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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.