Man Charged in Quadruple Murder in Va.

(AP)  A California man who rapped about the thrill of killing has been charged in the slaying of a rural Virginia pastor found dead with three others inside the home of his estranged wife, a college professor, authorities said Sunday.

Police on Saturday charged Richard Alden Samuel McCroskey III, 20, of Castro Valley, Calif., with murder, robbery and stealing the automobile of Mark Niederbrock, a pastor at Walker's Presbyterian Church in Appomattox County.

Niederbrock has been tentatively identified as one of four people discovered the day before in Farmville, about 50 miles west of Richmond, at the home of Longwood University professor Debra Kelley. However, Farmville police Capt. Wade Stimpson emphasized that the state medical examiner's office would not officially identify any of the victims until at least Monday.

McCroskey will be formally charged with the other three killings once the bodies are identified, Stimpson said. He said "there are a number of factors relating to why" police couldn't identify the victims. He would not say how they were killed.

Police went to Kelley's home Thursday after a West Virginia woman called to say that it had been days since she heard from her teen daughter, who was staying with Kelley and Niederbrock's daughter, Emma, Stimpson said.

Investigators went to the home, where a man matching McCroskey's description told them the girls had gone to the movies. When the mother still didn't hear from her daughter Friday, police went to the home and found the bodies.

Police arrested McCroskey at the Richmond airport Saturday as he waited to take a plane back to California. He is being held in the Piedmont Regional Jail and has an initial court appearance on Monday to determine if he needs a court-appointed attorney.

Stimpson said messages posted online led police to believe McCroskey knew Emma Niederbrock and that he may have been visiting her.

On McCroskey's MySpace page, someone who goes by Ragdoll, which friends identified as Emma Niederbrock, wrote several messages to McCroskey. In a post dated Sept. 7, Niederbrock says she is excited for McCroskey's visit to her house.

"The next time you check your myspace, YOULL BE AT MY HOUSE!" the post reads.

A friend said McCroskey, Emma and her friend were brought together by horrorcore music, which sets violent lyrics to hip-hop beats.

Andres Shrim, who owns the small, independent horrorcore music label Serial Killin Records in New Mexico and performs under the name SickTanicK, said he saw all three Sept. 12 at an all-day music festival in Southgate, Mich.

Shrim said despite the morbid music he and his friends loved, they were not violent people.

"You look at the music we do and it's kind of harsh and somewhat brutal at times, but there's a different side of life that people aren't normally accustomed to, and being an artist I think it's important to see both sides of life," he said.

McCroskey recorded songs that spoke of death, murder and mutilation under the name Syko Sam. His MySpace Web page said he has only been rapping for a few months but has been a fan for years of the horrorcore genre.

"You're not the first, just to let you know. I've killed many people and I kill them real slow. It's the best feeling, watching their last breath. Stabbing and stabbing till there's nothing left," McCroskey sings in "My Dark Side."

Shrim asked others not to judge McCroskey by the lyrics to his songs or his disturbing Web pages.

"This is not something from the Sam I know," he said. "This is not something that I would ever, ever in a million years envision him doing."

Stimpson called McCroskey's songs and writings "a little disturbing," and said police were looking into that.

A phone message left Sunday at McCroskey's California home was not immediately returned.

[BaileyConnor]

"Another male whacko gone off the rails because he can't handle his life and his own responsibilities and blames it all on his wife or ex-wife."

Maybe you should learn to read before you form an opinion. And it's not like men are the only ones who snap. I mean just look at Lisa Nowak (the woman who drove for 2 days straight from Texas to Florida in an adult diaper to kill her "lovers" wife, f.y.i., she wasn't even dating the man), Aileen Wuornos (female serial killer), and tons of others.
So your little quip about "par for the course" regarding a "male whacko" is really just a bit of feminist bull ****. You do realize that this isn't the norm for the male gender, yes? There's nothing normal about a 20 year - old man traveling across the U.S. to kill his girlfriend along with her friend, her mom and her dad and then living in the house for the next 2 days with their decomposing dead bodies. Give me a break. I go to Longwood University, I'm female, my major is criminal justice, and Debra Kelley was not only my professor but also the main organizer and head of our CJ Fraternity, Lambda Alpha Epsilon, and quite frankly, you saying that her and her families death's are nothing out of the ordinary not only shows a severe lapse in human compassion but is also a major generalization regarding crime in the U.S. It may be true that there are more men than women in prison, but that's just prison. That doesn't take into account the, no doubt, thousands of women who commit crimes and get away with them merely BECAUSE they are women and have families. How's that for some sexual discrimination? Why don't you try thinking before you speak because what you've ignorantly typed completely cheapens the effect that this tragedy has had on the whole of Farmville and Longwood Campus. Suck my left nut JTOlivar.

[woodtrnr]

Shrim says it is not something he expected from Sam. What the he'll is this moron thinking. It is not 'art' you knucklehead. It is brutality and I hope you all just simply kill each other and get off the planet.

[JTOlivar]

Another male whacko gone off the rails because he can't handle his life and his own responsibilities and blames it all on his wife or ex-wife.

Par for the course!

[ffoulkes-2009]

Perhaps reading the story first might help you...this was some dude visiting a teenager.