FARMVILLE, Va.-Richard Samuel Alden McCroskey III plead guiltily Sept. 20 in Prince Edward County Circuit Court on two counts of capital murder and two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of four people on Sept. 18, 2009. Judge Richard S. Blanton sentenced McCroskey to life in prison on each of the first-degree murder charges and life in prison without the possibility of parole for each capital murder charge. McCroskey was the suspect in the bludgeoning deaths of Longwood University professor Debra Kelley; her husband Mark Niederbrock; their 16-year-old daughter, Emma Niederbrock; and her friend, Melanie Wells, 18, of West Virginia.
The bodies were discovered at 505 First Avenue in Farmville last year in Kelley's two-story home. The murders were committed on Sept. 15 and Sept. 17 according to authorities. Law enforcement officers found them after three visits to the home.
McCroskey left the scene of the crime and tried to return home to California. He was apprehended at Richmond International Airport a day after the bodies were found.
Commonwealth's Attorney James R. Ennis did not mention a motive in the case, but did say he believes much of McCroskey's anger stemmed from text messages sent to Emma's phone during a horrorcore music festival in Detroit, Mich. The weekend before the murders.
Twenty-one-year-old McCroskey did not say anything when leaving the courtroom on Monday.
The Rotunda will have more coverage in Wednesday's issue.
