The Heartbreaking Story of Riley Crossman

What did this 15-year-old do to meet such an end?

Shenbaga Lakshmi
8 min readDec 9, 2021
A sad girl
Photo by Brynden on Unsplash

[Trigger Warning: Child violence]

Riley Crossman was a gorgeous 15-year-old child from West Virginia, USA. Even though Riley was a typical teen with a stubborn and drama-filled attitude, people adored her contagious laugh. She strived to keep everyone happy.

In 2019, Riley was dating her schoolmate, Haydn, who cherished her. Riley’s parents adored him and were so happy that Riley had found a sweet kid.

Now Riley’s parents were divorced. While she spent time with both her parents, she mostly stayed at her mother’s place and went to school there. She lived with her mother and her boyfriend, Andy McCauley.

Life seemed good for the 15-year-old. Until it didn’t.

The calm before the storm

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. On that day, Chantel wasn’t well. So, she left early from her first job to catch some sleep before starting the next one.

After her mother went to work, Riley spent the evening with her grandmother. Then, she went to her room and stayed there.

Chantel returned home at around 10:00 pm and saw Riley’s door closed. Assuming she was busy, Chantel went straight to bed. Let me remind you that Chantel wasn’t feeling good. So, all she wanted was a good night’s sleep.

Little did she know that would be her last good night’s sleep.

Where is Riley?

The next day morning, Chantel got ready for work. She noticed that Riley’s door was still closed. So she went to check on her, and Riley wasn’t there.

Now, it wasn’t uncommon for Riley to leave early for school. She enjoyed spending time with her friends before class. Besides, Riley’s boyfriend, Haydn, was to go on a school field trip. So Chantel assumed Riley was at school with him.

At 3:30 pm, Chantel’s mother called to say that Riley hadn’t come home. Worried and angry, Chantel tried contacting Riley. But her messages weren’t delivered, and her calls went to voicemail. Chantel then checked with the schoolteacher, and she informed her that Riley was absent that day.

Chantel was super worried. She couldn’t reach her daughter, and none knew anything about her. She met Haydn in the school parking lot when he returned from his field trip. He told her he hadn’t seen or talked to Riley all day.

Chantel then went back home to see if Riley was there. She was secretly hoping that her daughter had some rebellious teen idea and had skipped school that day.

But when Chantel didn’t find her there, she was concerned and scared. She knew something was wrong, and her baby girl was in danger.

The initial search efforts

Chantel called 911 and filed a missing complaint. She also requested her ex-husband to help search for Riley.

At that point, the police, family, and volunteers were all searching for the 15-year-old. They checked the school, neighborhood, community centers, parks, etc. She was nowhere to be found.

Some people assumed that Riley had run away. But Chantel firmly believed that her daughter would never do that.

Since Riley was only 15 years old, she didn’t have her license or learning permit. Plus, Riley didn’t have a complicated life. She had incredible friends, a caring boyfriend, and a beautiful family. So, the chances of her going away were next to none.

The police reached out to Riley’s friends to retrace her steps. It turned out that Riley was chatting with her friends till midnight. She had also messaged her boyfriend sometime in the night, but he had fallen asleep.

After that, she went silent, and none of her friends had seen or heard from her.

Police investigation

The police first searched Riley’s room for clues. And her room spoke volumes.

On her bedside table, the police found Riley’s glasses and wallet. Now, where could she go without money or glasses?

The police then found bloodstains on her pillow and bedsheets. Further testing revealed that the bloodstains were mixed with saliva.

The police knew beyond doubt that Riley had been abducted. However, they still didn’t know where she was and who kidnapped her.

One week later

On May 16, 2019, the family’s fears came true.

Near Tuscarora Pike in Berkeley County, the police found a decomposed female body. And the sight was unsettling.

Chantel 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 homicide, and the hunt for the killer began.

Under the same roof

The family was beyond devastated. They never thought they would have to go through something this horrible. And what terrified them more is they had no idea who would commit such a heinous crime.

The police began their investigation by interviewing Riley’s father, mother, grandmother, and her mother’s boyfriend, Andy.

While they verified the accounts and alibis, one person had a different story.

Initial suspicion

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. So whose truck was that?

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 later claimed that he went to search for Riley.

However, when Chantel returned home from an exhausting search, she found Andy fake sleeping on the couch. It seemed like he never searched for Riley.

Disconcerting interrogation

The police interviewed Andy, and they knew something was off.

The police asked Andy about his whereabouts on May 8, 2019. 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.

The police questioned Andy, and he kept changing his story the whole time.

He first said that he went to buy cocaine from a dealer. Later, he alleged that he went home to grab some drugs for himself and his co-worker. But he had no alibi, and his colleague swore that Andy went to meet some girl.

The inconsistencies in the stories did not work in favor of Andy. Plus, more solid pieces of evidence came in later.

The mountain of evidence

The police learned that the green truck belonged to Andy’s colleague.

The police got a warrant to search this truck and found incriminating evidence. The back of the truck bed had the same drywall mud found on Riley. The police also used cadaver dogs to confirm the match.

Furthermore, at the crime scene where Riley’s body was found, the police found two sheet metal screws. They were special screws used in construction sites. They found the same type of screws in the truck.

The police then checked the surveillance footage and found Andy driving the truck to various places near the crime scene. The video did not support Andy’s story about buying cocaine or going home to take drugs. Plus, he had no license and shouldn’t be driving the truck.

The police also checked Andy’s phone records and found some creepy details. On the day Riley was murdered, Andy kept calling a colleague for a temporary place. However, the weird thing was they didn’t get along that well.

So, why did he want help from someone he didn’t like?

The trial and verdict

When the police presented the evidence against him, Andy started blurting out random stories.

Andy 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.

However, the police checked and confirmed that no troops were stationed there on May 8, 2019. They knew Andy was lying, which had something to do with Riley. He, however, didn’t say much after that.

The police, having gathered enough evidence, arrested Andy for the first-degree murder of Riley Crossman, concealment of a body, and child abuse.

The much-anticipated case came to trial in September 2021, 28 months after Riley’s brutal murder.

Week-long trial

The prosecution presented over 239 pieces of evidence, circumstantial or otherwise. Plus, they had about 25 people testifying against Andy. Of all those testimonies, Haydn’s account stood out.

The night she went missing, Riley messaged Haydn 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. To stop her from talking, he smothered her with a pillow.

The defense argued that most of the evidence presented is circumstantial. There didn’t seem to be a motive other than that Andy was high on drugs.

The final verdict

After prolonged deliberation, the jury found Andy McCauley guilty of all charges.

At the hearing, Andy was to get parole after 15 years. But Riley’s family opposed it, citing that their daughter was only 15 years old when she died.

In the end, the family’s pleas were heard. The judge gave Andy two life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Final thoughts

It’s heartbreaking to note that a beautiful soul was taken away from a beautiful family. Even though justice was served, the senseless crime broke the family on many levels.

In this story, I believe Chantel’s pain to be the worst. As a fantastic mom, she did everything she could to give her kids the best possible life. She wanted them to be successful and happy. That was taken away from her family instantly by the person she trusted to be her partner.

I only hope her family receives the confidence and peace they deserve.

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Shenbaga Lakshmi
Shenbaga Lakshmi

Written by Shenbaga Lakshmi

Senior Software engineer turning ideas into reality. On a mission to simplify programming concepts! Contact: shenbawrites@gmail.com

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