VIRGINIA BEACH
Pentagrams, goat heads, the Church of Satan. Don Rimer knows a lot about such things.
The retired Beach police detective is an expert on occult crime and has been called by Virginia State Police to go to Farmville to help analyze the deaths of four people whose bodies were discovered Sept. 18 in the small college town west of Richmond.
"I'm sure they want me to help them understand what they have.... This is a unique case for them," Rimer said. "They're going to be asking me a lot of questions."
Richard Alden Samuel McCroskey III, 20, of Castro Valley, Calif., was arrested Sept. 19 at Richmond International Airport and has been charged in the killings of his girlfriend, Emma Niederbrock, 16; her parents, Longwood University professor Debra Kelley and estranged husband Mark Niederbrock, and Emma's friend Melanie Wells, 18.
Their bodies were found in Debra Kelley's house in Farmville. A week before their deaths, the four victims had gone to a music festival in Michigan that featured "horrorcore" artists performing music about raping, killing and mutilating people.
"This isn't the first crime where people have died because of getting involved in things that deal with dangerous elements," Rimer said. "Unfortunately, the girls were involved in a very dangerous kind of music. This is not your routine heavy metal... really way beyond Marilyn Manson or that kind of thing."
Rimer, 63, retired from the Police Department in 2005 after 33 years. Since then, he has trained law enforcement agencies and spoken publicly about ritual crime and the occult. He first got interested in 1986, when Virginia Beach experienced some grave robberies and animal mutilations.
Rimer will be part of occult training in Virginia Beach for law enforcement officers next month, which was scheduled prior to the slayings in Farmville.
In the Farmville case, as a rapper with the stage name "Syko Sam," McCroskey had recorded songs about killing people.
He told a cab driver who took him to the Richmond airport that he had looked at Emma Niederbrock's phone while he was visiting and became angry after seeing a text message from another performer who told her he loved her, The Associated Press reported Saturday.
Andres Shrim, owner of Serial Killin Records in Rio Rancho, N.M., contacted Farmville police on Sept. 18 and told them he believed McCroskey could be responsible for homicides.
Rimer has looked at the Web sites of Serial Killin Records, also known as SKR, and said the content is relevant to the investigation.
A flier for the "Strictly for the Wicked" festival in Michigan shows a goat's head and "666" in a pentagram.
"The images that immediately stood out were the pentagram, which is the international symbol of the Church of Satan," he said. "That's the poster for the concert that mom and dad took the girls to."
A female artist promoted by SKR professes to be a Satanist. Her MySpace page has an image of a human-looking figure ripping a fetus from its abdomen. The figure is wearing a crown with a pentagram and holding a spear with a head impaled on it. Web fliers indicate the artist was a performer at the Michigan festival.
Teenagers, already curious and prone to depression, are susceptible to such images and music, Rimer said.
"If you listen to something that talks about killing and rape and murder and suicide, which this music does, your mind catalogs those lyrics whether you like it or not," he said.
"They surround themselves with peers that feel the same way, and they surround themselves with angry, depressing music. If we allow them to do that, then we have a huge problem."
Debra Kelley was a criminal justice professor and her husband was a Presbyterian minister.
Rimer said the parents may have been trying to support their daughter while keeping a close eye on her by driving her to Michigan, where she met up with McCroskey.
"Everybody needs to know this topic so that we can try to prevent what happened in Farmville," Rimer said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Patrick Wilson, (757) 446-2957, patrick.wilson@pilotonline.com
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Tax Paid Prejudice
As an authorized spokesperson and member of the clergy of The Church of Satan I find it sad that Mr. Rimer wishes to use out dated and dangerous lies in order to support his religious prejudice.
This crime is horrific and brutal. The offender who committed such an act may or may not be under some religious delusion, but he is certainly not a Satanist as defined by The Church of Satan!
"The images that immediately stood out were the pentagram, which is the international symbol of the Church of Satan," he said. "That's the poster for the concert that mom and dad took the girls to."
Since it's inception as a legal religious organization in 1966 the symbol of the Church of Satan has been the Sigil of Baphomet. While there is some elements that are very similar with the pentagram the pentagram itself is a symbol utilized by dozens of legal religions who see it in a dozen different ways, but NEVER as a symbol advocating murder! In fact Mr. Rimer is exactly the sort who encourages "curious teens" to see this symbol as wicked by constantly lying about it. Rimer obvioulsy knows nothing about the difference between Satanism and the Christian Heresy of Devil Worship.
"Rimer, 63, retir
The Blame Game
I find your comment that the victims "actively contributed to their murders" to be insensitive and in poor taste, along the lines of blaming a rape victim for her/his misfortune. Regardless of whether you agree with the parents' decisions, none of them deserved such a horrific fate.
If all parents knew how to deal effectively with their rebellious teenagers, and how to shield them from increasingly lurid material, then we would be living in a fantasy land, because life is not nearly that simple. There is no single solution to this sort of issue. The parents in this case may have believed they were doing the right thing by trying to ally with their daughter. I do feel there was some poor judgment in this case, but not one of us can claim that we have never made a bad decision in our lives. This certainly does not mean that we - or they - deserve to die for it.
Yikes
And our parents and grandparents thought the Beatles and Elvis were bad.....
I'm perfectly happy that my 11 year old daughter prefers Country music and not the kind of stuff described in the articles about this case.
Defining "Horrorcore"
Rimer is quoted saying that horrorcore is "not your routine heavy metal ... really way beyond Marilyn Manson or that kind of thing." Yes, McCroskey was a rapper with the stage name of "Syko Sam," but this information alone does not implicitly identify that horrorcore itself is in fact rooted in hip hop.
While Rimer was trying to explain that horrorcore goes well beyond the expression of the content that can be found in some sub-genres of heavy metal, not even mentioning the hip hop genre indirectly posits a connection to heavy metal as a music form. Rimer should have chosen his words better. Horrorcore is not just "not your routine heavy metal," it’s not even heavy metal.
By the way, I find horrorcore distasteful and degrading of humanity.
Your article states the
Your article states the murder was discovered on Sept. 18 but the owner of SKR contacted Farmville police on Sept. 17. Are these dates correct?? The owner of SKR knew about the murders before the police???
date
That date was incorrect, it was Sept. 18. We just changed the online story. Here's a link to a previous wire story about the call: http://hamptonroads.com/2009/09/rapper-suspects-mother-provide-details-farmville-slaying-case -Patrick Wilson, The Pilot.
"Support" ?
The second to the last sentence Rimer says the parents may have been trying to "support" their daughter by driving her to Michigan to go to a concert. He maybe an expert on all this cult worship but I think he'd be better to leave the parental evaluation alone! Exactly what kind of responsible, normal parent would haul their daughter all the way to Michigan to expose her to this kind of trash? And how did she get so involved in this to begin with? I hardly see this road trip as support. There is a lot more to this than we will ever know but it sounds more like negligence to me as is evidenced by the outcome. Sorry, not much sympathy here for parents that placate children as they "express" themselves.
Goats?
I ain't afraid of no goats.
worser things
How 'bout a Chupacabra----
Misconception of the pentagram in this article.
I am disappointed in the representation of the pentagram in this article. Stating that the Pentagram is the universal symbol for the Church of Satan is horribly wrong. As a Wiccan I know that the pentagram is the symbol that is used to represent all 5 of the elements that make up the world. The elements represented are Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, and Spirit. The pentagram is kept as a Holy symbol to Wiccans and NON Satan worshiping pagans, as the Crucifix is to Christians and the Star of David is to the Jewish.
In order for the article to be more precise the Church of Satan is said to use the inverted pentagram, surrounded by two circles. Worshipers of Satan have also used upside down crucifixes in their ceremonies. The invert of the pentagram makes up the head of the goat noted in the article.
So in closing the statement "The images that immediately stood out were the pentagram, which is the international symbol of the Church of Satan." Is very disrespectful to Wiccans or NON Satan worshiping pagans. I hope in the future more research is done on the subject of symbolism before an article is printed. Thank you for you time.
pentagram
Thanks for commenting. In the "related" link on this story, Don Rimer's document also explains the different uses of a pentagram. - Patrick Wilson, The Pilot.
Mr Wilson, While I can
Mr Wilson,
While I can appreciate that Mr. Rimer may have an additional document explaining the different uses of a pentagram; that document is not included in your story. As a High Priestess to the local Pagan community I view the innacurate description of a pentagram as a symbol of the Church of Satan as a gross innacuracy. I believe a retraction/correction to this printed in the Pilot, given the same placement of page as the article would be a good start to your newspaper printing responsible, factual information for our community. Perhaps it's time for The Pilot to print an article filled with facts and useful information regarding the Pagan community and their symbols.
Thank you for your time.