MURRAY, Kentucky. (AP) -- For years, this quiet college town was perhaps best known as home of the national Boy Scout museum. Now it is newly notorious, and its residents increasingly afraid, with the discovery that some of its teens belonged to a vampire cult.    The news that four area teen-agers are suspected of beating a Florida couple to death was frightening enough. Now prosecutors say the youths were involved in a strange role-playing game that went much too far -- from the mutilation of animals to drinking each other's blood and eventually to murder.Details remain sketchy but the secretive cult known as "The Vampire Clan" is believed to have been active in Murray, where members were suspected of breaking into an animal shelter and mutilating two puppies.    Murray, a semi-rural town of about 13,000, lies in southwestern Kentucky near the Tennessee state line. Murray State University is there, a 8,300-student school known for its basketball program. Now the town is linked to three Murray teens arrested along with another youth from nearby Mayfield. All four, along with the daughter of the slain couple, were arrested on Thanksgiving night in Baton Rouge, La. All are suspected in the Nov. 25 1996 slayings of Richard and Naoma Wendorf of Eustis, Fla.    Police say Rod Ferrell met the Wendorf's 15-year-old daughter, Heather, when he lived in Eustis with his father. Ferrell, 16, moved back to Murray. It was Ferrell who police think broke into the animal shelter, stomping one dog to death and pulling the legs off another. Neighbors at the public housing complex where he lived say they never noticed anything unusual about him or his mother, Sondra Gibson. Yet Ms. Gibson is herself charged with solicitation to commit rape. Police say she wrote to a 14-year-old, inviting sex and hinting she was involved in vampire-type activity. "I longed to be near you ... to become a Vampire, a part of the family immortal and truly yours forever," the letter reads. "You will then come for me and cross me over and I will be your bride for eternity and you my sire." Accused with Ferrell and Ms. Wendorf of killing the Wendorfs are Dana Cooper, 19, of Murray, and Scott Anderson, 16, of Mayfield. Charity Keesee, 16, of Murray was charged with being an accessory to murder.       It was said the youths were involved in an on-going role-playing game, but that Ferrell had begun to take the vampire game more seriously, scaring others into quitting. "The animal shelter thing was the first visible sign he had gone beyond game-playing," Perhaps the most frightened man in town was Ferrell's grandfather, Harold Gibson. But his fears were for his grandson, not of the youth, whom he insisted was not the group's leader. And he said he fears for himself. "What if they come after me?" Gibson said at his home Saturday, suddenly overcome by tears. "They're saying Rod is a monster. A monster! He's not a monster, he's not." Harrington was eager to write off the lurid story as an isolated escapade. "I think you had a group of kids that just wanted to be a part of something, wanted to belong to a group," he said. "And it went too far. Hopefully, it's over."
Status Report

DC Number: 124473 Name: FERRELL, RODRICK J Race: WHITE Sex: MALE Hair Color: RED OR AUBURN Eye Color: BLUE Height: 5'11" Weight: 157 Birth Date: 03/28/1980 Initial Receipt Date: 02/27/1996 Current Release Date: LIFE

DC Number: U05903 Name: KEESEE, CHARITY L Race: WHITE Sex: FEMALE Hair Color: BROWN Eye Color: GRAY Height: 5'04'' Weight: 104 Birth Date: 09/12/1980 Current Facility: FLORIDA C. I. MAIN Current Classification Status: NOT APPLICABLE Current Custody: PENDING Current Release Date: 06/16/2007

DC Number: 124489 Name: ANDERSON, HOWARD S Race: WHITE Sex: MALE Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Blue Height: 5'10'' Weight: 149 Birth Date: 12/18/1979 Current Facility: Appalachee West Unit Current Classification Status: NOT APPLICABLE Current Custody: CLOSE Current Release Date: SENTENCED TO LIFE

DC Number: 153837 Name: COOPER, DANA L Race: WHITE Sex: FEMALE Hair Color: BROWN Eye Color: BLUE Height: 5'05'' Weight: 178 Birth Date: 04/08/1977 Current Facility: Dade C. I. Current Classification Status: NOT APPLICABLE Current Custody: CLOSE Current Release Date: 05/26/2014

Heather Wendorf was cleared of all the charges brought against her.