In September 2009, Farmville, Virginia, was the scene of a brutal quadruple homicide that included 18-year-old Melanie Wells. Melanie, a white female, had been staying with her friend Emma Niederbrock at the home of Emma’s mother, Debra Kelley, when a visitor from California, 20-year-old Richard Samuel McCroskey III, attacked the household.

In the early morning hours he allegedly bludgeoned Melanie, Emma and Debra to death with a ball-peen hammer and a splitting maul; Melanie was killed first while resting on a sofa in a downstairs den. Days later Emma’s father, Mark Niederbrock, was also killed when he returned to the house.

The four bodies were discovered on September 18, 2009, after Melanie’s mother repeatedly tried to contact her and pressed for a welfare check; McCroskey initially told police Melanie was out at the movies. McCroskey fled in Mark Niederbrock’s car but was arrested the next day at Richmond International Airport. He was charged with multiple counts of capital murder and later pleaded guilty to counts of capital and first-degree murder and received four life terms.