Father made futile trip in search for slain daughter

Melanie Wells was one of four homicide victims found bludgeoned to death in Farmville earlier this month.

By: Reed Williams | Times-Dispatch
Published: September 30, 2009

SPECIAL REPORT: Slayings in Farmville

The father of Farmville quadruple-homicide victim Melanie Wells drove from West Virginia to pick her up and waited outside her friend's house in Farmville for seven hours Sept. 16, knocking on the door several times and receiving no answer, authorities said yesterday.

Thomas G. Wells Jr. could not reach his daughter and eventually returned home to Inwood, W.Va., without her, according to a missing-person report he and Melanie's mother, Kathleen Wells, filed with the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office in West Virginia.

That report was made about 5:40 p.m. Sept. 18, shortly after the bodies of Wells and three other people were found in the home.

After Thomas G. Wells Jr. drove about 200 miles from Farmville back to West Virginia, Melanie Wells' parents made several calls Sept. 17 and 18 to try to find their daughter. Kathleen Wells had at least two telephone conversations with Richard Samuel Alden McCroskey III before the bodies were found and McCroskey became a suspect, said Berkeley County sheriff's Lt. R.L. Gardner.

"Every time she spoke to him, he told a different story," Gardner said.

Bludgeoned to death inside the Farmville home were Wells, 18; her friend Emma Niederbrock, 16; Emma's mother and Longwood University professor Debra S. Kelley, 53; and her estranged husband, Mark Niederbrock, 50, who was Emma's father.

Authorities have not said when the victims were killed or what weapon was used. Efforts to reach police officials and Prince Edward County Commonwealth's Attorney James R. Ennis on Monday and again yesterday were unsuccessful.

McCroskey, 20, of California, met Emma Niederbrock online through their interest in horrorcore rap music and flew to Virginia on Sept. 6 to meet her for the first time.

Wells was dropped off Sept. 6 at the house that Kelley and her daughter shared, Gardner said. It was the third time she had visited Emma's home. The missing-person report did not say who dropped her off.

The weekend of Sept. 12, Emma's parents drove her, along with Wells and McCroskey, to a horrorcore music festival in Michigan. The group returned Sept. 13 to Farmville.

Wells' parents told Berkeley County authorities that the last time they were in contact with Melanie was 1:23 a.m. Sept. 15.

Thomas Wells had arranged to pick his daughter up Sept. 16. They agreed he would call her one hour before he arrived, Gardner said, but Wells could not reach her and returned home after waiting seven hours and knocking on Kelley's door.

A Farmville officer went by the home Sept. 17 just before midnight after Kathleen Wells asked them to check on her daughter. McCroskey answered the door and told the officer that Melanie Wells had gone to the movies. McCroskey told Kathleen Wells the same thing, although it is unclear when he spoke with her.

An hour later, at about 1 a.m. Sept. 18, McCroskey called police back to the house, saying he had heard noise in the basement. Two officers checked the basement and left. They did not find the bodies, which were in another part of the house.

The Wellses also said McCroskey told Kathleen Wells that a car Melanie was in had broken down, Gardner said. The last time Kathleen Wells spoke with McCroskey was about 3:30 a.m. Sept. 18, about 12 hours before the bodies were found.

At 4:20 a.m., a Prince Edward County deputy ticketed McCroskey for driving without a license after he got Mark Niederbrock's car stuck in a ditch. McCroskey caught a cab that morning to Richmond International Airport.

Kathleen Wells called friends of Melanie Wells the morning of Sept. 18 and later asked Farmville police to check the house again, prompting officers to return to the house and find the bodies that afternoon. Airport police caught McCroskey the next day at the airport, where he was waiting for a flight back to California.

Thomas and Kathleen Wells made their missing-person report at the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office about 5:40 p.m. Sept. 18, after the bodies were found. Berkeley County deputies contacted Farmville about 8:56 p.m.

"We had no way of preventing the crime," Gardner said. "It's a shame. I just don't know what else to say. People are devastated."

Attempts to reach Wells' parents were unsuccessful.

Contact Reed Williams at (804) 649-6332 or rwilliams@timesdispatch.com.