Criminology - The Farmville Murders

Episode Date: July 28, 2024

Richard McCroskey was looking for people who accept him on the internet. He had been bullied in school over his red hair and weight. But online he became a different person, a much more confident person. And Richard thought he had found a girlfriend in 16-year-old Emma Niederbrock, four years his junior. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss Richard McCroskey and the Farmville murders. After chatting online for about a year, Richard and Emma decided to meet in person. Richard was going to Emma's house so that they could attend a horrorcore music festival, something the two had in common. However, the trip did not go as Richard planned, and in the end, it turned deadly. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production

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featuring innovative Dolby 3D audio production. Hindsight, the day before, produced by Mark Haynes Productions and Radio Pictures. The All-Star cast includes Santiago Cabrera, Sibbingau Milombo, Ian Anthony Dale, M.C. Ganey, Nolan Gerard Funk. Marin Dunjee, Aaron Stant. and John Goodman. Hindsight the day before is now available wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing

topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 318 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Mike Morford. How you doing, buddy? I'm doing good.

I'm right in the middle of football camp for my eight-year-old son and he's working hard out there and I'm there to support them. And so basically sweating. How about you? What are you up to? Uh, you know, we're not doing a whole lot. I mentioned last week, I think that my wife suffered a concussion. So we're still dealing with the effects of that.

She is getting better. But, um, those are, uh, those are tough. She's still experiencing some, some issues with it. So hopefully she's feeling better soon. And I do remember those summer football days. Oh my gosh. you know, the heat and those pads and stuff. Yeah, the heat level down here during football camp is certainly on another level.

Yeah, I can only imagine what it's like down there in Florida. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Sarah A, so we appreciate that new support. Yeah, thank you so much, Sarah, for supporting the show. It really helps us out. And for anyone else that would like to, you can do so by going to patreon.com slash criminology. All right, buddy. Let's dive into this week's case.

You know, the internet, as we all know, can be a place where people can find and meet other people all over the world to connect about pretty much everything under the sun. You know, maybe people want to talk about their favorite sports team or share recipes with each other. Perhaps they want to discuss their love of dogs or something many of our listeners are likely aware of, they can join sites like Reddit or web slews to discuss true crime. Sometimes the internet is a place for people who are lonely to try and find someone that they can connect with on a personal level or find people that won't judge them. This is exactly what a man named Richard McCrosky had been doing online, finding people who accepted him for who he was. And through the internet, he wound up making a connection with someone, but things would go sideways and prove to have deadly consequences. Richard Alden Samuel McCrosky III was born in 1988 to parents Richard McCrosky the second and Chevelle McCrosky.

He, along with his older sister Sarah, was raised in Hayward, California, about an hour's drive from San Francisco. In 2003, the family moved about three miles north to Castro Valley. Richard attended tennis in high school, but dropped out. He then tried school again enrolling in Hayward High School, but that didn't last long, and he once again dropped out. Richard was often teased in school over his red hair. It was while he was going to school that the show South Park's episode about people with red hair having no souls first aired. In the episode, it was said that ginger vitus, a play in the real medical condition, ginger vitus, was the cause. In the United States, that episode caused a lot of bullying and some throwing around of the word ginger as a negative thing. For Richard, who had already been teased over his hair color, it was self-conscious about it. episode was especially cruel. And I have watched some South Park. I'm not a huge watcher of it,

but I know they don't pull any punches. I mean, some of their episodes are, you know, raunchy. They've caused some uproar over some things. And I'm sure that when they created this episode, they didn't have it in mind that it would cause bullying. But we've talked about bullying, so many times. You know, you never know exactly what kids are going to latch on to about someone's appearance or their mannerisms. You could see, though, how this type of episode would cause some bullying against kids with red hair. I don't know much about the show South Park. I've only seen little snippets. It's on a show that I watch. But I do know that, you know, bullying obviously is a real thing that's been around for for ages.

And, you know, I'm very much against it. And I hate to hear stories where anyone is bullied for any reason. Yeah, obviously it happened a lot when you and I were younger, elementary school, middle school, even high school, there wasn't the same kind of awareness, the same type of anti-bullying campaigns that they have now. But even the stuff that they have now can't stop at all. And now we have social media and things. like that on top of it to be another avenue that this bullying can occur.

Yeah, that's a good point. That's something that didn't exist when you and I were younger. Richard was also overweight for most of his childhood. And we know that kids can be absolutely ruthless. When it comes to shaming each other's bodies, Richard's sister, Sarah McCrosky, described her brother to NBC as extremely passive and said he didn't try to fight back against bullies unlike her. She too had red hair and battled weight issues. The bullying over their hair color and the size of their bodies affected both of them. She told Mercury News, it broke our confidence and we grew up with a lot of insecurities. The bullying was tough for both of the siblings, understandably, and Sarah explained that as a result of the bullying, we both fell into the wrong

crowd. But high school was just uncomfortable for Sammy. Sammy was Richard's nickname. It seemed like the bullying was the main reason. Richard dropped out of school. Richard was lonely and was looking for someone to connect with, and he turned to the internet seeking that connection. He felt that with the anonymity of the internet, he could be himself and not be judged by what he looked like. And Richard became comfortable online. He found himself getting into horror core music, which Wikipedia describes as a subgenre of hip-hop music that features darkly transgressive lyrical content and imagery. For those listeners who know who the band ICP or insane clown posse is, they're considered

as horrorcore. In the late 1990s, during the real heyday of blaming music for crime, ICP was actually blamed as an influence on the two perpetrators of the Columbine High School shooting. The band's response to the accusation only fan the flames. According to the New York Post, one of the band's members, Violent Jay, said that if the Columbine shooters were truly fans of theirs, then they would have gotten the whole damn school. And I'll be honest with you, I know who insane clown posse is. I've heard the name from different television shows or movies, things like that.

I've never heard a single song of theirs. What I will say is that the Columbine High School shooting was such a tragedy. I can't imagine anyone making this statement to the media that if they were truly fans of theirs, they would have gotten the whole damn school. That just seems like such a terrible thing to say. Yeah, and maybe he was saying that to try and sound edgy or dangerous. Maybe they're trying to make their band look sinister by saying something like that.

but it definitely, it could influence someone that's easily influenced maybe to do something bad by saying something like that. So I think whenever somebody has the power of persuasion like a band or act or whatever it is, words they say are very important. Well, yeah, no doubt. I mean, you know, somebody listening or reading that could take it as, well, if I'm going to do it, I need to do it better. I mean, that's such a reckless thing to say.

For some people, it seems like it's a lot easier to lean into the weird, the dark, the macabre, or taboo, and have that be the reason that people notice you and talk about you than it is to handle people making fun of you for your appearance. Richard aspired to be a horror core rapper himself and began to make beats under the name Psycho Sam. According to WSLS10, in one of his songs called My Dark Side, Richard raps about murder. The lyrics are, you're not the first, just to let you know. I've killed many people and I killed them real slow.

It's the best feeling, watching their last breath, stabbing and stabbing till there's nothing left. Richard really bought into the macabre in shocking look that he felt his Psycho Sam character should have. There were photos of him in cemeteries, and he liked to wear a mask that looked like different pieces of flesh, stapled together. His sister Sarah explained to Mercury News that it was very Ed Gein Halloween costume inspired. She said, music was our way of escaping reality and finding a way to cope and relax. And, you know, you hear those lyrics. And obviously, they're pretty brutal. but a lot of lyrics and songs,

raps, things like that, can be viewed as brutal, things that none of us would ever do or thoughts that we would never have. A lot of times, okay, you chalk it up to it being a song. It's not real. But these lyrics by Richard

would definitely take on a different tone later down the road. And this is, you know, something that's been going on all the way back to, you know, the 80s when I was a teenager, people would dissect, you know, songs and lyrics. Is there something sinister there? Is it Satan worship? So I think this is something that's sort of ongoing in, in music. Yeah, there's always been a kind of a line drawn, right, between art and reality. You know, different people have a different. sense of where the line is and how far people should be allowed to go. Aside from wrapping, Richard also found his knack for graphic design and websites. He started doing web design and promotion for the label, Wicked Intent Records.

Keeping busy with his work and rapping, it seemed to keep Richard grounded. But around July of 2009, Richard's parents split up, and this was very upsetting to him. I think no matter how old you are when your parents are divorced, it can be a really jarring thing, as was the case for Richard. On top of the breakup news, Richard was shocked when his father asked his mom to move out of the family home, and this really disrupted the stability that Richard had found in his life. To cope with the breakup of his parents, Richard threw himself even further into his work, music, and online relationships.

One of those relationships was with a girl named Emma Niederbrook. By the fall of 2009, 20-year-old Richard had been talking on line to 16-year-old Emma for almost a year. She lived in Farmville, Virginia, with her mother, Dr. Deborah Kelly. Like Richard's parents, Emma's mother, Deborah, and her father, Mark Niederbara, were also separated. This seemed like something that helped Richard and Emma get closer, the fact that they both had parents that had split up.

Despite living nearly 3,000 miles away, the two talked almost every day, both online and on the phone after meeting on MySpace and bonding over music. They were excited because soon they were going to meet in person. Richard planned to visit Emma in September. It was actually around the time his parents divorced that he decided to make this trip. Emma was excited about it too. On September 7th, the day that he arrived in Virginia, Emma using the name Ragdoll, commented on McCrosky's MySpace page,

according to WSLS, she wrote, the next time you check your MySpace, you'll be at my house. She also commented, I love you so, so much, baby, forever and for always. Richard was looking forward to his trip to Virginia. His hope was that he would meet Emma in person

and that they would become a couple. But the trip didn't go as planned. After meeting Richard in person, Em was more interested in being friends with him. Richard didn't look exactly like he did in his online. photos, and Emma felt that he acted differently too. He was too immature for her. It was a rude awakening for Richard, and as we'll soon find out, he just couldn't let it go. On September 12th, Emma's parents, Mark Niederbrock, and Dr. Deborah Kelly took Richard, Emma and her friend

Melanie Wells to a horror core event called Strictly for the Wicked Festival in Southgate, Michigan. And I know more of that. A lot of relationships have begun online, a lot of marriages have come about as a result of meeting online. But I wonder how many times this situation has occurred where, you know, two people meet online. They have this great rapport. They build a connection. But when they meet in person, they realize, or at least one of them realizes that the connection just isn't really there. Because there is a difference. between an online relationship and an in-person relationship. Yeah, I think you can get to know somebody online,

but being there in person with them, obviously, is a little bit different, and that seems to have played a part in Emma's decision to only be friends with him. And I'm thinking after that it had to be a pretty awkward situation because now Emma only wants to be friends with him, he wants more, and now they're all stuck going to this concert together, so it might have been a little bit awkward.

Yeah, I would think it would be extremely awkward because you have two people who are not in sync. They both wanted the same thing. I mean, she even said it on MySpace. I love you so, so much, baby, forever and for always. But after meeting Richard, that seemed to change pretty quickly for her. I don't think it changed for Richard. And that would cause a very awkward situation. you know, add to that that this concert wasn't actually something that Emma's parents were looking forward to seeing.

They weren't even thrilled that Emma wanted to go. In fact, her parents were actually pretty concerned about how into the genre Emma was. Their family had been going to counseling together. And one of the concerns her parents expressed in these counseling sessions was about this music she was into. But despite their concerns, Emma's parents figured it would be best if they took her to the concert so that she would be safe there. And in general, they felt that fighting her on this horror core phase would only make it last longer. James Hodgson, who was a former coworker and longtime family friend of Emma's family, was interviewed by NBC News.

He said that Emma's mom, Deborah, told him she's either going to go on her own or I go with her and make sure. she's okay and that she was going to grow out of this. So Emma's parents embraced it. They showed out $100 for tickets and found themselves at an all-day horror core event. They got three hotel rooms in Michigan. One for Deborah, Emma and Melanie, another for Mark and a third for Richard. And I think this is something that a lot of parents struggle with. You know, they worry about some of the things that they're kids are into. In this case, it was the type of music that their daughter was listening to. You know, some parents have concerns about the person that their child is dating, but there is a danger. You know, if you push too hard, you know, does that make your child want to do something even more?

Be with someone even more. And, you know, what links will they go to to to make that happen? And I think parents are going to scrutinize whoever their kids bring home. But here's a case where she's bringing somebody who they don't know, he's from across the country. So she doesn't know him that well. And he's older. You know, she's 16, he's 20. So I'm sure they had some kind of concerns or worries, but perhaps to try and not drive her away,

they try to accept this new relationship and see where it went. Yeah, sounds like they were doing it for both the music and for Richard. They didn't want to listen to this music at all, but they would rather have gone with Emma than her try to go by herself. And that was probably the same for Richard. You know, let's control it. Let's be with her. We'll meet this guy. That way, you know, she's not off trying to run off to meet him.

I'm sure there were some thoughts like that. Stay tuned at the end of this podcast for a taste of a groundbreaking debut of audio drama featuring innovative Dolby 3D audio production. Hindsight, the day before, produced by Mark Haynes Productions and Radio Pictures. The All-Star cast includes Santiago Cabrera, Sibbingau Malambo, Ian Anthony Dale, MC Ganey, Nolan Gerard Funk, Marin Dungee, Aaron Stanford, and John Goodman. Hindsight the day before is now available wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

En Morph and I really think you're going to want to check this out. The spatial sound, the audio production, you know, when you've got your headphones on, this thing blows you away. The cast is amazing. And the story is going to pull you in. It's mysterious. It's dark. Dangerous.

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A new series from ABC Audio in 2020. Blood and water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Damien and Sain D. Pavlovich, who performed at the festival and saw Richard and Emma dancing together, later told the Richmond Times dispatch, they seemed to be having probably the best time of their life.

He added, in a world of pain and anger, that they go through. It was probably a time of bliss for them. At some point during the concert, Richard and Emma officially broke up. Jennifer Nelson, who met the two online in 2008, was also at the concert. She recalls seeing Richard with another girl there and talked to Emma a little bit about the breakup. Jennifer told CBS 6 Richmond, Emma didn't seem upset. She didn't seem sad or mad about it.

And she didn't seem to care that he was hanging out with this other girl either. After the concert, they all went back to their hotel rooms. No doubt it was likely a bit awkward. Once back in Farmville, they all went back to Emma's mom's home, except for Mark, who went to his own home. It's a 10-hour drive. So they didn't head home until around noon on Sunday. Richard McCrosky was staying there as well while he was in Virginia. An 18-year-old Melanie was staying with the family on a planned visit centered around the festival.

The last time Emma or Melanie logged into their MySpace. counts was on the 14th. At 2.43 a.m. Melanie changed her status to SFTW was effing amazing. Back in Virginia now, be back in West Virginia on Wednesday. I miss everyone. She listed her mood as having a blast. Up to that point, things seemed to be okay. The group had fun at the concert and they were bummed it was over. That night, they were all sleeping pretty deeply because they retired from the concert and a long trip. Everyone but Richard McCrosky. He was probably too upset about the breakup to sleep. Melanie fell asleep on the couch in the den, and Emma slept in her own bed on the first floor. Deborah, Emma's mom, was asleep upstairs. Richard was apparently

awake and angry and planning something terrible. He crept out of the house and began looking for a weapon. In the backyard, he found something called a wood splitting mall. This is a tool that looks like a cross between an axe and a mallet. This one weighed about eight pounds. With the mall in hand, he went back inside the house. At around three in the morning, Melanie was the first person McCrosky attacked. He struck her multiple times as she slept before moving down the hall

and up the stairs into Deborah's room. He attacked her too, hitting her with the mall while she was asleep in bed. Finally, he headed back down the stairs and into Emma's room. She was apparently the root close. cause of his rage, and he saved her for last. Just like Melanie and Deborah, Emma was bludgeoned with them all. All three victims died from their injuries in what had to be a terrible scene. The only solace for their loved ones later is that there was not a single defensive wound found on any of the three victims. This meant that they likely did not wake up during the

attacks and probably were not afraid or in pain. Because the victims were all assigned, they were all asleep, the murders were very quiet. It didn't seem as if there were any screams because none of the neighbors were alerted to what had happened. So no doubt, I mean, you can play this one out in your mind. You can visualize Richard McCrosky going room to room with this eight pound mall. And it's a scary, scary thought inside. Raining down blows on all three. three of his victims. It clearly seems that this is premeditated. This wasn't something that happened in the spur of, you know,

on a spur of the moment argument in the heat of, you know, something he planned this, he thought about this. He took the time to go outside and look for a weapon, figure out what would do the job. And then he came back in and did this not once, not twice,

but three times. So he didn't think about stopping any of the way as far as we know. He just kept on going. one after the other. And I just wonder, you know, how much of this was thought of during this long 10-hour drive back to Farmville? You know, was the rage building and building and building? And how awkward was that car ride? You know, here they had broken up, but they had to ride in the car together all the way back home. And they didn't even really know each other. And they didn't even really know each that well in the first place, more if that's what kind of stands out to me. And the thought that,

you know, this guy is sleeping in the family home. Deborah doesn't know this guy at all. Emma knows him from, you know, an online relationship. That's a real fear for me. Having someone who I don't really know sleeping under my root. I'm not a big fan of it. Yeah, I'm not either. And I'm sure a lot of listeners probably aren't of that kind of situation. But I go back to the fact that he's also an adult. He's 20. She's 16. So I almost wonder why they wouldn't want to maybe put him up in a hotel down the street as opposed to sleeping in their home. Yeah, I don't think that's a question that we will ever get the answer to. And maybe it just goes back to that same thought of not wanting to push him away or towards something by saying no.

Or maybe they thought that by keeping him there, they were able to keep a better eye on him. I don't know. I mean, we can only speculate at this point. Melanie's mother, Kathleen, in West Virginia, called the Kelly home multiple times looking to talk to her daughter. Each time, Richard McCrosky answered the phone and gave a flimsy excuse as to why she couldn't talk. Melanie was supposed to come home on Wednesday. Thomas Wells drove from Inwood, West Virginia, a 200-mile trip one way, to pick Melanie up from the Kelly home. He knocked

multiple times and got no answer. He was parked outside of the house for several hours before deciding to head back home. After days of not being able to contact her daughter for one reason or another, and then no one answering the door for Thomas Wells when he knocked, Kathleen called Mark Meeterbrock to ask him to visit his daughter and ex-wife's home. He arrived on September 17th around 5 p.m. When he went inside, Richard McCrosky attacked him in the living room with the same mall he used to kill the others. Mark never had a chance.

He was blindsided. Once Mark was dead, Richard moved his body and Melanies into Emma's room and started trying to clean up the evidence in the other rooms downstairs. He also used his camcorder, one that, mutual friend Jennifer Nelson recall seeing him used to film at the horror core festival to record himself, something like a video confessional. He talked about taking his own life and acknowledged that he would be punished for his actions. Suspicious after not hearing back from Mark, Melanie's mom finally called the police

and requested a welfare check at the Kelly residence. Richard McCrosky answered when investigators came to the door, just before midnight on the 17th. He claimed that Emma and Melanie had gone to the movies. Investigators didn't feel like anything was out of the ordinary. And Richard seemed perfectly calm. So they laughed. So there's a couple of things here that I want to break down.

You know, first of all, Richard McCrosky is now killed four people. There are four bodies inside this home. And he's been there for like three days. and you have Kathleen, Melanie's mom, trying to get a hold of her. You know, somebody drives 200 miles to pick her up. There's no answer at the door. I'm just imagining how helpless that feeling for her must have been. You know, she's 200 miles away.

She can't get in touch with her daughter. And when she's supposed to be picked up, no one answers the door. Obviously, at a certain point, she becomes panic. you know, asking for this welfare check. But when they get there, everything seems okay. And I just don't know more of how much, you know, police can actually do if they show up at a home and someone answers. They don't see anything. They have no probable cause to enter the home.

What else can they do? Yeah, I think to them, the Richard's story seemed plausible and there was no reason to suspect anything was off. you know, had he opened the door and they saw bodies laying on the ground. I'm sure that would have been a different story. But you would think that with four bodies in the home in various stages of decomposition, it might put off quite an odor. And it just seems like these police, if there was an odor, they didn't pick up on that odor at the time they were there.

And maybe it's because they didn't enter the home. You know, they're standing there, you know, on the outside. They couldn't smell it. About an hour later, Richard McCrosky himself called the police back to the house. He claimed he heard something in the basement. Two officers did do a quick search at the basement and found nothing. They also didn't find the bodies because they were in an entirely different part of the home. Still seeing nothing suspicious, they left once again.

Farmville Police Sergeant Andy Ellington told the Richmond Times dispatch, there was no reason to think that he didn't belong there. At 3.30 a.m., Kathleen Wells called the house. again. Known he couldn't put her off for much longer, Richard decided to flee in Mark Niederbrock's car. His 2000 Honda was parked outside the home and Richard was able to find the keys with Mark's body and took them from him, allowing him to access his car. And to me, this was such a strange thing to do. Why would Richard McCrosky call the police back to this house with four dead bodies inside.

It's almost more of like maybe he wanted to get caught or he knew he was going to get caught and he just wanted it to be over. There's also the question of, you know, you mentioned the various states of decomposition. Well, this time the police are in the house and they obviously didn't smell it or didn't pick up on it. And it could have been from the layout of the house. the ventilation any number of reasons why being down in the basement they wouldn't smell it but you know i go back to the why does he call them there in the first place if he if he really wants them to know that the bodies are there and just have this all be over he could just confess so

we can theorize about why he called them back maybe he was just freaked out being in the house with four bodies and he heard a noise and it just creeped them out and he wanted the police to come back and check, but we just don't know. Well, the one thing you can say is it does seem strange, very strange. By this point, Melanie's mom was frantic and not satisfied with the previous welfare check. She called the police again and pleaded with them to go back and get inside the house to see what was going on. But before authorities got there and discovered the body, Richard got the stolen Honda he was driving stuck. Just after 4 a.m. on the 18th, he had tried to use a drive-war.

to make a U-turn and ended up getting it stuck in a ditch on poor house road. This damaged the car and required a tow truck and a neighbor called the police about a suspicious vehicle. Richard was cited for not having a license, but he wasn't taken into custody. He had no criminal record and of course the car had not been reported stolen. Richard told the officers that the car belonged to his girlfriend's death. deputies responding asked him about his plans and he told them that he was flying back to California soon. Witnesses would recall seeing a tow truck drop him off at a sheets convenience store in Farmville around 7 a.m. that day. Elton Napier, the tow truck driver,

remembered how terrible Richard smelled. He told Fox News that he had to drive with all of the windows down and felt that even that really didn't help all that much. He resorted to actually putting his head out of the window as he drove, saying he stunk like the devil during that awkward ride. They did talk a bit and Richard told him he was from California visiting his girlfriend. And we don't really know what Elton Napier meant by he stunk like the devil. to me it seemed like this was more than a case of B.O. This was a really bad smell attached to this person.

And it makes me think it was from the decomposition of the bodies in the home. And if that's the case, then it leads me back to the question. You know, if police had just been at the home, they were around Richard. What did they think that this guy just didn't. shower or or what? At 3.20 p.m., authorities went to the home for another welfare check. They found that the door was unlocked and entered the home and immediately were hit with a small decomposition as soon as they opened the door. They quickly ID Richard McCrosky as the main suspect and began searching for him. The next day, Richard was arrested at Richmond International Airport.

When authorities finally found him, he was sleeping in a baggage claim area, waiting for a flight back to California. He had been dropped off by a cab driver at around 9.30 a.m. on Friday. It would have cost $150 to change the flight from his original ticket, which was Sunday. So during that time, he was stuck in Virginia. And I hate to harp on this, but when you hear this story of the authorities immediately being hit with the smell of decomposition as soon as they entered the home, I get it. It's a little bit later in the day. But it's a little bit later in the day. But it's It makes me wonder what these police officers who did the second welfare check smelled and what they thought of it. When police began investigating, they learned that Richard did make a phone call to someone he knew admitting what he had done.

That person apparently contacted Richard's record label with the news. This person who Richard confined in has always been identified as a friend in articles. a cab driver came forward after learning that he had given Richard McCrosky a ride to the airport. Curtis Gibson said that he picked Richard up from huddlehouse, a 24-hour restaurant about a mile down the street from sheets. He also remembers how badly Richard smelled. And he said he rolled the windows down and turned the air conditioning on full blast. The cabby recalled Richard being upset about a flirty text from another man.

on Emma's phone during the concert. It's not clear whether she received the text right then or if McCrosky just happened to see it during the show. But this led to their fight and breakup that friend Jennifer Nelson recalled becoming aware of. Richard told the cab driver that he didn't argue with Emma and left early in the morning while she was asleep and was going to try to apologize to her once he got back home. And obviously, more if we know that part of this was a lot, most definitely the part about him leaving in the morning while she was asleep, we know that didn't happen because Emma was dead. But I also found it strange that Richard felt the need to have this conversation with the cab driver. I mean, there were some very specific things that he was talking about.

I almost wonder if he was just sort of making up things as he went along and not, hadn't put a lot of thought into it, just trying to make small talk and which is how these little nuggets of information came out. Yeah, I don't know that this guy had a clear plan about much of anything at this point. Richard McCrosky refused to cooperate with authorities and he didn't give a statement. However, there were news crews outside of the police station, clamoring for a quote, and Richard gave them one. He said to WRIC television,

Jesus told me to do it. Richard was charged with grand larceny for stealing Mark Niederbrock's Honda, burglary for stealing money from his wallet, and for his murder. The other three victims still had to be officially identified. Two days after his arrest, at 1 o'clock in the morning,

officers from the Alameda County Sheriff's Office in California carried out a search warrant at Richard McCrosky's home in Castro Valley. of the search, Prince Edward County Commonwealth's attorney Jim Ennis told NBC, we are going coast to coast on this investigation. There was a press conference on September 22nd, five days after the murder of Mark Niederbrock, which was days after the murders of Emma Niederbrock, Deborah Kelly, and Melanie Wells. Their identities had been confirmed, and the news was announced to the public.

Multiple communities were absolutely. devastated. 50-year-old Mark Niederbrock had been the pastor of Walker's Presbyterian Church in Pamplin, Virginia since 2003. 53-year-old Deborah Kelly was an associate professor of sociology and criminology at Longwood University. 18-year-old Melanie Grace Wells, called Mel by most who knew her, was described as friendly. Like Richard McCrosky, she too had been judge. judged for her appearance. A friend of Melanie's named Lori Madison told 12 On Your Side.com, people assumed she was a bad person because of how she looked, but she was an amazing person.

And another friend, Kirsten Bivens, called her the sweetest girl everybody knew. Even the horror core community paid their respects. One female horrorcore musician named Razakil told Fox News, I'm not going to talk about people I loved like that. Razakil knew both Melanie and Emma. The three met at the Underground United concert in Chicago in the summer of 2008. Emma and Melanie began doing work promoting Razakal's music, calling their promotion group The Unholy Apostles.

Emma was multifaceted. Though she loved horrorcore, she and Razakal also bonded over love of the Backstreet Boys, which is one of the most popular 90s boy bands singing about love and heartbreak is about as far from that genre as you can get. Razakal told Fox News, we both like the same stuff, like photography and makeup and doing hair and all that.

They also bonded over their upbrings, which seemed similar. Razakal said, I always had the idea that she was brought up strict, and she added, I was brought up strict. And so I thought I could relate with her, because I know how it goes, and I messed up a lot, and I just didn't want to see her go down the same path.

and so I was there for her. Emma played soccer and wanted to become a stylist at the local beauty shop. She loved to express herself with her hair and makeup. At the time, her hair was bright pink, and she preferred a heavy black eyeliner. She had also been homeschooled and preferred online communication over face-to-face hangouts most of the time. Even people from her town would end up seeing her online more often. Razakal had also met Richard McCrosky at a gathering in Southern California's Apple Valley. just eight months before the murders.

She was aware of his rap songs and also his work with Wicked Intent Records. She told Fox News that Richard was actually really shot. She implied that Emma may not have considered herself Richard McCrosky's girlfriend, saying she never flat out told me he's my boyfriend. I just knew that they were close and getting closer. And at the show, they were going to meet up

and take it on from there. Still, Razakil was shot. when she heard that he was suspected of the murder, she said, you could push over this kid and walk all over him. Richard, sister, Sarah, was just as surprised. If not more so, she told NBC, hearing that my brother is the main suspect, just really blows my mind.

And I'm sure, you know, a lot of family members have that same thought. When they hear that their loved one is charged with a heinous murder in this case for heinous murders. Most people don't think about their son, brother, sister, daughter as being capable of doing this sort of thing. Yeah, in most interviews, you see the response is, oh my gosh, I'd never thought you could do something like this, or I never imagined that they could do something like this. It's not often that you see somebody saying, yeah, I figured this would happen sooner or later, or I thought he was capable of

Well, and it's not just always family, right? Friends, neighbors, a lot of times they're just as shocked because the interactions that they've had with this person over the years didn't lead them to believe that this was a person capable of murder. Richard McCrosky was charged with six counts of capital murder for the four killings. One source explains that because he's alleged to have killed multiple people within three years, the two extra counts of capital murder were added. Richard finally opened up to the investigators and answered their questions. According to the Commonwealth's attorney, James Ennis, and a 12 on Your Side.com interview regarding the murder weapon, the mall. Richard said that's what he picked up, and he felt like, because of the weight of it, nobody would suffer.

Richard McCrosky's attorney, Carrie Bowen, believed he didn't flee right away because he was contemplating the severity of what he had done and just not knowing what to do about it. And I kind of had that same thought. you know, here's a kid. I mean, he's 20 years old. I'll call him a kid, but he's a grown adult, having committed four murders and really having no idea what to do next. That's the thought that I got. You know, why else would he continue to just stay in that house with the bodies other than he just didn't know what his next steps should be? It seems like he. He's,

he put a lot of thought into doing what he was going to do, but maybe not as much thought into what to do afterwards. And I don't think that's all that unusual. You know, if you think about this 10-hour car ride home, you know, he is probably seething. Maybe nobody else sees it, but underneath, you know, he's boiling, thinking that he can't let this stand or that he's going to do something about it, probably not thinking beyond that, though. How am I going to get away with it? What am I going to do after it happens? A lot of these types of people who commit murders don't think beyond the actual rage that is compelling them to commit the murders. Fortunately, the many loved ones of Melanie,

Emma, Mark, and Deborah did not have to sit through a trial where photos. of their bludgeoned bodies would have been shown and great detail would have been given about their injuries and their deaths. All four of the victims had been bludgeoned so badly, they were unrecognizable. And by the time they were found, they were badly decomposed. Dental records were needed to identify them. The details would have been horrible for their loved ones to hear. During the investigation, Commonwealth's attorney James Innes said, the lab, doesn't have a clue what's coming toward them, referring to the amount of evidence they had collected. Richard McCrosky entered a plea of guilty on September 20th, 2010, almost exactly a year

to the day after the murders. He accepted responsibility for all four of the murders, pleading guilty to two counts of capital murder and two counts of first-degree murder. If he had gone to trial, he would have faced the death penalty for taking four lives. Instead, he was given four sentences of life in prison. He also waived his right to appeal. Family members of the victims released a statement. According to CBS News, it read, We have endured a tragedy of unspeakable proportions.

We are relieved that justice has been done. For their part, the McCrosky family was probably also relieved that this was over. Following Richard's arrest, his parents had stayed mostly quiet, but Sarah had received multiple death threats on her cell phone. And there's a couple of thoughts that I had here. We don't know exactly what the family members of the victims won. You know, some want the death penalty for the person who took their loved ones away from them. But a lot of people, I think, are good with life in prison.

And then you also have this waiving of his right to appeal. And to me, I would think that would be big for the family. You know, that would mean that they're not. going to have to relive this every so many years. And I know for a lot of families, that's a, that's a big time hardship. And they probably take comfort and knowing too that he'll never hurt anyone else. And then the other thing is the McCroskey family. You know, we don't often always talk about the family of the perpetrator, but their lives are wrecked as well. I mean, Sarah received death threats.

And I'm sure that his parents went through intense anguish over, you know, what their son had done. As was the case following the Columbine high school shooting, many pointed the finger at the influence of horror court. One article published by CBS in 2009 ran with the headline, was music behind the murders of four people in a small rural Virginia college town. Horrorcore musician Razakil explained to Fox News. Our music wasn't playing in his ears when he bludgeoned four people. He did that on his own. This is sort of what we saw with heavy metal music in the 1980s when it was rumored to

be linked to Satanism. Whenever a terrible crime happened involving a young person as the culprit, it seemed as though music was the blame when it's clear that most fans of horrorcore music would never do something terrible like this to someone. The same kind of accusations could probably be made about the people who are into true crime. We talk about terrible crimes on this show and our listeners watch shows about true crime. Most of us would never do something terrible to someone, as was the case here. Prosecutors weren't even planning on blaming the music as part of their case. Commonwealth attorney Jim Ennis told 12 on your side.

I think he had a certain expectation of the relationship with Emma Niederbrock, what it was going to be like after a year on the computer, and it did not turn out to be what he imagined it was going to be like. Yeah, and I'm not going to say that I like all of the music that's out there, whether it's heavy metal or horror core or whatever it is. I have certain tastes in music, and some of that stuff doesn't fit into my taste. but I also think over the years, you know, whether it's video games or music, they have been kind of a scapegoat for certain things that have happened. Now, some people have been influenced

by music and or violent video game, but they're not responsible for everything that happens. Yeah, I think in this case, it seems clear that Richard was, you know, music aside, was someone that was capable of doing something like this. Well, but I also think it was, you know, this rejection that he couldn't handle it. You know, just like the Commonwealth's attorney said. Was it the music or was it the fact that Emma rejected him after them talking online so much? That seems to be the catalyst for him doing what he did in his mind. One of the most baffling things about these murders is that.

is that even if not everything was working out, exactly as he wanted to in regards to his relationship with Emma, Richard killed people who accepted him and welcomed him on a trip with them and even into their home. Emma, although not wanting a relationship, could have been a good friend to Richard. And her dad, Mark, was also a graphic designer like Richard. Perhaps he could have even mentored Richard.

Instead of appreciating the acceptance, of four people. Richard waited until they were asleep or had their back turned in Mark's case to brutally kill them. Richard McCrosky is currently serving that sentence at Wallen Ridge State Prison in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. He will be there until the day he dies. And he'll have a lot of time to think about what he did. But even if he is remorseful, that's not going to bring back the four innocent lives he snuffed out. And I think more if you know, as we wrap this one up, this is a very tragic case. And you know, there are so many murders that are senseless.

These definitely were. I don't know what was going on in this guy's head. Other than, you know, he had this thing built up in his mind. He had been talking to Emma, you know, for a year or so on the computer. He was making this big trip. He had been bullied, but this was the person who was going to accept him. And not just accept him, but be his girlfriend. And it didn't work out the way that he thought it was going to.

And he couldn't handle it. You know, most people would be in that situation and say, well, it's just not going to work out the way I thought it would. They would be disappointed. But they would fly back home. and, you know, deal with it and move on. But that's not the decision that Richard McCrosky made. He decided to find a weapon and kill three people while they were sleeping. And then hang around the house, I guess, trying to figure out what his next steps would be until Emma's dad showed up and he killed him as well.

I think there's a scramble to try and find answers. something to justify what happened. And most of the time, those, those answers or those justifications are not there. They're, you know, they don't always exist. Some people might point to the fact Richard was bullied when he was younger and that played a role in what he did. But there are people that are bullied and never harm anyone else and don't have this kind of outcome. And then there's There's people that were never bullied that go on to do terrible things. So I think, you know, looking to use the bullying thing as a, as a crutch for why he did this is, is not a good reason.

Well, and I think you can make the same argument with the horror core music. You know, how many people listen to that? I'm sure it's a big number. The majority of those people don't go out murdering. So I think you have to be careful saying it was this one thing or, you know, it's, it's always a combination of things. But at the end of the day, to me, it's Richard McCrosky making a horrible decision to kill four innocent people. I don't know how else to look at it. And as, as we mentioned, And these were four people that accepted him and welcomed him.

And for that trust that they had in him, they were rewarded with being murdered. And it's just really a shame. Yeah. Tragic all the way around. But that's it for our episode on the Farmville Murders. If you love the show, but haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, give us a five-star rating. You can leave a review. Also, keep telling your friends.

That word of mouth about the show really helps us out. If you want to find us on social media, Ron X with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by going to facebook.com slash criminology podcast. And you can join our Facebook discussion group, criminology podcast discussion and fans. So that's it for another episode of criminology. But Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode.

So until then for Mike and Morph. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone. From MHP and Radio Pictures January 6th, 1906 Harry Houdini, the handcuffed king, has done it again! My name is Harry Houdini. If you have discovered these recordings,

then there is every chance that I am no longer among the living. Madam Kostovina? Mr. Houdini. I have devoted much of my energy to debunking so-called spiritualism. As a practicing medium, I have always been a fraud. I have been able to unmask and debunk each and every case of communication from beyond the grave that I have taken on. But not the first one. This seemed completely real.

My assassin is here. My assassin is lit this room with us. What's happening? Stop. What is happening? Quiet. Are you seriously speaking of the possible? Supernatural effects. That is why we're asking for your assistance, Mr. Houdini.

The Koslovak case led me to discover a world that exists alongside our own. What on earth have you gotten yourself involved in Harry? It is this other world that I strive now to unmask. It has become my life's work with Bess at my side. I think it's time we beard the lion in his den. Harry Houdini, the world. world-renowned magician, and now of all things, amateur sleuth. Our work continues, and the danger increases every day.

Mr. Houdini, Mrs. Houdini, please back away. It's not safe. Not for anyone. Wait, darling! This is getting deeper and darker by the second. Santiago Cabrera. Do we keep going? Zimbongli Malambo. I think we have to, carefully, together.

Ian Anthony Dale. Very few persons are lucky enough to know where and when it will end for them. And John Goodman. You must be careful, Harry. These people are evil in college. Hindsight, the day before. An original premium audio drama. Presented in stunning, spatial sound.

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