#crime blog | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

true--crime--archives · 9 months

Text

My first true crime write up, please be kind.

Some photographs of 16 and 18 year old murder victims Emma Niederbrock and Melanie Wells. The murders would occur in Farmville, Virginia, in September 2009.

Emma Niederbrock loved music above, well, most things. Her favorite genres by far were metal and horrorcore rap. It was her love of horrorcore that would introduce her to her friend, an aspiring horrorcore rapper who went by the name "Syko Sam", in 2008 on MySpace.

Sam, who's real name is Richard Alden Samuel McCroskey III (what a mouthful.) was 20 years old and living in California, across the country from the two girls. To say he struggled in school would be an understatement. He was bullied for being overweight, having red hair, and generally not having the same interests as his peers. In addition, he dropped out of not one, but two high schools.

In a stark contrast to the kinds of music he would make and acts he would later commit, his sister Sarah McCroskey, described him as a very passive individual, rarely standing up for himself and being a bit of a door mat. When he and then 15-year-old Emma Niederbock met online in 2008, he showed her a much different side of himself. He was loud, pushy, overly-confident and very brash.

Emma and Sam spent a lot of time together chatting online, and over the phone. By September of 2009, they had known each other for over a year. Emma being 16, and Sam being 20. Sam thought of Emma romantically, though despite her sending him affectionate messages, it's unclear how she truly thought of him. Nevertheless, his involvement with her was inappropriate, given the age difference and experiences in life.

Emma and her best friend, 18 year old Melanie Wells, made plans to visit an all day, all ages horrorcore festival called Strictly for The Wicked on September 12, 2009 in Southgate, Michigan. You can see the festival ad poster here:

Emma and Melanie lived in Inwood, West Virginia, about 3.5 hours from Farmville and about 7 hours from the festival in Southgate, Michigan. Emma and Sam spoke about the festival, deciding it would be a great opportunity for the pair to meet in person for the first time. Emma's parents, (Debra Kelley and Mark Niederbock) however, were uncomfortable with their 16-year-old daughter meeting a 20-year-old man off the internet for the first time, without them present. However, they wanted their daughter to be happy. And despite their better judgement, they agreed to drive the trio to Michigan.

On September 6th, 6 days before the festival were to start, Sam left his home in California, traveling to Virginia. Emma posted on his MySpace wall, "Next time you check your myspace, YOULL BE AT MY HOUSE!" she continued, "I love you sooo SO much baby; forever and for always."

For some reason, this 20-year-old man was allowed to stay at Emma's mother's house (her mother and father were divorced by this time.) for SEVERAL days before the festival was due to begin. I found this odd as they had never met in person before, and back then, parents were a bit more wary and unsure about the internet and the predators on it than they are now. Nevertheless, nothing of note happened in this time period.

What is important to note, is that when he arrived at their home for the first time, Emma was far less than impressed with Sam's appearance. He was a bit of a catfish. He apparently went to great lengths to alter his appearance on MySpace, and Emma did not find him attractive in person. He looked far younger than 20, he was wearing baggy, oversized clothes, was fairly short and had greasy hair combed straight down over his forehead.

Combined with his unattractive looks, he had an unattractive personality. He came off as aloof and immature. Emma was cordial with him, but that was about all she was. Emma and her friend Melanie found him annoying and were uncomfortable around him. However, they still had a 7-hour car ride ahead of them.

Sam had hoped that Emma would change her new attitude towards him once they arrived and were enjoying their common interest together, however this would never happen. Emma reportedly paid little to no attention to him, was distant and acted like he wasn't there. This was compounded by the fact that she was apparently flirtatious with other men in person and over text at the event. Sam did not take this well.

Once 18-year-old Melanie Wells arrived back in Virginia, she posted a new status to her wall at 2:43 a.m, Sept 14th;

“SFTW was fuckin amazing, back in Virginia now, be back in West Virginia on Wednesday. I MISS EVERYONE!!!”

2:43 a.m on 9/14/2009 would be the last time Melanie would ever log into MySpace again. Her friends and family thought it was odd that she would go so quiet. After all, she was 18 and like most teenagers, updated her social media constantly. Monday rolled around. Then Tuesday came. Finally, Wednesday had come. No one had heard from her. Her parents, Thomas and Kathleen Wells tried repeatedly to get ahold of their daughter, to no avail. Thomas decided to drive some 200 miles to Farmville.

No one answered the door at Emma and Debra's home. He knocked and knocked, but no one would come. He decided it was best to sit in his car and wait, thinking maybe they had gone out and would come home soon. He waited for seven hours for them to return, but they never did. Reluctantly, he went back home, where Melanie's mother tried to call everyone she could think of that may have information on her daughter's whereabouts.

After Kathleen investigated a while, she came across the phone number of a man named Andres Shrim. Andres told her that he had seen both Melanie and Emma at the festival, but they had gone home with Emma's parents when it had ended. Kathleen called Emma's home phone number again, however this time someone answered.

The person who answered the phone was Sam. She asked where her daughter Melanie was, but he wouldn't give her a straight answer. Kathleen was frustrated and hung up on him. Morning of Thursday, September 17th, Kathleen contacted the Farmville police dept. and asked them to do a welfare check.

When the police arrived, they encountered Sam. When asked where the three women were, he stated they were out at the movies. They didn't know who Sam was, but they took him at his word. They left the home, and Kathleen informed Mark Niederbrock, Emma's father that she could not get in touch with all three women. Mark told Kathleen he would go check it out, and that he would call her at 5pm later that day.

Kathleen never heard from Mark, or any of them, ever again.

On the morning of September 18th, nearly a week after her daughter was supposed to come home, Kathleen contacted the police department once more. She managed to convince them to file a missing persons report for her daughter, despite their reluctance due to Melanie being 18. They arrived at the Kelley residence at approx. 3:20 p.m, and found the door unlocked. Sam was gone. But the smell wasn't.

The smell of death and decomp was so strong that they had probable cause to enter the home. A neighbor had even done an interview with the news stating that on the 17th, the day before, she was walking her dog past their home and she smelled something pungent, thinking it to be a dead animal.

Inside the residence, the police found three dead bodies in Emma's bedroom. The bodies were 53-year-old Debra Kelley, 16-year-old Emma Niederbrock, and 18-year-old Melanie Wells. Upstairs, they found a fourth body, 50-year-old Mark Niederbrock. The police have stated the scene was so disgusting, traumatizing and horrifying, that they wouldn't elaborate further than saying the victims had died of blunt force trauma.

It didn't take long for the police to discover that all of the victims were last seen by one individual who was no longer present, Richard Alden Samuel McCroskey III. After checking social media, the police realized he was the man they had spoken to the day prior. They felt a pit in their stomach. The only suspect, their perpetrator, had gotten away from them. He lived in the house with the bodies for nearly a week. He only left when the stench became too much to bear. A manhunt ensued. Luckily, it wouldn't take too long to locate Richard, a.k.a "Syko Sam".

On September 18th, the same day the bodies were located, a homeowner called the police to report a car that was stuck in a ditch near his home at 4 a.m. A tow truck arrived, and Sam was given a ticket for driving without a license. When asked whose vehicle it was, he stated it was his girlfriend's dad's car.

The tow truck driver named Elton Napier offered to give Sam a ride to a gas station, where Sam requested to go. Napier stated "I'd never smelt anything like it,"

"He stunk like the devil."

He had to hold his head out the window to avoid gagging from the putrid stench.

Sam caught a taxi to Richmond Intl. Airport, where he planned to stay overnight until his flight to California the next day. When the deputy realized he'd just given a ticket to the same man that was last seen at the home of four bodies, he quickly alerted other officers about his conversation with Sam, who had told him he had a flight to California the next day. Early on September 19th, Richard Alden Samuel McCroskey III was apprehended.

At the airport when being led away by police, Syko Sam told a reporter "Jesus made me do it." when asked why he had committed quadruple homicide.

Sam plead guilty to two counts of capital murder, and two counts of first degree murder. He chose to waive his right to an appeal. He was sentenced to 4 life sentences to run consecutively. He was smirking as he entered the police van to be taken to prison.

His motive was simple. He had expectations of a relationship with beautiful, but underage, Emma Niederbrock. When those expectations did not become reality, he retaliated by deciding the best course of action would be to murder the high school girl. He is truly one of the sickest and most selfish and disgusting murderers I've ever researched. The permanency and pain he inflicted because he didn't get what he wanted is truly disgusting. He had only wanted to kill Emma. But Debra, Mark, and Melanie simply got in the way.

He had been drinking and smoking marijuana. As he sat there, reflecting on the way Emma had treated him at the festival, he began to become more and more furious. First, he killed Melanie while she slept on the couch, with a hammer. Then, he went upstairs and murdered Debra while she slept in bed. Finally, Emma was killed last, sleeping in her bedroom. None of the women had defensive wounds, meaning that they had at least not woken up during the attacks.

Remember when I mentioned Mark had gone to his ex-wife's home to check on the women? He had been killed simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Mark was beaten to death with an 8 pound wood splitting maul. Sam stated he killed Mark with the weapon because he thought "the weight of it meant he wouldn't suffer." I find it telling that the only person's suffering he seemed to care about was the only man he killed, not the women he had killed driven by selfish desire for the minor he so claimed to "love."

Sam fled the scene in the very early morning hours in Mark's car, after stealing the cash in his wallet. However, the idiot got the car stuck in a ditch, where the homeowner contacted the police.

In the end, four lives were lost, including 2 beautiful young women, and 2 parents who simply wanted their daughter to be happy. The four life sentences given to Richard would never be enough to restore the beauty and vivaciousness lost at the hands of a jealous, cold blooded, and severely mentally ill, immature man. The only thing Emma had ever done "wrong", was change her mind about Richard. For he decided that for this slight against his fragile ego, she and her loved ones would never get to open their eyes again.

Sources:

https://myspace.com/435850718/mixes/classic-emma-niederbrock-ragd0ll-669080/photo/368180238

Watch for a part 2 where I post their online profiles, and some more nuanced information.

#crime #crime blog #real crime #true crume #crimenews #emma niederbrock #melanie wells

27 notes · View notes

criminol · 1 year

Text

The Murder of Katie Rackliff

Katie Rackliff was an 18-year-old apprentice hairdresser living in Camberley, Surrey. She was described as trusting and a happy girl.

On 7th June 1992, Katie was walking home from a nightclub when she was attacked and stabbed 32 times with a 6.5 inch knife. Injuries were found to her breasts, ribs, heart, vagina and anus and her clothes had been pulled up. Some knife wounds went straight through the body and the victim’s breasts and genitals had been mutilated. The body had then been dragged along a road and dumped by a cemetery wall. Due to the severity of the attack and the apparent sexual motivation, police believed the killer to be an adult male, the real killer remained unidentified and the case went unsolved for years.

Sharon Louise Carr was a 12-year-old schoolgirl at the time of Katie’s murder and was not even considered as relevant to the case until years later when she confessed. Carr had a long history of cruelty to animals, she had also been excluded from school multiple times for being violent. Two years after Katie’s murder, Carr attacked a fellow pupil with a knife. She was quickly arrested and sent to a medical centre where she tried to strangle two members of staff and was charged with two counts of actual bodily harm in addition to her charges against the girl she had attacked in school. Carr was transferred to Bullwood Hall young offenders’ institution where it was thought her violent and sexualised behaviour could be better managed.

While incarcerated at Bullwood Hall, Carr began talking about Katie’s murder and her diaries contained descriptions of the sexual excitement she had felt at hearing her victim screaming and a drawing of the knife that had been used. When questioned, Carr admitted the killing and graphically described the injuries and a bracelet Katie has been wearing at the time of her death, as these details had not been released to the public they were considered to be things only the killer would have known. Carr helped police film a reconstruction of the murder and repeatedly laughed when asked about the details.

Carr was charged and convicted of murder making her Britain’s youngest ever female convicted murderer. Carr was seen smiling as she left the dock after conviction. While in prison Carr continued to assault staff and other residents, threatening to slit another inmate’s throat.

Carr’s case is particularly unusual not only due to her young age at the time of the crime; female murderers themselves are unusual but those who kill strangers even more so. A 12-year-old girl killing an adult woman who she had never met before has been described as unique.

#murder #crime #true crime #truecrime #sharon carr #sharoncarr #child murder #childmurderer #childrenwhokill #truecrimeblog #crimeblog #crime blog #criminology

36 notes · View notes

cyarskaren52 · 9 months

Text

6 notes · View notes

daaaahmer · 1 year

Text

Realized that the majority of the true crime blogs I follow haven’t been active for months! 👻

Like and reblog if you’re a true crime blog looking for followers! Whatever I reblog of yours’ will always go to a large audience. 🙌🏻

Happy Halloween! 🎃🧡

#true crime #true crime community #tcc #true crime blog #true crime blogs #crime #crime blogs #crime blog #crime blogging #followers #looking for blogs to follow

26 notes · View notes

cyarsk52-20 · 10 months

Text

Thank God🙏🏽🙏🏽

5 notes · View notes

cyarskj1899 · 9 months

Text

Aye ik we're joking but in all seriousness say a real and genuine prayer for Angela Harris…Aniah Blanchard's mother…she dove head 1st into this situation because of what happened to her daughter only for this to be fake…Carlee and her folks ran with that lie knowing it was bs while this woman was ready to sacrifice everything to make sure the same didn't happen to Carlee… they're pathetic 💯 #RIPAniah

that’s so wrong. Brought all those emotions up & made that lady experience it again

3 notes · View notes

uncannycranny · 1 year

Text

I started a cold case/crime research blog! Please subscribe and share with friends!!

#blog #cold case #true crime #crime blog #cold case blog

14 notes · View notes

theinkdrinkingfemme · 11 months

Text

Chapter 7

Her college soon came into view. The parking lot was packed to capacity, with various makes and sizes of cars clamouring for space between the faltering white lines. The college’s wooden sliding doors opened and Viola found herself in the hallway, its cracked grainy floors suddenly more appealing than the influx of people standing on it. The atmosphere was solemn, everyone silent and grim-faced, the occasional one fraught with worry. Faces fit for a funeral service. Probably in response to Lannie, although she wasn’t dead, though.

Yet.

Banishing the dark thought, she surveyed her environment. The swing doors to the auditorium were wide open, its insides containing multiple lecturers and unfamiliar students setting up bunting, fold chairs and other things, an air of disquiet in its wake. She recognized her head lecturer, with his rumpled jean jacket and drooping Nietzsche-like moustache.

Approaching the spacious, squeaky linoleum floor of the auditorium, she spotted the familiar head of blue-black hair, and skirted around the folded chairs towards him.

Colin straightened, blinking profusely at Viola. A greeting.

“I need to talk to you.” Viola glanced about her at the amount of people who were potentially listening.

“In a few minutes, sure.” He gestured to a stack of folding chairs still unfolded and tucked

neatly in the corner. “Still have to finish this off. That okay?”

She nodded in understanding, before swiftly backing out and sitting on the now-empty bench situated beside the doors. A display of the Erasmus+ places was suspended above the bench, protected with Plexiglas. On an average day, she would stare at the photos of smiling students and foreign places for ages, envisioning herself there, brave enough to have fun in majorly unfamiliar settings and new experiences.

“Said what happened to Harlan, huh?”

Viola looked to see Cora Verdon, an acquaintance slash occasional ally. Her red hair was significantly brighter than her naturally dark roots, and her spectacled face was staring intently at Viola.

“Yup.” Viola wasn’t interested in entertaining a conversation with her, her focus still on the Erasmus+ project.

“It does make sense though, having a little memorial for her..” Cora continued, brushing the coloured pixie cut from her face. “I mean, she was here in my class for a few. Then, nothing.”

Viola tore her eyes away and fixed them on Cora. Memorial? But most importantly…

“She used to be a student?” That would explain the vigil-like air to the auditorium. With Harlan being somewhat of an ex-student, the college would naturally feel obligated to have somewhat of a vigil for her. Or something.

“Yeah. You didn’t know?”

Viola shrugged, trying to keep her voice casual. “Never knew.” She really was a student?

Before she could process this information, Cora’s attention soon turned to a group of boys, who were casting furtive glances at the pair. “Hey, I gotta go. Talk soon?” Without waiting for a verbal response, she stalked off, Viola staring at her retreating figure.

Sitting on the bench, Viola felt like a ghost, invisible to staff and students alike who whizzed past, all preoccupied with their respective tasks and responsibilities. Her others lecturers nodded in greeting, but didn’t stop to exchange words.

Scrolling through her phone, she then saw the notification.

“Of course. When would you like to meet?”

Viola’s brain scrambled. It was at the back of her mind. Now here it was, demanding an answer. Her heart thundered in her ribcage. Venturing into new territory. Actually speaking to a reporter. How would she respond? Will she be taken seriously, or will she be laughed off as a wannabe detective? Belittled? She took a deep breath.

No time like the present, she supposed. She scheduled a time, typed it, and shut off her phone, her leg bouncing with new nerves.

It was about 15 minutes later when Colin walked out of the auditorium, his breathing slightly laboured. As soon as he saw Viola, staring into space, he slid into the empty space beside her. He hesitated, before putting an arm around her. Her brows were scrunched up, a sign of her thoroughly thinking.

“What are you thinking?,” he asked lowly, careful not to dislodge her flow of attention.

So she did. She told him all her thoughts: her lack of immense emotions, seeing the body. She’d even forgotten about seeing the dead body, with all of her focus being on Harlan, going to her house, her fear of being interviewed, her day being ruined, texting the reporter. When she’d finally finished, the word that came to mind to describe her current state of mind was ‘frazzled.’ The acts of slowing her suspended thoughts, translating them into tangible words, before conveying them to Colin seemed monumental.

“Did you mention the dead body to anyone?”

Viola shook her head no.

He paused for a moment, his arm squeezing Viola firmly as he thought.

“What do you need?”

Did I hear that right? “I don’t understand. Are you gonna help?”

“Don’t get it too twisted. See, I’m not going to stop you from pursuing it. I know that you’ll pursue it, even if I tell you otherwise. Just remember the potential consequences. I can help from the side-lines, but if push turns to shove, I know nothing about it.”

As much as it disappointed her that he wouldn’t actively be involved with something so important to her, Viola agreed. So she told him her next moves: going to the police and covertly asking for information, meeting with the reporter.

“Are you sure?”

She nodded, albeit a little hesitantly.

He fingered her navy blue overcoat. “Olivia Pope today, yeah?”, he said, changing the subject to one familiar.

Viola nodded again. A coping strategy she had in navigating her surroundings was embodying a fictional character, copying everything from their mannerisms to their outfit. The sassy yet intelligent Olivia Pope was chosen today, the only difference being that Viola’s coily Afro hair was packed into an updo, affectionately nicknamed ‘the pineapple’ by Colin.

“Good choice.” His gaze bored into hers as he said it, a sign that he was being genuine and not sarcastic.

Colin looked at his watch. “Harlan’s vigil will start soon. Wanna come?”

She nodded, and let Colin place a firm hand on her and steer her towards the now darkened auditorium.

#crime writing #crime writer #author #writers on tumblr #thriller #adventure #female writers #crime blog #crime #autistic writer #autistic character #black authors #black female #black character #mystery #black female writers #psychological thriller #black female oc

2 notes · View notes