The Farmville murders occurred in Farmville, Virginia, in September 2009 – the quadruple bludgeoning homicide of Mark Niederbrock, Debra S. Kelley, their daughter Emma Niederbrock and friend Melanie Wells. Emma Niederbrock shared an online friendship with Richard Samuel McCroskey, a troubled aspiring rapper.
The murders. The murders took place at Dr. Debra Kelley's home, where Kelley lived with her daughter Emma Niederbrock. The bodies were found just after 3:00 p.m. on September 17, 2009, the victims having been bludgeoned to death with a hammer and maul.
McCroskey was charged with six counts of capital murder per Virginia criminal law.
Together, Emma Niederbrock, McCroskey, her mother, and father, along with friend Wells, attended a horrorcore concert the week before. When Wells ' mother could not locate her daughter, she alerted police, who discovered the murders.
A day after he was forced out of his family’s law firm for misusing funds on Sept. 3, Mr. Murdaugh reported that he had been shot in the head. He soon admitted that he had actually asked a former client to kill him because he wanted to leave his son Buster with a $10 million insurance payout. Mr. Murdaugh survived.
Over the summer, Mr. Murdaugh offered a $100,000 reward for anyone who had information on the deaths of his wife and son.
Alex Murdaugh, a member of a powerful legal dynasty in South Carolina, was accused by his firm of misusing funds. A day later, Mr. Murdaugh reported that he had been shot on a rural road.
Three days after their deaths, Mr. Murdaugh’s father, Randolph Murdaugh III, the last member of the family to serve as the region’s top prosecutor, died of natural causes.
1. The “Murdaugh Murders” remain unsolved. The fatal shooting of Mr. Murdaugh’s wife Maggie and their 22-year-old son Paul rocked South Carolina’s Lowcountry region, where the Murdaugh family’s powerful legal dynasty originated. Few details have been released about the attack, and no arrests have been made.
4. Other strange deaths revolve around the case. Mr. Murdaugh has denied any involvement in the killings of his wife and son, and the police have not identified a suspect. But the case has brought new scrutiny to three other deaths of people who had some association with the family, including a young man found dead along a road in 2015 and a fatal boat crash in 2019.
Alex Murdaugh found the bodies of his wife and son after family members said he had been away checking on his mother and ailing father.
The current elected prosecutor isn't a family member, but they stepped aside last month after citing developments in the case without giving any additional details.
Alex Murdaugh found the bodies of his wife and son after family members said he had been away checking on his mother and ailing father.
The current elected prosecutor isn't a family member, but stepped aside last month after citing developments in the case without giving any additional details.
Then, in 2001, a psychiatrist killed his wife in their Farmville home and then shot himself while on a deer stand. Authorities found him hanging from a rope tied to a tree.
Richmond Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Learned Barry, who helped prosecute the Harvey and Tucker-Baskerville killings, said those cases came to mind when he heard about the Farmville quadruple homicide.
Melissa Seamster, who runs the Sunnyside Farms fruit and vegetable stand in town, said many residents have remarked that the killings taught them that horrible things can happen even in Farmville, and that parents should caution their children about meeting people online.
Tex McIver shot his wife Diane as they rode in their car in 2016. The lawyer had claimed the shooting was accidental. "48 Hours" investigated Diane McIver's case in "The Last Ride Home.". Watch the episode online. McBurney also sentenced McIver to five years in prison for a charge of influencing a witness but said that will be served at ...
Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Robert McBurney was required to sentence Claud "Tex" McIver, 75, to life in prison after a jury convicted him last month of felony murder, though it was up to the judge to decide whether he would be eligible for parole. Tex McIver shot his wife Diane as they rode in their car in 2016.
The possibility of parole granted by the judge provides little hope of relief for the 75-year-old McIver since he'd have to serve 30 years in prison before being eligible for parole consideration. Tex McIver describes the moment he shot his w... 03:03.
Some legal experts have speculated that the jury didn't completely understand what their verdict would mean, that felony murder carried the same mandatory life sentence as malice murder.
But McBurney also noted that while McIver had been given as much time as he wanted to address the court and had rambled through a number of different topics, "I didn't ever hear you say you're sorry for what you did. To me, that silence speaks volumes."
Dani Jo Carter , a close friend of Diane McIver, was driving the couple's Ford Expedition the evening of Sept. 25, 2016, as the three returned from a weekend at the McIvers' horse farm about 75 miles east of Atlanta. Diane McIver was in the front passenger seat and Tex McIver was in the back seat behind his wife.
Diane McIver Anne Schwall. His lawyers have said he plans to appeal. McIver addressed the court before he was sentenced. He talked about the tremendous amount of support he had received from people he knew and people he didn't, including letters from a woman in Ireland and a man in Australia who were strangers to him.