Title: Teen-ager Sells Vampire Cult Story

Source: Associated Press, 3/7/98

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Teen-ager Sells Vampire Cult Story

© The Associated Press

TAVARES, Fla. (AP) - A teen-ager whose parents were bludgeoned to death by her friend - a 17-year-old vampire cult leader - has accepted $1,000 from a true-crime author who hopes to sell the story to Hollywood.

Heather Wendorf, 17, will share her story with author Aphrodite Jones in good faith toward a possible $50,000 movie deal, The Daily Commercial in nearby Leesburg reported this week.

The girl's friend Rod Ferrell was sentenced to death last week for beating her parents, Richard Wendorf and Naoma Queen, to death with a crow bar in November 1996.

The author will use the material for a book titled ``The Embrace'' that she hopes to parlay into a movie deal.

Miss Wendorf's role in her parents' slayings has never been clear.

After the killings in Tavares, 30 miles northwest of Orlando, Miss Wendorf fled to Louisiana with Ferrell and other cult members. But she was cleared by a grand jury last year even though Ferrell and three others were charged.

State Circuit Judge Jerry Lockett has urged prosecutors to seek another indictment against Miss Wendorf.

AP-NY-03-07-98 0148EST

Copyright 1997 The Associated Press.