Quadruple slaying suspect arrested at Richmond airport
Farmville police
Police say Richard Samuel Alden McCroskey III offered no resistance when he was arrested.
Published: September 19, 2009
Updated: September 19, 2009
The suspect in the slayings of four people at the home of a Longwood University professor was arrested today by Richmond International Airport police who found him sleeping in a baggage claim area.
Richard Samuel Alden McCroskey III, 20, was arrested about 11:25 a.m., by airport police who recognized him from a flyer, said Troy Bell, airport spokesman.
Bell said McCroskey had purchased a ticket to fly to California tomorrow and had tried to get it changed to today, but did not have enough money to cover the $150 change fee. He said it appeared that McCroskey was trying to stay at the airport until he could catch his flight.
McCroskey, who had been sleeping on a bench, offered no resistance and truthfully identified himself, Bell said. McCroskey was held handcuffed in the airport police office until he was picked up by a Farmville investigator about 2 p.m.
Bell said he was not aware of any weapon that was found with McCroskey, who is charged with murder, robbery and grand larceny.
Although authorities have not released the identification of the victims, a Longwood University spokesman said earlier today that the Farmville home at which the bodies were found is that of Debra S. Kelley, an associate professor of sociology and criminal justice studies.
Dennis Sercombe, a university vice president, said that two bodies were so badly decomposed they’ll have to be identified by dental records. Neighbors said they had not seen any activity at the home for several days, Sercombe said.
Officials said McCroskey, who is from California, stole a car from the First Avenue home where the bodies were found but later wrecked and abandoned the vehicle.
McCroskey had last been seen about 7 a.m. Friday at a Sheetz on South Main Street in Farmville after he was dropped off there, authorities said. He told a clerk at Sheetz that he was waiting on a ride to the airport and he was seen both inside and outside the store, officials said. It was not immediately clear how long he was there or how he left, but he arrived at the airport by cab.
Officials declined to discuss how the victims died, but they described McCroskey as armed and dangerous.
The bodies were discovered when a Farmville police officer thought he smelled a decomposing body about 3:10 p.m. on Friday outside 505 First Ave. Police entered the home about 4 p.m. and found three bodies before obtaining a search warrant to re-enter and find the fourth body.
An official said police were alerted to the home when one of the victim’s mothers called to say she was worried about her daughter. Police checked the home on Thursday, and a man who answered the door said the person had gone to the movies.
Police also said the mother spoke to a man by phone and was told the same thing.
When the mother was unable to get in touch with her child, she called police Friday and asked them to make a second check, and that’s when the officer smelled decomposing bodies, the official said.
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This being a student productivity blog, I think I should set a good example by halting my writing during exams. As much as I would love to spend extra time writing, studying is higher priority. Regular posting will resume on June 12th, after exams. For now, I leave you with this post.
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jewelry boxes | cuff links | charm bracelets
I see too much judgemental comments on this posting. Not all people who dress weird or wear their hair strangely are bad people. Not all people who dress decent with nicely styled hair are good people either.
Case in point, The Preppy Murder. You know, the guy who was an alter boy, attended a series of Prep Schools. Nice looking guy, clean cut, dressed in a “suit”, raped and murdered the girl in a park.
I see no point in casting stones at a stranger that you’ve seen pictures of, read about them in the newspaper and make the decision that the murder was brought on by the victim’s behavior.
Two young girls lives are over. A 20 year old man is in custody and his life is over. Families of all of these people will grieve for years to come and never forget what happened.
Leave it alone and leave those left behind to grieve in peace and stop adding acid to their wound.
There sure is a lot of bickering going back and forth about this…definately two sides here. Let’s put it in perspective. 4 lives were cut short…for no reason. That is simply a tragedy…nothing less. Hate the actions, not the people.
Whatever the circumstances that led upp to this, that facts still stand that we, as a whole, have allowed our “free speech” to run out of control. We allow open talk and singing about killing, maming, rape, beatings, etc. because we’re afraid we might hurt someone’s “feelings” and take their rights away to speak what they want. Guess we should have put these kids in “time out” more often when they were growing up. “Time out”, what a joke. My parents never smacked me growing up, but they did teach me right from wrong and respect of others, including what I say. It’s time to say “IT’S NOT OK TO BEHAVE AND SPEAK LIKE THAT!“ You can’t convince me that after constant speaking, singing, ect. the type of hateful, distructive, criminal words that we hear our youth saying doesn’t desensitize them to the actual effects of their words turned to reality.
I’m sure this will offend many, I DON’T CARE. What I’m hearing and seeing some of our youth today saying and doing offends me. Why should I shut up about it.
okay, really now? just because they dressed a certain way and listened to a genre of music doesn’t make them mentally ill! sam was mentally ill, and maybe there weren’t signs of that until he killed someone. i highly doubt those girls knew he had the intentions of killing them, so don’t place blame on them. yes, meeting people on a social network is dangerous… but like me and my fiance posted, we met on myspace. we were from different states. i’ve met many people online, and i know many people who have also met people online. it’s not typical to meet someone who is a psycho killer, it’s very rare actually. the situation is unfortunate and to try and place blame on anyone but the killer is just ridiculous, i don’t understand it at all.
to say she has no responsibility for this is to ignore the fact that if you go where there is danger there is more chance you will get hurt . i don’t go into churchhill or highlandpark after dark because i know the odds of finding trouble are double. she placed herself and her family at risk by befriending this obviously disturbed person. WAKE UP you can’t walk around thinking everyone is harmless until they kill people. you have to look at the warning signs. they were all over the place in both this case and the tech shootings. we must be more proactive in dealing with dangerously mentally ill people.
amber, before Sam’s personal myspace was taken down I read through most of the postings there. If you’re the same amber from there, I totally believe you when you say Sam and Emma and Melanie were friends of yours, and your postings here have been heartfelt. (If you’re not, sorry, and you can ignore the rest of this.) I agree with what you’ve said about all the blaming going on.
I’ve been reading the Bay Area news stories where Sam’s sister and mother have been interviewed, and clearly, this is horrible for them too. And not surprisingly, in the comments to those Bay Area stories, people are blaming them, just as the victims here are getting blamed. her family are getting blamed here.
I wish people wouldn’t be so quick to judge (yeah, right?)
amber, you know that this situation is awful and lots of people here in Farmville (including me) are really angry, and trying to come to terms with this tragedy brings up lots of “what if’s” and “if only’s.” Right now, though, none of us knows what happened. What all of us know is that this is a lose-lose situation for all concerned, and it’s hard enough just to deal with that.
dsz1213, I completely understand your comments and I am really happy you have respect for the situation at hand. Like I said in my comments, I was friends with all 3 of them, and Sam was actually my best friend. You even pointed out the same thing I pointed out that some internet relationships turn out really good and some don’t. My current boyfriend is also some one I met through the horrorcore genre/off the internet when we were into that kinda thing. Like yea, we don’t listen to it no more, but I’m still friends with some that do. If you read another article on the situation at hand, another underground artist known as Mars even stated that sometimes if this music gets into the hands of the wrong person, it is dangerous, and maybe Sam was one of those people but really us people whom knew him didn’t expect this. I’m not going to sit here though and let people who talk crap on a 16 year old girl that was going through a ‘stage’ in her life because honestly we all go through stages and get over them, and the people whom are trying to blame her cannot say they never went through fazes in their lives because no ones perfect and everyone goes through it whether they want to lie and say they don’t or didn’t or whether they’ll admit to it.
ok, first off. I didnt know the 2 girls that got killed, nor did I know their families, BUT, I do know that they did not deserve to get killed. Just because people wear alot of black or crazy looking clothes doesnt mean that they deserve something this terrible to happen to them. I was kind of like them, in the sense that I dress in mostly black and I listen to alot of the same music they did. Does that mean I deserve to get killed too? No, it doesn’t. You cant tell if someone is mentally disturbed just by stuff they put on their myspaces and etc. It takes alot to determine if someone really truly is psychologically insane, and Sam obviously was. Now, I know alot of people that were close to Emma, Mel, AND Sam, I’m sorry for all of your losses and I wish something could’ve been done to prevent this tragic event from happening, but obviously nothing could be done. Some relationships that start off of social networks turn into perfect relationships, such as mine. Not all relationships off of social networks result in this kind of loss. My relationship is a nice healthy relationship and I am happily engaged. I just wish that Emma couldve known more about Sam. Dont bash on her because she made one mistake. She deserved better than what happened to her. Respect the dead!
okay, not talking about amber but the other two people to post before me.. jams and alex i believe.. you two are some of the most ignorant, disrespectful people ever. how can you actually blame a 16 year old girl for the deaths caused by someone else? have some respect for the dead, as well as her family and friends. you two obviously didn’t know her and have no right to judge her. you’re telling me that she deserved to die because how she dressed? im pretty sure you two have dressed in ways other people didn’t understand, but at no point would anyone have rights to say you deserved to die over it. you two are very rude to say stuff like that, especially when people that were related or friends to those that died can read it. if you don’t have something productive or supportive or comforting to say, keep your rude comments to yourself. because nobody wants to hear that two 16 year old girls and two parents deserved to die.. you guys should be arrested as crime prevention because obviously, you support what the killer did. you two are obviously psychos just like the killer.. and i can’t help but to hope something traumatic happens to you or your families so you can understand the pain they are going through. and to top it off, have someone talking trash about a loved one’s death saying they deserved it. get some manners and have some respect.
Alex, you have no right at all to blame this on their daughter. For christ sake have some damn respect for the girl. She is dead too you know. No one knew it was going to happen, the only one who really could have predicted this outcome was Sam, for he was the one who obviously had it on his mind. No one knew he was going to do it and I’m sure Emma wouldn’t have had him over if she would’ve known this would’ve happened. I don’t see how you can go and blame a dead 16 year old girl for making a damn mistake. I’m sure you’ve made enough mistakes in your life too. Maybe not as drastic as this one, but no one is perfect in this self-centered world. Your pushing it over the edge by calling her a ‘loser daughter’, did you know her? NO, I don’t think so. But I did. I knew Sam, Emma and Melanie. So before you go pointing fingers and disrespecting my dead friend, you should really think about the fact that this was a 16 year old girl just making the same mistake as a lot of other people do by meeting some one off the internet. It is not her fault that her parents were also killed, but I’m pretty damn sure no one would even want to see her family mourning the death of their only child. I have sympothy for Melanie’s family, because they also didn’t know this was going to happen. This is not something you can just predict. So maybe you should think about things before you go pointing fingers at a poor girl who was murdered.
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