The Vampire Murders: Rod Ferrell and the Vampire Clan

The Rod Ferrell vampire murders refer to the November 25, 1996 bludgeoning deaths of Richard Wendorf and Naoma Ruth Queen in Eustis, Florida, carried out by 16-year-old Roderick “Rod” Ferrell, a Kentucky teenager who called himself a 500-year-old vampire and led a small group of role-playing teens known as the Vampire Clan. Ferrell pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, briefly became the youngest person on Florida’s death row, and is now serving life without the possibility of parole after a judge in 2020 refused to resentence him.

Who Rod Ferrell Was and the Vampire Clan

Ferrell grew up in Murray, Kentucky, and attended Calloway County High School. He presented himself to friends as an ancient vampire named “Vesago” and gathered a small circle of teenagers who wore gothic clothing, visited cemeteries at night, and cut themselves to drink one another’s blood.¹ The group came to be known as the Vampire Clan.

Ferrell and clan member Howard Scott Anderson were also involved with a local group called the Victorian Age Masquerade Performance Society, or VAMPS, whose members played the tabletop game Vampire: The Masquerade in Victorian-era clothing. For most players it stayed a game. For Ferrell and a handful of associates, the line between game and reality thinned. Hours before the Florida killings, witnesses would later testify, Ferrell cut himself so that clan member Dana Cooper could drink his blood.²

His home life was unstable. Ferrell’s mother, Sondra Gibson, was described at trial by psychologists as mentally ill and was characterized as a former cult member.³

The Night of the Killings

Ferrell had been in contact with Heather Wendorf, a 15-year-old girl in Eustis and the daughter of Richard Wendorf and Naoma Ruth Queen. The clan drove from Kentucky to Florida with a plan to take Heather with them and flee to New Orleans, where they intended to live as a “pack” of vampires.¹ Ferrell told at least one person before the trip that he intended to kill Heather’s parents and take their Ford Explorer because his own car was unreliable.⁴

On the evening of November 25, 1996, Heather Wendorf, Charity Keesee, and Dana Cooper drove elsewhere to meet a friend. Ferrell and Anderson entered the Wendorf home through an unlocked garage. Ferrell picked up a crowbar he found in the garage and attacked Richard Wendorf, 49, who was asleep on a couch. Richard suffered 22 wounds to the head along with chest injuries and fractured ribs, and never woke.⁵

Naoma Ruth Queen came out of the shower and encountered the intruders in the kitchen. She threw a cup of scalding coffee at Ferrell and scratched his face before he killed her with the crowbar. She sustained roughly 21 wounds to her head and face; three penetrated her brain and severed her brain stem, causing near-instantaneous death.⁵ The bodies were found the next day by the couple’s other daughter, 17-year-old Jennifer Wendorf, who called 911.¹

Ferrell took Richard Wendorf’s wallet and keys. The five teenagers piled into the Ford Explorer and headed toward New Orleans, using the stolen credit card along the way. They were arrested three days later, on Thanksgiving Day, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after Charity Keesee called her mother and the call was traced.²

The Other Teenagers and Heather Wendorf

Four of the five arrested teenagers were indicted on first-degree murder charges in Lake County, Florida, in December 1996.⁶ Their outcomes diverged sharply.

Howard Scott Anderson, who entered the house with Ferrell, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and was initially sentenced to life in prison. In December 2018, Circuit Judge Don Briggs reduced his sentence to 40 years, meaning Anderson is expected to be released around 2032 at age 51.¹⁷
Dana Cooper, 19, the oldest in the group, was not at the house during the killings. She received 17.5 years as a principal to third-degree murder and has since been released.²
Charity Keesee, also absent during the murders, was sentenced to 10.5 years as a principal to third-degree murder and has been released.²
Heather Wendorf, the victims’ 15-year-old daughter, was initially arrested and charged, but on December 17, 1996, a grand jury declined to indict her. She was officially cleared on January 28, 1997, after the grand jury found no probable cause that she took part in the killings. Her attorney said she did not know her parents were dead until fellow clan members told her as they left town.⁸

Ferrell told detectives and the media that Heather hated her parents and wanted them dead. Heather denied it, and the grand jury did not indict.⁸

Guilty Plea and Death Sentence

Jury selection in Ferrell’s trial began on February 2, 1998. Three days in, he pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, armed burglary, and armed robbery. The case moved to a penalty phase.⁵

Defense psychologists disagreed among themselves about the extent of Ferrell’s mental illness. One testified to schizotypal personality disorder, depression, substance abuse, hallucinations, and a chaotic, abusive upbringing.⁹ Another defense expert said Ferrell exaggerated his symptoms, was not psychotic, and knew right from wrong; he called the vampire claim attention-seeking rather than delusional.¹ The prosecution argued that Ferrell’s planning of the break-in and his flight across state lines contradicted claims of uncontrollable rage.⁵

On February 23, 1998, the jury unanimously recommended death on both murder counts. Four days later, Circuit Judge Jerry Lockett imposed two death sentences. At 17, Ferrell became the youngest person on Florida’s death row.¹⁰ The court found the murders were cold, calculated, and premeditated, were committed during an armed burglary and robbery, and that Naoma Queen’s killing was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel.⁵

From Death Row to Life Without Parole

Ferrell’s sentence was undone not by his own appeal but by a shift in constitutional law. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Roper v. Simmons that executing offenders who were under 18 at the time of their crimes violates the Eighth Amendment. The Florida Supreme Court commuted Ferrell’s sentence to life without the possibility of parole.¹¹

Two later rulings gave him another opening. Miller v. Alabama (2012) barred mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juvenile homicide offenders, requiring courts to weigh youth and capacity for change. Montgomery v. Louisiana (2016) made Miller retroactive, and Ferrell sought resentencing.¹¹

His attorney, Terence Lenamon, argued that Ferrell was not among “the rarest of children whose crime reflects permanent incorrigibility,” pointing to his education in prison, a wastewater-management license, and a lack of major disciplinary infractions.¹¹¹²

In a 55-page decision posted April 7, 2020, Lake County Circuit Judge G. Richard Singeltary denied the request and upheld the life sentence. He found Ferrell “irreparably corrupt” and called the double homicide “among the most appalling” cases he had reviewed.¹³ The judge called “not credible” the defense claim that Ferrell had traveled to Florida to rescue Heather Wendorf from sexual abuse, finding instead that the killings were driven by a need for money and a vehicle to get the group to New Orleans. He rejected claims Ferrell was impaired by alcohol, marijuana, LSD, and Prozac during the murders.¹²

Singeltary wrote that “the continuation of his pattern of fabrication and manipulation of the narratives of his crimes” showed Ferrell was “neither changed nor rehabilitated.” The court cited homemade knives found in his cell and his boast to a correctional officer about a possible escape plan.¹² Jennifer Wendorf, who as a teenager found her parents’ bodies, testified and asked the court to keep Ferrell imprisoned, expressing what the judge described as “sincere fear for her own safety.”¹³

Where Rod Ferrell Is Today

Ferrell remains incarcerated at the Central Florida Reception Center in Orlando, serving life without the possibility of parole.¹ Asked in a 2016 interview what he would change about his life, he said he would take back “the murders.”² The judge who reviewed his resentencing was not persuaded, and the legal paths for further relief are narrow.

1
Oxygen. Vampire Rod Ferrell and the Wendorf Murders
2
WKMS. Murray Vampire Clan Murders Happened 20 Years Ago This Week
3
Palm Beach Post. Florida Mother of Vampire Cult Killer: I’ve Changed
4
FSU Law Library. Ferrell v. State, No. 93,127 – Initial Brief
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FSU Law Library. Ferrell v. State, No. 93,127 – Answer Brief
6
UPI. Vampire Clan Suspects Indicted in Fla.
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Daily Commercial. Anderson to Be Released in 2032 for Role in Vampire Murders
8
Spokesman-Review. Girl Cleared in Cult Killing of Her Parents
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Orlando Sentinel. Doctor: Ferrell’s Lies a Game
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CBS News. Double Death for Vampire Killer
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Orlando Sentinel. Vampire Killer Rod Ferrell Should Get a Shot at Parole, Attorney Argues
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Daily Commercial. Vampire Killer Keeps His Life Sentence
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Orlando Sentinel. No Break for Vampire Cult Killer Rod Ferrell; Life Sentences Stand