Also murdered were his estranged wife, Debra S. Kelley, 53, their daughter, Emma Niederbrock, 16, and her friend Melanie Grace Wells, 18, of Inwood, W.Va. Richard Samuel Alden McCroskey III, of Castro Valley, Calif., was arrested and charged in the slaying of Niederbrock.
All four victims were killed by blunt force trauma to the head in Kelley’s Farmville, Va., home. She was a professor of sociology and criminal justice studies at Longwood University.
The suspect has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Mark Niederbrock, robbery of money from him, and grand larceny of his 2000 Honda. Officials are considering charging McCroskey with capital murder. Other charges are pending. He has no prior criminal record.
McCroskey, 20, has been a fan and promoter of horrorcore rap music, which merges hip-hop music with extremely violent lyrics. He met Emma Niederbrock via the Internet. Emma and her friend, Wells, had driven to Southgate, Mich., to attend a music festival on Sept. 12 and then returned to Farmville with McCroskey. He apparently killed the two young women and Kelley sometime in the ensuing four days.
Police met McCroskey at the house on September 17 when Wells’ mother called from West Virginia concerned that her daughter had not returned calls. McCroskey told the officers that the girls were at the movies.
On September 18, when Pastor Niederbrock stopped by the house, he was assaulted and killed by the assailant.
Later that day police stopped by the house again to look for Wells. They then found the bodies.
Earlier that day, the assailant had driven the pastor’s car into a ditch and was ticketed, but the police did not take him into custody since the car had not been reported stolen.
On Saturday evening police found and arrested McCroskey in the baggage claim area of the Richmond International Airport. The assailant had decided to sleep there in anticipation of taking his booked flight back to California the next day. He did not resist arrest.
Mark Niederbrock was not an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament, but the 58-member congregation affectionately called him pastor. He had served the church for six years. He was a 2006 graduate of Union Theological Seminary-Presbyterian School of Christian Education in nearby Richmond. He had passed all ordination exams but had not completed the final steps of the ministerial candidacy process.
He attended Session meeting with the church’s elders on Wednesday, September 16.
On Saturday, when news circulated around the small town about the slayings, the congregation’s members had to decide whether or not to proceed with a community barbeque already scheduled for that evening. They chose to hold the event, since their pastor had poured much energy into planning, preparing, and promoting it. They determined that he would want them to proceed.
The next morning services were led by Joe McCutcheon, retired PC(USA) pastor who lived just a couple of blocks away from Kelley.
He told the Outlook that Niederbrock’s leadership “was a really good fit there. He loved them. They were happy with him. It was working well.”
McCutcheon preached on the story of Job, acknowledging that these tragic deaths leave that big unanswered question about losing loved ones. “They’re suffering a big loss,” he observed.
Then again, he added, “It’s a mentally strong congregation. They live in the country, and they have a pretty good grasp of the circle of life and death. They’ll get through it.”
Funeral services for Mark Niederbrock were held at the church on Sept. 24. Services for the others followed in about a week’s time.
