another pen pal. Following this, Lyle married another woman he’d been communicating with, Rebecca Sneed, in 2003 at Mule Creek State Prison.

They are still together, and Rebecca switched her career path from magazine editor to defense attorney. 

What happened to the Menendez house?

The infamous Beverly Hills mansion where Erik and Lyle shot parents Jose and Kitty dead was sold for $17 million in March 2024, 28 years after the Menendez brothers were convicted. 

Many scenes of Monster Season 2 will take place at the seven-bedroom, 9,063-square-foot Elm Drive property, as the Netflix show is set to depict the moments leading up to the murders. 

According to Realtor.com, the Mediterranean-style villa, which was originally listed for nearly $20 million, was sold by telecommunications executive Sam Delug.

He had owned the house since 2001, having bought it for $3.7 million at the time. He put it up for sale at the start of December 2023, after Peacock true crime docu-series Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed sparked renewed interest in the case. 

Although the buyer, whose identity was not revealed, paid a significant sum for the property, the outlet was told that it was still roughly 25% below market values – which is not unusual for homes where gruesome crimes have occurred. 

Forensic appraiser Orell Anderson, the president of Strategic Property Analytics, said, “It really is the bad voodoo that comes in when buying a house to live in with your family, that can creep out people.

“There tends to almost always be a discount, but sometimes it’s purchased by people who are not bothered by these things.”

The Menendez mansion was originally built in 1927 before being renovated and sold by real estate mogul Mark Slotkin in the ‘80s, with Jose going on to buy it from him for $4 million. 

It has all of the amenities you’d expect from a property of this type, including a pool, private tennis court, and two-story guesthouse.

Following the murders, the house remained on the market until 1991, when it was sold for $3.6 million – far below its $4.8 million valuation. Two years later, it was reportedly bought by Murder, She Wrote co-creator William Link, who remained there for eight years. 

When Delug took over, he renovated the inside but the exterior of the mansion looks similar to how it did when the Menendez family lived there. To this day, certain tour buses still pass the property to give sightseers a look at the infamous location. 

The latest in their case

Erik and Lyle’s legal team is currently fighting to have their first-degree murder conviction vacated, arguing they should have been given manslaughter due to alleged long-term abuse at the hands of their parents. 

If the verdict had been manslaughter, they likely would have been out of prison by now.

The latest in their case arrived in May 2023, when the Menendez brothers’ attorney, Cliff Gardner, filed a habeas petition – a legal request to a court to determine if a person’s detention is lawful. 

In the CBS 48 Hours episode, ‘The Menendez Brothers’ Fight for Freedom’, Gardner opens up about the new evidence that emerged through the petition which corroborates the brothers’ claims of abuse. 

This includes a letter allegedly written by Erik to his cousin Andy Cano in December 1988, approximately eight months before the murders. 

“I’ve been trying to avoid dad,” it reads. “It’s still happening, Andy, but it’s worse for me now… every night I stay up thinking he might come in… I’m afraid… he’s crazy. He’s warned me a hundred times about telling anyone, especially Lyle.”

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Another piece of evidence is the affidavit of Roy Rossello, a former member of the popular Puerto Rican boy band group Menudo. 

As is described in Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed, Roy has accused then-head of RCA Records Jose of raping him in the ‘80s. 

This is among the many reasons the Menendez case continues to spark debate. At the time, the defense argued Erik and Lyle were the victims of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse.

They maintain that Jose threatened to kill them to stop Lyle from exposing him as a child molester. Although many sided with this version of events, the prosecution argued the brothers were motivated by greed, wanting to inherit their father’s multi-million dollar estate. 

After the brothers were tried separately, resulting in mistrials, the prosecution ultimately won the case. Erik and Lyle were sentenced for first-degree murder and given life in prison without the possibility of parole. 

However, with new evidence coming to the fore, how likely is it that they’ll have their conviction changed? Ahead of the release of Netflix’s Monster Season 2, Dexerto put this question to Kalim Khan, senior partner at Affinitylawyers.ca.

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“The Menendez case has always been a subject of intense public scrutiny, and the recent push for their convictions to be overturned in light of new abuse allegations adds another layer of complexity,” he explained.

“Legally, the possibility of having their first-degree murder convictions reduced to manslaughter hinges on whether the abuse claims can be successfully positioned as a key factor in their state of mind and intent at the time of the killings.”

Whatever the case, Khan points out the difficulty in overturning a first-degree murder conviction, describing it as an “uphill battle,” one that requires “overwhelming new evidence that was not available at the time of the original trial.”

Only time will tell as to whether the Menendez brothers can do so with the latest appeal.

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story premieres on Netflix on September 19. For more true crime news, read about the most shocking moments in Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter, whether Brenda Bowman was ever arrested, and how to watch the Huw Edwards documentary in the US.