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