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Horrorcore Rap Killings Shock Sleepy Va. Town

Questions abound about music's role in family's slaughter

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 24, 2009 8:29 AM CDT

(Newser) – Farmville is a sleepy Virginia town of 7,000, hardly the kind of place you’d expect a Californian “horrorcore” rapper to brutally bludgeon four people to death, Yet that's exactly what 20-year-old Richard Alden Samuel McCroskey III, aka “Syko Sam,” is suspected of doing. “I mean, things like this don’t happen in Farmville,” says one resident in the reeling community. “Everybody’s blaming it on MySpace. They say it’s the Internet just bringing in creeps.”

Emma Niederbrock, 16, did indeed meet McCroskey online. On Sept. 12 her mother and father took her and another teenage friend to a 10-hour death rap concert in Michigan—an unlikely destination for mom Debra Kelley, a professor specializing in violent criminal behavior, and her Presbyterian pastor husband. There they met McCroskey, authorities say not for the first time, who returned with them to Farmville. Police found all four bodies on Friday.

Suspect Richard Alden Samuel McCroskey III, 20, is seen in a booking photo released by the Farmville, Va., Police Department.
Suspect Richard Alden Samuel McCroskey III, 20, is seen in a booking photo released by the Farmville, Va., Police Department.   (AP Photo/via Farmville Police Department)
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"Syko Sam" sings about the "evil voices" in his head.   (SykoSam666)

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I guess we have to realize that these things are going to happen anywhere, society being the way it is today. We're not as isolated, being a small town, as we once were. - Gerald Spates, Farmville town manager.

I'm hearing this out of everyone who comes in, that the parents are to blame. Why did they let their kids get involved in this stuff? - Robin Davis, Farmville barber

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 15 comments
grassisntgreener
Sep 26, 2009 5:25 AM CDT
i just cant imagine my parents having brought me to a 10hr concert of any kind and bringing a stranger home when i was 16 ,even if it were christian rock ,or they worked a mcdonalds .seems unfathomable.what a horrible crime.
Sayyiduna
Sep 24, 2009 8:06 AM CDT
They were being good parents and accompanying their children to a risky/dangerous situation with the hopes that they could keep them and their friends safe. Weird huh?
Unaffiliated
Sep 24, 2009 7:28 AM CDT
Yeah, no one ever confused Farmvillians for being on the cutting edge of technology. It's a college town, but the locals try to ignore anything new that comes in because of the 2 schools there. You're right on with your assessment, a string a parental mistakes (pretty major ones!) and a psychopath is what lead to this. Not the internet. Not even "deathcore" rap.
 

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