EMMA NIEDERBROCK-16 yo & MELANIE WELLS-18 yo (2009) Farmville VA

Four people found slain in a small Virginia college town were bludgeoned to death, authorities said Tuesday, and the aspiring rapper suspected of killing them befriended two of the victims through a subculture of violent, macabre music.
Richard Alden Samuel McCroskey III, 20, is already charged in the killing of Mark Niederbrock, a pastor at a Presbyterian church in central Virginia. He’s expected to face more charges in the future, after investigators sift through hundreds of pieces of forensic evidence.
At a news conference Tuesday, the other victims were identified as Longwood University professor Debra Kelley, 53; Emma Niederbrock, 16, the daughter of Kelley and Mark Niederbrock; and Melanie Wells, 18, of Inwood, W.Va.
The bodies were discovered over the weekend at Kelley’s home in Farmville, about 50 miles west of Richmond. Debra Kelley and Mark Niederbrock had been separated for about a year.
Prince Edward County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Ennis would not reveal what kind of weapon was used, if the victims suffered other injuries or a possible motive. He confirmed that McCroskey was staying in Kelley’s home during a visit to Virginia and called the investigation “unparalleled.“
“We are going coast to coast on this investigation,“ Ennis said.
McCroskey has not cooperated with police since his arrest on Saturday.
Ennis said there was no indication anyone else was involved and would not say when the victims died.
The girls had last logged in to their MySpace pages on Sept. 14. Mark Niederbrock was last heard from on Thursday, when he told the church treasurer he was going to Richmond for a meeting.
Sarah McCroskey has said her brother - who rapped about killing, maiming and mutilating people under the moniker “Syko Sam” - was a meek and kind person who never fought back when picked on and wouldn’t do anything unless provoked.
“He was extremely passive, so just hearing that my brother is the main suspect just really blows my mind,“ she said.
That low-key demeanor was described by police who had two run-ins with him in the days before his arrest Saturday. Authorities said he was calm, never acting in a strange or suspicious manner.
A day before the bodies were found, Richard McCroskey answered the door at the home and calmly told police looking for Wells that she was at the movies with a friend. Her mother had called city police asking them to check on her daughter.
When the worried mother called police again Friday, they went to the house and discovered the bodies.
Niederbrock and Kelley had taken their daughter and Wells to a concert in Michigan on Sept. 12, and the girls hung out with Richard McCroskey before and after the show, according to a friend.
In another encounter with police about 12 hours before the bodies were found, he had been stopped and was ticketed for driving Niederbrock’s car without a license. The car hadn’t been reported stolen, and police said they didn’t realize until later that day they had let a suspected killer go free.
On Monday, a judge appointed an experienced capital murder defender, Cary Bowen of Richmond, to work with McCroskey during a brief videoconference. Bowen said later he had not yet spoken to McCroskey.
The judge set a preliminary hearing for Jan. 11, and Ennis said prosecutors needed the extra time to look over the evidence.
Police also are examining online postings from McCroskey, Emma Niederbrock and Wells. In some of the messages, Emma Niederbrock professed her love to McCroskey.
As deputies escorted McCroskey to the police station Saturday after his arrest at the Richmond airport, McCroskey was asked by a reporter why he did it. He said, “Jesus told me to do it,“ WRIC television reported.

THIS ARTICLE WAS BEFORE THE GIRLS WERE IDENTIFIED:
According to sources, murder rocks a small town as Farmville Police make a gruesome discovery—four bodies inside the home of a local university professor. And tonight the suspect, whom officers found after an extensive manhunt, is behind bars, charged with murder.
Armed and dangerous is how police described the man they say is responsible for slaying four people. And after a widespread manhunt, police at Richmond International Airport arrested 20-year-old Richard McCroskey. He’s now facing murder, robbery and grand larceny charges.
Farmville police found four partially decomposed bodies at the home of a Longwood University professor Friday evening. Just a short time later, police in the rural area filed felony warrants for Richard McCroskey. airport police found him around 11:30 this morning falling asleep in the baggage claim area. He had a ticket to fly back home to California Sunday.
The murders have sent shock waves through the small town, where police barricades and tape continue to block off the crime scene.
While police have not released the identities of the four victims, we’re told Professor Debra Kelley, her husband, daughter and a friend were staying at the home.
Michael Phelan says, when it’s friends, and loved ones i don’t have the words.
Michael Phelan used to teach with Criminal Justice professor Debra Kelley… he says he used to spend hours inside this home discussing her two favorite academic topics—homicide and violence.
Neighbors and friends keep vigil around the home at 505 First Avenue, still in disbelief such horrific violence could happen here.
Michael Phelan says, Farmville, this is small town usa. nothing happens here.
Landon MacEachran went to grade school with kelley’s daughter emma.

Landon MacEachran, friend of Kelley’s daughter says: I wouldn’t have believed it at all and if it did happen, I wouldn’t have believed it would have been her such a sweet innocent person. Her family was sweet, her dad was sweet, mom was too.

McCroskey’s Myspace page has a September 7th post from what friends say is 16 year old Emma’s username- it reads “the next time you check your myspace, you’ll be at my house… i love you so much.“ McCroskey last logged into his account—“lil demon dog” Friday, while Emma Neiderbrock’s account activity ends September 14th.
One day after police discovered the bodies, questions remain.
Landon MacEachran, friend of Kelley’s daughter says, Why would it happen? that’s my question. why would he do it?!
Police are still not saying how the victims died. They will likely release more information as they continue to interrogate McCroskey. More charges are expected.

On McCroskey's MySpace page, someone who goes by Ragdoll, which friends identified as Emma Niederbrock, wrote several messages to McCroskey. In a post dated Sept. 7, Niederbrock says she is excited for McCroskey's visit to her house.

"The next time you check your myspace, YOULL BE AT MY HOUSE!" the post reads.

A friend said McCroskey, Emma and her friend were brought together by horrorcore music, which sets violent lyrics to hip-hop beats.

Andres Shrim, who owns the small, independent horrorcore music label Serial Killin Records in New Mexico and performs under the name SickTanicK, said he saw all three Sept. 12 at an all-day music festival in Southgate, Mich.

Shrim said despite the morbid music he and his friends loved, they were not violent people.

"You look at the music we do and it's kind of harsh and somewhat brutal at times, but there's a different side of life that people aren't normally accustomed to, and being an artist I think it's important to see both sides of life," he said.

McCroskey recorded songs that spoke of death, murder and mutilation under the name Syko Sam. His MySpace Web page said he has only been rapping for a few months but has been a fan for years of the horrorcore genre.

"You're not the first, just to let you know. I've killed many people and I kill them real slow. It's the best feeling, watching their last breath. Stabbing and stabbing till there's nothing left," McCroskey sings in "My Dark Side."

Shrim asked others not to judge McCroskey by the lyrics to his songs or his disturbing Web pages.

"This is not something from the Sam I know," he said. "This is not something that I would ever, ever in a million years envision him doing."

Stimpson called McCroskey's songs and writings "a little disturbing," and said police were looking into that.

A phone message left Sunday at McCroskey's California home was not immediately returned

A criminal justice professor and her teen daughter allegedly slain by a horrorcore rapper were in counseling over the girl's obsession with the macabre music, and a former colleague says the mother took the girl to concerts in an attempt to keep an eye on her.
James Hodgson had worked closely with professor Debra Kelley at Longwood University in Farmville and knew her daughter Emma Niederbrock most of her life. They were found dead Friday along with Emma's father Mark Niederbrock, who was separated from Kelley, and Emma's friend Melanie Wells.
Police have charged Emma's boyfriend, 20-year-old Richard "Sammy" McCroskey III, with first-degree murder in Mark Niederbrock's death. McCroskey, who rapped under the name "Syko Sam," is also suspected of killing the others.

What made Richard McCroskey turn into Syko Sam? According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch,
a text message McCroskey discovered on his girlfriend's cell phone may
have triggered a fatal rampage, in which McCroskey is suspected of
killing four people. McCroskey reportedly told the taxi driver who
drove him to the airport following the murders he had gotten into an
argument with 16 year-old Emma Niederbrock.

In an interview, taxi driver Curtis Gibson recalled his conversation
with the suspected killer, who "spoke calmly and never raised Gibson's
suspicion" despite having a foul odor (described by another witness as
being consistent with rotting flesh).
"McCroskey told Gibson his girlfriend's parents had taken them to a
music show in Michigan on Sept. 12 and that they had a good time. But
McCroskey said he later saw a text message on her phone from a man she
had talked to at the music show. The message said he loved her and
wanted to be with her.
"McCroskey said his girlfriend got angry when he confronted her about
the message, accusing him of invading her privacy. He told Gibson he
didn't want to argue so he waited for her to go to sleep and left the
house."
Although McCroskey's girlfriend had been dead for as long as 48 hours,
he "spoke passionately" about Neiderbrock, whom he met in person for
the first time after corresponding with her online for about a year,
the cabbie said. He also waxed poetic about the horrorcore scene which
had brought them together - and may have led directly to her death.
According to Phil Chalmers, author of "Inside the Mind of a Teen
Killer," at least 20 homicide cases have been directly linked to the
horrorcore genre.


The Times-Dispatch also reported
Friday that Andreas "SickTanick" Shrim, owner of Serial Killin'
Records, alerted police to McCroskey's possible involvement in the
slayings prior to the discovery of the bodies. Shrim says he called
police after receiving a call from a "friend" who got a call from
McCroskey allegedly confessing to murder. This contradicts an earlier
Times-Dispatch article in which Shrim is reported as saying he "doesn't
believe McCroskey is guilty," though he named McCroskey as the murderer
on his MySpace blog as well.
The Times-Dispatch also said police had been called to the home where
the four bodies lay decomposing not once but twice--the first time at
the behest of the mother of one of the slain girls, the second time
after McCroskey claimed he "heard something in the basement and wanted
police to check it." Both times, the officers left after a few minutes,
completely unaware the house had become a crime scene.
In other Syko Sam news, McCroskey's sister told the
Oakland Tribune she's been receiving death threats and was in denial
that "Sammy" could have been responsible for the slayings. And the
Herald-Mail (West Virginia) reports
that the parents of Melanie Wells drove to Farmville, Va. to pick Wells
up after the concert she attended with Niederbrock and McCroskey. After
no one answered the door, they reportedly waited seven hours, then
returned home and filed a missing persons report.

Mark Niederbrock was on the phone with his 70-year-old mother in Illinois when he got a call on the other line that would lead to his death.
It was Kathleen Wells, calling from West Virginia, and she couldn’t get in touch with her daughter, Melanie, who was in Farmville visiting Mark’s daughter, Emma.
Niederbrock said goodbye to his mother and told her he was going to his estranged wife’s house to check on the two teenagers.
That telephone conversation the afternoon of Sept. 17 was the last time Jan Niederbrock spoke to her only child.
About 24 hours later, police found Mark Niederbrock’s body and the bodies of Emma Niederbrock, 16; Wells, 18, of Inwood, W.Va.; and Emma’s mother, Longwood University professor Debra S. Kelley. The victims were bludgeoned to death in Kelley’s home, but authorities have not said exactly how or when they were killed, nor have they assigned a motive.
The killings and the arrest of Emma Niederbrock’s boyfriend, Richard Samuel Alden McCroskey III, 20, of Castro Valley, Calif.—an aspiring rapper with songs about murder, rotting bodies and voices in his head—have shaken the Farmville community of 7,300. Residents are alarmed not only at the cruelty of the crime but also its utter strangeness.
As new details emerged last week about McCroskey’s macabre music interests and bizarre movements after the killings, the community is bracing itself, knowing the story is likely to become even more disturbing.
. . .
Sam McCroskey lived with his father and 21-year-old sister, Sarah, at their home in Castro Valley.
He always was an average student, and he had friends, according to his mother, Chevelle McCroskey, who separated from her husband a few months ago. He took karate lessons, enjoyed jogging and watching horror movies with his family, and he never got a detention in school, she said.
Chevelle McCroskey was so protective of her son that she worked as a teacher’s aide from his kindergarten through third-grade years. In 10th grade, he started an independent study program, working mostly at home, and earned a GED diploma.
Sam McCroskey’s father works construction and plays guitar in a band called S&M, and his sister, a drummer, used to play for a heavy-metal band.
McCroskey, whose stage name is Syko Sam, spent a lot of time recording music in his room, which was decorated with a hockey mask like the one worn by the Jason character in the “Friday the 13th” movies.
In one of his songs, McCroskey raps about murdering people, then stealing a car and frantically trying to discard the bodies. In another, he raps about voices urging him on in a murder rampage and refers to the smell of rotting human remains.
McCroskey started talking with Emma Niederbrock, a pretty girl with bright pink hair, about a year ago. The two talked by phone almost daily.
They arranged to meet for the first time in early September.
“I cant waiiiit to see you baby its like 6:17 AM, and ive been up since 4ish filled with uber amounts of excitement I can’t wait. i leave to pick you up in five hours. gahh . . . ,“ Emma wrote on his MySpace page. “My insides feel all squishy. I love you sooo SO much baby; forever and for always.“
Emma and her mother picked him up at the airport, and McCroskey later said he was amazed by Emma’s smile.
It is not clear how Emma and McCroskey spent the few days between his arrival Sept. 7 and Sept. 10, when they left Farmville for Southgate, Mich., for the Strictly for the Wicked Festival on Sept. 12. Debra Kelley and Mark Niederbrock drove their daughter, McCroskey and Melanie Wells.
When Mark Niederbrock first met McCroskey, he thought he was a nice young man, said Marvin Glover of Walker’s Presbyterian Church in Appomattox County, where Niederbrock was pastor. Niederbrock had shared his worries about his daughter’s music with his congregation, but he could not bring himself to forbid it.
“It was something she wanted to do,“ Glover said, “and Mark loved his daughter.“
In Michigan, they stayed at a motel—Kelley, Wells and Emma Niederbrock in one room, Mark Niederbrock in his own room, and McCroskey in a third room.
There, they met up with friends Andres Shrim, a horrorcore rapper who goes by the name SickTanicK, and his girlfriend, a fellow performer he identified only as Razakel.
The night before the festival, McCroskey, Wells and Emma Niederbrock hung out with Shrim and Razakel. Razakel braided Wells’ hair. McCroskey was quiet but got along with everyone.
Shrim remembers having a soda with McCroskey on the motel balcony, and he ribbed McCroskey about the hickies on his neck. “He just kind of giggled,“ Shrim said.
While Emma seemed excited to meet McCroskey in person just days before, the couple apparently had a falling out during his visit, possibly after McCroskey found a text message on her phone from another man and confronted her.
Shrim said McCroskey and Emma weren’t clingy at the music festival, but he was unaware of a disagreement.
“As far as I had seen, everything was cool,“ Shrim said. “You didn’t see themselves around each other as you would think if they were together. If there was some sort of disagreement, they kept it private.“
Damian “Insane D” Pavlovich, who also performed at the festival, said McCroskey was oddly quiet and gave him a bad vibe. “He was videotaping the show, but he was kind of in his own corner,“ he said.
Several YouTube videos posted by Shrim show Wells and Emma dancing and singing near the stage as Shrim and Razakel performed. Pavlovich said he later saw the girls without McCroskey at an after-party in a motel room.
“They seemed to be having probably the best time of their life,“ Pavlovich recalled. “In a world of pain and anger that they go through, it was probably a time of bliss for them.“
. . .
The two parents and the three young horrorcore fans returned to Farmville on Sunday, Sept. 13.
On MySpace, Wells wrote that the festival was great, and that she planned to return to West Virginia on Wednesday. Shrim said he believes his girlfriend last talked to Wells and Emma Niederbrock that Tuesday.
But Wells didn’t make it home.
Worried, her mother called Mark Niederbrock on Thursday about 2 p.m. and also called Farmville police. A town officer went to the Kelley home at her request just before midnight, and McCroskey answered the door calmly and said Wells was at the movies.
The officer left.
McCroskey also spoke by phone with Wells’ mother and told her the same thing.
After the officer’s visit, McCroskey called police and said he heard noises in the basement and asked police to come check it. All four victims were dead by then, police say, and it’s not clear why McCroskey called police back to the house.
Two officers arrived and entered a different part of the house from where the bodies later were discovered. They checked the basement, which was covered in animal feces, and then left. Authorities later found two dogs and two cats inside the house.
“They’re trying to beat themselves up thinking that they could have done something, but it just wasn’t anything out of the ordinary,“ Farmville police Sgt. Andy Ellington said. “There was no reason to think that he didn’t belong there.“
About 4 a.m., McCroskey got Mark Niederbrock’s car stuck while trying to turn around on a narrow, remote stretch of Poor House Road in Prince Edward County. A deputy ticketed him for driving without a license. The car had not been reported stolen.
Tow-truck driver Elton Napier moved the car and gave McCroskey a ride to a nearby Sheetz convenience store. He noticed that McCroskey smelled like a dead animal and said it made him sick even with the windows down in the wrecker.
“I told one of the deputies, ‘You ought to take him down and give him a bath,‘“ Napier recalled.
He also asked McCroskey about his neck, which appeared to be covered with hickies. McCroskey said he got them from his girlfriend.
At 6 a.m., waiter Cody Scott arrived for his shift at the 24-hour Huddle House restaurant about a quarter-mile from Sheetz. He saw McCroskey sitting at the counter and drinking a No Fear energy drink.
McCroskey ordered a BBQ sandwich and put mustard on it, which Scott found odd. He and Scott talked off and on for a couple of hours—McCroskey said he was a rapper from California and told Scott how to find his music on MySpace.
Scott, who also is from California, asked McCroskey what he was doing in Farmville. “I had to take care of some business,“ McCroskey replied.
Scott noticed that McCroskey had bags under his eyes and told him he looked exhausted. McCroskey said he hadn’t slept in days. Scott asked him why, but he only shrugged and kept eating.
. . .
Charlottesville cab driver Curtis Gibson pulled up to the Huddle House about 8:20 a.m. and tried calling the number McCroskey had left with the dispatcher. It went straight to voice mail, a girl’s voice.
Gibson walked inside and asked if someone had ordered a cab. McCroskey stood. After they got into his minivan, McCroskey said he hadn’t been able to find a taxi in Farmville and Gibson was the closest he could find.
When Gibson first saw McCroskey, he thought he looked like a punk kid. But he changed his mind during the roughly hourlong drive.
“He looked younger than what he is, and I thought he acted a whole lot older,“ Gibson said.
McCroskey smelled horrible. Gibson never had smelled anything like it. He cracked two windows in the back, where McCroskey was sitting, and turned up the air conditioning, adjusting the vents to blow to the back.
McCroskey spoke passionately about his interest in underground music.
He said he met a girl online and had come to Farmville to see her for the first time. He said her parents took them to a show in Michigan.
McCroskey’s voice remained steady when he mentioned that he found a text message on Emma’s phone from a man who was at the festival. He said he had thought she and the man were just friends, but the message said he loved her and wanted to be with her.
McCroskey told Gibson that his girlfriend got angry and accused him of invading her privacy after he confronted her about the text. He didn’t want to argue, so he waited until she was asleep early that morning or the night before and then left the Farmville house to head back to the airport and home to California.
He shouldn’t have invaded her privacy, he told Gibson.
Gibson asked him if he had a phone. He said he had one, but the battery was dead and he had left a charger and some other things at his girlfriend’s home. He said he would try to sweet-talk her into sending them to him in California.
On the way to the airport, a Chesterfield County police officer stopped Gibson’s minivan about 9 a.m. for driving 52 mph in a 35-mph zone.
When the officer took Gibson’s driver’s license and returned to his motorcycle to write a speeding ticket, McCroskey asked Gibson if he had any outstanding warrants. Gibson said no and asked if McCroskey did. McCroskey grinned and said he didn’t have a record.
He got out and smoked a cigarette.
They stopped at a cash machine so McCroskey could pay for the ride. He gave Gibson $130 when they got to the airport about 9:30 a.m.
McCroskey had a flight to California set for two days later, Sunday. He tried to change it to an earlier day but didn’t have the $150 fee to rebook it. He only had about $50.
Police say he hung around the airport Friday overnight, waiting for the flight.
On Saturday morning, airport police took him into custody after they recognized him from a wanted poster. Surveillance video from the airport shows McCroskey presenting an ID to the officers, then casually walking away with them.
. . .
By Friday morning, Sept. 18, Melanie Wells’ mother still hadn’t heard from her daughter, so she called Melanie’s friend Razakel.
Razakel and Shrim started making calls, and Shrim said he spoke to a friend of McCroskey. That friend had received a disturbing call Friday from McCroskey in which McCroskey said he “killed everyone,“ Shrim said.
Later Friday, after Wells’ mother asked Farmville police to check Kelley’s house again, officers found four bodies inside. Within hours, Shrim called Farmville police with information on McCroskey, and police named him as their suspect.
McCroskey is charged with first-degree murder of Mark Niederbrock, but authorities say more homicide charges are likely. He is being held at Piedmont Regional Jail with a preliminary hearing scheduled Jan. 11.
He’s not on suicide watch but is segregated from other prisoners because his case is high-profile, jail Superintendent Ernest Tony said.
McCroskey rarely speaks, except when his attorney visits. He spends most of his time asleep.

Memorial services are scheduled for a Longwood University professor and
her 16-year-old daughter who were murdered in their Farmville home two
weeks ago.

Services are planned Saturday for Debra Kelley and daughter Emma
Niederbrock at Farmville United Methodist Church Saturday afternoon.
They were found dead Sept. 18 along with Niederbrock's father, the Rev.
Mark Niederbrock, and her friend, 18-year-old Melanie Wells of Inwood,
W.Va.

Emma Niederbrock's boyfriend, aspiring horrorcore rapper Richard "Sam"
McCroskey, is charged with killing her father. Authorities expect to
charge the 20-year-old Casto Valley, Calif. man in the other three
deaths soon.

Emma Niederbrock's parents had taken her, Wells and McCroskey to a concert in Michigan Sept. 12.

Was music behind the murders of four people in a small, rural Virginia college town?


It's a question that hovered over memorial services Saturday for
two of the four victims who were beaten to death in Farmville, Va.
Sept. 18. Emma Niederbrock, 16, was remembered as a rebellious girl who
dabbled in the occult and obsessed about macabre music but also
listened to the Backstreet Boys and played soccer.


Niederbrock, her mother, Longwood University professor Debra
Kelley, 53, her father, Presbyterian minister Mark Niederbrock, 50, and
her friend, Melanie Wells, 18, of Inwood, W.Va., were all found
bludgeoned to death in Kelley and Emma Niederbrock's home.


Emma's boyfriend, aspiring horrorcore rapper Richard "Syko Sam"
McCroskey, 20, of Castro Valley, Calif., has been charged in Mark
Niederbrock's death. Authorities expect to charge him in the other
deaths soon.


Emma, Wells and accused killer McCroskey were brought together
through an online community that idolizes horrorcore music, which sets
lyrics of murder, mutilation and decomposing bodies to hip-hop beats.
Kelley and Mark Niederbrock took the three to a horrorcore music
festival in Michigan Sept. 12.


The Rev. Sylvia S. Meadows did not blame the music for what
happened, nor did she mention McCroskey or the songs he recorded and
posted online under the name Syko Sam that bragged about the thrill of
killing. But she did talk about the power music can have, from the
relaxing sounds of nature to the rousing "Rocky" theme song.




Photo: "Syko Sam's:" MySpace page.


"Music has a way of affecting the way you think, the way you feel,"
she said, directing many of her comments to about two dozen young
people who attended the memorial service at Farmville United Methodist
Church. Many scribbled messages to Emma on a skateboard or soccer ball
during the service.


Emma's service followed one for her mother, where Debra Kelley was
remembered as a tough but caring educator who devoted her life to
better understanding criminals and their victims.


Meadows said the small college town has come "face to face with evil."


"We can no longer live as though certain groups don't exist,"
Meadows said. "We can no longer pretend that darkness and forces of
evil aren't right under our noses."


Emma Niederbrock was trying to find herself, Meadows and others said.


Online, she was "RagDoll," a beautiful girl with bright pink hair
who talked about boozing it up and her love for the music and the
underground community that followed it. At the same time, she was
designing skirts and modeling them for her grandmother or talking about
the job she was getting at a local beauty shop where she could style
hair and makeup.


Emma had been home-schooled since middle school. She preferred to
talk online, even with nearby friends in town, said Donn Cook, 19, who
said he has dated Emma on and off since eighth grade and remained close
to her.


James Hodgson, who had worked with Kelley for years and was writing
another text book with her, has said she was disturbed by her
daughter's obsession with horrorcore and they were in counseling. He
said Kelley had taken Emma to the concert in Michigan and others hoping
to keep an eye on her and believing that it was a phase that would
pass.


On Saturday, he and others remembered Kelley as a woman who was born to teach.


As an only child, Kelley would line up her dolls and stand before
them with a book in her hand, pretending to be their teacher, even
stopping to scold them for talking during class, Meadows said.


Kelley had taught sociology and criminal justice studies at
Longwood since 1994, but was on paid leave doing research until her
resignation took effect in May. She hoped to get a teaching job at
Virginia State, which is closer to her parents in Richmond.


(AP Photo/Farmville Police Dept.)
Suspect Richard "Syko Sam" McCroskey is seen in a booking photo.


She was a bookworm with a passion for research. Before reading a
littany of praise from students and co-workers, Hodgson said Kelley
would have challenged him over whether the statements were backed up by
data.


Kelley started Longwood's chapter of Lambda Alpha Epsilon, a
criminal justice fraternity. She often had students over for cookouts,
said Kelly Sloan, 22, who graduated in May. And while she knew each of
her students on a personal level, students said Kelley rarely talked
about her home life other than occasionally bringing Emma to class.


Sloan and others said Kelley stressed the human side of crime and
that real people were behind the statistics. They recognized the
similarities between the subject matter Kelley taught, including
classes on homicide and victimization, and her violent death.


"It is ironic that someone who teaches all of this stuff basically
became one of the statistics that she talked about with us," Sloan
said.


Police have said Mark Niederbrock died Sept. 17, but have not determined when the others were killed.

Sam McCroskey aka Syko Sam (20) plead guilty to killing his
girlfriend, her parents and another friend with a wood-splitting tool

Sep 21, 2010 @ 4:18 PM


Sam McCroskey (20)

Date: Sep 18, 2009
Charged with: Murder
Location: Farmville, VA

An aspiring rapper who embraced a style of music known as "horrorcore" pleaded guilty Monday to killing his 16-year-old girlfriend, her parents and her friend.

Richard "Sam" McCroskey was sentenced to life in prison Monday as part of his agreement to plead guilty to two counts of capital murder and two counts of first-degree murder.

His attorney, Cary Bowen, said after the hearing that the prospect of the death penalty was a major factor.

"Four bodies are pretty compelling evidence," Bowen said. "This is the kind of stuff that citizens any place in this country are terrified it could happen to them. This is the kind of case death penalties arise from."

McCroskey, from Castro Valley, Calif., arrived at the Prince Edward County Circuit Court shackled and heavily guarded. He showed little emotion during the hearing and offered simple "yes" and "no" answers to questions from the judge.

McCroskey pleaded guilty to killing his girlfriend, 16-year-old Emma Niederbrock; her parents, Presbyterian minister Mark Niederbrock and Longwood University professor Debra Kelley; and Emma's 18-year-old friend, Melanie Wells of Inwood, W.Va.

Family members of the victims sobbed softly during the hearing. They left without speaking to reporters, but issued a written statement: "We have endured a tragedy of unspeakable proportions. We are relieved that justice has been done."

Prosecutor James R. Ennis revealed that the women were bludgeoned with a wood-splitting tool while they slept on Sept. 18, 2009. Mark Niederbrock was killed with the tool when he came to check on them.

Ennis declined to speculate on a motive.

McCroskey and Emma Niederbrock shared an interest in "horrorcore" music, which sets lyrics about rape, murder and mutilation to hip-hop beats. Bowen said the music had nothing to do with the killings.

McCroskey, a Web site designer and music promoter, had been rapping under the name "Syko Sam." He flew to Virginia to visit Emma, and her parents drove them and Wells to a horrorcore music festival in Michigan Sept. 12. Police found their bodies six days later after Wells' parents became worried that she didn't return home.