Horrorcore "Syko Sam"

Syko Sam, Richard Alden Samuel McCroskey III myspace virginia killings — MySpace Photo

On Sept. 18, 2009, Longwood University professor Debra Kelley, 53, her husband, Presbyterian minister Mark Niederbrock, 50, their daughter, Emma Niederbrock, 16, and Emma's friend Melanie Wells, 18, were all found bludgeoned to death in the Niederbrock's home in Farmville, Va. Police charged horrorcore rapper Richard "Syko Sam" McCroskey, 20, shown here, with Mark's death and expect to charge him for the others.

Emma Niederbrock, 16, shown here in a MySpace photo, was remembered as a rebellious girl who dabbled in the occult and was obsessed with macabre music, but also listened to the Backstreet Boys and played soccer. Emma met her boyfriend, aspiring horrorcore rapper Richard "Syko Sam" McCroskey through the Internet. McCroskey is being held for murdering Emma, her parents and a friend.

Richard "Syko Sam" McCroskey said, "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," in his song "My Dark Side." Here, McCroskey holds a mask that one of his friends made in a MySpace photo.

Police went the home of Longwood University professor Debra Kelley Thursday, Sept. 17 after a West Virginia woman called to say that it had been days since she heard from her teenage daughter, who was staying with Kelley and Mark Niederbrock's daughter, Emma, authorities said. While there, a man matching Richard "Syko Sam" McCroskey's description told them the teenage girls had gone to the movies.

Investigators went to the home of Debra Kelley on Sept. 17, 2009, where a man matching Richard "Syko Sam" McCroskey's description told them the teenage girls, who hadn't been seen in days, had gone to the movies. When one of the girls' mothers still had not heard from her daughter, police went to the home a second time on Sept. 18 and found the bodies of the two girls and two adults.

Police arrested Richard "Syko Sam" McCroskey at the Richmond, Va. airport on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009, as he waited to take a plane back to his home state of California. Authorities said messages posted online led police to believe McCroskey knew Emma Niederbrock and that he may have been visiting her in Virginia.

Friends and members at Walker's Presbyterian Church in Hixburg, Va., hug each other after a graveside service for Rev. Mark Niederbrock on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009. Niederbrock was buried nearly a week after he, his wife, their daughter and her friend were found bludgeoned to death at his wife's Farmville, Va. home.

In this Sept. 12, 2009 photo released by Razakel are shown Emma Niederbrock, left, Melanie Wells, center, and Razakel, after a horrorcore festival in Southgate, Mich. Razakel's music brought an alleged killer and his victims together. Richard "Sam" McCros — AP Photo/Richmond Times-Dispatch

This Sept. 12, 2009 photo released by Razakel shows Emma Niederbrock, left, Melanie Wells, center, and Razakel, after a horrorcore festival in Southgate, Mich. Richard "Syko Sam" McCroskey, 20, of Castro Valley, Calif., is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Wells, Niederbrock and Niederbrock's parents.

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 the two teen victims, Emma Niederbrock and Melanie Wells on Sept. 12, 2009, at an all-day music festival in Southgate, Mich. Shrim said (to who? Or according to who?)despite the morbid music he and his friends loved, they were not violent people.

Richard "Syko Sam" McCroskey poses in a cemetery in a MySpace photo. In his horrorcore lyrics, he rapped about deriving "the best feeling" from killing people slowly and watching their last breaths.

This mask, which Richard "Syko Sam" McCroskey featured in many of his MySpace photos, was made by one of his friends, he said on the Web site. McCroskey is accused of killing a teenage girl he was involved with, her parents and a friend who was staying at her home in Virginia.

Emma Niederbrock, Melanie Wells and Richard "Syko Sam" McCroskey, seen here, were brought together through an online community that idolizes horrorcore music, which sets lyrics of murder, mutilation and decomposing bodies to hip-hop beats. Debra Kelley and Mark Niederbrock, who were also killed, took the three to a horrorcore music festival in Michigan on Sept. 12.

Friends and family of slain 18-year-old Melanie G. Wells quietly hug after a memorial service Friday, Sept. 25, 2009 outside Inwood, W.Va. Melanie Wells was one of the four victims in the recent Farmville, Va. deaths. (AP Photo/Journal Newspaper, Ron Agni — AP Photo/Journal Newspaper

Friends and family of slain 18-year-old Melanie G. Wells quietly hug after a memorial service on Friday, Sept. 25, 2009, outside Inwood, W.Va. Melanie Wells was one of the four victims in the recent deaths in Farmville, Va.