Where are Worst Ex Ever’s Mei and Rosa now?

In what is one of the most unbelievable examples of love gone wrong, Netflix’s Worst Ex Ever explores the shocking case of Mei Li, Eric and Rosa Hill, and a woman who was caught in the crossfire. 

A spinoff to the streamer’s hit Worst Roommate Ever, the new documentary series puts romantic relationships under the spotlight, examining four cases of betrayal, deceit, and violence. 

Episode 1, ‘Dating the Devil’, looks at the horrifying ordeal of Justine Siemens, as well as the other women who dated Benjamin Foster. What followed was a manhunt that left three people dead. 

Focus turns to a malicious plot in Episode 3, ‘Killing for Custody’, one that has to be seen to be believed. Warning: some may find this content distressing. 

Where are Mei and Rosa now?

Rosa Hill and Mei Li are currently serving sentences at the Central California Women’s Facility, a female-only state prison located in Chowchilla. Mei is now 49 years old, while her mother is 71. 

On June 28, 2011, Rosa was found guilty of the 2009 murder of 91-year-old Selma “Sally” Hill and the attempted murder of Eric Hill, receiving a sentence of 25 years to life. 

Meanwhile, her mother, Mei, was convicted of premeditated, attempted murder and is also serving a life sentence. 

Rosa and Mei turned to murder with ‘Operation Custody’

After her ex-husband Eric Hill gained full custody of their daughter, Rosa came up with a sinister plan dubbed Operation Custody, which involved killing Eric’s grandma Sally.

In Worst Ex Ever, Eric describes how he met Rosa through his colleague Mei. Initially, their relationship flourished and he started to build the life he’d always wanted. 

Although she exhibited some signs of controlling behavior, it wasn’t enough to put Eric off, and in April 2005, they got married. 

Just over a year later, their first daughter was born. At this stage, Eric was working two jobs to make ends meet, getting very little sleep. Although he tried to make it work, their arguments escalated and Rosa started threatening divorce. 

She began taking their daughter to her parents’ house, meaning Eric would come home to an empty house. In 2007, they separated, and Rosa had control over their assets. 

A few months later, Rosa refused to allow Eric to see their daughter on her first birthday, at which point he decided to step in and sue for custody. Rosa retaliated by making up lies, starting by emailing Eric’s work and alleging he planned to enact a shooting. 

He was suspended during the investigation, which ultimately found the allegations were false. After the court ruled a 50/50 split of custody between the two, Rosa took this one step further by alleging Eric had been abusing their child. 

Once again, the claims were found to be false, resulting in Eric getting full custody. And this is where things escalated. 

On January 7, 2009, Rosa and Mei broke into Sally’s home, tased her, and strangled her to death, before wrapping her body in a tarp and leaving her in a trashcan in the backyard shed. 

When Eric arrived at the house with his daughter, he started searching for his grandma upstairs, only to face an attack from Rosa and Mei. When he tried to fight back, Rosa pulled a gun on him. 

Police eventually arrived on the scene to find blood spatter everywhere, and initially they had no clue who was the victim or the perpetrator. 

As all parties were taken into custody, detectives began searching the property, where they found Sally’s body and a backpack in the yard, containing items such as rope, crossbows, a hunting knife, a throwing star, and a crowbar. 

Rosa’s car was found about a half block away, with a samurai sword and leg irons among the “many items of concern” inside. When police questioned Rosa, they quickly established that she was lying. 

But the case really started to come together when the authorities discovered a hidden Brentwood location where Mei and Rosa had been receiving mail. 

There were numerous pieces of evidence that connected them to the crime, from multiple weapons to a tag for the firearm found in Rosa’s possession. 

They also found a number of suspicious notes, including one that detailed “revenge for Rosa,” which featured a number of names including Eric, Sally, and Gregory Hill, Eric’s father and Sally’s son. 

The letters were written with two different handwriting styles, meaning some of the notes were written by Mei and others by Rosa. 

As the detectives in Worst Ex Ever state, the plan had been weeks and potentially months in the making. 

Both appeared to spur each other on. Although this is speculation, you could argue parallels with folie à deux, a rare psychiatric disorder that causes two or more people in a close relationship to share a specific delusion.

Casey Bates, lead prosecutor, explains, “Having lost her child to Eric, Rosa and her mother came up with a plan that they dubbed Operation Custody. Operation Custody was a plan to try to get the legal rights back to Rosa Hill’s child. 

“To accomplish that, the plan was to murder Eric’s grandmother and blame the murder on Eric, and to get Eric to write a confession that he killed her because she had confronted him with the sexual abuse of his child, and that he became enraged and killed her.”

“Their plan continued that, in that moment of despair, Eric Hill would kill himself, and there’d be no legal custody for anyone except for Rosa Hill,” he added. 

“The life of a 91-year-old woman, who was innocent in all this, didn’t matter. She was caught up in a larger plan to get custody of her child.”

The heartbreaking reason the police were called

On the day of Sally’s murder, her boyfriend, 91-year-old Lester Rowe, was the first to notice something was up as the pair would ring each other at the same time every day to enjoy “cocktail hour.”

Lester and Sally had been together for more than 10 years, having started dating a few years after Eric’s grandfather died. 

They would spend around four days of the week at each others’ houses, and when they weren’t together, they’d phone each other at 4pm on the dot to have a natter and enjoy a tipple. 

On January 7, 2009, Lester rang Sally at 4pm, and when she didn’t answer, he grew concerned. He left a number of messages over the next hour, growing increasingly worried, before asking his son and daughter-in-law, Jeff and Ute Rowe, to check on her.

They began searching the house before Eric showed up and headed upstairs. When the couple heard what sounded like a gunshot – which was actually the sound of Rosa tasing Eric – they ran over to a neighbors’ house to call 911. 

The tragedy left Lester heartbroken, with Eric saying, “Lester definitely loved Sally, and when she died, he was crushed.” Gregory says he’d been over numerous times to find Lester speaking to an urn of Sally’s ashes. 

Less than a year after Sally’s murder, Lester passed away. “I’m just always grateful that they found each other and had that last 11 years of their lives together,” adds Gregory. 

Eric and his daughter have moved on

Although the incident has understandably caused a lot of trauma for both Eric and his daughter, he says they’re both now doing well and have been able to move on with their lives. 

When asked in the Netflix doc how he’s doing today, Eric replies, “I’m doing fine, I’m wonderful. I’ve been a good father. I’ve had a good family. 

“The irony of all of this is that I have led the life that Rosa and I talked about having, and she missed out on all of it.”

Eric acknowledges that while it “hasn’t been easy as a single dad,” his daughter has grown into a “wonderful woman.” 

“She’s got a good, solid head on her shoulders, she’s a talented artist. I’m proud that I had a lot to do with that,” he finishes.

Worst Ex Ever is streaming on Netflix now. For more true crime, read more about the Laci Peterson case, what you need to know about the Menendez brothers ahead of Monster Season 2, and whether Scott Peterson will get a retrial.