Police tell of encounters with Farmville suspect

FARMVILLE -- Farmville police now say they were inside a Longwood University professor's house with a California man less than 24 hours before officers would find four bodies in the home and pinpoint him as a suspect.

Police last night described an eerie encounter they had with Richard Samuel Alden McCroskey III -- making it three times the suspect came face to face with law enforcement in the space of a few hours and before the bodies were found.

Earlier yesterday, Prince Edward County Commonwealth's Attorney James R. Ennis formally identified the victims and said all four were killed by blunt-force trauma to the head. He did not discuss a motive.

Ennis declined to discuss any weapon used in the deaths and did not say when they were killed at professor Debra S. Kelley's house on First Avenue.

Ennis identified the victims as Kelley, 53, an associate professor of sociology and criminal-justice studies at Longwood; her daughter, Emma Niederbrock, 16; Emma's visiting friend, Melanie Wells, 18, of Inwood, W.Va.; and Kelley's estranged husband, the Rev. Mark Alan Niederbrock, 50, pastor of Walker's Presbyterian Church in Appomattox County.

This past weekend, Farmville police described their first encounter with McCroskey. McCroskey answered the door at the home of Kelley and Emma on Thursday at 11:58 p.m. after a single officer went to check on Wells at the request of her mother, police said.

But yesterday, police said McCroskey called one hour later, Friday at 12:58 a.m., and said he heard something in the basement and wanted police to check it, said Wade Stimpson, the town's acting police chief.

Two officers arrived, and McCroskey let them into the house and the officers went down some stairs into the basement, which was covered with animal feces, Stimpson said. The officers then left without suspicion.

The bodies were not in the basement and were in a "totally separate part of the house," Stimpson said.

Less than four hours later, about 4:40 a.m., a Prince Edward sheriff's deputy ticketed McCroskey for driving without a license after he got a stolen car stuck in a ditch, authorities said. McCroskey is accused of stealing the car from Mark Niederbrock.

The car had not been reported stolen, and a tow-truck driver gave McCroskey a ride to a nearby Sheetz convenience store, police said. McCroskey arrived at Richmond International Airport by taxi later that day.

Wells' mother called police again Friday after she still hadn't heard from her daughter. Police went back to the house that afternoon and found the victims after noticing what smelled like decaying bodies, Stimpson has said.

Stimpson said two dogs and two cats were found alive in the house, away from the bodies. The animals were taken to a shelter in Prince Edward.

"Everything about this case is weird," Stimpson said.

Airport police took McCroskey into custody Saturday after they found him sleeping in a baggage-claim area as he waited for a flight to California.

Ennis said yesterday that the medical examiner confirmed the identification of the victims Monday, and relatives were notified.

Ennis said authorities had interviewed McCroskey friend Andres Shrim, who starred in a music video that shows actors pretending to murder religious figures, according to Jacob Virgil, who said he worked on the set.

Ennis did not say what was learned from the interview with Shrim. Authorities say they have identified no suspect other than McCroskey.

McCroskey, 20, of Castro Valley Calif., is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Mark Niederbrock, robbery of cash from Niederbrock and grand larceny of his car.

Ennis said he expects McCroskey will face more homicide charges "at some point in the future, after forensics results have been received and the evidence has been reviewed."

Ennis also discussed the massive scale of the investigation that has prompted authorities to explore McCroskey's fascination with the horrorcore genre, which involves violent lyrics accompanied by hip-hop music. "It certainly is alien to me," the prosecutor said.

"I really don't have time to tell you the extent and scope that this investigation entails," Ennis said. "We are going coast to coast on this investigation, and every lead is being followed as it develops."

Police raided McCroskey's home in California on Monday.

Shrim, who performs under the name SickTanicK, owns Serial Killin Records, an independent record label in New Mexico that specializes in horrorcore. Shrim said during the weekend that he saw McCroskey at a Sept. 12 music festival in Michigan. Friends say he was there with Emma Niederbrock and Wells.

Shrim did not return phone calls yesterday or Monday.

Virgil said he designed the set for a rap video starring SickTanicK filmed in 2006 at an art studio Virgil was renting in Albuquerque, N.M. It shows a man with a chain connected to the neck of a woman defiling what looks like a picture of Jesus. The actors then pretend to kill religious figures, including a Catholic and a Muslim.

Virgil, 29, said he no longer is interested in the macabre and wouldn't want his parents to see the video.

"Their music is idolizing serial killers," Virgil said. "It's a horrible thing."

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