VA - Couple & two teens found murdered, Farmville, 15 Sept 2009 #1

[absynthminded1]

Stepping inside of Syko Sam's psyche for a second.... some of it is obviously going to be off, but maybe this will help someone see something that's missing.

Let's see....

In school, I was the chubby nerdy kid who everyone picked on and who girls wouldn't give a second look, and that was if they even noticed me at first glance.. My father was too busy trying to recapture his Metal band glory days to be much of a father and any attempts he made were usually inhibited by the drugs, alcohol, and general hard living that went along with the Metal lifestyle. My mother was a passive woman with dependency problems of her own. She saw the good in my father... enough to overlook a lot of the bull**** that made her unhappy. She tried to pick up my father's slack by involving herself in my school activities, but that only served as a catalyst for further ridicule from my classmates. It's not exactly cool to have a mom who is a teacher's aid. She meant well, I'm sure, but she just didn't "get" me... no one did.

**** Now consider the fact that his parents had recently separated/divorced and how that could create great emotional termoil and act as a partial "trigger**

I was raised on a heavy dosage of Heavy Metal with Satanic overtones and slasher films. Around the time that I was in Junior High, I started branching out and listening to my own genres of music. I took to Horrorcore, because I felt like a total outsider; neglected, forgotten, and forsaken...especially forsaken.

In horrorcore music, I discovered a world that I never knew existed, one that could identify with my pain and feelings of inadequacy. More importantly, I found others who could identify with me. For once in my life, I didn't feel alone.

My dabbling in horrorcore wasn't that serious at first, but once I began alienating myself, spending solitary hours in my room, exploring this fascinating new world on the internet, my fascination became an obsession. Soon I began to dress like my heroes in the lifestyle and I started decorating my room with all things macabre.

In time, I found that I was easily making friends who were also involved in the lifestyle and suddenly, for the first time in my entire life, girls started thinking I was cute and cool....

In my time alone on the PC, I tought myself to become proficient in HTML and with graphics software. I had a real knack for it. I would sit behind my PC for hours listening to the most wicked horrorcore **** I could find, all the while hammering away on my keyboard... creating web pages and user profiles, as well as looking at the darkest imagery I could find and reading up on serial killers, mass murders, and the like. In a weird way, I cool kind of identify with them. I don't think I could ever kill someone like that, but maybe if provoked enough I would?

It was amazing to me that on the internet, you can be anyone you want to be. It was like a total reinvention of me. I just wondered if I was going to seem so cool to people once I stepped out from behind the comfort, safety, and anonymity of the PC.

I found this one horrorcore label in particular that I really liked. I started casually sending messages to the dude that ran it and we kind of became tight over time. In time, his whole clique kinda became like family to me and I felt accepted... like one of them. It felt really good to feel wanted and needed. I started hooking up their websites with my graphics skills and I started promoting their label to the fullest. That was fun for a while and I felt appreciated, but you know what... I want to be more. I want to try my hand at horrorcore rap. I want to be somebody in this industry. I want to be respected and loved just like my idols.

Enter the birth of Syko Sam....

I met this girl who thinks I'm cute and likes my music.... I have a fan lol... and she's hot! I can't believe she's into me. Looks like things are suddenly starting to go my way. I have never had someone be so affectionate with me. I think I love her... so much and she loves me too.... We're supposed to meet soon and go to SFTW. I hope she still loves me when she meets me. We're gonna have so much fun! But what if we meet and things don't go so good?

I can't even imagine what I would do without her in my life.......

Basically, I am seeing a motive of jealousy, but fueled by something much greater.... I do think that the preacher and the mother's death were symbolic, very well could have been his attack on religion and feeling forsaken, as well as his hatred for women. (Freudian= his mom.)

 

[thesaint]

Yea, he did put some thought into it. Maybe he waited until the mom was at work or gone somewhere. Then maybe one of the girls left for some reason, who knows.

The mother was no longer working. She had been a professor at Longwood University (3 blocks from their house), but had been put on leave/fired the previous spring. If she still had been working outside the house as a teacher at the university, many people would've noticed her absence from her classes and office hours and the bodies would've been found a bit sooner.

And both Emma (the prof's daughter/Sam's (ex)gf) and Melanie were either home-schooled or no longer attending school.

Whether any of the above played into Sam's course action, difficult to say.

Sam had several months of chatting with Emma to get to know Emma's and even Emma's mother's daily routines--and maybe to know that no one really looked out for them on a day-to-day basis.

And then Sam had a couple days in the car with Emma's father (and mother? conflicting info there as well) during which time he could've extracted more information about the family and whether anyone would be alarmed by their sudden absence.

The only person who might have / maybe should have been more attuned to the whereabouts and welfare of Emma and her mother was the father-pastor.

The conclusion so far is that the father seems to have simply dropped them off Sunday night and then not given them another thought until prompted to do so by the call from Melanie's mother Thursday afternoon or early evening (there are conflicting accounts of when Melanie's mother called, either around 2:30 pm or 5 pm on Thursday).

If Melanie's mother did call at 5 pm rather than 2:30 pm, did the father-pastor then call the church treasurer and make something up about having a previously unknown meeting in Richmond? Perhaps the pastor was expected to meet with the treasurer or attend some Church function Thursday night, as he had Wednesday night.

Personally, I think the pastor-father WAS in contact with people inside the home between Monday and Thursday. The question is who and when and what did they say to get the pastor-father to walk into that house seemingly unsuspecting that there was any need for him to be cautious, when even the other girl's mother was freaked out by the situation. And when the pastor-father should've been even more aware of Syko Sam's music interests as well as the falling out between Syko Sam and his daughter at the Michigan event.

 

[OneLostGrl]

i truly hope, i'm not reposting, found cached sam's myspace profile indexed on 06/01/2008

My name is Sam, I'm currently 19 years old. I'm probably one of the most weirdest and random people you will ever meet. I do consider myself a very nice and friendly person but I can be a huge if you get on my bad side. On my spare time I work as a freelance graphic/web designer, I enjoy it alot and hope someday I can make a living off of it. I'm honored to say that I have worked with some of the top artists in the underground. When I was younger I used to hate music, It annoyed me more then anything in the world until I was forced to listen to a copy of The Great Milenko in 1998. Music is now a big part of my life, I only really listen to underground musicians, I cant stand about 99% of the mainstream artists. I used to be a professional gamer when I was younger, I'm still a gamer till this day but I'm not into it as much as I used to be. I can be a huge nerd time to time, but not your ordinary nerd. I love sports, I played football for my high school team and loved it alot until I was expelled.

If you want to know more about the world famous sam, IM me and ask, otherwise I'm to lazy to write more about myself

myspaceprofiles.org/profiles/6231535.html

sam at gamertagpics.com/xbox-live-profile/LiLdEmOnD0G:

How did you come up with your Gamertag? (LiLdEmOnD0G)
- I came up with it when I was like 12 years old, It was my aol screen name that I used and still continue to use for many years.

at gamertagpics you can still found some more his pics as well

Bold is mine-

Expelled?! Mommy says he never even had a detention... yeah, OK mom, way to teach 'em! :furious:

 

[thesaint]

Bold is mine-

Expelled?! Mommy says he never even had a detention... yeah, OK mom, way to teach 'em! :furious:

Maybe he went straight to expelled and, technically, had never had a "detention". :smile:

 

[Gene]

Stepping inside of Syko Sam's psyche for a second.... some of it is obviously going to be off, but maybe this will help someone see something that's missing.

Let's see....

In school, I was the chubby nerdy kid who everyone picked on and who girls wouldn't give a second look, and that was if they even noticed me at first glance.. My father was too busy trying to recapture his Metal band glory days to be much of a father and any attempts he made were usually inhibited by the drugs, alcohol, and general hard living that went along with the Metal lifestyle. My mother was a passive woman with dependency problems of her own. She saw the good in my father... enough to overlook a lot of the bull**** that made her unhappy. She tried to pick up my father's slack by involving herself in my school activities, but that only served as a catalyst for further ridicule from my classmates. It's not exactly cool to have a mom who is a teacher's aid. She meant well, I'm sure, but she just didn't "get" me... no one did.

**** Now consider the fact that his parents had recently separated/divorced and how that could create great emotional termoil and act as a partial "trigger**

I was raised on a heavy dosage of Heavy Metal with Satanic overtones and slasher films. Around the time that I was in Junior High, I started branching out and listening to my own genres of music. I took to Horrorcore, because I felt like a total outsider; neglected, forgotten, and forsaken...especially forsaken.

In horrorcore music, I discovered a world that I never knew existed, one that could identify with my pain and feelings of inadequacy. More importantly, I found others who could identify with me. For once in my life, I didn't feel alone.

My dabbling in horrorcore wasn't that serious at first, but once I began alienating myself, spending solitary hours in my room, exploring this fascinating new world on the internet, my fascination became an obsession. Soon I began to dress like my heroes in the lifestyle and I started decorating my room with all things macabre.

In time, I found that I was easily making friends who were also involved in the lifestyle and suddenly, for the first time in my entire life, girls started thinking I was cute and cool....

In my time alone on the PC, I tought myself to become proficient in HTML and with graphics software. I had a real knack for it. I would sit behind my PC for hours listening to the most wicked horrorcore **** I could find, all the while hammering away on my keyboard... creating web pages and user profiles, as well as looking at the darkest imagery I could find and reading up on serial killers, mass murders, and the like. In a weird way, I cool kind of identify with them. I don't think I could ever kill someone like that, but maybe if provoked enough I would?

It was amazing to me that on the internet, you can be anyone you want to be. It was like a total reinvention of me. I just wondered if I was going to seem so cool to people once I stepped out from behind the comfort, safety, and anonymity of the PC.

I found this one horrorcore label in particular that I really liked. I started casually sending messages to the dude that ran it and we kind of became tight over time. In time, his whole clique kinda became like family to me and I felt accepted... like one of them. It felt really good to feel wanted and needed. I started hooking up their websites with my graphics skills and I started promoting their label to the fullest. That was fun for a while and I felt appreciated, but you know what... I want to be more. I want to try my hand at horrorcore rap. I want to be somebody in this industry. I want to be respected and loved just like my idols.

Enter the birth of Syko Sam....

I met this girl who thinks I'm cute and likes my music.... I have a fan lol... and she's hot! I can't believe she's into me. Looks like things are suddenly starting to go my way. I have never had someone be so affectionate with me. I think I love her... so much and she loves me too.... We're supposed to meet soon and go to SFTW. I hope she still loves me when she meets me. We're gonna have so much fun! But what if we meet and things don't go so good?

I can't even imagine what I would do without her in my life.......

Basically, I am seeing a motive of jealousy, but fueled by something much greater.... I do think that the preacher and the mother's death were symbolic, very well could have been his attack on religion and feeling forsaken, as well as his hatred for women. (Freudian= his mom.)

Excellent work!! I think you captured everything except for one thing...there are literally thousands and thousands of guys like Sam. Most of them couldn't harm a fly. How could someone like Sam ruthlessly kill four innocents? What could make him kill them, live with the rotting bodies and do things to the bodies that can bring tears to the eyes of a veteran policeman???

 

[deita]

There was some speculation previously that he may have been embarrassed or "put down" in front of some of the horrorcore gang, and felt his reputation in the "community" might have been damaged.

This was a kid who spent vast amounts of time creating and refining his sick "music". This was no ordinary hobby. He had been pursuing it obsessively for years, and looking at his videos, etc., this guy was extremely serious about what he was doing. Reports indicate he spent most of his time in his room and on the computer. No job, no school, almost nothing but horrorcore. He wanted to be a star in this genre, and apparently was working his way up quickly.

mmm.. what kind of reputation?

sam designed 3 web pages for these peoples (nyamusicinc.com, wickedintentrecords.net, skrwillrise.com), he was starting to create his own "music", seems to me everything was ok for him in this "community", his work established his reputation.


According to Dan MacDowell, a fellow underground musician, known as GuttaMind, who has known McCroskey for the last five years, he had just seen Sam at a concert in Michigan last Tuesday along with Emma Niederbrock and Melanie Wells.

He says he seemed like his normal, friendly self and Emma was happy and excited.

"Nothing seemed out of place, her and Sam were getting along, they were dating at the time, and nothing was odd about anything," he said. "It doesn't seem like it matches very well, its like its two different people and that’s why people who knew Sam are just very shocked at this whole thing."

wset.com/news/stories/0909/661920.html

 

[OneLostGrl]

Excellent work!! I think you captured everything except for one thing...there are literally thousands and thousands of guys like Sam. Most of them couldn't harm a fly. How could someone like Sam ruthlessly kill four innocents? What could make him kill them, live with the rotting bodies and do things to the bodies that can bring tears to the eyes of a veteran policeman???

Betrayal, humiliation...?

 

[Heroine]

I found this cache... http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache...dog&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a
It tells of all of sams moods for months and I have found an ex g/f named Mia, but I can't view her page for its set to private, if you check out the status list you will see her on there in June.
If you look here, there are other comments made to his ex not too long ago.....
http://comment.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewComments&friendID=454253029

 

[OneLostGrl]

I kind of agree, when they finally met in person McCroskey was happy and Emma wasnt. When youre 16 years old 99% of relationships arent serious anyways, but McCroskey probably took it very serious. Some people think this crime is going to be much more complicated, but I think it might be much more simple than being made out. He was devastated when after they met she did not want him anymore. Thats my guess.

Mine too..

 

[Gene]

It doesn't create murderers or evil people and it doesn't make people lawless. Though I do believe that if something is "wrong" with a kid and they are having these thoughts and they begin to listen to this music it can indeed reinforce their distorted thinking... perhaps give 'em a nudge. But I also think it's time we as a society start taking a good honest look at ourselves and who our children really are. Parents, not music, have always and will always make the greatest impact on our children. If a parent notices something wrong with their childs thinking they need to stop blowing it off and pretending it doesn't exist because it won't go away, it'll only get worse no matter what music they listen to

From what we have seen Emmas parents didnt pretend the problems didnt exist and they didnt hope they would go away. They saw the problems, did what they thought they could do, but were helpless to prevent Emmas attraction to it.

I think that the problem was that this was more than just music. This was something like a combinaiton of a music/sub-culture/cult. Emma and Melanie were not just drawn to the music, but to the people and to the way of life.

Emma wrote that Sick and Raz were her TRUE family. Her parents were in competition with that and were losing. They could barely influence Emma anymore and were just going along to be there and to attempt to keep her safe.

Most of the people who listen to the music are probably fine. But this kind of music will attract a higher percentage of violent and disturbed people. Emma was only 16 years old and was not able to decide who to associate with and who not to.

She probably assumed that since this community felt like a family, everyone who was a part of that family was harmless. So, she invites one of the members into her home. I am sure it would have been difficult for her parents to say no. I am sure that within that group, it is not only Sam who was dangerous. There are surely many, many others. What does a parent do to protect their children from them?

If you had a teenage child like Emma, what would you do differently?

 

[absynthminded1]

Excellent work!! I think you captured everything except for one thing...there are literally thousands and thousands of guys like Sam. Most of them couldn't harm a fly. How could someone like Sam ruthlessly kill four innocents? What could make him kill them, live with the rotting bodies and do things to the bodies that can bring tears to the eyes of a veteran policeman???

You know, that's the question I struggle with the most... For example, I had an upbringing that rivals most serial killers, but while I can somewhat identify with them and understand why they do what they do, I myself could never imagine putting any plan or secret dark fantasy into action...

So what makes Sam and those like him different? My guess is that he was a full blown sociopath, from even a tender age. Lack of capacity for normal human emotions would be the only thing that would allow one person to create such outright evil.

He grew up in a dysfunctional home, one devoid of love. I think love is the key.

Enter this girl who shows him the kind of attention/affection he had never experienced in his life, only to presumably take it away as quickly as she gave it, just as most hormonally charged teenage females will.

Consider too that Sam probably wasn't very experienced with the ladies, perhaps he was even a 20 year-old virgin. I can imagine that He and open minded, free spirited, rebellious Emma, had some sexually charged phone conversations and message exchanges, complete with the obligatory self-shot cell phone camera tease pics, as teens do in this high tech age of ours... Man...that's a lot of hormones running wild at once.

Yep, the more I think about it... jealousy was the trigger, but this was certainly a perfect storm of several deadly components. (everything from Sam's insecurities, years of ridicule, to his immersion in a dark world, with equally dark fantasies.)

 

[Nikolai]

Okay so I did a bad thing and added that guy Kuriuz to my myspace just to see if I could see anymore comments that emma may have made to him and here is one that actually lets you know he has her phone number...
Aug 8, 2009 1:49 AM
BOOOOY!!!!
i was just htinkn bout ya n wanted to leave ya some love cuz yer mah boy n all haha
we needa tallkkkkk MORE! damnit
i got mah new phone too!!
hit meup an ill give ya the number babes :]
LOVE YOUU!
-your girly <3
.....There are also statements made to him from her telling him to get on yahoo, which makes me think that they chatted far more often than we thought.
...also on his page his mood is numb and this reads as his status line....KURIUZ- (UNHOLY APOSTLE ) R.I.P MEL AN RAGDOLL needing some time to reflect and work through this loss... call me if ya need to talk...(765) 393-2252

Yeah, I really just think this girl talked this weird way, I think maybe she wasnt as serious as it seems about McCroskey, maybe its how she talked to guys she liked, and maybe she liked more than one? This girl was sixteen, that is young and immature and maybe even more so for a girl like this who may have been home schooled or whatever. When I was sixteen I dont think any of the girls I went to high school with even talked to their boyfriends in the way she did to McCroskey. Its very stupid and immature sounding.

 

[Nikolai]

I think he ran into the preacher and killed him because he happened to show up. I think after being with those bodies and doing what he did to them he became scared and actually did call police because he was scared of noises.

I also think it was a relief to him when he was caught. I think the music he listened to glamorized and romantisized killing, death and murder, but he learned real fast that it wasn't as cool as he thought.

I agree about the father, I think that was done because he showed up and he really didnt have much choice.

I also thought about the possibility of him maybe really being scared of noises he was hearing. After doing this if he thought he heard noise he may have thought someone was in the basement who knew what he had done, and he was scared to go down himself. As dumb as it may seem, I do think its possible. I still think he called the police after stressing out about how he was going to get caught. I think he was trying to figure out any way to get away with it or to be able to accuse someone else. The call was his way of having proof that he thought someone else was in the house at one point or trying to get into the house.

I dont think he wanted to be caught. He may have felt some relief at first, but after going through booking and sitting in jail for a few hours I think that turned to regrets and fear. I think thats why his lawyer said he was struggling being young and having never been locked up before. It is an awful existence.

 

[gxm]

I found this cache... http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache...dog&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a
It tells of all of sams moods for months and I have found an ex g/f named Mia, but I can't view her page for its set to private, if you check out the status list you will see her on there in June.
If you look here, there are other comments made to his ex not too long ago.....
http://comment.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewComments&friendID=454253029

Interesting comments from the links you posted:

LiLdEmOnDoG 46 days till I get to spend a incredible 2 weeks with the most amazingest person ever, then go to Strictly for the Wicked! Cant wait <3at 5:05 AM Jul 23
Mood:excited

In a barely two months, he would kill "the most amazingest person ever."

And then this comment on MiA's MySpace:

Apr 6, 2009 7:24 PM

I don't mind you calling me sammy, your actually the only one I don't care if they call me that. A dream is a dream, I never yelled at anybody in my life, I don't lose my temper so yeah, I don't know why you would dream that heh. But yes, your piercings a pretty cool, like I said in a picture comment, I wanted to get some myself but wasn't sure.

He never yelled at anybody and he doesn't lose his temper. Really? Contents under pressure&#8230; perhaps holding it all in created the eruption of homicidal rage when "the most amazingest person ever" dumped him. Apparently he didn't kill anyone when MiA and he broke up.

I wonder if MiA is the girl who posted a comment to Sam asking if he would have killed her too&#8230;

 

[thesaint]

Basically, I am seeing a motive of jealousy

mmm.. what kind of reputation?

sam designed 3 web pages for these peoples (nyamusicinc.com, wickedintentrecords.net, skrwillrise.com), he was starting to create his own "music", seems to me everything was ok for him in this "community", his work established his reputation.


According to Dan MacDowell, a fellow underground musician, known as GuttaMind, who has known McCroskey for the last five years, he had just seen Sam at a concert in Michigan last Tuesday along with Emma Niederbrock and Melanie Wells.

He says he seemed like his normal, friendly self and Emma was happy and excited.

"Nothing seemed out of place, her and Sam were getting along, they were dating at the time, and nothing was odd about anything," he said. "It doesn't seem like it matches very well, its like its two different people and that&#8217;s why people who knew Sam are just very shocked at this whole thing."

Syko Sam: "When I was younger I used to hate music, It annoyed me more then anything in the world until I was forced to listen to a copy of The Great Milenko in 1998. Music is now a big part of my life,"

From what I understand, horrorcore music--as opposed to goth or emo or even popular rock music and country-- doesn't put a lot of / or even any value on such acts of "killing for love" or jealous violence/self-destruction for love. Such stupid, self-defeating acts of violence for love are ridiculed as what your "fat, stupid, drunk" parents would do, definitely not what you should do.

Violence for violence's sake? Yeah, horrorcore glorifies that. But this whole "I used to love her, but I had to kill her" rock and roll/country/pop/goth/emo music meme isn't present in the horrorcore genre and seems to be ridiculed by the members of the community and a way they distinguish themselves from goth-emo etc. If you (horrorcore fan) do kill the girl you "love", you did it for fun/sport/entertainment/some other point, not out of jealousy.

The song 'Under the Moon' off of the 'The Great Milenko' brutally delineates the stupidity/futility of "killing for love" and spending the rest of your life in prison for the love of a girl.

 

[deita]

I have found an ex g/f named Mia, but I can't view her page for its set to private

try search at Bing.com

 

[gxm]

i truly hope, i'm not reposting, found cached sam's myspace profile indexed on 06/01/2008

(snipped)

How did you come up with your Gamertag? (LiLdEmOnD0G)
- I came up with it when I was like 12 years old, It was my aol screen name that I used and still continue to use for many years.

at gamertagpics you can still found some more his pics as well

IIRC, Sam got this nic from his fascination with Son of Sam serial killer David Berkowitz. So, he was "into" Berkowitz since he was 12 years old!

(deita, no disrespect to you. I just couldn't bring myself to add "respectfully" in association with Sam's words.)

 

[gxm]

(respectfully snipped)

The song 'Under the Moon' off of the 'The Great Milenko' brutally delineates the stupidity/futility of "killing for love" and spending the rest of your life in prison for the love of a girl.

Well, isn't that ironic. If he's lucky he'll spend a long life in prison, but Virginia has the DP and it's hard to imagine that this won't be a DP case.

 

[deita]

IIRC, Sam got this nic from his fascination with Son of Sam serial killer David Berkowitz. So, he was "into" Berkowitz since he was 12 years old!

his full name is Richard Alden Samuel McCroskey III

 

[Nikolai]

i truly hope, i'm not reposting, found cached sam's myspace profile indexed on 06/01/2008

My name is Sam, I'm currently 19 years old. I'm probably one of the most weirdest and random people you will ever meet. I do consider myself a very nice and friendly person but I can be a huge if you get on my bad side. On my spare time I work as a freelance graphic/web designer, I enjoy it alot and hope someday I can make a living off of it. I'm honored to say that I have worked with some of the top artists in the underground. When I was younger I used to hate music, It annoyed me more then anything in the world until I was forced to listen to a copy of The Great Milenko in 1998. Music is now a big part of my life, I only really listen to underground musicians, I cant stand about 99% of the mainstream artists. I used to be a professional gamer when I was younger, I'm still a gamer till this day but I'm not into it as much as I used to be. I can be a huge nerd time to time, but not your ordinary nerd. I love sports, I played football for my high school team and loved it alot until I was expelled.

If you want to know more about the world famous sam, IM me and ask, otherwise I'm to lazy to write more about myself

myspaceprofiles.org/profiles/6231535.html

sam at gamertagpics.com/xbox-live-profile/LiLdEmOnD0G:

How did you come up with your Gamertag? (LiLdEmOnD0G)
- I came up with it when I was like 12 years old, It was my aol screen name that I used and still continue to use for many years.

at gamertagpics you can still found some more his pics as well

Just as the pictures on his myspace, he looks different to me in these pics than he looks now going from his "Jesus made me do it video," and booking photo. His face has puffed up, he has gained a good amount of weight I think, he looks a little older to me too. Could be reason enough for a sixteen year old girl to be disappointed when meeting you for the first time. A haircut wouldnt have hurt either, he shouldve done everything he could to look like those pictures because those were the pictures she supposedly fell in love with. I wonder how long ago most of these pictures he put up were taken. I know some were taken early this year so thats not a lot of time, but his appearance still changed some IMO.