A Morgan County Grand Jury today indicted Andrew J. McCauley Jr., 41, of Berkeley Springs for the murder of Riley Crossman in May 2019. McCauley was also indicted for concealment of a deceased human body, confirmed Morgan County Prosecuting Attorney Dan James. The Grand Jury met today, Tuesday, January 7. The indictment is not a conviction, but the determination by the Grand Jury that there is enough evidence for a criminal case to proceed to trial.
The Grand Jury met for several hours on Tuesday morning before the Morgan County Courthouse closed early due to local snowy conditions.
Prosecutor Dan James had previously presented an extensive case against McCauley during a preliminary
Andy J. McCauley Jr.
hearing before a specially-appointed magistrate. During that earlier hearing, James sketched out a timeline that started in the early evening of May 7, when 15-year-old Riley Crossman was last seen alive by her mother at her Berkeley Springs residence on Greenway Drive. The following afternoon, Crossman’s mother received an automated phone call from the Morgan County school system that her daughter had been marked absent from school. The family reported Crossman missing, and a week-long search and public campaign for information about the teen’s whereabouts began.
McCauley was the boyfriend of Crossman’s mother and lived at the residence at the time the teen was reported missing.
On May 15, cadaver dogs used as part of the police investigation alerted on McCauley’s work truck. Police collected a large amount of video evidence from around the region and pieced together the path that McCauley drove on May 8 from his construction job in Hedgesville to his residence in Berkeley Springs, and then to an area in Berkeley County.
On May 16, local and state police located the deceased body of Crossman along Tuscarora Pike in Berkeley County. Her clothing and skin showed evidence of drywall mud, which was present in the bed of McCauley’s work truck. Police charged McCauley with murder that day. He has been incarcerated at the Eastern Regional Jail since his arrest.
The Morgan County Sheriff’s Department has been the lead investigating agency in the case. They have been assisted by the West Virginia State Police, Department of Natural Resources Police, FBI and other agencies.
McCauley will be arraigned before a Morgan County Circuit Judge later in January. At that time, he and other individuals indicted by the Grand Jury will enter pleas of guilt or innocence,and future hearing dates will be set in their cases.
In total, the Morgan County Grand Jury indicted 12 individuals on felony criminal charges.
