Kingdom of Blood: The Rod Ferrell Vampire Cult

Summary

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Episode Summary: Kingdom of Blood – The Rod Ferrell Vampire Cult

Podcast: Scams, Money, & Murder | Hosts: Vanessa Richardson and Carter Roy (Crime House)
Date: June 3, 2026

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Overview of Main Theme

This episode dives into the chilling true story of Rod Ferrell, a troubled Kentucky teenager whose obsession with vampire lore led to the formation of a real-life "vampire cult" in the 1990s. Through manipulation, violence, and the trappings of dark fantasy, Ferrell and his followers embarked on a crime spree that culminated in the brutal double homicide of Richard Wendorf and Ruth Queen in Florida. The hosts, Corinne Vian and Sabrina Dianaruga, trace Ferrell’s trajectory from abused and neglected child to self-styled vampire king, combining analysis of cult dynamics with the cautionary tale of how alienation and fantasy can spiral into grotesque crime.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Victims and the Crime (03:35–07:19)

• Victims Identified: Richard Wendorf (49) and Ruth Queen (54), murdered in their Florida home.
• Impact: Their teenage daughter, Jennifer, was orphaned at 17; the hosts emphasize the lasting trauma on surviving family.
• Quote: “Two people who lost their lives at the hands of Rod Ferrell’s vampire cult...deeply affected their friends and family, especially their daughter Jennifer, who was orphaned at just 17 years old.” (03:49, Corinne Vian)

The Vampire Subculture and Ferrell’s Upbringing (07:42–14:25)

• Ferrell’s childhood: Experienced sexual abuse by his grandfather, neglect from his teenage mother, Sandra Gibson.
• Early Interests: Immersed himself in Dungeons & Dragons and vampire-themed media (e.g., Interview with a Vampire, Vampire: The Masquerade).
• Escalation: Drug use and self-harm (“he carved a demonic...very elaborate demonic symbol into his own chest.” [11:20, Corinne Vian]).
• Host reaction: Sabrina compares Ferrell’s neglect to the fictional story of Matilda, emphasizing how his outcome was drastically darker.

The Formation of the "Vampire Cult" (15:03–18:52)

• Vampire Hotel: Local Kentucky teens used an abandoned house for occult-themed gatherings and blood rituals.
• Hierarchy: Ferrell became close to Jaden Murphy and went through a “crossing over” blood-drinking ceremony, adopting the name “Vassago.”
• Subculture Discussion: Hosts debate the line between these rituals and cannibalism, with dark humor around the intimacy and risk of such acts.

Community, Control, and Group Dynamics (21:11–26:54)

• Desperate for Belonging: Ferrell and his followers (mainly teens, one 19-year-old) all felt like outcasts seeking acceptance and identity.
• Comment on Ferrell: “At just 16 years old, Rod had basically become a cult leader.” (25:38, Corinne Vian)
• Heather Wendorf: Maintains contact with Ferrell; later claims abuse by her father, which triggers Ferrell’s "rescue plan."

Cross-Country "Rescue" and Descent into Murder (29:11–38:02)

• Plan: Ferrell’s group drives to Florida to “rescue” Heather and travel to New Orleans, the “perfect place for vampires.”
• Heather’s "Crossing Over": Undergoes blood ceremony with Ferrell.
• Murders: Plan was supposedly to incapacitate Heather’s parents and steal their car, but Ferrell brutally murders both with a crowbar. Ritual elements (e.g., burning a "V" for “Vassago” into Richard’s corpse) and behavior (smoking over the victim’s body) highlight detachment and delusion.
• Host reaction: Sabrina is repeatedly horrified at the brutality and randomness; Corinne frames it through Ferrell’s obsession, trauma, and need for control.

Escape, Capture, and Legal Fallout (42:24–47:31)

• Fleeing: The group heads towards New Orleans; Ferrell threatens his followers to maintain control.
• Capture: Traced by a call from Charity to her grandmother; all are arrested without incident.
• Interrogation: The group shows clear evidence of Ferrell’s psychological grip — “they just kept looking over at Rod like they were waiting for him to answer for the group.” (46:43, Corinne Vian)

Trial, Sentencing, and Aftermath (50:09–64:59)

• Rod’s Behavior: Shows no remorse, claims to feel "like a God"; makes a spectacle during court appearances.
• Charges: Ferrell charged as adult, pleads guilty just before the trial, later sentenced to death (later reduced to life in prison as per Supreme Court rulings on juvenile offenders).
  • Notable Quote: “Taking their lives made him feel like a God, and it was the best thing that he had ever done.” (47:31, Corinne Vian)
• Other Defendants:
  • Scott Anderson (principal in murder): Two consecutive life terms, later reduced to 40 years.
  • Dana Cooper (principal to 3rd degree murder): 17.5 years, released in 2011.
  • Charity Kesey (plea deal): 10.5 years, released early in 2006.
  • Heather Wendorf: Never charged; grand jury twice found insufficient evidence she was an accomplice, though witness testimonies later cast some doubt.
• Disturbing Jail Conduct:
  • Scott acts like a gargoyle, gnawing on cell bars.
  • Charity caught licking blood from self-inflicted wounds.
  • Ferrell behaves provocatively in court, attempting to reinforce his vampire persona.

Family Dysfunction Extends Further (53:50–55:08)

• Ferrell’s Mother: Sandra Gibson, herself arrested for propositioning a minor — even requested to be “crossed over” into a vampire.

Lingering Questions & Legacy (61:54–64:59)

• Heather’s Role: Controversy lingers over her potential involvement, but the legal system found her innocent.
• Rod’s Fate: Life sentence confirmed; no parole likely.
• Reflection: The hosts conclude the vampire identity was just a “backdrop” to Ferrell’s deeper issues: “Vampires were just an aesthetic that he layered on top of everything else that he had going on.” (66:05, Corinne Vian)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “This is not YA, this is real.” (01:13, Sabrina Dianaruga)
• “At just 16 years old, Rod had basically become a cult leader.” (25:38, Corinne Vian)
• "He said that taking their lives made him feel like a God, and it was the best thing that he had ever done." (47:31, Corinne Vian)
• “In the eyes of a lot of people…Richard and Ruth didn’t ever truly get justice.” (62:59, Corinne Vian)
• “It does feel a lot less like Rod became violent because of vampires and a lot more like vampires were just an aesthetic that he layered on top.” (66:05, Corinne Vian)
• “He had violence baking into him.” (66:06, Sabrina Dianaruga)

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Important Timestamps

• 03:35 – Victims’ names and story impact introduced
• 07:42 – Ferrell’s abusive childhood detailed
• 10:43–13:13 – Ferrell’s escalation: D&D, self-harm, blood rituals
• 14:41 – Introduction to Kentucky’s “Vampire Hotel” scene
• 18:09–18:52 – Ferrell’s “crossing over” ritual and new identity
• 25:38 – Ferrell becomes a cult leader at 16
• 29:11–32:04 – The move to Florida and prelude to murder
• 34:26–38:02 – Murders of Richard and Ruth described in detail
• 47:31 – Ferrell’s chilling boast about the murders
• 53:50 – Sandra Gibson’s (Ferrell’s mother) disturbing behavior
• 61:54–62:59 – The unresolved role of Heather Wendorf
• 64:59–66:43 – Rod’s prison fate and hosts’ final reflections

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Tone and Language

• Candid, empathetic, and occasionally irreverent.
• The hosts personalize the horror (often expressing shock and heartbreak), relate to listeners through pop culture references, and discuss the very real aftermath for victims’ families.

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Closing Note & Resources

The hosts end by acknowledging the heaviness of the topics, providing contact information for support services on sexual assault, self-harm, and cult recovery (66:38 onward).

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Summary prepared for Scams, Money, & Murder podcast listeners. This episode offers a blend of true crime narrative, critical analysis of cult dynamics, and discussion of the intersection between fantasy, trauma, and real-world violence.

Transcript

[Corinne Vian]

Hi listeners, it's Vanessa. Before we get into today's episode, I

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

want to tell you about another show

[Corinne Vian]

I think you'll love. Hidden history with Dr. Harini Bhat. Every Monday, Dr. Bhatt goes where history gets mysterious. Vanished civilizations, doomsday prophecies, paranormal phenomena and events that science still can't fully explain. Dr. Bot treats these moments like open case files. Not myth myths, not superstition. Just incomplete explanations waiting for a closer look.

[Vanessa]

Hidden History drops every Monday.

[Corinne Vian]

Follow now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen, so you never miss a mystery.

[Morgan Absher]

This is crime house.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Ron Farrell was desperate for community and he found it in a gang of vampires.

[Corinne Vian]

They drank each other's blood, they hid out in abandoned houses and they believed they transformed into something immortal.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Which might sound like the latest YA sensation, but no, this is real.

[Corinne Vian]

And it was leading Rod down a dark path.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

One that ended in murder.

[Corinne Vian]

Welcome to Crimes of Cults.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

I'm Sabrina d'. Anaroga.

[Corinne Vian]

I'm Corinne Vian.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

And this season we are exploring the intersections of faith and manipulation. Of hope and fear. Is all about the world's most dangerous cults and the charismatic leaders who promised salvation and destroyed their followers lives in the process. If you're loving crimes of please follow rate Interview us wherever you listen. It helps us build this community and we love hearing from you. To get early access and ad free listening, subscribe to the Crime House plus community on Apple Podcasts and you can also catch us on YouTube where we include visuals that bring every case to life. The case of Rod Ferrell and the Vampire Cult starts now.

[Vanessa]

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[Sabrina Dianaruga]

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[Corinne Vian]

We also want to recognize the very real victims behind this story. Two people who lost their lives at the hands of Rob Farrell's vampire cult, 49 year old Richard Wendorf and his wife, 54 year old Ruth Queen.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Their deaths also deeply affected their friends and family, especially their daughter Jennifer, who was orphaned at just 17 years old. So we want to honor Richard, Ruth and Jennifer and make sure that their story doesn't get lost.

[Corinne Vian]

Part of what makes this case so hard to wrap your head around is just the whole vampire angle of all of it. Rod and his followers were definitely caught up in the vampire scene, which was happening a lot in the late 90s. It was a big thing. But how far did their love of vampires bleed into their propellers propensity for violence? In other words, did Rod become a murderer because he believed that he was a vampire? Or were his brutal crimes completely separate from his sanguine side hustle? Maybe if we can answer those questions, there's a clue as to how someone goes from being a teenage kid to a cold blooded killer.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

And also, welcome to everyone who is joining us from part one of this collab episode over on Two Girls One Ghost, where we talked all about vampires and vampires in history, different pop culture vampires that we have crushes on. And today here we're gonna be talking about Rod Ferrell and the vampire cult, which I don't really know anything about. You prepared this episode and are gonna share it with me.

[Corinne Vian]

I will say you did a great job in part one when you were referencing sort of like pop culture and different games and things that were happening in that era. You're gonna see a lot of that

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

bleed through in this episode, pun intended.

[Corinne Vian]

Ruth Queen feels droplets of water trail down her blue nightgown, her hair still damp from a late shower. The house is peaceful, its silence interrupted only by the gentle whistle of the kettle coming from the kitchen. But suddenly the sound of a commotion in the living room catches Ruth's attention. Barefoot, the 54 year old moves cautiously through the bedroom and into the kitchen. Just beyond, silhouetted in darkness, she can see someone standing by the couch. There's a crowbar in his hand, and it's dripping blood. Ruth can see a stranger standing over her husband's body.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Oh, my God.

[Corinne Vian]

Ruth can't help but let out a scream. The attacker then turns towards her. He's a pale, skinny teenage boy with his hair hanging in a sweaty string across his face. And then he. He starts coming at her, Ruth thinks, fast. She scrambles back to the kitchen. She finds the hot cup of coffee that she had just put on the counter. And she throws it into this boy's face. But he keeps coming towards her. And soon he's on top of her, and he's beating Ruth with everything that he has. Ruth fights back with all of her strength. She's scratching, she's clawing, she's kicking. But her resistance only enrages this monster on top of her. Suddenly, she sees a metal crowbar raised above her head. Then she hears the sound, the sickening crack of metal against bone before she feels the pain over and over again until her world collapses into nothingness.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

That is horrible and so horrific, it's beyond trauma.

[Corinne Vian]

She dies.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Yes. But she walked in seeing her husband murdered, and then, Ugh, I just can't even imagine. And I do feel like in our Two Girls One Ghost episode, we were able to, like, cut and play into the fun of vampires and get caught up in that side of it.

[Corinne Vian]

Like, ooh, Twilight. Ooh, Vampire Diaries. But, like, this is horrific, no?

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Yeah. And this is where we're realizing that there is a very dark side to this, like, vampire movement that has existed in the world. And it's very real.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

And Ruth and her husband are very real people who were murdered, right?

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

And I'm like, what kind of monster is this?

[Corinne Vian]

Well, that's a great question. And to even begin to answer that, we have to go back to 1980, when Roderick Farrell was born. So, like a lot of the perpetrators that we talk about often, the theme is that there's a horrible childhood. And that is not. Not the case with him. So he. Definitely not not.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

So it is the case.

[Corinne Vian]

The case with Rod as well. His mother, Sandra Gibson, was just 17 years old when she had him. His father left only a few weeks after Rod was born. So he was raised by his mom and his maternal grandparents. There was a lot of moving between Murray, Kentucky, and central Florida, depending on where his grandfather's job took them. And according to Rod, being with his Grandpa was the very worst thing that could happen to him. Oh, no. He said that when he was just five years old, he was on a fishing trip with his grandfather when his grandfather first sexually assaulted him. His grandfather denied these allegations, but I will say I don't believe his grandfather at all. Because Rod's aunt, so his mom's sister, also said that she was assaulted by her dad, which was growing up Rod's grandfather. Yes.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Oh, just so gross.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah, it's terrible. And Rod had to spend a ton of time with his grandparents. I mean, he was like living with his mom and grandparents. And so in those early days, that was a huge part of his development and the world that was created around him and his belief on like, who he could trust and what was deserved. So Rod was also spending more time with his grandparents essentially because he was kind of dumped into his grandparents lap. It wasn't just like, oh, he and his mom are living with his grandparents. Sandra, his mom, her parenting style was very hands off. She was kind of still living as a teenager. Like she gave birth young, like she was a teen mom. But even raising him, she was still out partying, she was drinking, she wasn't providing any structure or supervision. And by the late 80s, Rod and Sandra were actually living on their own in Kentucky for the first time. But whether her parents, their grandparents were around or not, it didn't matter. She was just like very like Rod was on his own at a very young age.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

You wish that every story like that turned into Matilda. Like how Matilda grew up and became like this incredible person.

[Corinne Vian]

Ms. Honey. Or.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Yeah.

[Corinne Vian]

Using your magic powers.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Unfortunately not the case.

[Corinne Vian]

Hanging at the library. No. This nine year old Rod at the time was just like left home alone all the time. And so what does he do to entertain himself? Well, it's the height of Dungeons and Dragons, so he became completely absorbed in that game, especially in the vampire aspect of it. So then he went and rented Interview with a Vampire, which is the movie adaptation of Anne Rice's novel, which I believe you mentioned.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Yeah, we talked about it briefly.

[Corinne Vian]

Okay. Yes. He actually would rent this one movie so many times that and like not return it that he had a mountain of late fees.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

No way.

[Corinne Vian]

To the blockbuster because of this one movie.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Oh, it was like his like escapism from the real world.

[Corinne Vian]

Totally. And then he discovered something even better. The masquerade. Released in 1991. It was basically like an interactive D and D and centered entirely around vampire lore. And this totally hooked him. But not long after, his behavior started to spiral, probably Due a bit to his upbringing and lack of supervision also, he started playing violent video games. And, you know, there's just a lot happening in his world. Yeah. By the time he was in ninth grade, he was expelled for threatening to cut a teacher's throat.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Jeez.

[Corinne Vian]

And he also started getting into hard drugs and experimenting with some self harm. He carved a demonic. A very elaborate demonic symbol into his own chest. So it's not just.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

I can't even imagine doing that to yourself.

[Corinne Vian]

Like, yeah, not to say that anything is basic.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Right. But to carve a symbol into you.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

And onto his chest.

[Corinne Vian]

So, yeah, things were not going great for Rod. And then by 1995, he was actually expelled. And so Sandra finally being like, okay, I should be a parent and make a decision to help my child, she's like, we're moving back to Florida because this isn't working for us here. You need a change of scenery.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

But also, at this point, what, he's in high school, so. Yes, he's a teen. He's a teenager. Like, so much of his development while. Yes, he's still developing has been kind of formed and really skewed.

[Corinne Vian]

But you have to do something. You can't just be like, too late.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

It's better late than never to some extent, I guess.

[Corinne Vian]

So this move is what kind of set off a chain of events in his life that would end in tragedy for two completely innocent people. Shortly after moving to Florida, Rod met 15 year old Heather Wendorf in the school hallway. And they were kind of kindred spirits from the start. They were very moody, withdrawn, angsty. Heather. Actually, on her backpack, she had a Barbie doll hanging from a noose.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Oh, my God.

[Corinne Vian]

Right? I was like, oh, that is. That's not like a boo Boo or like whatever.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

No, that's dark.

[Corinne Vian]

The jelly things that people are getting, like, this is a dark.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

That's Sid from Toy Story.

[Corinne Vian]

Totally. Yeah. So for a brief period of time, I mean, they connected as friends, but for a brief period, it was a more sexual relationship for the two of them. But that didn't last long because a few months into the school year, Sondra walked into Rod's bedroom and found him with two friends. And they were not playing video games. They were not watching a horror movie. They were not doing drugs.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

What were they doing?

[Corinne Vian]

They were standing there covered in each other's blood.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Covered? Yes, Like Carrie covered.

[Corinne Vian]

I think, like significant dripping and smears. So Sandra, again, who's not gonna win any parenting award at this point, she's like, whoa, this is shocking. This Is really, really bad. So she's like, again, we gotta move. That's her answer for everything. It's like, something's not working. We're moving. And so she packs up and moves to Kentucky to live with her parents, his grandparents. Again, his grandfather, who has been abusing him, abusing him.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Jeez.

[Corinne Vian]

So she's like, this will be great. Two extra adults to keep eyes on Rod while he's going through something that's beyond what I can handle. But that didn't really help because once again, she kind of just like, ditched him on her parents. She found a husband and moved to Michigan to be with the husband and

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

left Rod, leaving Rod behind. Also, like, going to, like, the blood covered ritual, whatever they were doing. I do feel like it is very normal for teenagers to, like, get caught up in, like, witchcraft or, you know, do like a blood oath where you, like, you know, as, like, friends, you, like, cut your palms and then do

[Corinne Vian]

this is so beyond that.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

But it's so beyond it. Like, I'm like, what type of literature was he reading?

[Corinne Vian]

It's gonna get worse. Oh, God. So Rod is now living in Kentucky with his grandparents without his mom. He's looking for any sense of community.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Right.

[Corinne Vian]

And that is how he ended up with what locals call the vampire hotel. It's an abandoned lake house where people would spray paint signs, like occult signs and whatnot. They would drink each other's blood and hook up under the moonlight.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

So this existed before Rod started what we're calling the vampire cult. Okay.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah. But it would basically be the very last thing that happens before he starts the vampire cult. So this is kind of a nightmare for many of us. But for him, he was like, oh, my gosh, this is heaven. I'm a deeply troubled teenager with an interest in vampires and blood. And this sounds great. So he entered this whole scene, which was this, like, vampire scene, and it had a hierarchy. At the top of this cult was a guy named Jaden Murphy who ran something kind of akin to a vampire gang.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Like a biker gang?

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah. They were dangerous, and it was a scary thing to be a part of. But Rod was immediately drawn to him and the two became very close friends. So Rod, Jaden, and the rest of the group, they were sanguinarian. I practiced saying this so many times, and I feel like we talked about

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

this a little bit last week.

[Corinne Vian]

You did.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Or in our she goes. One ghost episode too.

[Corinne Vian]

So they were sanguinarians, which is like blood drinkers. Not like blood drinkers. It is blood drinkers.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Human blood Drinkers.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah. And there's a whole, like, subculture with it and swabbing blood and drinking each other's blood. Sometimes drinking your own blood, too, basically, just.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

I had a friend growing up drinking blood who told me she really liked drinking her blood. If she got a cut, she would, like, try to, like, squeeze the blood out into a cup so that she could drink it.

[Corinne Vian]

Oh, man. Yeah. So anyway, this is what they were doing, and the whole thing was just about, like, being a part of something bigger than yourself. And Rod was gonna join Jaden and become a vampire. That was like, the next step in their relationship. And Rod's role within this group there

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

is something so intimate in a disturbing way. Don't get me wrong. About drinking someone else's blood.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah. Like, are you not terrified that you're gonna get sick?

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

But it feels so much more intimate than, like, sex. Almost like you're consuming a part of your.

[Corinne Vian]

It feels risky.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Well, definitely.

[Corinne Vian]

Is it not cannibalism?

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

I would have to look at what the definition of cannibalism is.

[Corinne Vian]

I mean, it could. It's probably argued back and forth.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Do you have to chew for cannibalism?

[Corinne Vian]

I don't know.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

It's like juicing. It's the juicing version.

[Corinne Vian]

I don't know if it still is in San Diego, but there's the Cannibal Museum.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Oh, yeah, you've told me about that.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah. And I went to it, and at the end of the museum, it was interesting because there was, like, a board where you could vote, and it was like a magnet board or whatever. So, like, it changes. But it was like, what do you consider cannibalism after everything that you've just read and learned? And it was like, probably one of them was drinking blood. But it was also like, what about

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

people who eat their placentas?

[Corinne Vian]

Right. Or even, like, chewing on your fingernails, eating a booger. Like, any part of a human body

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

or your skin, we're kind of breathing. We're all breathing in and eating skin.

[Corinne Vian]

We're breathing dead skin cells, not living.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

True, but wouldn't you argue that if you're cooking up an organ, it's dead, too?

[Corinne Vian]

Are you thinking about the placenta again?

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Well, that and also just if you're cannibalizing a whole human.

[Corinne Vian]

Let's not get.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

We don't need to get caught up in the nitty gritty here.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Questions galore.

[Corinne Vian]

Interesting. Okay, I shouldn't say interesting. It's interesting, but, like, no, I'm not as interested as Rod was. Interested.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Confounding yeah.

[Corinne Vian]

So Rod wanted to become a vampire. And this was very official business. This was like something that within the group and I think within, like all vampire subculture, there's an actual procedure and like ritual about becoming a vampire. And it's called the crossing over. Late at night in the cemetery, Rod and Jaden cut themselves. They let their blood drip into cups. They made a toast, and then they drank each other's blood. And in these two boys eyes, they're underage. They're teenagers. This meant that Rod was indebted to Jaden for eternity because Jaden turned Rod into a vampire. And that meant that Rod got to pick a new name, a vampire name.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

What name did he pick?

[Corinne Vian]

Vassago.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

What does that mean?

[Corinne Vian]

Vassago was a vampire who was 500 years old and has different meanings about, like, connections to darkness and hierarchy and being a prince or king or whatever. But to Rod, vassaga was a 500-year-old vampire. So that is who he was. Now he went from being a teenage boy to a 500 year old vampire because he drank Jaden's blood in a cemetery.

[Vanessa]

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[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Do you want to sneak past the crime scene tape to explore the key evidence behind some of the most gripping true crime cases? I'm Morgan Absher.

[Corinne Vian]

And I'm Kaylan Moore.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

And we'd love for you to check out our new show, Clues.

[Corinne Vian]

Each Wednesday, I piece together the timelines and break down the hard facts, digging into forensic details, investigative techniques, and everything that led to justice or didn't.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

And while Kaylin dives into the facts, I'm pulling out the threads, digging through the Internet theories and looking at the details that may or may not add up.

[Corinne Vian]

From serial killers to shocking cold cases, we shine a light on the stories that have been waiting, sometimes for decades,

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

to finally be heard. So join us as we uncover the breakthroughs, the heartbreak, and the relentless pursuit of answers behind the World's most unforgettable investigations.

[Corinne Vian]

Come open a case file with us every Wednesday and listen to clues wherever

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

you get your podcasts. Here's what I will say. And this is not, again, not forgiving anything that I'm sure you're gonna say that he did. But in a way, given his upbringing, like, he did live way more and experience, too. Like, more than someone that age should.

[Corinne Vian]

Right. And you just wanna believe in anything.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Yeah.

[Corinne Vian]

Or even if you don't believe in it, you just wanna be part of a community. You want some sort of family. Right. Right. According to Rod's mom, Sandra, he thought Vassago had possessed him. So it wasn't just that he, like, became this vampire. It was that this vampire, like, spirit came and, like, consumed him. So in Vampire the Masquerade, which, remember, he was very obsessed with that. Vampires belong to different clans with specific powers and curses. And Rod specifically believed that he was Malkavian, which is a clan characterized by insanity and prophetic visions.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Interesting things to be characterized by.

[Corinne Vian]

Right.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Prophetic visions. Totally get. But insanity.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah. So he also was like, okay, Vizago is possessing me. And he claimed to hear voices, which maybe is, like, part of why he said, I don't know if he was truly hearing voices or if this was just part of the Persona that he was bringing on to himself as Vassago the vampire.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Right.

[Corinne Vian]

When Sondra eventually came back to Kentucky after dumping her husband, Rod was very much in a worse place than when she first dropped him off there.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Yeah.

[Corinne Vian]

He dropped out of school completely. Most of his days were spent using drugs and also harming himself. And there was actually one point where he had cut himself so deeply that you could see the muscle. Oh, God. He was also taking so many drugs. So he was on cocaine. And when he was using cocaine, his behavior became even more unpredictable, more violent. There were other drugs in there, too. And there's one story that. And this is very disturbing, and this is going to be some content warning for the next, like, 30 seconds for animal abuse and death. Like, it's. Oh, it feels gross coming out of my mouth, but I'm going to say it.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Can I plug my ears?

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah, you can. You don't need to. It's not. You don't need to hear this.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

I'm kidding.

[Corinne Vian]

There was one story where he was crouched down and he was petting a cat. And it was just, like, lovely and peaceful. And then out of nowhere, it was like he snapped. He picked it up and he slammed it against a tree and killed it. And then Laughed and said, I'll do anything for a thrill. Like, it was funny.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

I'm uncomfortable.

[Corinne Vian]

And then in October of 1996, things got worse because Rod and one of his friends broke into the Murray Animal Shelter. The Murray, Kentucky Animal Shelter. They broke into it, they tortured and killed two puppies and they injured 50 other dogs. Like, I'm sorry, jail immediately?

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Well, yeah, because it's like there are so many studies that prove that kids and teens who kill animals are at much higher risk of escalating and later harming people.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah, totally. And also like, this is a crime.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

I'm so disturbed. Oh, this is so sickening.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah, but yeah, to your point, he was a very textbook example of like the escalation pattern with animals being the first victims soon to be human. So a lot of people trace back his time with the Vampire Hotel as being sort of like the catalyst of what is to come. At some point though, Rod and Jaden had a major falling out and it actually got very physical to the point where Jaden threw Rod against a wall and knocked him unconscious. And Jaden was 18, so he was considered an adult. Rod was still a minor, so he was actually. Jaden was charged with assault. And that basically ended Rod's time there and he left the gang and decided to start one of his own. So Rod is starting his new vampire cult, his new vampire gang. And the people that he's bringing in are like him. It's a group of social outcasts, people who didn't feel like they quite fit in anywhere. And two of the people that were involved were simply there just because of how close they were to Rod. So it wasn't better to start with

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

than your like best friends.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah, right. They're totally. Yes. Anding him. If I were to ever start vampires. Probably not.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

I'd ask you first. To say, would you want to be

[Corinne Vian]

a part is important, Sabrina. So I'll participate even though I don't think I'm a vampire. So the two people were his girlfriend, 16 year old Charity Kesey, who was allegedly or supposedly at this time pregnant with his baby, and also his best friend, 16 year old Howard Anderson, who went by the name Scott. So it was Scott and Charity.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

I think one of the things that's so wild about this is I didn't realize they were teenagers.

[Corinne Vian]

They're young.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

They're so young.

[Corinne Vian]

Right. You'd think like we'd talk about it more. Cause I feel like when teens kill, it's like huge news.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Right.

[Corinne Vian]

Like you think about like the Slenderman case or just all that.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

And also all of the other cults that we're talking about this season are led by people who are much older.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah. Who've been working for decades to build something.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Yeah.

[Corinne Vian]

No, but this is. But also, like, this is a ragtag group of, like, teens who feel like they never fit in, who are, like, desperate to keep their friends and their friend group and are going along with whatever the scariest member of the group says, which is Rod.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Yeah.

[Corinne Vian]

Okay, so those are the charity and Scott are two. But then there's also Dana Cooper, who is the only adult in the group, but I say adult. And Dana's 19, so still an adult, but she also a very young adult. A very young adult has teens still in her age. And she grew up very isolated. So maturity wise, I don't really know where she. She was on that spectrum, but she felt like she didn't belong anywhere in this group. Felt like something. Which is kind of a common theme

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

with all of them, but this and also many cults.

[Corinne Vian]

So most of them were not there because they believed in vampirism. They were there to have some sort of sense of identity and they were incredibly loyal to each other and just like with many other cults, incredibly loyal to Rod, who had founded this vampire gang for all of these three other kids to be a part of with him. So they were going to do basically whatever Rod told them to do. At just 16 years old, Rod had basically become a cult leader. But there was still one person missing from his group. Heather Wendorf, the girl that he'd left back behind when he had moved to Kentucky. The girl who had the Barbie doll. Yeah, yeah. They had now been apart for seven months. And Rod and Heather, despite being young and, like, lives moving on and stuff, they actually kept in contact. They were in, like, constant contact, talking every day on the phone over these seven months.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Was she his girlfriend or just a friend?

[Corinne Vian]

Well, they had dated, like, very, very briefly previously, but were like, very close friends.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Okay.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah. So still kind of weird. I'm sure his current girlfriend Charity, who may or may not have been pregnant at the time with his girlfriend, probably felt weird about how frequently he was talking to Heather. But, yeah, it was so frequent. It was actually. Heather's parents were like, you're racking up phone bills that are long distance and, like, this is getting expensive. So it was. They were in constant communication. And that doesn't sound totally unusual for teenagers. I feel like I definitely. I remember, like, buying calling cards when I'd go on vacation just so in the airport, I could use my like $20 that I spent on a call

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

card to call friends. Aww, cute.

[Corinne Vian]

So they were in communication a ton. And Rod, I think, felt this sort of deep connection with her, but also needing to protect her in a way because she told him that her parents were abusive and that her father had molested her.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Oh, geez.

[Corinne Vian]

So he hears that and it completely switches the switch, flips the switch for him. Because like, now he's not Rod, her friend. He's five year old Rod on a fishing trip with his grandfather. He's like, I know what you are dealing with. I know what you're experiencing.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

The Sago, a 500-year-old vampire who is probably keen on revenge.

[Corinne Vian]

Totally. He wants to help her, so he comes up with a plan. He is going to gather his vampire cult. They're going to drive down to Florida, they're going to rescue Heather from her parents, and the whole group is then going to move together to New Orleans. The perfect place for the vampire.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Place for vampires, right? Yeah.

[Corinne Vian]

So while he's coming up with this plan, he actually has a court date that he's supposed to show up to. The court date is November 25, 1996. He's supposed to stand in front of a Kentucky judge about the animal cruelty and the burglary charges with the Humane Society break in. But he's like, that's not important. I'm a 500 year old vampire and my friend is in trouble. And we're packing everybody into Scott's red Buick Skylark. We're going down to Florida. We're gonna go get Heather and go

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

to New Orleans and just ignore this whole thing?

[Corinne Vian]

Yes. He just didn't show up. Charity and Dana are in the back. Two boys are in the front, and they're going to Florida. Three days before Thanksgiving, they crossed into Florida. And the next day they pull outside of Heather's high school. She slipped out of her art history class for something that she clearly thought was more important, which was her crossing over ceremony. So not only was she getting saved, she was going to be turned in

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

the middle of the day.

[Corinne Vian]

I think it was that night. But they're preparing things. They have to go get stuff.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

You know what this reminds me of so much is doctor Sleep. There's like a whole little like group of people who are trying to like, steal people's shine, like that energy. And they travel around in a bus like this. This is giving me that same type of energy, except for we get to say doctor Sleep is fiction.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah. And this is very much real, unfortunately. So they pick up Heather at school, and then they drive to Walmart. They buy razors, and then they go to a nearby cemetery. And there Rod and Heather cut themselves, just like he had done with Jaden, to cross over himself. They drink each other's blood. And now she is officially joining the ranks of his cult. She is a vampire. But there's one more step to the plan, and that is to go to New Orleans. But vampires, they're still subject to human problems. And one of those problems was that Scott's car got a flat tire, so they couldn't go to New Orleans. But they're like, okay. Or Rod is like, okay, I'm a 500-year-old vampire. I'm smart. I can come up with a plan. And instead of just fixing the flat tire, his plan is to break into Heather's house, tie up her parents, Richard and Ruth, knock them out, and then steal their car. So that was his plan. He was pretty committed to it. And the rest are just following with the plan. Right. There's. Aside from like knocking them out and that being sort of like a violent part of the act, the plan was really just about stealing the car.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Right. Which I feel like they could have done in a not harmful way.

[Corinne Vian]

Why did they have to knock them out at all? Why couldn't they just wait for them to fall asleep? Exactly. So this is where things get a little bit murky with everyone's accounts as to, like, what happened and why. But Rod later claimed that he went into the Wendorf, his house on Greentree Lane, planning just for a simple robbery, that he had no intention of actually truly murdering anyone. But other people in the group said that he had been talking about wanting to do something violent for a while.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

I mean, based on his past, I'm not surprised by that. And I do believe that's true.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah. Either way, what we do know is that Rod and Scott entered the house through an unlocked garage door. They grabbed a crowbar along the way. And then Rod ripped the house phone off of the wall to cut any chance of calling for help. They found Richard Wendorf asleep on the couch, the TV still blaring in front of him. And then this part seems like a movie, like you would be like, this is fiction. They start dancing around him. So he's still asleep on the couch. He doesn't know that they're there.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Was he also doing drugs? Like, this is like. It feels so drug induced too. I mean, we know he was doing

[Corinne Vian]

cocaine, so he like, it's gonna come up. No. Okay. Like, once he gets caught, there's gonna be conversation about, like, oh, well, he was on drugs or whatever, but he will claim that he, like, everyone's like, no, he's totally sober.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

I mean, either way, there's like a lot of mental issues happening here.

[Corinne Vian]

Totally. Yeah. Yeah. But it's like some weird, freaky ritual that they're doing, like dancing around their prey before they're about to attack him. Rod later said that he heard a voice in his head in this moment saying, fuck it. And that is when he lost control.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

It was his own voice.

[Corinne Vian]

Sometimes people need to recognize that certain voices in your head are just your thoughts.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

That actually reminds me of Jeanette McCurdy's book. I'm glad my mother's. My mom is.

[Corinne Vian]

I'm glad my mom died.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Yeah. She talks a lot about how, because she grew up Mormon and everyone like, telling. Growing up told her, like, one day she would hear Jesus talk to her and Jesus's voice would, like, come through to her. And she kept waiting for it to happen. And then all of a sudden, one, she heard a voice tell her to do, like, touch things, like 10 times. What she now knows was severe OCD, but, like, all the things that she would hear this voice tell her she thought was God's voice finally speaking to her.

[Corinne Vian]

It's hard with all of this to differentiate what's going on. And especially if you don't have anyone in your life who's actually trying to help you or show you the way or do literally anything for you. Yeah, I can imagine why he is just thinking that. Yeah, he's well. And also that's part of his vampire identity is hearing voices and the sagos telling him what to do, being experiencing insanity. So it feels very icky saying the details of the crime. It's very, very gruesome. But I am going to tell you what happens. Rod beat Richard, who was sleeping on the couch, completely defenseless, over 20 times with a crowbar until his face looked like what was described as, quote, raw hamburger meat. That's a direct quote from the coroner, by the way. Richard did not die right away. No. He stayed alive for 20 minutes in agonizing pain, seizing and struggling before finally passing away. Rod then took Richard's cigarettes, the pack of cigarettes, and smoked one just standing over his body so blase, like, that's a good picture as to, like, what was going on with his psyche and how messed up he was. He then burned a V shaped symbol into Richard's corpse for Vassago, like, branding him, basically being like, I did this. And he also surrounded it with five circles, so one for each member of his cult, basically. This was also his way not only of saying he did it, but of, like, taking Richard's soul for himself, which

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

also, like, very clearly, Rod is not thinking about or worried about getting caught. Like, he's leaving clues to be like, this is my work.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah. Okay. But also, let's remember that he was told by his dear friend Heather that she was being sexually assaulted. She was like, this was a child molester. So not only is this for his friend, but this is probably for himself, too. Like, what he wanted to do to his own grandfather. So there's a lot of anger coming out in this attack because he thinks that this is a terrible.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Which is, again, why it feels premeditated and not just the spur of the moment. Let's knock them out and steal their car.

[Corinne Vian]

Totally. It's hard because it's like, if they hadn't gotten a flat tire, they would have just gone on to New Orleans.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Would they have?

[Corinne Vian]

I think they would have, but I think someone else would have died because he had been talking about someone.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Yeah.

[Corinne Vian]

Wanting to have that great act of violence. So, yeah, this is basically happening when Ruth is showering, and when she steps out of the shower, she is terrified when she hears a noise coming from her living room. And so she kind of slinks in to figure out what's going on. And that is when she sees what's happening. That's when she runs to the kitchen, grabs a hot cup of coffee, the only thing that she could find quickly to throw at Rod. But he came back to her, attacked her. He said he hadn't planned to kill her, but snapped when she struck him first with the coffee. Yeah. Geez. And he attacked her with the same crowbar that he had attacked her husband Richard with, and hit her over and over again. The autopsy showed extensive defense wounds, which means that she was conscious and fighting for the entire attack. But luckily, unlike Richard, who was left to just suffer for 20 minutes, her brainstem had been severed by the crowbar. So there was a point where she just instantly died. Afterward, Rod grabbed Richard's credit cards and keys to the Ford Explorer, which is the car that they're going to steal. And then the two boys sped away into the night.

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[Corinne Vian]

A while later, Heather's older sister, 17 year old Jennifer Wendorf, finished her late shift at the grocery store. She gets home just after 10.30pm she walks into the living room. She turns on the light to her house. Oh, she sees her dad. Like or like the image of him kind of over by the cause.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

He's watching TV, presumably, right?

[Corinne Vian]

Which was like a normal thing. She was like, oh, it wasn't odd for him to like fall asleep in front of the tv. So she doesn't really think much of it. She goes to the kitchen to grab a snack and that is when she sees a trail of blood and she starts following it to her mother. She doesn't just see her mom in a pool of blood, she sees her mom with half of her mom's skull gone.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Like you're a 17 year old girl coming home. Like anyone, like any age, any person coming to find their parents brutally murdered is something no one should ever have to experience.

[Corinne Vian]

No. Well, she doesn't even register that her dad has also been attacked. Yet in this moment so she sees her mom and she runs to the couch to wake up her dad to be like, help, help. Like mom. And that is when she finds that he has suffered the same horrible fate. I think a lot of people could go into shock. There are some people who spend days before even calling 911 because they can't fathom what just happened and what they're witnessing. Jennifer kept it together. She immediately called 911 from her cell phone. And when police got there, they started collecting a bunch of evidence. But there was to pinpoint who the suspect could be.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

There was no clear because also, Rod and his friends are coming. Came from Kentucky. Like, they're far away. It's not like, oh, this is a, like, suspicious person.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah. He was around town seeing this person all the time. And also, who could say, like, oh, yes. Heather was always in contact with this one guy, Rod, who was weird. Right. The parents who are known to. Yeah, yeah. So there is a lot of evidence. Not much direction in the beginning, but it doesn't take long for things to start pointing in the direction of Rod Ferrell and his little vampire crew that is now rolling out of town, trying to go to New Orleans. I almost said Las Vegas. Las Vegas could work, too. Yeah. But there's still one big question hanging over everything, which is, where is Heather? Because at this point, they don't know that Heather's a part of the group. They think that, like, she was abducted or like she was murdered. They have no idea what's going on. Did she murder her par. They have no idea what's going on. So while it's all unfolding, Rod and Scott had already met back up with the girls. They ditched Scott's Buick that had the flat tire and everyone crammed into Richard's Ford Explorer. And that is when they headed to New Orleans.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

So it's possible that Heather doesn't even know that her parents are dead because.

[Corinne Vian]

Correct.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

They.

[Corinne Vian]

The girls are.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Said they were just going to knock them out and grab the car.

[Corinne Vian]

Rod and Scott burned their blood soaked clothes. They tried to scrub the brain matter off of their boots. They went to Walmart. They bought a knife and some booze. And what did they use to pay for it? Richard's credit card. Which, like, kind of lucky because then the police at least are being able to see what's going on.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

But this also proves that, like, there's so much underdeveloped, like, teenage brain here happening. Oh, yeah. Like, most murderers make mistakes and that's why they're caught. But, like, they're not thinking this through.

[Corinne Vian]

No, they're really not. Which is why it's confusing, because it's like the premeditated part was the Rod was just like, waiting for an excuse to get violent.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Yeah.

[Corinne Vian]

But otherwise, there's no real thought out plan. And Rod would later say that being on the run was an utter rush because he loved knowing that law enforcement all over the country was looking for him because this is such a brutal crime. But things are falling apart pretty quickly. So Richard's credit card gets shut off. And again, relying on the 500-year-old vampire genius, Rod pitched another stellar plan, which was to break into a house and steal a piggy bank. Big money.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Specifically a piggy bank.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Okay.

[Corinne Vian]

Think it's a little kid. It's still a piggy bank. Yeah. So they do that. And 20 bucks in quarters. That is what they get from the piggy bank.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Which also in quarters is like the most inconvenient way to have 20 bucks.

[Corinne Vian]

Oh, my gosh. You can't even, like, check out a Walmart quickly to be on the run like you were dollars, 50 cents. Yeah. The other big issue was the atmosphere in the car was getting worse by the mile. So it was very cramped. The girls were starting to get nervous about Rod's erratic behavior. They weren't really entirely sure what was going on. And Rod was starting to worry that one of them was going to ruin the getaway.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

So he's getting paranoid.

[Corinne Vian]

Yes, exactly. So he responds as any good cult leader would by threatening them. So he taunted Heather with a blood covered crowbar. The blood covered crowbar pointing to each different end, saying that he murdered her parents and saying like, this is the side I murdered your father with. This is the side I murdered your mother with. And I'll murder you too if you.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

I'm just like, my heart breaks for Heather. Like, she thought Rod was her friend. And they had been staying connected over. Over phone calls for so long. She had no idea how drastic he had become and how extreme he had become.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah, definitely. She couldn't have predicted this, I don't think. He told Charity if she tried to leave, he would break her kneecaps. He told Dana if she ran, he wouldn't go after her. He would instead take it out on the other girls. So, like, they're each getting an individual threat that is going to scare them the most.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Keep them in line.

[Corinne Vian]

Yes. And for a little while, Rod's approach actually did work. And the group did stay in line. They made their way all the way to Louisiana not to New Orleans, though, because Charity, she was petrified, remember? Again, like, she's. I keep saying, supposedly, because it was just like, oh, he. She may have been pregnant with the baby.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Right.

[Corinne Vian]

Like, this was what was said. Like, she was scared for her and her baby. Yeah. So she, three days after the murder, finds a payphone and calls her grandma and, like, asks for help. So police are able to trace the call, and that is how they get intel and, like, know where the group is going. And they are waiting for the group. When the group pulls in a few hours later into the nearby Howard Johnson Hotel, Rod and the others are taken into custody, and the story is just sort of beginning or starting to unfold.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

And I say, how is it just starting?

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah, well, there's a lot of complicated, like, narratives conflicting with one another.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Gotcha.

[Corinne Vian]

Once Rod and the others are taken into custody, the police had to figure out what they were dealing with because, like, what the hell is going on? Thankfully, Rod hadn't hurt any of the people in the group, but everyone is so scared and so clearly visibly shaken. Heather's sobbing. She's covered in self inflicted cuts. And the others are a lot quieter. They seem shut down, like, no one's talking really for a while. And whenever investigators would ask them a question, they just kept looking over at Rod like they were waiting for him to answer for the group.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Well, also, most of them are minors, except for Dana. Right. So it's also like, do they have parents there to be with them as they're being questioned?

[Corinne Vian]

I don't think so, no. At first they're being questioned as a group, and then I think it's clear

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

that, like, you can't question this group together.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah, no, especially not with Rod in the mix. Immediately, investigators are like, okay, well, Rod is the ringleader here.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

It's clear, because if everyone's looking to

[Corinne Vian]

him, no one will answer except for him. One officer said that Rod's control over the group was so strong that he thought that if they hadn't been caught, if they had made it to New Orleans, that Rod actually probably would have pretty successfully recruited a lot more people into his vampire cult. So, like, he had had the makings. This was like the makings of a cult leader.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Yeah, I believe it.

[Corinne Vian]

When police brought them in for questioning, Rod did not show any remorse. He did not pretend to be sorry. He openly admitted to killing Richard and Ruth. He seemed proud of it. He said that taking their lives made him feel like a God, and it was the best thing that he had ever done.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Is this sickening, right? And this is, like, a very disturbed human.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah. There's, like, nothing normal. Like, you can't even extract anything.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

You know what scares me is that I recently am, like, getting back into, like, the dating world, and I've developed such a fear of, like, men, because I'm like, what if they're like this? And you don't know,

[Corinne Vian]

One really scary date I went on.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

I'm terrified where I'm just gonna become a cat lady.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah, I'm good. The 2 second version was someone told me their backstory, and then as they started drinking, they had a completely different accent, and their story started to change, and they got really, really scary, and their eyes were dead. And then they started talking to someone who wasn't there. I mean, like, two of the girls in this group are people who either had relationships with him or were in one, too. Yeah, this is an abusive relationship, but, like, so, so, so far.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Horrifying.

[Corinne Vian]

So he's super proud of this. He's also openly discussing being a vampire, and he's trying to pin some of this on being a vampire, which makes the media go crazy, because it's one thing to have, like, a murderous group of teenagers, but a group of murderous teen vampires, like, oh, my God, who's not gonna read that article?

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Yeah, that's a very catchy headline.

[Corinne Vian]

Totally. And, like, a double homicide. Double murder, like, that's. Yeah. It's so wild. So while he did kind of talk about vampirism as being part of it, it wasn't his whole shtick. He wasn't trying to blame it and be like, oh, well, I'm not responsible because I'm a 500-year-old vampire and I was possessed, and it wasn't actually me. It was more.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

And he still got pride.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah. Yeah. It was more of, like, a backdrop. It was just like. That was like, the side story of his big, proud moment. Rod had a very warped sense of justice. His need for control, and his propensity for utter violence, and the confession of that would come. It's just like, he's just such an odd character that it was impossible to not be like, oh, my God, what the hell is going on here?

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

No, I'm also so intrigued by. I mean, like, in a very. Like, I'm so concerned about how disturbed he is. Way, like, you want to dig into it. You want to understand and see how this is possible, right?

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah, it's, like, almost. Yeah. Oh, there's still some, like, weirdness to come. Behavior wise. There's more.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Okay. Okay.

[Corinne Vian]

And there's like more little details that will come out. So on December 17, 1996, Rod was charged as an adult to two counts of first degree murder. He pleaded not guilty. Even though he first caught was like, I murdered them and I'm proud and I feel like a God. Scott, Dana, and Charity were each charged as principals to first degree murder, along with armed robbery and armed burglary. But the real surprise is that Heather, the one whose parents were murdered, a grand jury actually cleared her of any wrongdoing. They believed her when she said she had no clue that her parents were in danger and that she, after the fact, went along with everything because she was terrified of Rod.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

I think I would have, if I were on that grand jury, probably would have sided the same way.

[Corinne Vian]

Yes. Except I will say one detail that's a little bit. It makes this a little more confusing. Was Heather's sister, 17 year old sister, said that a few weeks prior, Heather had asked if she had ever thought about killing their parents.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

But was that her thought or was that something Rod had said on a phone call? And Rod was like, have you ever thought about killing your parents? And then Heather starts to question that.

[Corinne Vian]

Right. This is why it's confusing. Cause it's like, what's Rod's influence? And what, like, how did things. And also, like, these are teenagers. Like, is she just saying stuff over the phone to like, try to him or like be liked by him? Like, yeah, we don't know. But we do know that the others sat in jail and they kind of became these local celebrities. And part of why it was so crazy in the media was like, because of the brutality of the crime, but also because of how they were acting behind bars.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Oh, my gosh.

[Corinne Vian]

Okay. So you would think that because most of these people coming in were not actually like truly buying into the vampire thing, they were just doing it because of Rod, that they might just act like normal teenagers. But that is not what happened. Scott would spend hours crouched like a gargoyle in his cell and gnaw on the cell bars all night long.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Oh, my gosh. Okay.

[Corinne Vian]

Charity got caught licking blood from self inflicted cuts, which she did with jail issued razors.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Well, also, like, yes, they might have not bought into the whole vampire thing initially, but then once they did buy in, I feel like they really. Yeah, did.

[Corinne Vian]

And also, these are kids who are coming in with a lot of other things.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Yes.

[Corinne Vian]

And it's like, you know, I don't. She's. I don't think she's cutting herself because she Thinks she's a vampire and she needs to drink blood. I think that this is her form of, like, release. Yeah. Yeah. So sad. Rod spent his court appearances flicking his tongue in at news cameras and kissing the glass door panels.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

He's the type of person who would have for sure gotten that surgery to like, split your tongue.

[Corinne Vian]

Yes. Oh, my God. Or like the eye tattoo where your eyes are completely black. Totally. Yeah. It was very creepy. He was so clearly having no remorse or respect for the victims. It was a very bizarre legal situation.

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[Corinne Vian]

Rod's mother, Sandra, also arrested around this time for sending sexual messages to a 14 year old boy. And in the review of those messages, she asks the boy, just guess. Like you will never guess what she asks.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Is it something to do with her son?

[Corinne Vian]

Like what sort of. She asks this 14 year old boy to cross her over so that she can become a vampire. His mom, who has like, nothing to do with him anymore.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Wait, well, now I'm so confused. I'm like, what did she know of her son's vampire involvement and did she

[Corinne Vian]

influence him way more than we even know.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Right?

[Corinne Vian]

That's so weird.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

It feels like there's so much of the story that we're not, we don't know that indicates that there's something.

[Corinne Vian]

Or is this her trying to use. Use her son's obsession with vampires to like, relate more to a child to try to groom them? But like, yeah, I, I don't know what's going on with Sandra semantic wise.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

That 14 year old boy would have to also be a vampire in order to cross her over.

[Corinne Vian]

Right.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

So there's some plot holes here.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah. Sandra ended up pleading guilty, but mentally ill to unlawful transaction with a minor. Somehow she only got probation for all of that.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

If I was in charge of the judicial system, I would make every single person be mandated therapy from like an early age. And like, you have a therapist who monitors all your stuff.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Not that therapy solves everything, but like, I feel like there's just so much in this story, where you see there's stuff going on mentally. Yeah.

[Corinne Vian]

Many kids involved that are. And also, it's like, someone could be. I feel like maybe not have that much going on that they need help with, but you meet the wrong person and the influence and, like, things get exacerbated. And mental illness can also start appearing, especially for, like, boys in the late teens, early 20s. Yeah. It's just. Yeah, it's all very complicated. But in this case, very, very tragic because two people lost their lives. Geez. On February 5, 1998, literally hours before his trial was supposed to start, Rod suddenly changed his plea to guilty.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

He pulled a Jen Shaw. I guess Jen Shaw pulled a Rod Farrell. Very different cases. I'm not comparing.

[Corinne Vian]

Just. Just in that moment, how they choose to switch up last second. Yeah. So even though he switched to plea guilty, he still had to face a jury for sentencing. So this is where his defense team is. Like, okay, well, our defense is that he was on drugs. He wasn't in his right mind. He had been drinking. He was smoking. He'd taken hits of LSD. He had downed 15 Prozac pills. But then the other kids, the witnesses told a different story. They were like, no, he was completely coherent. He was focused on what he kept referring to as unfinished business with Heather's parents that day.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

I believe that.

[Corinne Vian]

And then Rod himself told jail staff that he was completely sober when he killed Richard and Ruth.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

I would say an attorney's role is to kind of spin a story to lessen the sentencing here.

[Corinne Vian]

So doing their job. But he's talking so much. Everyone's talking so much that it's impossible to actually.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

No. Sometimes I do wonder, like, for a lawyer who's defending someone who is so clearly guilty, just the conversations that they're having behind closed door, like, internally.

[Corinne Vian]

Right. Oh, God, it would be so hard to be a defense attorney. What do you do if you think that they're guilty?

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

I wouldn't want to take on a case where I thought someone was guilty.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah, but sometimes you can get so far into a case, and then something comes out, and you start like, oh, wait a second. Now I'm questioning everything.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Yeah.

[Corinne Vian]

Okay, so that angle didn't work. But then Rod's lawyers are like, we have another idea. The mental health angle. If we're not gonna do the drugs, we're gonna do mental health. And they brought psychologists in who said that Rod had schizotypal personality disorder, depression, substance abuse issues, and a learning disability.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

I don't disagree with, but that's not a reason to say that he's not guilty or responsible for the crime he committed.

[Corinne Vian]

Right. But it might just change where he's held. Sure. They also tried to argue that Rod had snapped after hearing that Richard had been abusing Heather. Heather. Apparently, it comes out that those claims are made up. She had just said that in conversation. Why she said that, what the motive was, I don't know. But she's like, no, it wasn't actually true. That was a lie.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

That's horrible. And also the guilt that she already has to live with every single day, knowing that she led this unhinged man to murder her parents. Yeah.

[Corinne Vian]

Cause she was not a part of the plot or, like, the plotting to kill the parents. She wasn't in the house. Like, she had no idea.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Yeah.

[Corinne Vian]

Rod's psychologist admitted that Rod was faking a lot of his symptoms and that he seemed to think that the whole legal process was a game. So after hearing that, the jury was like, well, this isn't gonna take long for us to sentence you. And on February 27, 1998, Rod was sentenced to death and became the youngest person ever sent to the Florida electric chair.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Also, another shocking part of this case that I'm, like, surprised. I had never heard of this prior to this.

[Corinne Vian]

Right? Yeah. I hadn't known all the details, but I'd seen clips come up before of small moments. Like, one of the most shocking cases. Vampire cult leader.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

I knew nothing.

[Corinne Vian]

Teenager skill.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Heard and knew nothing.

[Corinne Vian]

Rod was sent to the electric chair. Heather is let go. Right. But then there's still three others. There's Dana, Charity, and Scott. So Scott pleaded guilty to principal on first degree murder. And at his sentencing, he told the judge that when things turned violent, he basically just froze. He panicked. He didn't know what to do, and he just kind of stood there. The court did not buy that. And he was sentenced to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. Dana, on the other hand, pleaded guilty. And remember, Dana's the only one that's 19, so she is already an adult.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Right.

[Corinne Vian]

So she pleads guilty to being a principal to third degree murder along with armed robbery and burglary. She ends up getting 17 and a half years in prison.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Interesting, because, like, she and the two other girls were not even.

[Corinne Vian]

They weren't in the house. Yeah, they were not inside the house? No.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Wow.

[Corinne Vian]

So she made it pretty clear that she wishes she had never met Rod ever in her life. That he, like, ruined her life.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

He did, Absolutely.

[Corinne Vian]

Charity also took a plea deal and was sentenced to Ten and a half years. Wow.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

So Heather's the only one who had no punishment in any regard.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah, basically. So there were a lot of questions that came up. So Heather initially was released or, like, let go. But then a judge demanded that the state prosecutors call a second grand jury to stick Heather with criminal charges because they weren't buying everything completely. In December of 1998, two years after the murders, that's exactly what happened. This time, the state brought in witnesses who testified that Heather said that she wanted her parents dead. One person said they actually overheard her telling Rod to get rid of her parents.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Oh, geez.

[Corinne Vian]

And then, like I said before, her sister Jennifer was like, hey, a few weeks before, she asked if I'd ever thought about killing our parents. So there were all these things that are like, okay, maybe she's not as innocent as you think.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Also, poor Jennifer, who, 17, has to discover her parents murder. And then also the one person who you could have potentially had to get through all of this, your sister was somewhat responsible for it.

[Corinne Vian]

It just, hey, you lose your whole family.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Breaks my heart.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah. She's brought in a second grand jury. And basically how the grand jury works is the bar is way lower than an actual trial. You don't have to prove someone's guilt. You just have to have enough evidence to move it forward. And basically, it was like, was she involved in a way. Let's find out.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Like, even just the idea of it is enough to move it forward.

[Corinne Vian]

But that is not what happened. The grand jury cleared her again for a second time. And to this day, Heather has never faced any criminal charges. She was sent to live with her grandmother, but her grandmother really resented her for the murders and was not very kind. She actually fired a pistol near Heather's head one day to get her to stop talking.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

I mean, I have a lot of thoughts on, like, even just near her head. Like, was that the intention, or was she actually trying to kill her?

[Corinne Vian]

I don't know. But it did get to a point where Heather's grandmother was like, I'm not taking care of you at all. And she, like, refused to take care of her. So Heather's own lawyer ended up stepping up and becoming her foster parent. Is that interesting?

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Kind of feels like Matilda.

[Corinne Vian]

It kind of does. So the role, like, what Heather did or did not do, that's still a big question mark, right? I think a lot of people involved in the case are still. You know, there's differing sides, but legally,

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

she's innocent in the eyes of the court. She had no role she.

[Corinne Vian]

Yes. But then in the eyes of a lot of people in the public or other people who believe that she did have a role, they feel like Richard and Ruth didn't ever truly get justice. Yeah. For their murders. In 2006, Charity was released early for good behavior. Dana got out in 2011 before finishing her entire sentence. And then the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional for anyone under 17. So Rod's sentence was automatically reduced to life in prison.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

So was that decided the same year of the sentencing, or. It was like, anyone who was sentenced to this under the age of 17?

[Corinne Vian]

He was. Yeah. He just had.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Because I was like, he probably wasn't 17 any longer.

[Corinne Vian]

I always have to remind myself, because when I feel like when people get sentenced to the electric chair, like, to. To death or whatever, my mind is automatically like, okay, they've got, like, a couple weeks or something.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

No, it's a long time, but, like,

[Corinne Vian]

it can be decades. Yeah. Someone awaiting the completion of their sentencing. But basically, with the Florida Supreme Court ruling that the death penalty is unconstitutional for anyone under 17, that ruling also opened up a door for all minors who received sentencing, like, life sentences to be reviewed as well. I remember Scott. It was like two life sentences or something like that. So Scott took advantage of that, and he managed to get his sentence reduced to 40 years. Rod tried to do the same. It took a long time for him to get in front of anyone. But In November of 2019, he finally got back in front of a judge. He argued to reduce his sentence. This was the very first time he showed any signs of remorse, which you're

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

like, remorse, like, in quotations.

[Corinne Vian]

Was he, like, coached or something, or

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

was like he was just putting on a performance?

[Corinne Vian]

Totally. Yeah. Too little, too late. The court was like, sorry, we do not believe you. The judge called him irreparably corrupt, basically said that he was beyond rehabilitation. He needed to stay separated from society for the rest of his life. And his sentence. His life sentence.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

I, like this judge, don't know anything else beyond this sentencing, but I agree.

[Corinne Vian]

But it also makes me curious what more the judge heard of his behavior

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

in jail, too, because that does.

[Corinne Vian]

Because that's a huge part of. Yeah.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Yep.

[Corinne Vian]

So at this point, with the appeals exhausted, it's very unlikely that Rod will ever see the light of day, because

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

it seems like, pun intended. Never see the light of day because he's a vampire.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah. Does he go out for his walks around the court? Sure he does.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

I feel like the only real things he took on of a vampire Was drinking blood.

[Corinne Vian]

Yeah, true.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Yeah.

[Corinne Vian]

Just a horrific case. I mean there are three victims in this. Well, four I guess if you include Heather. But Jennifer, 17 year old who became an orphan, lost her entire family. And this is all because of a guy who thought that he was a vampire. And when you take everything into account, it does feel a lot less like Rod became violent because of vampires and a lot more like vampires were just an aesthetic that he layered on top of everything else that he had going on.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

He had violence like baking to him.

[Corinne Vian]

The isolation, the child abuse, drugs, mental health issues. There was just so much going on and all of that combined into something that was a lot more dangerous than Dracula himself. Hot take. He's not a vampire, he's a human murderer.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

100. And he used the like idea of a vampire to kind of encourage his sick ideas.

[Corinne Vian]

Yes.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Well, that's disturbing. How would you.

[Corinne Vian]

Not what you expected?

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Not at all. I really, I knew nothing about this. So horrifying.

[Corinne Vian]

Well, I was trying to hint at things when I was saying like, oh, the drinking blood or like the different things are going to come up. But I guess. Yeah, yeah.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

I mean I had an idea. Yeah. In that sense. But no idea about how horrible it was and how young they all were. Well, we hope you all enjoyed this episode. Before we do wrap up, I feel like we want to share a few resources for some of the very heavy topics we discussed. All of the support we're about to mention. It's free, confidential and available 24. 7 anywhere in the US and it will be included in our show notes as well of this episode. If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, please know you are not alone. The National Sexual Assault Hotline offers support in both English and Spanish. You can call 800-656-HOPE, which is 4673 chatn.org hotline or text HOPE to 64673. There's also a dedicated crisis line for those struggling with self harm in the US you can text the letters SH to 741741. And there's a special number to text for those in California. 686-868. Either of those lines will connect you to a crisis counselor who can help you identify triggers and come up with safe alternatives. Visit crisistextline.org for more information. And finally, there are also resources available for people trying to leave high control groups or cults. So if you or someone you know is in a part of a group that threatens physical harm against you or shows other warning signs that we've talked about today and in the other episodes of Crimes of Cults. You can visit cultrecovery101.com for more information and resources.

[Corinne Vian]

Thank you so much for listening. We are your hosts, Sabrina Dianaruga and Corinne Vietnamese. Join us next Tuesday for another peek inside another Crimes of Cults case. And if there are any cases that you would like us to cover, please let us know in the comments here at Crime House. We want to thank each and every one of you for your support and if you like what you heard today, please reach out on all social media at Crime House.

[Sabrina Dianaruga]

Don't forget to rate, review and follow Crimes of wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. Thank you Dirt thank you for joining us.

[Corinne Vian]

Court is adjourned.