Howard Scott Anderson

Eventually, the question becomes where does the person end and the thing they've created begin? Then Rod went to Heather's house and everything changed.

On November 25th, 1996, Rod Ferrell and Howard Scott Anderson entered the Wendorf home in Eustis, Florida.

Heather was not inside the house when her parents were killed.

Richard Wendorf was asleep on the couch.

And in a few short months, he succeeded, recruiting five new people from Murray.

One was Howard Scott Anderson, a quiet 16-year-old boy who'd been friends with Rod since elementary school.

He had a tough home life and took the vampire name of Nosferatu.

Another was a girl named Charity Kesey, a 16-year-old girl that Rod had been dating and maybe even was engaged to for nearly a year.

There was his 16-year-old girlfriend, Charity Keesee.

There was his best friend, 16-year-old Howard Scott Anderson, who went by Scott, and there was Dana Cooper, the oldest of the group at 19 years old.

Rod gave them names.

He gave them roles.

On the night of October 14th, Rod and another teenager broke into the Murray Calloway County Animal Shelter.

By morning, two puppies were dead, and dozens of dogs had been let loose.

The local sheriff, Stan Scott, didn't know who'd done it yet, but he knew what he was looking at.

He told the Murray Ledger in Times, quote, "We're dealing with some sick individuals, and I want them caught." Within a couple of weeks, Rod was one of the names in front of the sheriff, charged with animal cruelty and a handful of related counts.

So, after separating from Jaden, Rod created a vampire family of his own.

He placed himself at the center of it as a vampire named Visago, surrounding himself with teenagers including Michael Schaefer, Scott Anderson, Charity Kesey, and Dana Cooper, while presenting himself as their sire and the vampiric father.

But the violence surrounding Rod was also becoming increasingly real.

He killed a kitten in front of Jaden, regularly talked about murder, and by October 1996, he had become a suspect in the horrific break-in at the Murray-Calloway County Animal Shelter, where dozens of dogs were released and two puppies were deliberately killed and mutilated.

At the same time, Rod had remained closely connected to 15-year-old Heather Wendorf, an old friend in Eustis, Florida, who had become immersed in the same vampire identity and desperately wanted to leave home.

So in November of 1996, Rod, Scott, Charity, and Dana left Kentucky with a plan to collect Heather and continue to New Orleans.

Their transportation was Rod's car, which was a ridiculously unreliable vehicle.

And as they reached Eustace, Rod began openly talking about a solution to that, which was taking the Wendorf family's Ford Explorer.

While Rod occupied the position of authority within this group.

Another member was Howard Scott Anderson, usually known simply as Scott.

Scott was 16 and had known Rod since they were very young kids.

He came from a difficult home himself and later described growing up poor with an alcoholic father, sometimes even just bringing leftover food home for his younger brothers.

Of the teenagers gathered around Rod, Scott would have become very particularly close to him.

Essentially his right-hand man, you could say.

There was also Charity Lynn Kesey, who was 16, who was romantically involved with Rod, and Dana Lynn Cooper, who at 19 was the oldest member of this group.

Inside and around the shelter, though, the damage was worse than just some flat grass and cut fence.