Pepper Pike Homicides

A vampire staring at a video camera before attacking its owner

Dylan Carter

Courtney Richburg

Crystal Michaels

Bruce Horton

> "*There's another one!*"
> ― Marcus Richburg
>
>

The**Pepper Pike Homicides**were a series of mysterious murders and attacks that occurred in and around Pepper Pike, Ohio, from Spring of 2009 to Summer of 2009. Originally deemed the work of a serial killer, the efforts of the Voice of Truth and PRAD revealed that the real culprit wasn't a serial killer, but a race of vampires that had been terrorizing the area around Pepper Pike for months.

## Incident and Victims

### Initial attacks

The mysterious deaths first began in the spring of 2009. Dennis Richburg, a former United States Air Force pilot turned construction worker, had just moved into a new house, formerly a mansion, on May 25, 2009. However, he noticed that the house was run down and decrepit, which bothered his son Marcus (believing the house to be haunted).

On May 26, 2009, a dog was found dead in a park, mysteriously drained of blood. Local police were dumbfounded, as they could not believe that there was any living animal that was capable of drinking that much blood, aside from a bloodthirsty vampire bat. Immediately the next day, two men were also found dead in the same park, also mysteriously drained of blood. Locals began spreading rumors that the Chupacabra, an alleged cryptid that also sucked the blood of its victims, had somehow crossed the US-Mexican Border and ended up in Ohio.

However, a controversial news story appeared in late June of 2009, about one month after the initial killings, in which blamed vampires for the attacks. The story was considered fake news, as everybody believed that vampires were mythical beings. However, a private news network/activism movement, known as the Voice of Truth, began interviewing the writer of the news article. The man, a 40 year old named Jock Schrader, told them of an interview with a neighbor of his that Jock conducted, in which the neighbor detailed an account of a vampire attack in the dead of night near Pepper Pike, Ohio. After the journalist was presented a photo by the witness, Jock published the photo as part of his article, but was deemed a laughingstock by the local community, who thought of Jock as crazy.

The Voice of Truth's journalists jumped on this lead, interviewing Jock's neighbor and numerous other people who have claimed to witness vampires attacking both humans and animals, but were afraid to speak up due to fear of being viewed as crazy by their neighbors. However, things changed on July 9, 2009, where a young boy videotaped a vampire for the first time and lived to tell the tale.

### 2009 Richburn Residence Massacre

On July 9, 2009, Dennis Richburn encountered a dead squirrel in his backyard, its body drained of blood. Two days later, during a summer house party, Marcus and a couple of friends decided to investigate the so-called legend of the serial killer. They interviewed many people during the party to get their side of the serial killer angle of the mysterious deaths, but Marcus' friend, 11-year old Bruce Horton, was skeptical, arguing that a serial killer wouldn't be able to drink the blood of humans (unless he was a cannibal). While exploring the basement, Marcus and his friends discovered a mysterious hole in a wall, which led to a series of mysterious nests. Initially thought to have been made by snakes, Bruce believed that the Richburn residence had more than a raccoon infestation. Bruce's other friend, 12-year old Crystal Michaels, ventured further into the hole to see what else she could find, and was suddenly attacked by a horde of vampires, which chased Marcus and his friends back upstairs. They attempted to warn their parents about the vampires, but the parents didn't believe them-until the vampires broke out of the basement and began attacking and killing many party guests right in front of a traumatized Marcus and his friends.

Fleeing the carnage, Marcus and the remaining survivors (both children and adults) barricaded themselves in Marcus' bedroom, where the vampires attempted to claw their way into the bedroom. Dennis, a former US military serviceman, began shooting the vampires with his personal handgun, which easily killed the vampires.  However, as more vampires began attacking the bedroom, Dennis soon ran out of ammunition for his firearm, much to the horror of Marcus. Dennis then resorted to stabbing the vampires with a machete, and at one point, he was able to decapitate one of the vampires. The rest eventually stopped their assault and fled the house, vanishing into the night.

## Aftermath

The video footage from Marcus' camera that night was soon analyzed by PRAD, which interviewed the family and the surviving neighbors about two days after the incident. The footage was then broadcast on various news channels across the country and the world, which woke the international community up to the revelation that vampires were no longer fairy tale monsters, but actual animals.

## Impact

As a result of the Homicides, as well as the footage from Marcus' camcorder that fateful night, the world was woken up to the realization that vampires are real creatures. Various governments took the threat of vampires seriously and began devising ways to kill them. In some countries, various organizations and expeditions were created to see if other similar creatures existed in other lands.

However, there are still members of the public who believe the events on Marcus' camera were all a massive hoax and the deaths of the people at the party were faked. Similar to 9/11 Conspiracy Theories, some even claimed that Marcus was an actor for some government inside job and the vampires were actually CIA agents in disguise and that the attack on Marcus' house was actually part of a secret government experiment that the government tried to cover up.

Nevertheless, the world was now aware that vampires existed.