A California man who rapped about murder in songs posted on his MySpace page was arrested on Saturday by investigators who suspect him of killing four people in a central Virginia college town.
Richard Alden Samuel McCroskey III, 20, of Castro Valley, California, was taken into custody at Richmond International Airport, where authorities believe he tried to catch a flight back to California. Officers found McCroskey asleep in the baggage claim area, Farmville police Captain Wade Stimpson said.
McCroskey is being held in Farmville, where he faces charges of first-degree murder, grand larceny of an automobile and robbery, Stimpson said. McCroskey is scheduled to appear today in court, when he can either hire an attorney or have one appointed.
Officers found the bodies on Friday afternoon in the home of Debra Kelley, an associate professor of sociology and criminal justice studies at Longwood University, school spokeswoman Gina Caldwell said on Saturday.
Authorities are awaiting identification of the dead from the state medical examiner’s office, but that isn’t expected until Monday. Stimpson declined to discuss the case, including how the bodies were found or how the victims were killed.
McCroskey was immersed in the so-called horrorcore rap music scene, and he recorded songs that spoke of death, murder and mutilation under the name Syko Sam. His MySpace page says he has only been rapping for a few months.
One of several songs posted on his MySpace page under his stage name talks about the thrill of killing someone. A friend confirmed the site and the songs were McCroskey’s.
“You’re not the first, just to let you know. I’ve killed many people and I kill them real slow. It’s the best feeling, watching their last breath. Stabbing and stabbing till there’s nothing left,” McCroskey sings in “My Dark Side.”
On his personal Web page, McCroskey posted videos and pictures of a grave where a cross and miniature US flags had been turned upside down.
“We defiled the grave and then lightning struck seconds ago. I think we were being warned,” he says in the video, laughing.
In the photos, the gravestone identifies the person buried there as a Marine.
McCroskey’s page shows that he last logged in on Friday. His status is listed as “out of town” and his mood “determined.”
The owner of a small, independent record label that specializes in the horrorcore genre said others shouldn’t judge McCroskey by what they see on his Web site or hear in his music. Andres Shrim, who owns Serial Killin Records in New Mexico and performs himself under the name SickTanicK, described McCroskey as a “great kid,” articulate, smart and professional.
Shrim said he has known McCroskey for at least two years, and he last saw him on Sept. 12 at an all-day music festival in South Gate, Michigan.
“You would never, ever imagine that kid even being a suspect,” Shrim said. “If he is found to be guilty, I would be 100 percent shocked.”
Shrim said even though horrorcore focuses on murder and other morbid subjects, performers and fans shouldn’t be labeled as violent people.
“People get the impression we’re these twisted, sick individuals and we don’t have hearts and we just want to talk about murder and the devil,” he said. “But we just want to express that other side of life.”
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS