[3] While 49-year-old Richard Wendorf was asleep on his couch and Ruth was in the shower, Ferrell and accomplice Howard Scott Anderson had entered the home through the unlocked garage, picking up the murder weapon, a crowbar.

Before Richard awakened, Ferrell beat him multiple times with it, fracturing both his skull and ribs, almost instantly knocking him out, and killing him shortly thereafter.

He claimed in his confession, however, that his original plan was to allow Naomi Ruth to live, but she first attacked him by lunging at him and throwing a scalding cup of coffee on him.

[2] Richard had burn marks in the shape of a V. It was said that the V was Ferrell's symbol, which he accompanied with a dot for each person he considered to be in his vampire cult.

The victims were the parents of Heather Wendorf, a long-time friend of Ferrell's whom he was helping to run away from a home that she described as "hell."

However, Keesee's grandmother informed the police about her whereabouts and helped them trick Ferrell, Wendorf, and the rest of the teens into going to a local Howard Johnson's hotel, where they were arrested by waiting law enforcement.

On February 12, 1998, then-eighteen-year-old Ferrell pleaded guilty to the murders, claiming that the others traveling with him were innocent except Scott Anderson, who was simply an accessory.

In January 2013, an appellate court dismissed attempts by Ferrell and Howard Scott Anderson to get a new sentencing hearing.

[6] However, in December 2018, Howard Scott Anderson was resentenced by circuit judge Don Briggs to 40 years in prison.

[8][9][10] Anderson is currently incarcerated in the Calhoun Correctional Institution while Ferrell is in the Northwest Florida Reception Center Annex.

Weeks after being originally sentenced to death, Ferrell’s case Judge would say, “I think you are a very disturbed man.

Leading up to before the murders, Rod Ferrell and his group of “vampire” clan members would meet at an abandoned cement structure pinned “Hotel California”.

During his time so far in prison, records show that he enjoys and has had a multitude of female visitors, pen pals, some even wanting him to marry him.

I both pay taxes and vote…I have tried to be a good influence on Rod, encouraging him to go to church, stay out of trouble, behave himself and keep his mouth shut…I must confess to extreme naivete of prisons.