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.
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
.
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Reader Reactions
Jack
You too are also a failure in life.
This is supposed to be about remembering those that have passed. Not hearing about your biased judgements of their life. Once you can come to that realization you may not be such a failure yourself.
Longwood seemed to have moved many tenured professors, most likely due to the economy. So do NOT tell me that she was a failure at Longwood. If anything Longwood failed her and the other professors. And no, I hold no grudge towards Longwood for decisions that they had made. She most certainly was not a failure at her job.
I suppose McCroskey should just be let go, he didn’t do anything wrong, right? It was all Dr. Kelley’s poor decisions that got her entire family killed. I am sure that was her intention. Sadly, she was close enough with her daughter to take her to a concert instead of letting the daughter sneak off and do it on her own.
Face reality? You mean believe what you say? Not happening bud. Go take some course on death and greiving….everyone is missing the point.
Nothing matters except their gone and some lunatic is to blame NO ONE ELSE.
jolmes, Dr. Kelly may have been a good professor but a complete failure in her family life, Contract was not going to be renewed, Separation from husband, 16 year old daughter out of control and bad parental decisions taking her daughter to that type concert and allowing the killer into her home.
Face reality all is not what is presented to the public.
I am Longwqood Alumni and Dr. Kelley was a professor of mine. I have not said anything for a long time now…but have recently read all these ridiculous posts about lack of judgement, poor parenting and the like and finally in response to numerous posts by “the best parent in the world—jh28” I write…
JH28, what makes YOU think that you are a better parent than Dr. Kelley? Most likely not much since it seems all you have time to do is respond to online news articles.
Where are your kids now? What are they doing? What are they listening to? Who are they with? I am willing to bet you don’t know answers to half of those questions (2 for the feeble minded-including yourself). And if you THINK you know the answers to them…it is merely an assumption based on what your perfectly 100% honest, never do anything wrong, EVER, kids have told you. As I am sure when you were a teenager you only told your parents the truth SOME of the time.
You do not know Dr. Kelley or her husband and sadly you never will. Actually, luckily they will NEVER KNOW YOU. That’s a major benefit to them in my eyes. You are full of ridicule and that’s all. No sadness from you.
How would you feel if this was your family, friends, or the like? I am sure you would still be finger pointing and casting doubt. Because you are the type of person who thinks everyone else does wrong and that you are so great, perfect and invincible. One day something like this will happen to you and I would hope your mouth will finally be silent.
Dr. Kelley’s profession most likely played a big role in the decisions she made. And the fact that she was a trustworthy person. Not that I, or anyone else, needs to justify the decisions that she and her husband made.
It is ridiculous to me that posts like yours are even allowed on these blogs. This should be for remebering those who have passed and what those people meant to us who are still here to share our feelings and console one another.
I am making a 2 hour trip tomorrow to REMEMBER A GREAT PERSON, PARENT, TEACHER, AND PROFESSOR and I hope you are haunted with ridicule for the remainder of your demented life. Perhaps if Dr. Kelley was a telepathy professor and all-knowing such as yourself, she may have been able to prevent these actions. But she wasn’t and she didn’t.
Let it go super psycho jh28. You will NEVER be as great a person or parent as she was, and you make that evident with every ignorant post.
Zakyrah- don’t pay attention- you did nothing wrong- they are morons. The girl is dead. I mean, she’s no longer a client of the school system anymore. In fact, she’s no longer a minor. That MeToo person is actually dumb. you did nothing wrong.
@Ric4Me Unlike others I am not an idiot. I would NEVER disclose info about any present or past student of mine to anyone. Read my fist post it basically said I knew her and it’s a sad siutation, but a teaching one. I don’t need a lesson from a stranger about my job and what I should or should not post. Who even said I was still at the school? Wow RTD readers read too much into a statement.
Ric4Me that is just a convenient cop-out for spineless employees who don’t want to be held accountable for their policies, not having to give parents and the media accurate accounts of their lack of action and a host of other cover-ups by school ineffective officials.
I see this student privacy concerns pulled every time there is an incident and school employees want to cover up their actions or inaction.
Most superintendents are nothing more than inept political lackeys drawing huge salaries and contributing to the demise of our educational system.
We hear “it’s for the benefit of the kids” when in reality it really for the benefit of the school employees so their actions can remain secret from citizens.
Zakyah, I’d check your school board policy on teachers speaking to the media and giving information about a student (even if it’s just reaffirming what the news outlet has already disclosed). I’d be willing to bet there’s a clause in your employee manual that forbids you from speaking to the media or posting online about anything to do with the school system or it’s students (current and deceased) without the school board/ superintendent’s permission. Most government employees have such a regulation.
I used to work for a school system and it was quite clear that we were not to speak to the media about anything related to school or student that we know because of our position as an employee (ie: A general citizen of the public would not outright know said info. As you made it clear you were her teacher and have never met her, one could only assume you know of her education status because you are her teacher, and know only of her given your status as an employee.)
I don’t know what MeToo’s point was, but my point is, be careful what you decide to disclose and discuss… could lose you your job (saw it happen to a colleague who started posting stuff online about students and staff at her school).
Hang it up, Zakyrah (and nonplus also). You’re wasting your typing breath with poster MeToo. Like a blind person with a gun, she just lets bullets fly in all directions. Hey, just for kicks you ought to see her other posts. Just for kicks. :)
@MeToo What information did I release? The news already stated she was homeschooled. I simply said she was my student. I didnt release the reason she was not in school, which I do know, nor her grades. Yes the poster is correct consent does end at death. What an idiot!
MeToo,
informed consent ends at death. logic.
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