True Crime Campfire - When Nerds Attack - Hardcore Horror: The Farmville Murders

Episode Date: August 8, 2025

No is a powerful word. It can stop a naughty dog in its tracks, it can get you out of a night out with friends when you just want to rot in your bed, and most of all, it’s supposed to mean something when you don’t want anything to do with someone romantically. Unfortunately for society, some people can’t handle being told no. It fills them with unfounded rage because how dare anyone deny them something they want. Today, we’re discussing a case where someone handled rejection so pathetically that it resulted in the murder of 4 people and left a mark on three communities that would last a lifetime.Join Katie and Whitney, plus the hosts of Last Podcast on the Left, Sinisterhood, and Scared to Death, on the very first CRIMEWAVE true crime cruise! Get your fan code now--tickets on sale now: CrimeWaveatSea.com/CAMPFIRESources:YouTube channel "Explore With Us" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQTJ48TYnzYInvestigation Discovery's "Web of Lies," episode "Farmville Horror"https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/news/2009/09/28/singer-slayings-off-limits-to/51852160007/ https://lbhfs.proboards.com/thread/3255/strictly-wicked-2009-festivalhttps://genius.com/Syko-sam-the-voices-lyricshttps://www.discogs.com/release/8618519-Serial-Killin-Records-Strictly-for-the-Wicked-2009-The-DVD?srsltid=AfmBOoo_o8xxi3EHZ7zsY8LT1e1i3gfXjAkyh3yjjvZLVtttOGKEDkok https://genius.com/Razakel-watch-out-lyricshttps://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/horrorcore-syko-sam/https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2019/june/your-nose-knows-when-it-comes-to-stronger-memories.htmlFollow us, campers!Patreon (join to get all episodes ad-free, at least a day early, an extra episode a month, and a free sticker!): https://patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfirehttps://www.truecrimecampfirepod.com/Facebook: True Crime CampfireInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/truecrimecampfire/?hl=enTwitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfireEmail: [e-mail]! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.

Hello, campers. Grab your marshmallows and gather around the true crime campfire. We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie. And I'm Whitney. And we're here to tell you a true story that is way stranger than fiction. We're roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime campfire. No is a powerful word. It can stop a naughty dog in its tracks and get you out of a night out with your friends when you just want to rot in your bed. and most of all, it's supposed to mean something when you don't want anything to do with someone romantically. Unfortunately, for us and for society,

some people can't handle being told no. It fills them with unfounded rage because how dare anyone deny them something they want? Today, we're discussing a case where someone handled rejection so pathetically that it resulted in the murder of four people and left a mark on three communities that would last a lifetime.

This is when nerds attack. Hardcore horror. The Farmville murders. So, campers, for this one, we're in Southgate, Michigan on September 12, 2009, at the Modern Exchange, a small music venue about 20 minutes southwest of Detroit. The music pumping out of the front doors that day had a deep, pounding, bass line and loud, aggressive vocals. The fans were dressed in dark clothes with leather accessories, heavy boots, hair dyed black with flashes of bright colors, dreads tangled throughout, piercings glinted in the moonlight. Some of them wore the trademark clown makeup that marked them as juggalo's. Wooop! Yes, this was a horror core festival. Specifically, the strictly for the Wicked Festival put on for Serial Killing Records, or SKR. Over 25 acts would

be performing, including such names as, I love this so much, hallucinate. I got to spell it for you. So, H-E-L-L-U-S-I-N number eight. Hallucinate. Icarus, the morgue, Sictanic, and Razakil. Detroit is like Mecca for Horror Corners, by the way. It's where ICP is from, and they tend to congregate there. Yeah, SKR is from Albuquerque, New Mexico. but they took their festival all the way to Michigan, which says a lot. The label was run by an artist called Siktanik and his girlfriend, Razakal, who were the headliners for the evening. When Rosickel finally took the stage, she couldn't help but search out two young women in the crowd as she's saying, dominating my victims, leaving corpses dismembered, you'll never meet a bitch so sick, so wicked and

vicious like me. Death is an art, and I'm the artist painting the gory scene. I'll kill you, Eventually, I'll take your soul as you bleed. Dang. She found them. They were both at the barrier, right up at the stage, screaming along with her. Rosickel felt a flutter of pride and affection. Teenagers Emma Niederbrock and Melanie Wells had been OG fans of hers for ages, and it was so cool to finally see them.

Mel had traveled all the way from West Virginia to Farmville, Virginia, to meet Emma, and then to Michigan for the concert. The music had really brought them together. In the back of her mind, though, she wondered where Emma's boyfriend was. Never mind that, though. She had a show to put on. Two days later, in West Virginia, Mel's family is starting to get worried. Her brother, Alex, who was basically her best friend, hadn't heard from her since she'd

gone to sleep after the concert, and he was starting to feel uneasy. His mom told him, not to worry. She was probably just sleeping in or off with her friends hanging out. She wasn't due home until the end of the week, so she was. was probably just unplugging a bit. But Alex and Mel rarely went this long without speaking to each other. And as the day wore on without a word from Mel, his unease turned into the sick tang of panic. Mel's mom, Kathleen, finally broke down and reached out to the band members that had performed that night to see if they'd heard from Mel and her friends. It's a little wild to me to think about my mom reaching out to my favorite band to see if they'd heard for me. But it's also kind of cool that Kathleen had that kind of relationship with her daughter. Razakal, who by that time had flown back to Albuquerque and was still sleeping when she got the call, promised Kathleen that she'd call around and try to find her daughter. She called Mel and Emma and got the voicemail for both of them.

She left messages that said, Hey, if you don't answer me, please at least call Mrs. Wells. As the messages racked up on Mel's phone, the concern for her family grew. Her mom told Web of Lies that it was very out of character for her to let them worry like this. As soon as she realized that they were concerned, she would have called them back immediately. Rosickel kept calling again and again, and the tone of her messages shifted from worry to anger. When they didn't respond to that, she knew something was seriously wrong. Yeah, if my favorite, like, singer called to yell at me, like to tell me to call my mom, I'd hop to.

No kidding. Be priority number one. then the phone stopped ringing entirely and went straight to voicemail. Either they were turned off or the batteries had died. But let's put a pit in that and go back to the beginning. Farmville, Virginia, despite being named after a video game, I'm assuming, is the kind of town where there's not much to do if you're a teenager. There's especially not much to do if you're the kind of teenager that doesn't quite fit in.

There's a movie theater and a singular bowling alley and not the kind of fun bowling alley where there's like laser tag. I think there's like an arcade and a restaurant, but that's it. Other than that, it's all sports bars and restaurants like called the Fish and Pig and the Virginia tasting cellar. There's a university, Longwood You, but there's a world of difference between a college kid and a teenager. And weird fact, Amy Lynn Bradley, the woman who went. missing on a cruise. Crew shit. Yeah, she went to Longwood.

So that's a weird true crime crossover. The population of the town is about 7,500. So you know that, you know, as a teenager, if you wear just a little too much eye makeup, the Baptist Lady's luncheon is going to gossip about it. Kind of like if Cheers was a town and they've all known you since you were in diapers and also you live in a surveillance state and everything will always get back to your parents. Yeah, that is the hell that is a small town when you're a teenager trying to be sneaky, as all teenagers try to do. I have been there and done that.

Emma Niederbrock was different. First of all, her dad, Mark, was a Presbyterian preacher, which comes with a whole slew of pressures and problems that most kids don't have to deal with. Like, she felt like she had to be perfect, right? He and her mom, Deborah, split up when she was 14, and the separation hit her hard. She became depressed and started getting, bullied relentlessly at school. Her parents decided that the best course of action was to homeschool her. Her mom was a criminology and sociology professor at the university, so it's not like she was sitting at home watching TV for homework, but that meant she became further isolated from her peers. And before long, her behavior took a sharp turn. She became even more defiant. Her

fashion sense changed as well. Before, she was like a t-shirt and jeans kind of girl. And now she was wearing dark clothes and heavy eye makeup and coloring her hair bubblegum pink. And to top it all off, Emma became enamored with horrorcore music. Now, for those that need a reminder, horrorcore is a subgenre of hip-hop that focuses on death and violence. Insane Clown Posse is probably the most famous horror core group out there, but there are many, many acts under the horror core genre. One of Emma's friends pointed out that her interest in this type of music was absolutely a result of her isolation. She said, some of the hurt that goes into that music and how those people are hurting, that was something that Emma looked into and was like, oh, you know, I feel the same way. It's almost as if I'm going through the same things as them.

It was actually a really refreshing perspective because it's this sweet little blonde girl who clearly loved her friend and, accepted her. Usually you see a lot of pearl clutching on these shows about any kind of counterculture, music, or other media that depicts violence, but this girl had a pretty sharp observation about how her friend was feeling. Hurt and alone.

At 16, Emma, under the screen name Ragdoll, joined a MISPACE group that connected horror core artists and their fans. It was there where she met Razakal and Siktanic. She initially got their attention by filming a room tour for them, showing off

all her merch and posters of them and artists from their label. Razakil was so touched that she reached out and immediately made a connection with Emma. She quickly realized that she and Emma had quite a bit in common. Their musical interests span genres, Backstreet Boys, In Sink, Slipknot, and Porcelain and the Tramps. I love that Razakale listened to the Backstreet Boys. That's just hysterical. In fact, she didn't even know this, but both their dads were Presbyterian preachers. In their conversations, Emma told Razakal that she felt like such an outcast in Farmville

and she wished she had somebody close by that she could talk about music with. Razakal thought she knew just the girl. Enter 18-year-old Melanie Wells. She lived just 200 miles away from Farmville in West Virginia, and Razakale thought they'd get on like a house on fire. She was absolutely correct. Mel and Emma spoke every day. They Skyped and finally met in person at a concert in Chicago about four months.

months after they met online. People who met them thought they'd known each other forever. You know, you and I get that a lot too. Like we, we met a Facebook group and have only met a couple of times in person. And, you know, sometimes you just find your people on the internet. Yeah, when we go on that true crime cruise, it's going to be the longest time we've ever spent in each other's physical presence. I know. It's going to be crazy. And you know, as a small town girl who grew up in the 80s and 90s, I have to say this is, y'all don't know how good you have it now, seriously. I don't know I sound like an old person saying that, but when I was in high school, I was one of the different weird kids, right? And you didn't have the internet to find other people. Like there wasn't this huge, like, worldwide community where you could reach out and find tons of other people who are into the same music and the same books and stuff.

You just had your school and maybe the other school in town if there was one. That was it. so I would have just absolutely loved having the ability to do this back then. It would have meant the world. So Razakal uploaded one of Emma's videos onto her page, which exposed her to a wider audience, especially boys. She started getting more and more messages from fellow fans. One in particular caught her fancy. He went by the screen names Lil Demon Dog and Psycho Sam,

spelled because our boy is a rebel, S-Y-K-O. This is big in the horror core community, apparently, just like, let's see how weirdly we can spell this word. It's like, because we're edgy. I will post the poster of the festival, and you will see how unreadable it is. It is upsetting. Like, it's, like, I don't mind, like, misspellings, but, like, hallucinate.

I stared at that. I had to say it, like, five times before I got what it was, and then I laughed so hard. I stared at that for like a good five minutes before I got it. And then Icarus... Yeah, you got to say it out loud. That's how you get them as you read them out loud. Icarus, the only part of that name that shares a letter with the name Icarus is I and R. It's I-K-K-K-U-R-U-Z-Z.

Bizarre. But these are rebels, K.T. I know. We mustn't question their methods. I know. So 20-year-old Richard McCrosky, aka Psycho Sam, was a California native who had big dreams of breaking into the horror core scene. There are rumors that he got his name from the serial killer known as the son of Sam, aka David Berkowitz, aka the saddest little manlet who has ever lived. Yeah, little advice.

Do not take your stage name from someone who has big, I sploge at my pants, energy. Or who looks like he smells like earwax. And it's always just a little bit sweaty. Like you can just tell in every picture, he's always just a little damp. The most boring serial killer you could pick is. I can't understand the people who get into Berkowitz. It's just because they use that cool name or whatever. Son of Sam.

He's the biggest dork on planet Earth. He had good marketing. Like he wrote like a cool letter and it was like... Until you heard him open his mouth and saw pictures of him and stuff. So anyway, Siktanikhtanik told the TV show Web of Lies. He was one of those kids that didn't get out in the world at all. His life revolved around being online, period. And that's a brutal way of saying that he needed to touch some grass, yeah?

He was enamored with Emma when he was. first laid eyes on her profile and was disappointed to find out that she wasn't local to him, but in the time of my space, distance didn't really matter. It was less than a month before their friendship blossomed into something more romantic. They started calling each other pet names and posting, I love you more than anything, on each other's pages. Richard was troubled, to say the least. He'd been brutally bullied in high school due to his red hair and weight, which forced him to drop out of two different schools and not graduate. Despite the fact that he never fought back against his bullying, or maybe because of it, he really had a ton of rage and hatred. The YouTube channel

Explore with us suggests that part of that hatred is pointed inward, for not being strong enough to stand up for himself. Richard's mental image and stage persona was one that would strike fear in the hearts of the Normies that bullied him. Psycho Sam was that persona. And like, horrorcore is absolutely not my genre, okay? But, I mean, really not. But I can acknowledge that there are some catchy songs out there and artists that are clearly masters of the craft. But Richard, well, let's take the song, Murderous Rage from his album, I Kill People for Real. I just can't.

Oh, buckle up. Today is not your ordinary day, because last night I was a murderous rage. but now I got to get rid of the bodies before the corpses start to get to rotting. Yeah. So, you know, there's that. Yeah. I think when you're writing poetry, there's a thing called meter. Yes, ideally there is.

But, you know, again, we're working, we're coloring outside the lines here, KT. He might just be a genius and we just don't understand it. You're right. You're right. I'm sorry. According to his sister, though, he wasn't even able to kill a spider. You know, she's like, he's the kindest guy you'd ever want to meet. Richard worked as a graphic designer, building websites,

and seemed all around like a quiet, unassuming guy, if a little bit greasy and odd. By the time serial killing records announced their festival, Richard wanted to go. Mel and Emma were super stoked, too. They'd get to see Raz and Siktanic in person and meet other horrorcore nerds. Mel's parents were down, and they'd help her pay.

She was 18, and Kathleen, her mom thought that getting out of the town you grew up in is the best way to experience the world and develop yourself as a person. Amen to that. The snag would be Emma's parents. She was sure they'd let her go, but she wanted Richard to come as well. Emma approached her parents about it, and Debra and Mark actually met about it to discuss it. Every source I saw kind of made it seem like they did not fuck with each other at all. Like it seemed like they did not, like they only talked about Emma with each other. And then like this meeting was like super, like a super rare occurrence.

Like the fact that like Mark and Deborah actually sat down and met, they for sure did not approve of the music that their daughter listened to. And they approved even less of the 20 year old online boyfriend. But not much had made her happy after their separation. And so they agreed to a compromise. They would let her go, but both of her parents would be going with her on the trip. So when the time came, Mel's dad dropped her off with the Niederbawks, and they all went to pick Richard up at the airport. It was seven months after they met, six months after their relationship started, and they were finally meeting in person. Emma was so excited and nervous as she stood at the baggage claim.

And then when she finally, finally got to see her man, womp, wamp. Oof, yeah, we've all been there, right, when the reality doesn't quite match the fantasy? The vibes were rancid. He was just off. Emma didn't know why, but he just made her uncomfortable. Like, she texted Razakil to tell her that, like, something's wrong. I don't, like, he just makes me uncomfortable.

That's your intuition yelling at you. And this was day one of a full week of being with him. Oh, my God. Her stomach was in knots. The 9-hour drive from the airport to the hotel near the venue was excruciating, but once they got there, it was all excitement. The hotel was picked out by the festival and both the fans, and the artists would be staying there so everyone could make close connections.

Deborah, Emma's mom, shared a room with the girls, and Richard and Mark had their own rooms. The day of the concert, Razakil noticed how awkward and standoffish Richard was and called him out and forced him to introduce himself to her. Contrasted to how social and charming Emma was, Sittanic reckoned that maybe it was a case of oil and water. During the show, Richard was nowhere near the girls at all. And Sictanik thought that the fact that he was an outcast was strange. He said, it was odd that a reject couldn't fit in with the rest of us rejects, which is such a burn. Yeah. I mean, he was at the outcast concert with the outcast, and he still couldn't find a way to jive with them.

Like, that's weird. Yeah, it is. Some of Emma's friends later reported that Richard was jealous when she got a flirty text on her phone from another guy at the show, and he flounced off. The festival ended at 11 p.m. on the 12th, and they all drove back to Farmville the next day, arriving back just before midnight on Sunday. Despite the awkwardness, it seems like Emma was genuinely willing to let Richard spend the week at her house and hang out with her. Mel had posted around 3 a.m. on Monday that she'd be home on the 16th, but no one had heard from her since then. That's about where we left off at the beginning of the episode, with Mel's mom and Razquel worried sick about the girls and, to some extent, Richard. It really tells you, like, as much as we might giggle at the horror core lyrics and stuff, like, this is clearly a very close-knit community who genuinely cared about each other, which I think is sweet.

You know, I mean, this is one of the artists who was headlining at this show, and she's personally trying to find these girls. I think that's lovely, honestly. Razakil decided to put up a post on MySpace, asking for information on the whereabouts of the three teenagers. And it wasn't long before they got a hit. Someone told them to reach out to Richard's friend Biggie-gigi doggo-go-go-go-gog. Big dog. It's like a million G's in there. And see if he could find out what was going on.

Big Dog agreed and said he'd call Raz right. back. Meanwhile, Kathleen Wells tried to call the police, but since Mel was 18, she had a feeling they might not be much hell. And they were not. All they could tell her was that there were no reports of car accidents and no one matching Mel's description at the hospital or in jail. They didn't stop by the Niederbrook house to check. When the 16th came and went, the day that Mel was supposed to return home, the Wells family just became frantic. Mel's dad, Jerry, drove down to Farmville and knocked on the Niederbrock's front door to see if he could find their daughter. When he got there, no one answered, and he ended up waiting there for eight hours.

Eventually, a neighbor came up to his car and said that the girls weren't home, but they had gone to Richmond and would be back late that night. Jerry shrugged it off and decided to go home instead of waiting any longer at the house. What he didn't know was that that decision probably saved his life. Kathleen and Alex kept calling the Niederbock's house phone, hoping to finally reach Mel. That evening, someone finally picked up. It was Richard. He told them that Mel, Emma, and Deborah had gone out for a bite to eat and their car broke down. AAA was on the way and they'd be home soon, so they should call back in like an hour or so. But when they called back, no one answered. The next morning, the 17th, Kathleen called the police and requested

a welfare check. But when the officers arrived, they didn't see anything suspicious so they didn't go into the house. Richard answered the phone again. No need to worry, he said. The car is fixed, but this time they're out visiting Mark, Emma's dad. Kathleen immediately hung up and called Mark. Mark told her he hadn't heard from any of them since he dropped them off on Sunday. It was now Thursday.

He was immediately concerned and said he was going to head to the house to check things out. The last time Kathleen spoke to him, Mark was in the car on the road. He drove over and let himself in with the key that he still had. Kathleen, who was waiting by the phone, started getting angry. Where the hell was he? He said he was going to call back right away. Kathleen had had enough. She called the police again.

A sergeant went and visited the house and spoke with a young boy who told him that the two young women had driven to Richmond the day before and their car had broken down and they were now at the movies. When the dispatcher relayed all this to Kathleen, And she told him that that was all fine and dandy, but where was Deborah, the girl's perennial chauffeur? And where was Mark? He'd gone over there earlier. The response to all those questions?

Okay. Like a bored therapist listening to a patient repeating the same story for the 15th time. This kid doesn't even live in your town. Aren't you a little bit suspicious? Like, your small town cops, you're supposed to love running outsiders outside the county lines, right? And don't come back. She called a house again, and when Richard answered, he simply told her that the girls couldn't come to the phone.

What the fuck? Kathleen parked herself right by the phone and decided to make this her full-time job. Relief washed over her when her phone finally rang. When she answered, though, it was not the calm, steady voice of the preacher on the other end. It was Richard McCrosky. He told her that not only had he not seen Mark, but he'd heard voices coming from the basement and footsteps. He told her he was scared.

She told him to call the police, which, strangely enough, he did. He told the dispatcher that it might be one of the two dogs at the house. He'd put one of them down there. He put the other one upstairs. He didn't explain why he did that, but anyone with at least two brain cells who's seen one episode of criminal minds

can probably put it together. The police arrived and did a perfunctory search of the Niederbrock basement, and after not finding anything left without looking anywhere else or finding any information about the two teenagers and the mother that were missing. Come on. It's fine, though. After all this was over, they investigated themselves and found that they did nothing wrong. Oh, excellent. So that's all sorted out then. Now, I just want to take a little break from all this so I don't have a rage stroke and talk about our

wonderful olfactory sense. Now, did you know it's the sense that's most connected to memory? Like, the other day I smelled a perfume that my second grade teacher used to wear, and I had a vivid memory of her reading Charlotte's Web to us. Like, I didn't even remember that she wore the perfume, but like I smelled it and immediately remembered. It was crazy. It's amazing. It brings everything just flooding back. Yeah. So smells can bring you places. And actually, unpleasant. smells can bring back memories more clearly than good smells. Now, all that to say is that ain't no one forgetting what a rotting corpse smells like, okay? For days, people that lived in Emma's neighborhood had noticed a foul smell coming from somewhere,

but they couldn't pinpoint it. They specified that something smelled dead. Now, it stands to reason that police officers who had now been to the house three times would have noticed something, anything. Alas, that was not the case. Oh, for Pete's sakes. The man invited them in the house, which we'll talk about in a second because I don't know why he did it. But I'm baffled. Richard ended up calling home around this time and checked in with his family, and he ended his message with, I love you guys, which set off alarms for his sister because he was like not the kind of person to say I love you.

Like he and his sister did not say that to each other. And Kathleen at this time decided to check Mel's phone record. She was a teenager in 2009. She was always on that damn phone. Someone had left her a voicemail at 1.28 a.m. on the 15th, but there was nothing after that. Like, she was not on her phone. So scary. Kathleen was quickly becoming a thorn in the Farmville Police Department side. She called again and laid it out like you would to a toddler. My daughter has been missing for two and a half days.

Her minor friend has been missing for two and a half days. Her friend's mom has been missing for two and a half days. Now her friend's dad is missing. My husband went down to check on everything and someone told him they were in Richmond. I checked the phone records and my daughter has not been active. What do I need to do to get you to take me seriously? Apparently, being condescended to was the ticket because the next day, the police finally decided to check up on the Niederbrook house. The next flippin' day.

Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I guess they had to wait for their turn for the town tractor to get to the scene or something. Yeah. This time, they had no trouble smelling the horrific smell coming from the house, and it gave them probable cause to enter. They walked into what they called a slaughterhouse. Oh, my God.

In a downstairs bedroom, they found three bodies that had clearly been dragged there and hidden. They found a fourth in an upstairs bedroom. The bodies were so horribly brutalized that they were unrecognizable. Oh, my God. They were later identified as Emma Niederbrock, Melanie Wells, Deborah Kelly, and Mark Naderbrock. Oh, my God. Evidence at the scene indicated that a wood splitting mall, taken from the victim's own backyard, was the murder weapon. Emma, Melanie, and Deborah had all been attacked while they were sleeping.

Mark had been jumped from behind as he walked into the house and was beaten so viciously that the hardwood floor where he fell was torn up and the raw wood was soaked in blood. Oh my God. So their cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head and none of them showed any sign of a struggle. They did not see this coming. Deborah's body was still in her bed while Mark and Melanie's bodies were dragged into Emma's room with her. Now, the question was,

where's the little worm that's been camping out here all week? Now, if you thought we were dealing with Keystone cops before, buckle the fuck up, because we're about to see incompetence reach heights that you've never thought possible. This part of the story literally makes me nauseous with rage. It's bananas. So they realized pretty quickly that Mark's car was gone,

so they put out an APB on it, only to realize that there was already a report on a car matching that description and that it had been in a car accident in the wee hours of the morning. The officer that responded had issued a citation for driving without a license and had kindly gotten the driver, a young male redhead, a tow truck, and sent him on his way. The tow truck driver said that Richard had seemed pleasant enough. When asked about the red marks on his neck, Richard told them they were hickies, and his girlfriend gave them to him. Then, when he was dropped off after the tow truck ride, he called a cab. The taxi then got pulled over for speeding. While the cop was riding the ticket, Richard just got out and

smoked a cigarette on the side of the road. Now, I don't know if all of Farmville police are required to like wear nose plugs just in case they got to go swimming or something, but the tow truck driver said that Richard stunk like the devil and that he had to stick his head out the window so he didn't blow chunks all over his car. It was that bad. He said Richard's car smelled, too, like, just from him being in it. Like, maybe the cops all had a nasty sinus

infection. Yeah, not to mention that if they took any one of Kathleen Wells' calls seriously, but especially the last few, they'd have had the APB out on Mark's car already, and they'd have Richard in cuffs faster than you can say magnets. There it is.

I had to make one magnet joke, okay? It's tangentially related. I mean, how do they work? The juggaloes will get that one. So incompetence aside, how in the world were they going to find Richard now? He could be halfway to Canada, unless, of course, he was even more incompetent than the Farmfield police, which is like nearly impossible, right? I mean, right?

Whitney, he wrote a song with the lyrics, like, Hannibal, a cannibal, I'm definitely not handleable. Oh, that's, that is bad. Ooh, that's a stinker. So yeah, you're right. And he was incompetent. This smelly little turnip decided to write an address down at Emma's house, and he left it there. The Farmville police, who probably finally felt like they'd met their Moriarty, their real intellectual equal, decided to go to the address.

The location was the airport. And who did they find snoozing in the baggage claim? name area? Well, if it wasn't Mr. Oda-Maget himself. And remember our friends in Albuquerque, Raz and Sick, trying to track down one of Richard's friends? Well, they just gift-trapped one of the prosecution's witnesses for them, because apparently Richard told his buddy Big Dog, that he killed someone, possibly a bunch of someone's, and Big Dog, just liked the music. And so he, good for him, called up Raz and Siktanik and let them know what Richard told him. And they immediately told the cops.

In interviews with the police, Richard told them that he'd smoked weed, drank alcohol, and taken prescription painkillers for a migraine prior to the murders. He said that he chose the weapon that he felt would result in the least suffering for his victims. Isn't that sweet of him? No one knows what he did in that house for days on end, waiting, watching, answering the phone, inviting the cops in. It seems strange that he would invite so much scrutiny. But one of our sources explore with us uncovered a video that shows some insight here.

The video is a selfie, which in 2009 meant he couldn't see himself. He's holding the camera about a foot away from his face, head slightly ducked down in an aw shucks kind of pose. If you weren't watching his face, his voice sounds meek, resigned. But his face is striking in its delight. His eyes are glinting. the corners of his mouth are upturned and a smirk. He says, all right, so I'm making this video because, or if anybody finds this, I really don't know what I'm trying to say and just I'm breathtaking at what I've done.

And I apologize. I know I'm going to pay for my consequences. You know, I wish that I could have not done this, but I just lost my mind. I snapped and I did what I did. And I got to pay for it now, my consequences. I'm like all shaky and stuff but like to anybody that finds this tell my parents that I love them

and I'm very sorry for doing this and there's nothing really else to say to everybody that is probably going to hate me for this I'm sorry and I had to do it my mind just snapped I couldn't control anymore that's it fuck you to the big world fuck everybody in the world I can't stand this place

he told the police that after this video he was planning on taking his own life but ended up changing his mind Virginia has the death penalty, and instead of leaving that on the table, Richard McCloskey decided to take the deal. He pled guilty to two counts of capital murder and two counts of first-degree murder and received four life sentences to be served consecutively with no chance of parole. After his sentencing hearing, he was seen smirking at onlookers, despite the fact that his defense attorney insisted that he feels remorse. Right. In a subsequent interview, when he's asked why he did it, he told a reporter,

Jesus told me to do it. His sister brushed his response off and said it was just his sense of humor. Oh, he's such a dwee. How could this edge lord little twat do this much damage? It's just infuriating. In reality, I think the simplest explanation is the most likely. He got jealous of seeing his relationship crumble. He probably did see a flirty text on his underage girlfriend's phone.

She didn't send it, and it wasn't her fault he couldn't control his emotion. Richard decided that he wasn't going to let himself be the weak guy anymore, and he proved it by killing four defenseless people. It's unbelievable. He made the horror real. Ultimately, I think this case is about friendship. How loved were these girls? Their parents really tried to understand them, really tried to make them feel known.

Their favorite artists loved them so much, she tore the world apart trying to find them. Kathleen Wells wouldn't give up until someone at the Farmville police took her seriously. Alex Wells still calls his sister his best friend. Deborah Kelly and Mark Niederbrook came together through their separation to make sure their daughter was safe and happy. And it was all torn apart for what? Because some sad little loser couldn't handle being told no? Luckily, he's right where he belongs and he won't be getting out. Dang, so that was a wild one, right, campers?

know we'll have another one for you next week. But for now, lock your doors, light your lights, and stay safe until we get together again around the True Crime Campfire. And it's coming up, folks. If you haven't booked your spot on the Crime Wave True Crime Cruise yet from November 3rd through November 7th, you got to get on it. Join Katie and me, plus last podcast on the left, scared to death, and sinisterhood for a rock and good time at sea. You can pay all at once or set up payment plan, but you've got to have a fan code to book a ticket. So go to crimewaveatc.com slash campfire and take it from there. And as always, we want to send a grateful shout out to a few of our lovely patrons.

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