A chilling final message was sent by a teenage girl to her boyfriend before she was murdered, indicating the presence of Andy, her mother’s partner, Andy McCauley Jr., in her room. Tragically, the boyfriend was asleep when the message was received and did not respond.
Riley Crossman, 15, sent her last two text messages in quick succession on May 7, 2019, before being reported missing by her mother, Chantal Oakley. She was last seen at her home in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, by her grandmother. Chantal informed the police that she noticed Riley’s bedroom light on with the door closed, while McCauley was asleep downstairs.
Riley’s disappearance prompted a search effort, and her body was found nine days later on a remote embankment in Martinsburg, approximately 26 miles away from Berkeley Springs.
In October 2021, McCauley Jr. was convicted of first-degree murder, death of a child by a custodian through child abuse, and concealment of a body in the killing of Riley. He showed no emotion during the verdict reading. Cadaver dogs detected the scent of a deceased body and dry wall mud, the latter found on Riley’s body, in the back of McCauley’s truck. He provided conflicting statements about his whereabouts when Riley vanished, initially claiming he never left his construction site but later admitting to driving home to retrieve cocaine.
McCauley Jr., sentenced to life in prison without parole, chose not to speak during sentencing, leaving Riley’s family to speculate about his motives. Evidence presented in court revealed that he entered Riley’s room and suffocated her with a pillow containing DNA evidence of her blood and saliva.
