Speaker 1: They met online and bonded over the music genre horror core,
Speaker 1: and after nearly a year of talking, twenty year old
Speaker 1: Richard mccorsky flew from California to Virginia to meet sixteen
Speaker 1: year old Emma Niederbrock in person. But what began as
Speaker 1: a teenage dream ended in a blood soaked nightmare. Four
Speaker 1: people bludgeoned to death in a quiet Farmville home. By
Speaker 1: the time police stepped inside, the smell of decomposition had
Speaker 1: already begun to seep through the walls. This is the
Speaker 1: story of the Farmville murders, also known as the horror
Speaker 1: Core Killer. My name's Ben.
Speaker 2: Now, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wick and Ingram.
Speaker 1: A true crime podcast.
Speaker 2: The following podcast content I'm.
Speaker 3: Listen, I might be slurring a lot today, Yeah, I
Speaker 3: think you may.
Speaker 1: That's I'm going to do my best. But I've got
Speaker 1: like a tiny little like canker sore on the very
Speaker 1: tip of my tongue, and it's making speech a little
Speaker 1: bit hard right now. It's pronunciation is a little bit
Speaker 1: difficult at the moment. But I'm going to do my
Speaker 1: best today. So if you hear me slurring a little bit.
Speaker 1: I'm not drunk. I'm just slightly injured, incapacitated, slightly incapacitated.
Speaker 2: More suck they do. They're terrible, they do. I don't
Speaker 2: get them very often. You definitely get them far more
Speaker 2: than me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I don't know why. I talked to my
Speaker 1: dentist about it, and it's like, oh, it's just like
Speaker 1: a thing. We don't know why and it just happens.
Speaker 1: It's like cool thos.
Speaker 2: Well, my throat's a little bit scratchy today, so hopefully okayually,
Speaker 2: I have a strong ass voice for the whole thing.
Speaker 1: So we're both gonna shit. The bad today is what Nicole.
Speaker 3: Saying, Oh my god.
Speaker 1: But what we do have to do before anything else is,
Speaker 1: of course, thank our patrons over on Patreon for signing
Speaker 1: up and getting all that behind the scenes extra content
Speaker 1: and everything. So we have a thank you, a big
Speaker 1: old thank you to Jesus Lopez, Stacy Reese, Virginia Corbett, Chandra.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure I was gonna say la Chandra, and
Speaker 1: I was going to butcher it, but I didn't.
Speaker 2: I think you saved it.
Speaker 1: I caught myself and saved it. It's Chandra Jones, Hannah
Speaker 1: Wolf of Stig. I got a phonetic breakdown on that one,
Speaker 1: so thank you very much, okay.
Speaker 2: Because I was like, are you sure you got that one?
Speaker 1: They put in brackets the breakdown, so I should have
Speaker 1: got it. If I still messed it up, my apologies,
Speaker 1: and of course finally we have Jose, So thank.
Speaker 2: You very much, John. Yeah, thank you guys.
Speaker 1: We just realized this morning too, that today is the
Speaker 1: first day of April. We thought it was still the
Speaker 1: last day of March.
Speaker 2: Today, which is funny considering that your birthday is tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Touche that we knew that, but that we didn't know that. Yeah, anyway,
Speaker 2: we got our dates kind of mixed up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we were planning to put out the Patreon
Speaker 1: episode today when it should have come out yesterday. So
Speaker 1: our apologies to that. The episode will come out later today.
Speaker 1: So if you're wondering where is it, it's on its way.
Speaker 2: Pretty cool to get two episodes in a day, though,
Speaker 2: I'd say.
Speaker 1: Touche, and that's that's not an April fools, that's just
Speaker 1: a we fucked up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, don't believe a word any Okay. I came across
Speaker 2: this meme before I go full blown here. It was like,
Speaker 2: don't believe a word anyone says today. It was like
Speaker 2: tomorrow because it was posted yesterday, unlike any other day though,
Speaker 2: And I was thought, yeah, yeah, I pretty much always
Speaker 2: am cautious about what the fuck people are talking about
Speaker 2: and saying and doing, so it's just every other day
Speaker 2: for me.
Speaker 1: I read a meme the other day where it was like,
Speaker 1: April Fools this year is canceled, and it was because
Speaker 1: the reality we're living in is already the biggest joke
Speaker 1: there is.
Speaker 2: Oh I see, I thought it was going to be
Speaker 2: like April Holes that it was canceled.
Speaker 1: No, it's like you can't beat the joke authority going on.
Speaker 2: That's okay, so fair enough.
Speaker 1: We already live in April Fools twenty four to seven.
Speaker 3: Old man.
Speaker 2: That's good.
Speaker 1: But let's get into this case. You're ready for it?
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: Okay. Well, I do want to preface this when I
Speaker 1: say the Farmville murders, it is not in any way
Speaker 1: related to the Farmville game. I believe there's a mobile
Speaker 1: game called Farmville. Has nothing to do, has nothing to
Speaker 1: do with it. It's just the farm well, the town
Speaker 1: is called Farmville.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, I love that name. I want to live there.
Speaker 1: You want to live there?
Speaker 2: Can you imagine living in a where are you from? Farmville?
Speaker 1: That is cool, that's got that cottage court vibe. Yes,
Speaker 1: I like it, farm core Vibeh. Huh, horror because horror
Speaker 1: core killer.
Speaker 3: Aha.
Speaker 1: Anyways, let's move on. It's not going to be a
Speaker 1: good er So Farmville, Virginia. It's not the kind of
Speaker 1: place you'd expect to make hat national headlines. It's quiet.
Speaker 1: It's tucked into the middle of the state and best
Speaker 1: known for being a college town with a handful of
Speaker 1: historic homes and family owned businesses. There's a pace to
Speaker 1: life there, unhurried, familiar and safe. People know who their
Speaker 1: neighbors are, and strangers tend to stand out. By September
Speaker 1: of two thousand and nine, that seemed I'm sure that
Speaker 1: sense of security was quite shattered in one of the
Speaker 1: most shocking crimes the town had ever seen. Four people
Speaker 1: were brutally murdered inside a small white home on First Avenue.
Speaker 1: At the center of it all was a twenty year
Speaker 1: old from California, a quiet, awkward guy who'd flown across
Speaker 1: the country to meet a girl he'd only known online.
Speaker 1: Her name was Emma Niederbrock. She was sixteen, homeschooled, creative,
Speaker 1: and part of a growing online music scene centered around
Speaker 1: the horror core rap genre. Now it's a genre known
Speaker 1: for violent lyrics, dark themes, and its shock value. Most
Speaker 1: of all, it was through this shared interest that Emma
Speaker 1: met Richard mccorsky. He was just another kid growing up
Speaker 1: in California, quiet, awkward, and easy to overlook. He was
Speaker 1: born on December twenty sixth, nineteen eighty eight, and spent
Speaker 1: most of his early years in Hayward before moving with
Speaker 1: his family to nearby Castro Valley. Now by all accounts,
Speaker 1: Richard didn't have it easy. He was bullied for being overweight,
Speaker 1: and for having red hair, and for just all around
Speaker 1: being a little bit different than all the other kids.
Speaker 1: School was rough, and he didn't have many friends. He
Speaker 1: wasn't violent, he wasn't loud, just sort of drifted under
Speaker 1: the radar. His sister, Sarah mccorsky, described him as kind,
Speaker 1: soft spoken, and someone who didn't fight back unless seriously provoked.
Speaker 1: Neighbors called him a loner. His teachers probably saw him
Speaker 1: as the quiet kid who never really raised his hand,
Speaker 1: but online it was a different story. Like a lot
Speaker 1: of teenagers who didn't feel like they fit in, Richard
Speaker 1: found a kind of freedom on the internet. He got
Speaker 1: into graphic design and started making websites. He began playing
Speaker 1: with audio software as well, and he taught himself how
Speaker 1: to record music, and slowly he started creating songs of
Speaker 1: his own. It was through this that he discovered horror core. So,
Speaker 1: just to make sure I'm breaking that word down correctly
Speaker 1: with my slurring words today, horror core is the genre
Speaker 1: what it's called, Okay. Now, The music is certainly not
Speaker 1: for everyone, and that's kind of the point of it.
Speaker 1: It's intentionally dark and intentionally very extreme. So Richard started
Speaker 1: writing and recording his own tracks under the rap name
Speaker 1: Psycho Sam spelt Syko Sam. His songs were raw, full
Speaker 1: of anger, and often very graphic. He rapped about murder, mutilation,
Speaker 1: and revenge, and that's normal in this genre.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, but still.
Speaker 1: And I do want to clarify when people are singing
Speaker 1: that sort of stuff, it's usually just fantasy. It's not
Speaker 1: like they're singing about like actually doing that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: It's just, you know, like writing a horror movie is.
Speaker 2: Our a book or something, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Exactly so. And I do also want to say when
Speaker 1: I say rapper, I should clarify this as well. He
Speaker 1: wasn't famous or well known, not even in the horror
Speaker 1: core world, which is a pretty niche like little online
Speaker 1: world and online scene, but he was a part of it,
Speaker 1: and he ran in the same circles as some other
Speaker 1: underground artists and fans. He even promoted his work through
Speaker 1: MySpace and YouTube under the little nick the nickname Little
Speaker 1: Demon Dog. There's a few capital letters thrown in there,
Speaker 1: so it's Lil dem On Dog and the G at
Speaker 1: the end is capital is well, so I broke it
Speaker 1: down with like the capitals being the start of each word,
Speaker 1: but it actually spells little Demon Dog. Now, the deeper
Speaker 1: Richard got into horror core, the more it seemed to
Speaker 1: become his identity. Now, it isn't exactly a household genre
Speaker 1: of music, this horror core. I'm going to talk about
Speaker 1: it a little bit more here. It's a niche corner
Speaker 1: of hip hop, and it thrives on shock value, dark beats,
Speaker 1: disturbing lyrics and themes that revolve around murder, mental illness,
Speaker 1: the occult, and anything else that makes people uncomfortable, to
Speaker 1: say the least. For most people, it's fantasy. It's a
Speaker 1: way to vent, to escape or stand out, but to
Speaker 1: outsiders it can be deeply unsettling when you hear these
Speaker 1: lyrics from these songs. Now, the scene has always existed
Speaker 1: in the underground world of music. Artists like Insane Clown Posse,
Speaker 1: who we've talked about in different episodes before, who've influenced
Speaker 1: certain people to do dumb ass things and twisted. They
Speaker 1: helped carve oute this space nineties, and from there a
Speaker 1: whole subculture was born. Horror core fans formed their online communities,
Speaker 1: made homemade music videos, and followed a growing list of
Speaker 1: indie artists with names like razikl, Bloodshot, Sic Tannic. The
Speaker 1: vibe was aggressive, theatrical and over the top, strictly by design.
Speaker 1: Now in fact, because of this, I I was singing
Speaker 1: some Insane Cloud Posse songs the last couple of days
Speaker 1: in my head because I as a kid, when as
Speaker 1: a teenager I listened to Insane Cloud Posse. It's quite
Speaker 1: graphic lyrics to talk about literally going out and killing
Speaker 1: people and stuff.
Speaker 2: And everyone's parents are just like the.
Speaker 1: Fuck pretty much. But it's that separation of reality to fantasy.
Speaker 1: You know, you know when you listen to it that
Speaker 1: it's it's no different than watching a horror movie online
Speaker 1: or on your TV.
Speaker 2: Gosh, like when you're playing video games and shit right,
Speaker 2: you're like killing people on screen, like you can playing
Speaker 2: video games for an eight hour span and how many
Speaker 2: people have you killed?
Speaker 1: And stuff so exactly, So it's honestly, it has a
Speaker 1: bad reputation strictly because of those graphic lyrics, but those
Speaker 1: graphic lyrics are strictly fantasy. Now. His online presence was
Speaker 1: covered in dark imagery, posters of serial killers, horrorcore merch,
Speaker 1: and different selfies he'd taken in graveyards. For example, there's
Speaker 1: even a video of him flipping crosses at a marine's grave.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's that's rude, that's cross and a line.
Speaker 1: That definitely is. In two thousand and nine, things started
Speaker 1: to fall apart at home. His parents separated and his
Speaker 1: mom was forced to leave the house. Richard took it hard.
Speaker 1: He was already isolated and now the one stable part
Speaker 1: in his life his family, was beginning to unravel. But
Speaker 1: there was one thing that still gave him a sense
Speaker 1: of hope. A girl named Emma nederbrook See. They met
Speaker 1: online almost a year earlier. She liked horror core music too.
Speaker 1: She messaged him, talked pretty much every single day, and
Speaker 1: to Richard, this wasn't just some casual online friendship. It
Speaker 1: felt like something real, something important, and maybe potentially even love.
Speaker 1: In his mind, Emma was a good thing, the only
Speaker 1: good thing he had left in his life. Ah Now,
Speaker 1: Emma Nitebrock lived a world away from Richard mccorsky, both
Speaker 1: physically and emotionally. She was sixteen, homeschooled and living in
Speaker 1: a quiet town of Farmville, Virginia, with her mother, doctor
Speaker 1: Deborah Kelly. Her parents had separated about nine months earlier,
Speaker 1: but both remained active in her life. Her mother was
Speaker 1: a criminal justice professor at Longwood University, and her father
Speaker 1: Reverend Mark Niederbrock. He was a well known local pastor.
Speaker 1: Emma was artistic, expressive, and, like a lot of other teenagers,
Speaker 1: eager to carve oute her own identity. She dyed her
Speaker 1: hair pink or dark makeup, and connected deeply with music,
Speaker 1: specifically horror core. It wasn't just the shock factory that
Speaker 1: drew to it, it was the community, the feeling of
Speaker 1: belonging online. She wasn't just a homeschool kid in a
Speaker 1: small town anymore. She was known as ragged Doll her
Speaker 1: screen name okay yeah, a regular in the horror core
Speaker 1: scene and chatted with artists and shared fan content and
Speaker 1: made close friendships online.
Speaker 2: Probably in a small community like that, people are seeming
Speaker 2: probably even more alarmed or don't have experience with that
Speaker 2: sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: Hey, yeah, I guess you could say like a little
Speaker 1: bit more quote sheltered from the world, especially at this
Speaker 1: time when the Internet was relatively still new.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, nowadays, I think it's a little bit more
Speaker 1: easy access and a little more understood, but at that
Speaker 1: time it was definitely a newer thing still. But this
Speaker 1: is where Richard comes in. Their connection started on MySpace,
Speaker 1: where they messaged back and forth about music, photography, and
Speaker 1: life in general. Emma saw something in him, maybe someone
Speaker 1: who felt as misunderstood as she did at times, and
Speaker 1: for Richard, the connection felt like so much more than
Speaker 1: just this online friendship. They talked constantly, exchanged videos, and
Speaker 1: bonded over their shared interests, and over time Richard started
Speaker 1: to believe they were more than just friends. But the
Speaker 1: thing about online relationships is that they can be kind
Speaker 1: of blurry, but one person sees as casual or friendly,
Speaker 1: the other might see as intimate or serious. And Richard
Speaker 1: began referring to Emma as his girlfriend. He imagined a
Speaker 1: future with her. Emma, on the other hand, never called
Speaker 1: him her boyfriend, at least not publicly. She was kind
Speaker 1: to him, but whether she shared the same level of
Speaker 1: emotion and investment in the two of them is a
Speaker 1: little bit unclear. What is clear, though, is that their
Speaker 1: expectations weren't quite aligned, and that disconnect would become dangerously
Speaker 1: important later on. Now, in the horror core community, Emma
Speaker 1: and her best friend Melanie Wells were seen as rising stars.
Speaker 1: They helped promote underground artists, make fan art, and even
Speaker 1: joined Razikel's online promotion team, the Unholy Apostles they called themselves.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: Razakel was a prominent artist in the scene, and both
Speaker 1: girls looked up to her. Through that connection, Emma met
Speaker 1: even more people, including Melanie, who lived in West Virginia
Speaker 1: but quickly became one of her closest friends. As their
Speaker 1: friendship deepened, so did their plans to meet up in person. Eventually. Now,
Speaker 1: when the tour called Strictly for the Wicked. It was
Speaker 1: kind of a horror core festival that was announced for
Speaker 1: September two thousand and nine in Michigan. Emma and Melanie
Speaker 1: and Richard all agreed to go. It was going to
Speaker 1: be their big meet up. Finally, for the first time,
Speaker 1: Richard would see Emma face to face after talking for
Speaker 1: nearly a year. Right, Richard bought his plane ticket and
Speaker 1: he was excited, nervous, hopeful. To him, this trip felt
Speaker 1: like the start of something real. By the time Richard
Speaker 1: mccorsky boarded his flight from California to Virginia in early
Speaker 1: September of two thousand and nine, he'd been talking to
Speaker 1: Emma for almost a year. They messaged constantly, and as
Speaker 1: I mentioned this to him, wasn't just friendship, it was
Speaker 1: something deeper. And now finally he was going to meet
Speaker 1: this girl in person, face to face, and this is
Speaker 1: where that something deeper could really begin, or if.
Speaker 2: It's not mutual, can really show.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now for reference, Emma was excited too. A few days
Speaker 1: before his arrival, she left him a message on his
Speaker 1: MySpace profile, and to quote it, it said, next time
Speaker 1: you check your MySpace, you'll be at my house. I
Speaker 1: love you so so much, baby, forever and for always. Okay,
Speaker 1: so there is some sort of romance going on between
Speaker 1: the two of them, sounds so. But once Richard showed
Speaker 1: up everything changed. When Emma and her mom, doctor Deborah Kelly,
Speaker 1: picked up Richard at the airport, Emma's excitement faded almost immediately.
Speaker 1: In real life, Richard perhaps didn't look much like his photos.
Speaker 1: He seemed younger than twenty, shorter than she expected, and
Speaker 1: he was a little bit socially awkward. He wore baggy
Speaker 1: cargo pants and an oversized hoodie, and his red hair
Speaker 1: was unkempt and greasy. To Emma, the confident guy from
Speaker 1: the internet wasn't the same person who is now standing
Speaker 1: in front of her.
Speaker 2: Oh shit. So she wasn't like attracted Jim in person then.
Speaker 1: Didn't seem that way, Oh no. She was polite but
Speaker 1: a little bit distant, and Richard noticed. Still. He was
Speaker 1: staying at their house now and sharing space with Emma
Speaker 1: and Debra and soon Emma's best friend Melanie Melanie Wells
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 3: Right now.
Speaker 1: Melanie would arrive a few days later from West Virginia
Speaker 1: to join the group for the upcoming concert.
Speaker 3: In Michigan.
Speaker 1: Everyone was trying to make the situation work, but the
Speaker 1: energy was off. Emma and Melanie kept to themselves more,
Speaker 1: and Richard began to feel more like a taglong than
Speaker 1: a welcome guest to make things more uncomfort Emma's parents
Speaker 1: were very aware that this guy was someone she'd only
Speaker 1: met online. They weren't thrilled about the situation, but they
Speaker 1: wanted to support their daughter and give her a reason
Speaker 1: to smile. So they agreed to you know, host this situation, yeah.
Speaker 2: Which, honestly, I feel like a lot of parents it
Speaker 2: would just be a hard now, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I agree. And they also agreed to drive everyone six
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty miles north to end the festival, okay,
Speaker 1: you know, making sure their present kind of chaperoning, ensuring
Speaker 1: everything goes fine.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, it sounds like they were actually pretty good parents.
Speaker 1: Really, it does seem that way. So they made the
Speaker 1: drives six hundred and thirty miles up to Southgate, Michigan.
Speaker 2: Because that's a drive. That's like quite a road trip.
Speaker 1: It was a long trip, and the group split into
Speaker 1: different hotel rooms once they arrived. Mark Peterbrock took a
Speaker 1: room for himself, Emma, Melanie and Debra shared one and
Speaker 1: Richard stayed in one as well alone. Now, the strictly
Speaker 1: for the Wickeds Festival was meant to be the highlight
Speaker 1: of the trip, of course, right, That's what this whole
Speaker 1: point is. The thing that brought Emma Nederbrook, Melanie Wells,
Speaker 1: and Richard mccorsky together in person after months of online friendship.
Speaker 1: That's what this was. It was the crescendo, if you will.
Speaker 1: But of course it felt a little bit different.
Speaker 2: Okay, I have one really quick question too. Were Melanie
Speaker 2: and Richard friends as well? Had they been talking online too?
Speaker 3: Do we know?
Speaker 1: As far as I'm aware, they probably knew who each
Speaker 1: other were because they were, you know, both friends with Emma.
Speaker 1: They're both in the same scene. But it was more
Speaker 1: so Emma and Richard talking and Melanie and Emma talking.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay.
Speaker 1: So on September twelfth, two thousand and nine, the concert
Speaker 1: featured a full lineup of artists, underground rappers, and everyone
Speaker 1: on the scene. For Emma and Melanie, it was an
Speaker 1: exciting chance to finally meet their favorite performers face to face.
Speaker 1: For Richard, you know, he was hoping for a good
Speaker 1: time with Emma. He saw the event as a milestone,
Speaker 1: a romantic turning point, and this is when he and
Speaker 1: Emma would you know, potentially finally become a couple. But
Speaker 1: that's not what happened. From the moment the group arrived,
Speaker 1: Richard could feel Emma pulling away. She wasn't mean or
Speaker 1: confrontational to him, to be clear, she just was distant.
Speaker 1: She chatted with other people, posed for photos, laughing with Melanie,
Speaker 1: and barely acknowledged him. Really whatsoever.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's got a hurt for him for sure.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Other fans and artists at the show noticed too. One
Speaker 1: of them later even said he never saw Emma with
Speaker 1: Richard together the entire night. Richard had come all this
Speaker 1: way only to feel completely invisible, dang which.
Speaker 2: She already had felt in his life.
Speaker 1: Now, to make things worse, Richard reportedly saw a message
Speaker 1: on Emma's phone, something from another boy, someone expressing, you know,
Speaker 1: their love for her. Oh now, whether it was flirtation
Speaker 1: or just a friend, it's hard to say, but for
Speaker 1: Richard it was a gut punch. All the time, talking, planning, fantasizing, hoping.
Speaker 1: He now felt betrayed, rejected, and foolish. It's important to
Speaker 1: remember Richard had a history of being bullied, history of
Speaker 1: being ignored just like you just mentioned, just a moment ago,
Speaker 1: and being cast aside. He carried a lifetime of insecurities
Speaker 1: on his back, and this felt like just an one
Speaker 1: more humiliation piled on top of it all. But this
Speaker 1: time it wasn't just happening at school or online. It
Speaker 1: was happening in person, and in front of the one
Speaker 1: person he thought he really who really understood him, and
Speaker 1: in the community where he really felt safe.
Speaker 2: Dang, yeah, this is not good.
Speaker 1: After the concert, the group drove back to Virginia. The
Speaker 1: energy in the car was tense and quiet. Everyone was tired,
Speaker 1: probably coming down from the adrenaline of the event. But
Speaker 1: Richard he was stewing. The more he sat with his feelings,
Speaker 1: the more they seemed to twist and calcify into something
Speaker 1: angry and resentful. By the time they got home, Richard
Speaker 1: no longer saw Emma as a crush or even as
Speaker 1: a friend. He saw her as someone who had led
Speaker 1: him on, someone who had embarrassed him, and somewhere inside
Speaker 1: of him something snapped.
Speaker 2: That would have been a fucking awkward car ride eh.
Speaker 1: Yeah. When they got home and Richard was feeling like this,
Speaker 1: he didn't lash out right away. Instead, he waited for
Speaker 1: the perfect moment. Mark Niederbrock didn't stay at the house
Speaker 1: after everyone returned home from the concert. Instead, he went
Speaker 1: back to his own home in Hickenburg, Virginia, about thirty
Speaker 1: miles or sorry, thirty minutes drive from Farmville. As I
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, Mark and Deborah had been divorced for about
Speaker 1: nine months and they were living separate, so he left
Speaker 1: the others Emma, Melanie, Richard, and Deborah at Deborah's house
Speaker 1: to settle in and rest after the long drive. That night,
Speaker 1: as the house grew quiet and everyone drifted off to sleep,
Speaker 1: Richard got up. He picked a weapon, a twenty pound
Speaker 1: splitting mall. So a splitting mall is like an axe
Speaker 1: on steroids. It's super heavy and super wide, and it's
Speaker 1: used to ensure you.
Speaker 3: Split that wood.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh.
Speaker 1: In the early hours of September fourteenth, two thousand and nine,
Speaker 1: everyone was asleep. Melanie Wells was on the couch downstairs,
Speaker 1: Doctor Debora Kelly had gone to bed in her room upstairs,
Speaker 1: and Emma Niederbrock was in her bedroom on the main floor. Richard, meanwhile,
Speaker 1: was awake and now carrying this heavy wood splitting mall
Speaker 1: through the house. At around three am. He started with Melanie.
Speaker 1: She never stood a chance. There were no defensive wounds,
Speaker 1: no signs of a struggle. Richard raised the splitting mall
Speaker 1: up over his head while she's laid sleeping on the
Speaker 1: couch and struck her repeatedly in the head while she
Speaker 1: was out.
Speaker 2: Oh so, yeah, it just didn't like. There was no
Speaker 2: way she knew what was coming.
Speaker 1: No way, She's dead sleep in the couch and he
Speaker 1: rained this twenty pounds splitting mall axe right on her head,
Speaker 1: killing her in the den.
Speaker 2: So she like that, She wouldn't have even screamed or anything.
Speaker 3: Nope.
Speaker 1: He then moved upstairs to Debra's room and attacked her
Speaker 1: in the very same way Emma he saved for last shit.
Speaker 1: One by one, he bludgeoned them to death, swift, brutal,
Speaker 1: and silent, as they were sleeping. According to investigators, the
Speaker 1: attack happened quickly and with no indication that any of
Speaker 1: the victims woke up or realized what was happening. It
Speaker 1: was though the house had remained perfectly still even as
Speaker 1: something as unthinkable as that was unfolding.
Speaker 2: Well, this is like such an escalation in my opinion. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that he just snaps and all all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: like has murdered three people, Like what the shit?
Speaker 1: Yeah? For nearly four days, no one knew what happened
Speaker 1: inside that wall the walls of that house. Friends were calling,
Speaker 1: Melanie's parents were trying to reach her, and his social
Speaker 1: media had gone quiet. But inside that white house on
Speaker 1: First Avenue, Richard was living amongst the dead what, sleeping,
Speaker 1: eating and trying to figure out what he was going.
Speaker 3: To do next.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: He eventually moved Melanie into Emma's bedroom, and he cleaned
Speaker 1: up parts of the house, or at least tried to.
Speaker 1: At one point, he even recorded a video of himself
Speaker 1: speaking directly to whoever might find it. The smell eventually
Speaker 1: became overwhelming. Neighbors noticed it, some assumed it was dead animals,
Speaker 1: you know, hidden in a bush somewhere, and others brushed
Speaker 1: it off. But Richard knew exactly what it was, and
Speaker 1: he even admitted later that he really couldn't take it anymore.
Speaker 1: But still he stayed. On September sixteenth, Melanie's family was
Speaker 1: getting increasingly worried. Her phone was off, she wasn't answering messages.
Speaker 1: Her mother, Kathleen Wells, called the house and managed to
Speaker 1: speak to Richard, who calmly offered excuse after excuse. First
Speaker 1: he said Melanie had gone out. Then he said she
Speaker 1: and Emma were staying with Emma's father. None of it
Speaker 1: just added up, but he was convincing enough to keep
Speaker 1: people at bay, at least for a little while. What's
Speaker 1: especially disturbing is that during this time, Richard was functioning
Speaker 1: just enough to maintain the illusion that everything was just fine.
Speaker 1: He texted people, answered calls, lied smoothly, all while living
Speaker 1: in the house that had become a tomb. He didn't
Speaker 1: seem to panic, he didn't seem to feel remorse. He
Speaker 1: just existed there day after day, as if he was
Speaker 1: waiting for someone else to decide what to happen next.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, because I thought he's supposed to be coming
Speaker 2: up with a plan. Yeah, it's sure taken a while.
Speaker 1: By the afternoon of September seventeenth, two thousand and nine,
Speaker 1: three days after the first murders, Markneederbrock was getting worried.
Speaker 1: He hadn't heard from his daughter Emma, or from Deborah
Speaker 1: or even Melanie. Melanie's mother, Kathleen, had been calling and
Speaker 1: texting trying to get in touch, but nothing was coming back.
Speaker 1: When she finally called Mark directly, he agreed to drive
Speaker 1: to Deborah's house to go check in on them. Mark
Speaker 1: had no idea that there was three people dead inside
Speaker 1: that home, and he definitely didn't know that the man
Speaker 1: responsible for their death was still inside as well. Mark
Speaker 1: arrived at the house at around five pm. Richard was
Speaker 1: still there and he was waiting.
Speaker 2: Uh oh.
Speaker 1: As soon as Mark walked through the door and it
Speaker 1: closed behind him, Richard attacked, just like the others. Mark
Speaker 1: never stood a chance. He was killed in the living room,
Speaker 1: struck repeatedly in this with the same twenty pounds splitting
Speaker 1: mall that Richard.
Speaker 2: Uiously, after that many days, the guy just still does
Speaker 2: the same shit. Yep, Like there's no remorse and think, Okay,
Speaker 2: there's no changing, Yeah thing you would think. I mean,
Speaker 2: he doesn't have a rapport like this of you know,
Speaker 2: murdering or like hurting people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no history of violence other than I mean,
Speaker 1: diving into the fantasy world of the horrors or the
Speaker 1: horror or horror cor genre.
Speaker 2: So you just think he'd realize what he actually did,
Speaker 2: especially like living in this like smell and stuff, and
Speaker 2: maybe have some remorse or be like fuck, like what
Speaker 2: did I do? Like oh my gosh, But then he
Speaker 2: just does it again.
Speaker 1: He does it again, and that's that's kind of like
Speaker 1: what I was saying with Like the scary part is
Speaker 1: like he's he's answering these calls, he's texting, and he's
Speaker 1: living there. He's eating there, he's bathing there, all this
Speaker 1: sort of stuff, just as if nothing's going on. He's
Speaker 1: not even worried he's gonna get caught because he's staying there. Huh,
Speaker 1: there's just zero feelings. I want to say zero remorse,
Speaker 1: but it's just zero feelings and emotion period.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's almost I just thought this thought, like it's
Speaker 2: almost like he he's living like an outer out of body
Speaker 2: experience variance or something like he's not actually there, you know, Yeah.
Speaker 1: That makes sense. Actually, yeah, I can see that good
Speaker 1: point now. After he murdered Mark, Richard dragged his body
Speaker 1: up to Emma's bedroom and placed him there with the others.
Speaker 2: Which would not have been easy has grown man that
Speaker 2: he's dragging.
Speaker 3: Nope.
Speaker 1: Now he did attempt to clean up some of the
Speaker 1: crime scenes a little bit, but kind of not very well,
Speaker 1: and he did so again in this time, but now
Speaker 1: there were four people dead in the house and Richard
Speaker 1: he still wasn't leaving. By the morning of September eighteenth,
Speaker 1: two thousand and nine, something finally gave Kathleen Wells, Melanie's mother,
Speaker 1: who had been trying to stay calm after days of
Speaker 1: no contact, a strange phone call with Richard mccorsky and
Speaker 1: a visit from Melanie's dad that yielded no answers and
Speaker 1: responses from him. Afterwards, her concern turned into panic, and
Speaker 1: she called the Farmville Police. She told them that her
Speaker 1: daughter was missing, that something didn't feel right, and that
Speaker 1: she needed them to check the house. It was around
Speaker 1: three twenty pm when officers made their way to the
Speaker 1: White House at five oh five First Avenue. The front
Speaker 1: door was unlocked, and the moment they stepped inside, the
Speaker 1: smell hit them like a brick wall. It wasn't something
Speaker 1: you could ignore or mistake. It was the unmistakable, sickening
Speaker 1: odor of decomposition. It filled the air, thick and undeniable.
Speaker 1: The officers followed it through the house and then they
Speaker 1: found the bodies. Three were in Emma's room and one
Speaker 1: was upstairs. Blood was absolutely everywhere.
Speaker 2: Oh no.
Speaker 1: The crime scene was so brutal that dental records were
Speaker 1: needed to later confirm the identities.
Speaker 2: Seriously, Yes, okay, that seems shocking to me.
Speaker 1: Well, he's taking a twenty pound splitting ball made to
Speaker 1: split wood, and he's striking people repeatedly in the head
Speaker 1: with it. It's going to split and.
Speaker 2: C oh okay, yeah, yes, but still you think like
Speaker 2: they're like body size and hair and stuff. Maybe I
Speaker 2: don't know.
Speaker 1: Well, still, just to confirm the identities, maybe the family
Speaker 1: they're looking for is gone and this is other people.
Speaker 1: We need to be sure, right, yeah, And we can't
Speaker 1: be sure because hey, we don't know what they look
Speaker 1: like anymore.
Speaker 2: Brutal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Emma, Deborah, Melanie and Mark had all died from
Speaker 1: massive blunt force trauma to the head. There were no
Speaker 1: signs of a struggle. No one had even woken up.
Speaker 1: The medical examiner would confirm that each had been attacked
Speaker 1: in their sleep. Of course, Mark, who was surprised, but
Speaker 1: none of them had a chance of fighting back either way,
Speaker 1: the house had become an absolute slaughterhouse. As news spread,
Speaker 1: the town of Farmville was rocked. Nothing like this had
Speaker 1: ever happened here before. Parents hugged their kids tighter. Students
Speaker 1: at Longwood University were stunned to learn that one of
Speaker 1: their professors had been massacred. The church community more in
Speaker 1: the loss of their pastor, and a horror course scene.
Speaker 1: Thousands of miles away had been you know, just celebrating
Speaker 1: this big concert and everyone's buzzing online how great it
Speaker 1: was and everything.
Speaker 2: And they had just met them, right, everyone just had
Speaker 2: met Yeah, these three individuals, and.
Speaker 1: They're beginning to buzz with disbelief and rumors of the
Speaker 1: whole situation. By the time police discovered the bodies in
Speaker 1: September eighteenth, two thousand and nine, Richard was already gone.
Speaker 1: He was no longer in the house.
Speaker 2: Oh he did leave, He did leave, but.
Speaker 1: He hadn't gotten far. See, just hours earlier before police
Speaker 1: entered the house, he had tried to make his getaway
Speaker 1: in Marknederbrook's two thousand Honda, but that didn't go well.
Speaker 1: At some point during the drive, Richard crashed a car
Speaker 1: into a ditch near someone's driveway and police showed up.
Speaker 1: They found him dirty, disoriented, and for whatever reason, he
Speaker 1: absolutely raaked.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, so you know at one point you said
Speaker 2: he was bathing. I don't know if he wasn't bathing,
Speaker 2: because we already know his like greasy hair and shit, he.
Speaker 1: Had the ability to bathe. However, because they didn't know
Speaker 1: yet about the murders, the officer simply issued him a
Speaker 1: summons for driving without a license. There was no arrest, made,
Speaker 1: no further questions, just another close call and he got away.
Speaker 1: From there, a tow truck driver picked up Richard and
Speaker 1: gave him a ride. That man later described the smell
Speaker 1: coming off Richard as unbearable, like death. I guess he
Speaker 1: had to keep his head up the window of the
Speaker 1: whole drive just to stop from gagging.
Speaker 2: Oh shit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he had no idea what Richard had done, and
Speaker 1: later to quote him quote he smelled like the devil. Eventually,
Speaker 1: Richard made his way to Richmond International Airport. He didn't
Speaker 1: have enough money to fly home, so he spent the
Speaker 1: night in the baggage claim area, trying to stay hidden.
Speaker 1: But now police were catching up.
Speaker 2: Well, and I bet you the smell alone wasn't making him,
Speaker 2: you know, hidden hidden.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Once investigators identified the victims, they quickly connected the dots.
Speaker 1: Richard had been the fifth person in that house. He
Speaker 1: had flown in from California. He had been close with Emma,
Speaker 1: and now after four murders, he was missing. So a
Speaker 1: man hunt was launched immediately, and luckily it didn't last
Speaker 1: too long. A security guard with the internet or sorry
Speaker 1: at the airport, I was going to say international, but
Speaker 1: they hate they ain't flying international. The security guard at
Speaker 1: the airport had already flagged Richard as suspicious and had
Speaker 1: kept an eye on him. When police arrived, they found
Speaker 1: him still asleep near the baggage claim. It was the
Speaker 1: morning of September nineteenth. He didn't resist, he didn't even run.
Speaker 1: He was arrested on the spot.
Speaker 2: He just knew there was no other end YEP.
Speaker 1: At first, he he did refuse to cooperate with detectives.
Speaker 1: He was taken into custody and held that Pigment Regional Jail.
Speaker 1: He was placed on suicide watch, and for a while
Speaker 1: he refused to talk. But slowly the story began to
Speaker 1: come out, and much of it was confirmed by the
Speaker 1: video that he'd recorded. Before trying to flee, you know,
Speaker 1: the one that I kind of already mentioned now. In
Speaker 1: that video, Richard sits in front of the camera, shaky
Speaker 1: and rambling. He tells whoever finds it to tell his
Speaker 1: parents that he loves them. He apologizes to his friends
Speaker 1: and says he just snapped and now he's paying for it.
Speaker 1: At first, it sounds almost like a suicide note guilt, regret, confusion.
Speaker 1: But the longer the video goes on, the less convincing
Speaker 1: it feels. His emotions seem to flatten out, almost like
Speaker 1: he's rehearsing a script rather than feeling genuine remorse. At
Speaker 1: one point, he even says he can't take the smell anymore,
Speaker 1: the smell of the dead bodies inside the home, and
Speaker 1: he's been living among them for days. Privately told others
Speaker 1: that he had acted out of heartbreak and rage. He
Speaker 1: claimed he discovered flirty text messages on Emma's phone, something
Speaker 1: about another boy who said he loved her. Richard felt betrayed.
Speaker 1: He said that he thought that they were in a
Speaker 1: real relationship, that she had led him on, and then
Speaker 1: the things didn't go how he imagined, so he just snapped. Later,
Speaker 1: he would tell another inmate during a jailhouse conversation that
Speaker 1: he did feel remorse, that he didn't like talking about
Speaker 1: what happened, but he didn't offer much insight beyond that,
Speaker 1: gave no answers that truly made sense, nothing that could
Speaker 1: really explain how a young a young man mild manner
Speaker 1: bullied obsessed with this niche music could go from writing
Speaker 1: angry lyrics to murdering for people with a splitting mall. Now,
Speaker 1: by the time Richard mccorsky was formally charged, the full
Speaker 1: weight of what he had done was clear. He was
Speaker 1: facing six counts of capital murder, four for the killings,
Speaker 1: one for committing multiple murders in a single event, and
Speaker 1: another for you using a deadly weapon. He was also
Speaker 1: charged with robbery and grand larceny for sealing Marknederbrock's car.
Speaker 1: The death penalty was very much so on the table
Speaker 1: m HM, but something unexpected happened. Instead of going to trial,
Speaker 1: Richard took a plea deal. On September twentieth, twenty ten,
Speaker 1: almost exactly a year after the murders took place, Richard
Speaker 1: pleaded guilty to all four murders. In exchange, prosecutors dropped
Speaker 1: the death penalty, and they sentenced him to life in prison.
Speaker 1: Exactly what he got was four life sentences plus an
Speaker 1: extra six hundred and twenty two years tacked on.
Speaker 2: You know that, I've never really thought about it. That's now,
Speaker 2: like the death penalty isn't really on the table in
Speaker 2: a lot of areas so much anymore, right, Yeah, but
Speaker 2: that is like a big bargaining chip. Yes, they probably
Speaker 2: used on like so many people, right, definitely.
Speaker 1: I mean, there the death penalty as far as I'm aware.
Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong, I could be incorrect on this,
Speaker 1: but as far as I'm aware, there are some states.
Speaker 2: It exists in some places, but like it's not near
Speaker 2: as as prominent prominent in like everywhere, right for sure.
Speaker 1: But yeah, if it were more places, hey, it would
Speaker 1: be a big bargaining chip to ensure people stay at
Speaker 1: least stay behind bars often because you, hey, we're going
Speaker 1: to take a plea deal if you get rid of that. Yeah, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I see what you're saying.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: The families of the victim agreed to the plea as well.
Speaker 1: They didn't want to endure a long, painful trial and
Speaker 1: they didn't want to give Richard any more attention. Than
Speaker 1: he deserved. Fair enough, the facts were already overwhelming. There
Speaker 1: was no doubt he'd done it. What mattered now was
Speaker 1: that he would never be free again. When Richard walked
Speaker 1: out of that courtroom after sentencing, there was a brief
Speaker 1: moment he smirked, What the shit? It was quick, just
Speaker 1: a flicker, but the cameras caught it. Attorney later said
Speaker 1: it wasn't pride, just nervousness for the families watching. Whatever
Speaker 1: it was, it's stung.
Speaker 2: Oh no, hey, this Yeah, he didn't seem like a
Speaker 2: monster when we were like initially talking about him. But
Speaker 2: now as obviously this progresses you very much, so is one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, none of Richard's family members showed up to the hearing,
Speaker 1: really none of them attended the funerals either. It's like
Speaker 1: they completely abandoned that Richard was even related.
Speaker 2: To them, and that parents didn't even fucking come to
Speaker 2: the trial nothing. Oh that almost kind of is really
Speaker 2: sad in a way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, not only for Richard himself, but like he caused
Speaker 1: so much pain, he killed four people, his family didn't
Speaker 1: even go and show remorse for the actions he caused
Speaker 1: and pay respects to those casualties.
Speaker 2: I mean, I can kind of understand them not going
Speaker 2: to the funerals per se, because I don't think that
Speaker 2: the people at the funerals would necessarily want Richard's family there.
Speaker 1: Fair enough, but there was no letter sent, there was
Speaker 1: no reach out, no nothing. As far as I'm aware,
Speaker 1: it was just radio silence.
Speaker 2: They just like wiped their hands clean of Richard. Fully. Yes,
Speaker 2: oh okay, that I don't.
Speaker 1: Know that honestly speaks volume does into the life that
Speaker 1: Richard had, kind of yeah, and potentially can say why
Speaker 1: he is the way he is, our way, why he
Speaker 1: turned out that way, or why he snapped because he
Speaker 1: had clearly no one in his corner. No, he thought
Speaker 1: he had one person, and as it turned out, he
Speaker 1: still had no one.
Speaker 2: Like I usually don't feel bad for the fucking ascis
Speaker 2: of the case, and right now I'm feeling bad, and
Speaker 2: I don't like that because he did kill four people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I gotcha. I kind of feel bad for
Speaker 1: him too. He's still a douche Canoe. Oh honey, I
Speaker 1: still hate him, but I see what you're saying.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I just you know, you hear all these
Speaker 2: stories and shit and people are in courtant stuff, but
Speaker 2: they still have like some people there for support and
Speaker 2: he just has no one. Yeah, damn, So like you
Speaker 2: cannot kind of understand because he thought Emma was his
Speaker 2: like one person and then she betrayed him, I guess,
Speaker 2: and then she didn't even portray him, and he just
Speaker 2: he had this delusion of what they were when they weren't.
Speaker 1: Yes, he thought she betrayed him, but she didn't. Maybe
Speaker 1: she was a little bit cold to him. Hey, sure,
Speaker 1: but that she has like she didn't do anything wrong.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they didn't deserve what the hell happened or her.
Speaker 3: That's for sure.
Speaker 1: They're still friends. They still went and had a good
Speaker 1: time at a music festival together, right, Like she wasn't mean,
Speaker 1: she didn't call him names. She was just having fun
Speaker 1: with other friends too.
Speaker 2: She didn't uninvite him on the trip. And shit, still
Speaker 2: they still gave him a place to stay and like
Speaker 2: fulfilled the agreement of what this was.
Speaker 1: Definitely so anyway, after sentencing, Richard was sentenced to Walling's
Speaker 1: Ridge State Prison, which is a high security facility on
Speaker 1: Big Stone in big Stone Gap, Virginia. He remains there
Speaker 1: to this day with no possibility of parole, for the
Speaker 1: rest of his life. He will remain behind bars now.
Speaker 1: The shockwaves from the Farmville murders didn't end with Richard's sentencing.
Speaker 1: What happened inside the quiet little White House left a
Speaker 1: permanent scar in the town, the horror core music scene,
Speaker 1: as well as the families. For Kathleen Wells, losing her
Speaker 1: daughter Melanie was unbearable. She'd done everything right, checked in, regularly,
Speaker 1: trusted people with her daughter. She followed her instincts when
Speaker 1: something felt wrong, but it still just wasn't enough. She
Speaker 1: was the first to raise the alarm after the horrors occurred,
Speaker 1: and yet for days no one truly knew what was unfolding.
Speaker 1: Marknederbrook's congregation at Walter's Presbyterian Church more in the loss
Speaker 1: of a kind, thoughtful man who had quietly served his community.
Speaker 1: His colleagues remembered him not only as a pastor, but
Speaker 1: as someone who genuinely cared for people. He had simply
Speaker 1: gone to check on his daughter and never came back.
Speaker 1: At Longwood University, doctor Debra Kelly's colleagues and students were devastated.
Speaker 1: She'd been respected sociology professor, someone who had helped launch
Speaker 1: countless students into careers of criminal justice. To lose her
Speaker 1: in such a violent way felt surreal, especially given how
Speaker 1: many lectures she'd likely given on crime and violence.
Speaker 3: Over the years.
Speaker 1: And then there's Emma. Emma Niterbrock, just sixteen years old,
Speaker 1: a homeschooled teen who loved music, makeup, and feeling like
Speaker 1: she belonged somewhere. She wasn't perfect, but what teenager is.
Speaker 1: But she had a future, She had people who loved her.
Speaker 1: She never saw this coming. The horrorcore community was also rattled.
Speaker 1: Suddenly their niche music scene was on trial in the media.
Speaker 1: Artists were dragged in for interviews and forced to defend themselves,
Speaker 1: their lyrics, and their fans. I can only imagine some
Speaker 1: artists writing about killing and murdering and now are on
Speaker 1: trial and have to defend that it's just fantasy and
Speaker 1: not real. Some pushed back hard, saying that whatever Richard
Speaker 1: did had nothing to do with their music. Others were
Speaker 1: left questioning how someone so deeply embedded in their niche
Speaker 1: music world could have done something so horrific. There were
Speaker 1: even people strangers on the Internet who began to treat
Speaker 1: Richard like some sort of dark celebrity, because hey, there's
Speaker 1: always people like that. We even covered one recently where
Speaker 1: someone was, hey, you know, treating murderers like idols.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: They shared his songs, his photos and wrote things like
Speaker 1: free Psycho Sam, as if he were just a misunderstood
Speaker 1: anti hero. But those voices were very few and far between.
Speaker 1: Most people were disgusted. Most saw him for what he was,
Speaker 1: a murderer and a douche canoe. Years later, another intimate
Speaker 1: sorry inmate, not intimate, I.
Speaker 2: Was like, what the fuck, where's this turning?
Speaker 1: No, this stumbling with this little thing of my tue
Speaker 1: bugging me.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Another inmate who briefly shared a cell with Richard described
Speaker 1: him as quiet, respectful, and remorseful, but also creepy. He
Speaker 1: said Richard gave him life advice, told him to control
Speaker 1: his impulses, warned him not to follow the same path.
Speaker 1: It's hard to know how much of that was genuine
Speaker 1: or just someone trying to rewrite their own legacy from
Speaker 1: inside a cell, but regardless. Now, the Farmville murders didn't
Speaker 1: just steal four lives. They shattered families, stunned a community,
Speaker 1: and left behind a story that still doesn't quite make
Speaker 1: any sense no matter how many times you go over
Speaker 1: the facts. There were no elaborate plans, no manifestos, no
Speaker 1: clear warning signs that Richard mccorsky would turn violent. He
Speaker 1: was awkward, quiet and a loner, sure, but not someone
Speaker 1: most people would peg is dangerous. In the years since
Speaker 1: the story was a story has continued to resurface in
Speaker 1: true crime spaces like this episode you're listening to now.
Speaker 1: For some, it's a cautionary tale about meeting people online.
Speaker 1: For others, it's about the importance of paying attention to loneliness, isolation,
Speaker 1: and obsession. The truth is, it's probably a little bit
Speaker 1: of all of that, but more than anything, it's about loss.
Speaker 1: Four people with full lives and futures are gone. A mother,
Speaker 1: a father, a daughter, a friend. The holy lift behind
Speaker 1: in their families will never really close. And that house
Speaker 1: on First Avenue once just another quiet home in Farmville,
Speaker 1: it's now become a place where people would remember for
Speaker 1: a long time, and for all the wrong reasons. As
Speaker 1: for Richard mccorsky, as I mentioned, he'll spend the rest
Speaker 1: of his life behind bars. He won't get to enjoy music.
Speaker 1: You won't get to enjoy concerts, no online following, just silence,
Speaker 1: And maybe that's the only fitting ending to a story
Speaker 1: that was never really supposed to happen in the first place,
Speaker 1: with him locked away away from all of this so
Speaker 1: he can't harm anyone else. And that's the story of
Speaker 1: the Farmful murders.
Speaker 2: Damn. Hey, yeah, that is a fucking story.
Speaker 1: It's a bit of a rough one because it comes
Speaker 1: out of nowhere.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and like no one would see that coming to
Speaker 2: that extent, and even.
Speaker 1: Looking in hindsight, you can't see it coming because there's
Speaker 1: a lot of things where it's like hindsight's twenty twenty. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you look back on it now, Oh that makes sense.
Speaker 1: Oh should have seen that. Oh if only we did this.
Speaker 1: There's none of that in this, not a single fucking thing.
Speaker 2: Well, not to the point, yeah, of him like just
Speaker 2: murdering three people and then days later murdering and one.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's shocking, and honestly, this sort of shit
Speaker 2: does happen. It seems like in small towns, Like when
Speaker 2: you started this podcast and you were like describing Farmville,
Speaker 2: it's Farmville, right, yeah, and like I'm like, okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: we've heard this before. It it's like setting the tone
Speaker 2: of this like small community, everyone knows each other and
Speaker 2: then it's like, oh boy, shit's about to go down.
Speaker 1: I mean, it does go down, but it's not like
Speaker 1: it's something that you generally think is going to happen
Speaker 1: in a small.
Speaker 2: Town now, but it does happen.
Speaker 1: Well, it happens everywhere, but the odds are in your
Speaker 1: favor for it to not happen likely or not happen
Speaker 1: very often, or yeah, like you saying, be less likely.
Speaker 1: Like if you go to a big city, it's like
Speaker 1: people unfortunately, they get murdered on almost the daily, whereas
Speaker 1: a small town like Farmville, this is the first occurrence. Yeah,
Speaker 1: first of it's kind anyways.
Speaker 2: And I guess it can kind of be a bit
Speaker 2: more of a story because it is still shocking and stuff.
Speaker 2: People expect sort of shit to happen in bigger communities cities,
Speaker 2: So yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: The biggest thing that happens in small towns like this is, hey,
Speaker 1: you know the farmer's markets starting this weekend. That's the
Speaker 1: sort of thing they expect. Yeah, not Oh, four people
Speaker 1: slaughtered with a twenty pounds splitting mall, and the murderer
Speaker 1: stayed in the house for four days with the decomposing
Speaker 1: bodies and then went and tried to sleep at the airport,
Speaker 1: waking of decomp Oh. By the way, he also was
Speaker 1: caught by police a day before or sorry, like hours
Speaker 1: before the bodies were found, and they let him go.
Speaker 2: Oh man, you know, the one saving grace for me
Speaker 2: is that for some reason, the sun is coming through
Speaker 2: the window and just like warming my back and it
Speaker 2: feels so lovely. That's how I got through this case
Speaker 2: fair enough, because that was that was like an emotional,
Speaker 2: tough one.
Speaker 1: I feel like it was very emotional. And I don't
Speaker 1: think that Emma did anything wrong. I don't think hey,
Speaker 1: maybe she led him on a little bit. Sure if
Speaker 1: we I don't know if they have you know, published,
Speaker 1: you know, the chat log between them, But if we
Speaker 1: were to look at it and probably say, because I'm
Speaker 1: going to assume that there was some flirtatious stuff back
Speaker 1: and forth, oh yeah, honestly, So if we say that
Speaker 1: there's a lot of flirtatious stuff, hey, you know what,
Speaker 1: maybe even crossing the line saying that there was some
Speaker 1: some sexting or something just for the argument's sake. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that there was factually just for the argument's sake,
Speaker 1: say things got that far? She owes him. None of
Speaker 1: that in the real world or person or in person.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, the only thing that maybe could have
Speaker 2: been happening. The thing is she's so young, though, but
Speaker 2: like a conversation perhaps, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: She was still nice, still friends. She was just like, oh,
Speaker 1: this isn't the same dude, This isn't the dude I
Speaker 1: thought he was. Did she lead him on a bit?
Speaker 1: Potentially a bit.
Speaker 2: In that he got way too invested I think too rite,
Speaker 2: So you almost wonder if something well, I mean something
Speaker 2: to was off with him.
Speaker 1: So well, even still say that she let him on,
Speaker 1: like through and through for the argument's sake, Okay, people
Speaker 1: can still reject other people. People can still say, no,
Speaker 1: it's not her fault that he was so invested, Like
Speaker 1: you say, you got to learn to be you don't
Speaker 1: take a punch on the on the cheek, you know,
Speaker 1: water off a duct's back if you can't get through
Speaker 1: life being rejected for what I'm assuming probably the first time.
Speaker 2: He's already been rejected though, like by everyone else in
Speaker 2: his life, is the thing, right.
Speaker 1: I'm assuming that this is probably the first like romantic
Speaker 1: rejection though.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but also okay, I'm like, in no way on
Speaker 2: his side whatsoever. Like his actions were horrible, unnecessary, but
Speaker 2: like it would be pretty terrible to go to someone's
Speaker 2: house and to be that excited and shit and then
Speaker 2: kind of be like it was awkward. I think, like
Speaker 2: because you know, she she was nice, but she wasn't
Speaker 2: like warm and like you said, she was a bit
Speaker 2: or whatever, like that would be kind of awkward.
Speaker 1: It would be, But put it in the perspective of
Speaker 1: you're also going to a whole ass music festival filled
Speaker 1: with people that you probably talked with online. She's not
Speaker 1: the only one. Yeah, you can still enjoy yourself. Sure,
Speaker 1: maybe there's some awkward times. Sure, maybe you got rejected
Speaker 1: and you don't have the girlfriend you thought, you know what,
Speaker 1: take it on the chin.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean I think what probably should have
Speaker 2: happened is he just should have met them at the
Speaker 2: at the event. You know, might have been the better,
Speaker 2: the better way of doing.
Speaker 1: It, But I mean probably, But I don't think there's
Speaker 1: anything wrong with them, you know, meeting.
Speaker 2: Oh you're having a road trap. No, like, none of this,
Speaker 2: No one, I mean, no one other than Richard did
Speaker 2: anything wrong a greed, So it just sucks.
Speaker 1: It sucks, It does suck. He just needed to, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, pull up his big boy pants and get
Speaker 1: on with his life, but he couldn't do that. Instead
Speaker 1: he fucking killed four people.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Sorry, I know I'm angry with him because well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, rightfully so. And then now he's just and okay,
Speaker 2: the fact that he's in bars forever I do like
Speaker 2: because all more times than not, it's like, oh, they
Speaker 2: can apparol in frickin ten years, twenty five years, whatever, Right,
Speaker 2: so at least we know he's not going to hurt
Speaker 2: anyone else, locked up for life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, thank you for being here. We appreciate you.
Speaker 2: Guys.
Speaker 1: If you want to check out all our links in
Speaker 1: the description of the podcast, if you want to give
Speaker 1: us a review, we appreciate that. Hopefully my slurring and
Speaker 1: stumbling in this episode is still enough I get a five.
Speaker 2: Star from you, considering you did pretty good.
Speaker 1: I think so I do. Oh, thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I do have to say this, this coffee was kind
Speaker 1: of soothing. Once in a while, I was like reading
Speaker 1: the script and my mind was ahead of like my tongue.
Speaker 1: My tongue was like a split second behind of what
Speaker 1: I'm trying to say. So then I'd take like a
Speaker 1: sip of coffee and it would almost like soothe it
Speaker 1: for a minute and my tongue could catch up, if
Speaker 1: that makes sense. Yeah, but anyways, we appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: being here and as always, next time, stay Wicked.