Police: Lyrics may have played role in Farmville slayings

[Blue_Tires]

Investigators are trying to determine whether a suspect's fascination with violent rap lyrics fueled the killings of four people found dead Friday in a Longwood University professor's home.

Farmville police said the victims, which include a church pastor, might have been killed on different days, although they still were awaiting completion of autopsies.

Police on Saturday captured the suspect, Richard Samuel Alden McCroskey III, at Richmond International Airport as he was waiting for a flight to California. That was one day after police found the bodies in the Farmville home of professor Debra S. Kelley, and her daughter, Emma Niederbrock.

The only victim police are identifying is Kelley's husband, Mark Niederbrock, the pastor at Walker's Presbyterian Church in Appomattox County. Authorities have identified the three others only as females, and they are not discussing how the victims were killed. Friends and associates identified the females as Kelley, Emma Niederbrock and Melanie Wells, a friend of Emma's visiting from West Virginia.

Today, McCroskey has an initial court hearing in Prince Edward County General District Court. He is charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Mark Niederbrock, robbery and grand larceny in the theft of Niederbrock's car.

McCroskey, 20, of Castro Valley, Calif., rapped about torturing and killing people, although police say he didn't act out all of the lyrics.


http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/FARMGAT20_20090920-214401/294317/

[Blue_Tires]

1. update: Farmville victims died from blunt force trauma

The Prince Edward County prosecutor this morning officially confirmed the identities of four people found slain Friday in the home of a Longwood University professor and said the cause of death for each was blunt force trauma to the head.

Debra Sue Kelley, 53, an associate professor of sociology and criminal justice studies; her daughter, Emma Niederbrock, 16; and Emma’s friend, Melanie Grace Wells, 18, of Inwood, W.Va., were victims along with Kelley’s estranged husband, Pastor Mark Alan Niederbrock, 50, said Prince Edward Commonwealth’s Attorney James Ennis.

Niederbrock’s identity had been confirmed Saturday by police; the other victims had been named earlier by friends and associates.

Ennis said the medical examiner confirmed the identification of the victims yesterday and relatives were notified. He said preliminary autopsy reports list the cause of death for each victim as blunt force trauma.

Ennis declined to discuss what weapon may have been used or which day or days the victims were slain.

He said additional homicide charges are anticipated against Richard Samuel Alden McCroskey III, 20, of Castro Valley, Calif., who is the suspect in all four killings but was initially accused only in the death of Mark Niederbrock.

Those charges would come “at some point in the future, after forensics evidence results have been received and the evidence has been reviewed,“ Ennis said.

The prosecutor would not say what was found at either the Kelley home in Farmville or McCroskey’s residence in California. He also did not provide information on the McCroskey’s activities leading up to the killings.

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/state_regional/article/farmville_victims_died_from_head_injuries/294667/