4 ‘Vampire Clan’ Teenagers Indicted in Couple’s Slaying

A Florida grand jury Tuesday indicted four of five young members of a “vampire clan” for murder, and they could face the death penalty if convicted.

The only one of the five not indicted was 15-year-old Heather Wendorf, the daughter of the victims, Richard and Ruth Wendorf of Eustis, Fla., who were slain in their home on Nov. 25.

Heather Wendorf remained in a youth detention center under a juvenile murder charge and the grand jury will take up her case again in January, State Atty. Brad King said. King said his assistants had talked about the possibility of seeking the death penalty against at least some of the defendants, but a decision was “still pending.”

Rod Ferrell, Scott Anderson, Charity Kessee, all 16, will be tried as adults. That means they could be sentenced to death in Florida’s electric chair if found guilty.

They were moved by Lake County sheriff’s deputies to the adult jail in Tavares late Tuesday, where they joined co-defendant Dana Lynn Cooper, 19, who has been held in the adult jail since the teenagers were returned to Florida from Baton Rouge, La., following their arrest.

After two days of hearings, the 18 grand jurors said they found compelling evidence that Ferrell, the alleged ringleader of a Kentucky “vampire clan” of youths who drank one another’s blood, killed the Wendorfs with a crowbar or claw hammer.

The grand jury also found evidence that Anderson, Kessee and Cooper helped plan and execute the murders.