Farmville suspect told of confrontation, cab driver says

The suspect in the killings of four people in Farmville told a cab driver hours before the victims' bodies were found that he had confronted his girlfriend after finding a text message from another man on her phone.

Curtis Gibson of Access Taxi in Charlottesville recalled the roughly hourlong conversation he had with the foul-smelling suspect, Richard Samuel Alden McCroskey III, on the morning of Sept. 18. Gibson drove McCroskey from a Huddle House restaurant in Farmville to Richmond International Airport.

During the cab ride, McCroskey told Gibson that his girlfriend got angry when he confronted her about the message and accused him of invading her privacy. The 20-year-old Californian told Gibson he didn't want to argue with his girlfriend, 16-year-old Emma Niederbrock, so he waited for her to go to sleep early that morning or the night before and then he left the house.

Gibson said McCroskey was calm during the entire ride and seemed normal, except for a stench that Gibson did not recognize.

Niederbrock's body was found that afternoon in the Farmville home she shared with her mother, Debra S. Kelley, a professor of sociology and criminal-justice studies at Longwood University.

Also found dead inside the home were Kelley's estranged husband, Mark Niederbrock, and Melanie Wells, an 18-year-old friend of Emma Niederbrock who was visiting from West Virginia.

All four had been bludgeoned. Authorities have not said when they died, nor have they elaborated on how the four were killed.

Gibson said he recognized McCroskey on television news on Sunday afternoon, the day after McCroskey was arrested at the airport. Gibson called police, and an investigator interviewed him in Charlottesville that day and looked inside Gibson's minivan for evidence.

Farmville police officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.

On Thursday, police Sgt. Andy Ellington said: "We're trying to piece the timeline together, and of course we're trying to figure out motive." Police have said McCroskey is their only suspect in the slayings, but he has been charged only in the death of Mark Niederbrock, a pastor.

McCroskey had three run-ins with law enforcement in the hours before Gibson picked him up.

First, police came to the Kelley home just before midnight the previous night to check on Wells at her mother's request. Authorities say McCroskey told an officer that Wells was at the movies.

An hour later, McCroskey called police and said he had heard noise in the basement and asked them to check it. Two officers entered a different part of the house from where the bodies were found, and they searched the basement and left.

Then, about 4 a.m., McCroskey got a stolen car stuck on a remote country road in Prince Edward County and got a ticket for driving without a license. McCroskey is charged with stealing the car, which had not been reported stolen, from Mark Niederbrock.

A wrecker towed the car and gave McCroskey a ride to a Sheetz convenience store in Farmville. In an interview, the wrecker driver said McCroskey smelled like a dead animal.

Cody Scott, a 17-year-old server and manager at the Huddle House, a quarter-mile from the Sheetz, said he arrived at work at 6 a.m. and struck up a conversation with McCroskey, who already was there. McCroskey ordered a sandwich and fries.

McCroskey told Scott he was from California, and when Scott asked him what he was doing in Farmville, McCroskey replied, "I had to take care of some business."

Scott said he asked McCroskey why he looked so tired, and McCroskey said he had been awake for days. Scott asked him why, but McCroskey shrugged his shoulders and kept eating.

McCroskey also told Scott how to find his MySpace page and said Scott should listen to his rap songs on there and see if he liked them. In one of McCroskey's songs, he raps about murder, rotting corpses and stashing human remains.

When Gibson, the cab driver, picked up McCroskey about 8:20 a.m., he asked why McCroskey had called a cab from Charlottesville, about 60 miles from Farmville. McCroskey said he called information and couldn't find one in Farmville and eventually found a number for Access Taxi.

Gibson said he and McCroskey talked for most of the trip to the airport and that McCroskey spoke passionately about his involvement in the horrorcore music scene and also about his girlfriend. McCroskey told Gibson he met Emma Niederbrock online about a year ago through their mutual interest in underground music.

McCroskey also told Gibson that his girlfriend's parents had taken them to a music festival in Michigan on Sept. 12 and that they had a good time. But McCroskey said he later saw the text message on her phone from a man with whom she had talked at the festival. The message said he loved her and wanted to be with her.

McCroskey didn't say what day he had found the message.

A Chesterfield County police officer stopped Gibson for speeding through a school zone on the way to the airport, and McCroskey got out to smoke a cigarette but appeared calm. They stopped at a bank so McCroskey could withdraw some money, and he paid Gibson $130 when they got to the airport about 9:30 a.m.

Police took McCroskey into custody the next day at the airport and charged him with killing and robbing Mark Niederbrock and with stealing his car. Authorities have said additional homicide charges are expected.

Gibson said he was shocked when he learned McCroskey was suspected in the horrific slayings.

"I enjoyed talking to him," Gibson said. "He was interesting."

Contact Reed Williams at (804) 649-6332 or .