Colleague: Va. prof sought help with daughter’s obsession with macabre music before killings

Va. prof, daughter in counseling before killings

FARMVILLE, Va. — A slain mother and daughter from Virginia were in counseling over the teenager’s obsession with macabre music before they were killed.

Police say 16-year-old Emma Niederbrock was bludgeoned to death at her central Virginia home along with her mother, father and a friend. Emma’s boyfriend is suspected in the killings.

Emma’s mother, Debra Kelley, was a criminal justice professor at Longwood University in Farmville. One of her former colleagues, James Hodgson, says the mother took the teen to concerts in an attempt to keep an eye on her.

The concerts featured horrorcore artists who set violent lyrics to hip-hop beats.

Hodgson had worked closely with Kelley and knew Emma most of her life. He says Kelley hoped the music was a phase that her daughter would soon outgrow.