Intro
“Welcome to Murder By Nature, where we discuss True Crime, Mystery disappearances, and unsolved cases! I’m Jazmin Hernandez, your host!
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References:
Berkeley Springs, WV, is a small town within the county seat of Morgan County; its also known to be referred to as the area within the town of Bath. In 2019 Berkeley Springs had a population of 593 people. It's known to be a safe community with few crimes but nothing that compares to what they were going to be hit with soon.
Riley Crossman was a gorgeous 15-year-old teenager from West Virginia. Riley was born December 22, 2003, in Martinsburg, WV, and she shared time between her parent’s homes in Martinsburg and Berkeley Springs, WV. Riley was a beautiful, innocent soul with a laugh that would fill the room. She was a natural artist, a talented dancer, and had the voice of an angel. Riley loved babies and small children; they were always drawn to her, but none more than her little sister and two younger brothers. She was helpful, caring, intelligent, stubborn, and as dramatic as teenage girls come. Riley was a beacon of light and love for her family; she was loving and kind.
In 2019, Riley was growing up and doing what most teenagers do dating. Being 15 years old, like anyone else, she had a crush on one of her schoolmates, Hayden, and the feelings were mutual. Hayden and Riley adored each other, and they started a cute kid romance. Riley’s parents adored him and were so happy that Riley had found a sweet kid. Riley’s parents were divorced, and she had to split home with both of them. While she spent time with both her parents, she would mostly stay at her mother’s place so that she could go to school there. At Riley’s mother's house, she lived with her mother and her boyfriend, Andy McCauley. Everything seemed to be going great, school was going great she just started her Freshman year and it was a great start to the next chapter of her life. Riley tried out for the gymnastics team at school and made the cut. This was exciting for her as she was a model student and what every parent would want in a child.
On May 7, 2019, Riley returned home from school at around 3:30 pm. She saw her mother taking a nap on the couch. Riley’s mother, Chantel, worked two jobs to make ends meet, she would work one in the morning and the second would be an evening shift but on that day, Chantel wasn’t well. She decided to leave work early from her first job to catch some sleep before starting the next one. At this time, Riley’s maternal grandmother was at home and stayed until around 7:00 p.m, and she was at home all evening to ensure Riley was taken care of. After her mother went to work, Riley spent the evening with her grandmother. At some point that evening Riley went into her room to talk with Hayden and go to sleep. Around 10:00 pm Chantel arrive home after work and noticed that Riley’s door was closed and assumed that she was asleep or talking with Hayden so she decided that she would do the same and head to bed as she was still not feeling the best and hoped that she would wake up feeling a lot better. I think we all do this I know i do when I do not feel good I try to fall asleep and wake up feeling a whole lot better.
As morning came, Chantel got up and started to get ready for work. As she walked around the house she noticed that Riley’s door was still closed, she decided that she was going to go and see how Riley’s evening went and talk before she had to head to school but when she went to check on her, and Riley wasn’t there. This didnt immediately alarm Chantel it wasn’t uncommon for Riley to leave early for school. She enjoyed spending time with her friends before class. Besides, Riley’s boyfriend, Hayden, was to go on a school field trip. So Chantel assumed Riley was at school with him.
Now as 3:30 PM rolled around Chantel waited for Riley to come home and see what has been going on with her daughter before she headed out to work that evening. But 3:30 came and went with no sign of Riley. Worried and angry, Chantel tried to call Riley, but her messages weren’t delivered, and her calls were going straight to voicemail. Then Chantel got the message that Riley didnt show up to school that day. That evening Riley had a dance rehearsal after school she didn’t tell her mother about, but Riley’s grandmother did and decided that she would walk over to the school to see if there was any signs of Riley. She checked all around campus but again no Riley. As their search was starting to really become nerve racking it wasnt until Chantel met up with Hayden and was told that he too has not heard from Riley all day despite his efforts to call and text her. Chantel decided to go back home to see if Riley was there thinking that maybe Riley decided to ditch school, maybe her and Hayden had an argument and she was lashing out and not speaking to him. But when she got home Riley was still not there or answering her phone. By this point Chantel knew she had to call 911 something was wrong. Chantel dials 911 and files a missing persons report and calls Lance Crossman, Riley’s father. She lets him know that no one has been able to get a hold of Riley all day and ask if he has heard from her or seen her. Lance decides that he is going to call and text his daughter but again no answer. “I sent her a message saying, ‘Riley, I don’t know what’s going on, but the police have been called and this is getting serious. You need to call me now,’” he said.
At that point, the whole community is out looking for Riley, this isnt like her and they are exhausting all effort to locate her. They checked the school, neighborhood, community centers, parks, etc. But Riley is no where to be found. As time is going on the police and community members are asking if there is any possible way that Riley would of ran away, did she have a a fight with someone, was she upset, did something happen that she would of wanted to leave. Chantel explained that Riley wouldnt the type of kids to just leave she had a great relationship with her parents and she didnt have access to a car. She was 15 without her license or learning permit. Plus, Riley didn’t have a complicated life. She had incredible friends, a caring boyfriend, and a beautiful family. As the day continues the police decide that it is time to reached out to Riley’s friends to retrace her steps. As police talk with Riley’s friends and Boyfriend that are able to have a timeline of Riley’s activity, they learn that Riley was on facetime with her boyfriend until around 10:30pm and she was texting friends until about midnight that evening. Then, at around 5:30 am, she called Hayden, but he didn’t pick up the call as he was sleeping. After that, she went silent, and none of her friends had seen or heard from her.
With no sign of Riley and her cell phone still being inactive the police decide it is time to start searching the last known location that Riley was, her bedroom. On her bedside table, the police found Riley’s glasses and wallet which struck them as odd. Its hard to run away without her glasses and wallet. Then they found bloodstains on her pillow and bedsheets. And as they continued to search for her they were able to determined that her blood was also mixed with salvia. At this moment the police knew that Riley did not run away and was lead to something more sinister than that.
As the days passed the community was coming together to help find Riley. Riley’s high school is doing everything they can to help find her. They organized a rally on May 13th, asking the entire student body to wear blue and gold to “show of support from the BSHS community in the efforts to get her home safely.” according to their Facebook page. The high school has asked the student body multiple times to help out with the search.
Riley’s father, Lance, told Dateline “We’ve had several volunteer searches that we’ve organized. There’s just been so many areas that we have covered on ground searches. It’s been the worst thing that’s ever happened to any of us. None of us are sleeping or eating very well,” he continued. “We do have a good support system and community support. But it’s been horrific.”
The Morgan County Sheriff’s Department planned “a large coordinated search” for Wednesday, May 15. Volunteers were asked to meet near the Office of Emergency Services at 9:00 a.m. in the old War Memorial Parking lot. They are still looking for team leaders and volunteers but received so many offers volunteering their equipment. On a Facebook post, they announced, “We are not looking for any additional equipment or resources now other than those who can walk and physically search areas.”
The Sheriff’s Department was assisted by the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, West Virginia State Police, and many others. The search efforts have considerable resources and has logged “hundreds of man hours” so far according to a statement by the Morgan County Sheriff’s Department.
One week after Riley disappeared on May 16, 2019, the family’s fears came true. Near Tuscarora Pike in Berkeley County, the police found a decomposed female body. The body was found on a steep cliff near the top of a mountain. And the sight was unsettling. The remains were in an advanced state of decomposition, officials said. It may take them months to determine the cause and manner of death, if possible at all. As the news spread the family knew something was wrong and then they got the call. Chantel had to come down to the station to try and identify the body. Chantel was able to identified Riley from her clothes, and the autopsy report confirmed it. However, since the body was heavily decomposed, the pathologist couldn’t determine the cause of death or if she was sexually assaulted. However, the state of her body was proof of a violent crime. They found Riley in a trash bag. She was covered in a white chalky substance that resembled drywall mud. Under her pants, she had a pair of shorts unzipped and unbuttoned. She had no bra on, and her underwear was ripped. Plus, she only had one untied shoe; the other pair was missing. The police suspected Riley’s death of a homicide, and the hunt for the killer began.
As the family got confirmation and was processing the fact that their daughter was not coming home they knew they had to be strong to find out who did this to their daughter. The police began their investigation by interviewing Riley’s father, mother, grandmother, and her mother’s boyfriend, Andy. These were the last know people around her expect her father. They lived in the same house and there was evidence of some crime happening in her room. While police question everyone one by one each persons alibi was checking out except for one person.
On the day Riley went missing, a neighbor had noticed a green truck in the Crossman’s driveway. It stood out to him because Chantel was at work, and Andy did not have a license this immedtality stuck out to them. The police asked Chantel if she noticed anything peculiar the day Riley went missing. While she thought little of it then, she told the police that Andy’s reaction was strange when she informed him that Riley was missing. He looked more skittish than worried. She saw him running into the house, grabbing something, and taking off. He told her that he ran out to go look for Riley but wasnt able to find her. However, when Chantel returned home from an exhausting search, she found Andy fake sleeping on the couch. He never searched for Riley.
As the police continued to interviewed Andy, something didnt seem right it was like he wasnt telling the full story of what was happening or going on. As the police asked Andy about his whereabouts on May 8, 2019 his story kept changing. He first claimed that he was at work the whole day. However, his colleagues confirmed that he left in between for at least five hours and no one was able to account for where he was. When the police questioned him again, he changed his story multiple times. He first said that he went to buy cocaine from a dealer but that he couldnt tell them who it was or where it was from. Then he alleged that he went home to grab some drugs for himself and his co-worker and again he had no alibi, and no one could account for where he was. As the police started to interview his colleagues they swore that Andy went to meet some girl that day and was gone for hours. He admitted to police that he did drive to his home on May 8, but only to shoot himself up with drugs. He said he was only there for around 15 to 30 minutes before leaving. But he previously told authorities that he never shot himself up with drugs, but he instead sniffed cocaine. He also said he left home and traveled down W.Va. 9, but authorities pointed out that video surveillance would have captured him driving along the route, which it did not. As the evidence kept pilling up against andy the police decided that it was time to gather hard cold facts against him. As they continued to research they quickly learned that the green truck the neighbor saw in the drive away actually belonged to Andy’s colleague.
The police decided it was time to get a warrant to search the truck and when they did, they found shocking evidence. The back of the truck bed had the same drywall mud found on Riley. They knew they had to confirm the match from the truck to Riley’s body, so they used cadaver dogs. As the police searched the crime scene for more clues, they were able to find matching sheet metal screws from the same construction site Andy was working at and from the truck's inventory. The police then checked the surveillance footage surrounding the crime scene and found Andy driving the truck to various places near the crime scene. They knew with this video evidence, it was going to be hard to find a way out of the case. For one more effort to lock down as much evidence as possible, they pulled andy’s phone records. On the day Riley was murdered, Andy kept calling a colleague for a temporary place he was telling him that he wasn't allowed to stay at his girlfriends anymore. As the police continued to collect evidence on Andy, they made a shocking discovery. On the night of May 7th, Riley texted Hayden, “I’m Scared, Babe” At 11:01 p.m., 12 mins earlier, she sent him a text. "Andy's in my room and I'm scared," The message sent, but Hayden was asleep at the time that the message came through. Andy called Riley’s cell phone three times between 3 am and 4 am the morning she went missing. As they checked the phone records, they found that he was dialing it *67, and if you do not know what they mean, it was a way that we were able to block our numbers when calling people.
The police knew they had their guy and it was time to bring him in for question about all the evidence they found. When the police presented the pile of evidence against him, Andy started blurting out random stories. He claimed that he was sick and wanted more drugs. But when he went to get them, he saw a parked police vehicle with its headlights on. Though he fled from the scene, he wanted to stay away for a while to protect his loved ones. The police checked and confirmed that no troops were stationed in that area on May 8, 2019. With Andy not talking or being really communicative they decided it was time and arrested Andy for the first-degree murder of Riley Crossman, concealment of a body, and child abuse.
As Riley’s family grieved the lost of their daughter and the arrest of a person they trusted with her they waited for the trial to start in September 2021, 28 months after Riley’s brutal murder.
The prosecution team presented over 239 pieces of evidence, including 25 people testifying against Andy. First on the stand was Brandy Eggeman, a dog handler who is a certified in human remains recovery, along with her dog Rock. She testified Rock alerted to the odor of human decomposition in the back of a green Dodge Ram truck that has been the suspect vehicle throughout the case. Eggeman pointed to the driver’s side rear wheel weld in the back of the truck as the area Rock pointed out and also testified he alerted for the presence of decomposition to screws and ‘drywall on some foliage’ at the location where Riley Crossman’s body was found. Defense attorney Daniel Kirkland pressed Eggeman on whether the dog could alert for something simple like blood from a bloody nose on a tissue, to which the handler said, ‘Yes.’ Morgan County Prosecutor Dan James followed up: “If there were a body in the back of this truck wrapped in a trash bag bleeding from the mouth, would Rock alert?” “Yes,” said Eggeman.
The Jurors also saw footage of Riley Crossman’s remains where the investigators found them. She was wearing one shoe that was later identified as hers. Another was found in the trash bag with her body. She was wearing red underwear and blue denim shorts, which West Virginia State Police Sgt. said: “weren’t buttoned and weren’t zipped.” She also testified a white powdery substance was found on various parts of the victim’s body.
The remains were in a state of decomposition that witnesses throughout the day said required using dental records of Riley’s recent orthodontic spacers to help make a positive identification.
Jurors also heard a lengthy May 15th recording between Chantal Oakley, the victim’s mother, and the defendant in which she tried to establish a timeline and details of where he had been the night of May 7th into May 8th. Andy can be heard on the audio admitting to taking cocaine and heroin that night. “Did you shoot it? Were you speedballing?” Chantel can be heard asking. “If you did heroin and then coke, that’s speedballing. Were you in control of your facilities? You didn’t stumble into Riley’s room thinking it was me?” “No,” Andy can be heard saying. “Come on.” “If you had made better choices that night and every other night up to then, you wouldn’t be in this position,” she said. During the May 15th audio between Andy and Chantal Oakley, she said, “Everyone failed her (Riley). I know what you could have done – not be a junkie,” she told Andy. “I can’t figure out how she left our house,” sobbing in the audio. “So I’m stuck here with whiteboards and study notes wondering where she is.” “I was leaving you anyway, “This is not the life I wanted for my kids.”
FBI Special Agent Ellen Duffy walked jurors through the footage that showed the Dodge Ram truck in question driving down Tuscarora Pike toward Martinsburg before pulling into the ROCS gas station off West King Street in Martinsburg Andy McCauley Jr. can be seen getting out of the driver’s side then opening and closing the lid of the tool box in the back. He is also observed running into the store where interior cameras capture him quickly throwing money on the counter and running back out, putting gas in the truck then heading left out of the parking lot – all those times marked between 12:50 and 12:58 on the afternoon in question. Other investigators showed footage of the truck on a route from Hedgesville toward Berkeley Springs and then along Arden Nollville road when Andy McCauley took the truck from his work site in the Red Hill Subdivision.
Investigators show the truck on a route toward where the remains were found off Tuscarora Pike at 12:26 and then coming back at 12:49, within a timeline that prosecutors establish would have allowed the defendant to discard the victim’s body over the hill, find a place to turn around, then drive back past a home that had cameras off Arden Nolville Road.
And the day came that Hayden took the stand and shook the courtroom with his testimony. The night she went missing, Riley messaged Hayden that she was scared because Andy was in her room. In fact, Andy had gone to her room multiple times that night. The prosecution claimed that Andy was high on drugs. His judgment and senses were impaired, and he tried to violate Riley. He smothered her with a pillow to stop her from talking, then wrapped her in garbage bags and transported her body in his work truck.
After prolonged deliberation, the jury found Andy McCauley guilty on all charges. Following the guilty verdict, Lance Crossman testified before the jurors were tasked with deciding whether to attach or withhold mercy to the verdict. Under West Virginia state law, a jury can unanimously vote to attach mercy and allow the convicted killer to be eligible for parole in 15 years or unanimously vote to withhold mercy, thereby denying parole eligibility for life.
“She will forever be 15 years old to us. In 15 years, he may eligible for parole. She only got 15 years. That’s all she had. 15 years. 15!” Crossman said as he broke down in tears. “Where was the mercy when he walked into her room where she’s supposed to feel safe? Where’s the mercy when he attacked her? Where’s the mercy when he put her in a trash bag and dumped her off the side of the road like garbage?” The family's attorney as addressed the court, “This time of year, she would be a senior at Berkeley Springs High School. She would be getting ready to move on to the next phase of her life. They’ll never have that opportunity. They will never see their daughter again,” he said. “Andy McCauley knew exactly what he had done to her. He knew exactly where her body was. Her mother agonized, holding out hope and praying that maybe Riley would walk through that door.” In the end, the family’s pleas were heard. The judge gave Andy two life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Outro
That brings us to the end of this episode! As always, thanks for listening to Murder By Nature. If you enjoy our show, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any streaming platform you are currently on, and be sure to come back Saturday for our new episode. Until then, I am your host, Jazmin Hernandez, don’t forget to stay safe! Don’t get murdered or murder people, you lovely humans!
