True Crime Confidential | Interview with a Vampire

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Roderick Ferrell and Heather Wendorf, formerly close friends attending school in Eustis, Florida, experienced a significant change when Rod relocated with his mother to Murray, Kentucky. In Kentucky, Rod adopted a gothic style, donning black attire, and expressed an unusual fascination with vampires. During a Thanksgiving visit to Eustis in 1996, Rod shocked his friends by claiming to have formed a vampire cult and convinced four of them, Heather Wendorf, Scott Anderson, Charity Keese, and Dana Cooper, to abandon their homes and join him.

 However, they faced two pressing challenges: the limited space in Rod's car and the need for funds. Consequently, on November 25, 1996, Rod and Scott broke into Heather's parents' residence, intending to steal their 1993 Ford Explorer and obtain cash. Richard Wendorf, 49, was present in the living room watching television. In a chilling confession to the detective, Rod described how he mercilessly attacked Mr. Wendorf with a crowbar, relentlessly striking him until his life ceased, admitting to the heinous act of murder.

Rod recalled the harrowing twenty minutes it took for Mr. Wendorf to succumb, believing him to be immortal at one point. Ruth Wendorf, 54, emerged from the shower, and although initially contemplating sparing her life, Rod claimed that her aggressive resistance, including scratching and scalding him with hot coffee, infuriated him. Consequently, he brutally ended her life by repeatedly impaling her skull with the crowbar and mercilessly beating her until her brain matter stained the floor.

 After traversing four states for four days, the group of teenage vampires depleted their financial resources. In a desperate move, Charity Keese contacted her grandmother for a wire transfer of money. Sensing something amiss, the grandmother promptly notified the authorities, leading them to track down and apprehend the teenagers in the parking lot of a Howard Johnson's in Baton Rouge. Ferrell, then 17, pled guilty and initially faced the prospect of being the youngest individual on death row in the United States. However, his sentence was eventually reduced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

True Crime Confidential