Pretty Little Killers

by Berry, Daleen, Fuller, Geoffrey C.

  Angotti referred to Dr. Patricia Bailey’s report and the result of her psychological evaluation of Rachel. Dr. Bailey recommended that Rachel be sentenced as a juvenile and remain in juvenile detention until she turns twenty-one. She should remain in the Northern Regional Juvenile Detention Center, Dr. Bailey’s report said, and continue with her treatment. Because Rachel provided testimony, it would be detrimental for her to be in the same institution as Shelia.

  Angotti went on to ask the court to accept Dr. Bailey’s recommendations. He closed with a statement saying Rachel “understands and accepts” that she should be punished. “But more importantly,” he said, “she hopes and prays for forgiveness, from the Neese family, her family, and the community at large.”

  Next it was the prosecutor’s turn. Prosecuting Attorney Marsha Ashdown chose to begin with the victims’ impact statements.

  Speaking first, Dave Neese began by saying that while it was true Rachel led police to the body, “Rachel Shoaf also murdered my daughter in cold blood. Skylar would not be where she was if it wasn’t for Rachel Shoaf. She should take her apologies and sit on them because that’s about what they’re worth to me and my wife. . . . Your honor, I ask that you give her forty years and plus, if you can.”

  Carol Michaud, Skylar’s aunt, opened her statement by saying, “And still to this day we do not know why they did this, and that is a question we would like an answer to.” Clearly filled with anger and anguish, she continued; as she spoke, sobs could be heard throughout the gallery. She ended by saying: “I hope you really and truly regret what you did, but it would never make us feel any better.”

  Dave’s brother, Michael, followed Carol. He spoke with heart-wrenching detail of his experience after Skylar’s murder. His testimony also moved many to tears. Overcome by emotion, he lost his place several times as he spoke. He concluded by saying, “The admitted murderer sitting here today has nothing but blatant disregard for human life and she deserves the maximum sentence.”

  Though Ashdown’s account of the crime was not lengthy, it lasted just over five minutes, and was painful to hear, especially for Mary and Dave. “Rachel Shoaf estimated that Skylar was stabbed ten times before she died,” Ashdown said. Her voice faltered at times and signs of fatigue were visible on her face. “And she explained that during the attack, Skylar Neese’s neck made weird sounds, and they both continued to stab her until those noises stopped.”

  On top of that horror, Ashdown said Rachel and Shelia repeatedly coordinated their lies for police over a six-month period. They plotted before and covered up after. Rachel deserved an adult sentence, Ashdown said, for this “oh, so adult crime of cold-blooded, planned, premeditated murder.

  “Murder by a stranger is a horror. . . . I imagine that Dave and Mary Neese wake up some mornings and there are an easy few minutes until the fact of Skylar’s murder comes rushing back. And the unbearable must be borne again and again for the rest of their lives.

  “Surely a sentence as a juvenile is unthinkable. If Rachel Shoaf has accepted full responsibility for her crime, she should not be asking to be sentenced as a juvenile. She should be willing to accept every day, every hour, and every minute of a proper adult sentence.”

  In the end, Judge Clawges agreed with Ashdown and refused to sentence Rachel as a juvenile. “That would by no means be justice in this case,” he said, ordering her to serve thirty years.

  No doubt aware of the community’s horrified response to such a heinous crime, Clawges tried to offer some morsel that would satisfy them. “It is not my place to understand or to explain,” he said. “I understand that nothing I have done or can do will make what has happened right for anybody. It is what it is and as far as I’m concerned, this matter is concluded.”

  Flanked by her defense attorneys, wearing her prison-issue orange jumpsuit, her wrists and ankles shackled, Rachel Shoaf shuffled out of the courtroom. Her face was puffy from crying, her shoulders tight as if expecting to ward off blows, and her eyes sought out those of her parents as she left.

  At the small press conference after the hearing, a news reporter asked Dave what he would say to Rachel and Shelia if he could.

  “I hope you have a rotten, rotten life because I—” He stopped abruptly, unwilling or unable to resume.

  Ashdown talked more to the media about the case during those fifteen minutes in the press conference than she had in the last year and a half. Asked what kind of secrets the girls may have been hiding, she would only repeat “whatever secrets teenagers have.” So it seems the secrets of Shelia Eddy, Rachel Shoaf, and even Skylar Neese are destined to remain unknown.

  When asked which girl—Shelia or Rachel—bore the greater fault, she replied, “From my perspective they’re equally responsible.”

  forty-seven

  Society Is Naïve

  People need answers, especially to difficult questions. It helps them make sense of life’s most perplexing problems. Skylar Neese’s murder is no different. Everyone who hears the story asks how the teen’s two best friends could make calculated plans to brutally murder her—and then coldly carry them out.

  But what if Rachel was telling the truth—or at least her version of it? Perhaps by that summer, the constant battles between Shelia and Skylar had become too much for all three of them. Shelia was sick of Skylar, Skylar was sick of being left out, and Rachel was sick of the constant fighting.

  It’s possible, probable even, that Rachel didn’t want to be friends with Skylar anymore; people close to Rachel said that while she would fight, she dreaded fighting.

  What about Shelia, though? She refuses to say a word about the crime, much less the motive behind it. So it’s entirely possible her motive was different than Rachel’s. At some point, though, Shelia convinced Rachel that it would be easier to end Skylar’s life than end the three-way friendship.

  From all accounts, Shelia could be mean and manipulative. Her Twitter feed alone proves that. Of course, Skylar could be mean, too. However, there seems to be a basic difference between the two girls’ meanness. Skylar acted mean when she felt justified in doing so, like the times she felt Shelia had slighted or wronged her. With Skylar, though, it wasn’t who she was. Under normal circumstances, it was not in her basic nature to be mean to other people.

  Skylar was a decent, good person who had a record of helping other people. She helped fellow students with their homework, she helped clean her aunt’s house, and she worried about the environment, the rights of other people, and her parents. Skylar didn’t have much money to give, but she had time and passion.

  There may never be a fully satisfying answer to why Shelia and Rachel killed Skylar. Ken Lanning, the FBI profiler, said as much. According to Lanning, juveniles often commit crimes for reasons adults cannot wrap their minds around. He has heard numerous explanations from teens about why they committed some heinous crime, and said he is often surprised by what teens consider a valid reason to commit murder.

  If Shelia and Rachel’s secret was a lesbian relationship, that is almost as empty as “We didn’t want to be friends with her anymore.” Even considering the unstable and explosive three-way relationship, it’s possible neither Rachel nor Shelia would have cared at all if Skylar had exposed them.

  However, if that exposure meant an end to their relationship as they knew it—if it threatened to tear the two lovers apart—that might have seemed like a logical motive for murder. At least in the eyes of two teenagers. In fact, a mentally challenged young gay man was murdered several years ago in nearby Fairmont, so it isn’t a stretch to say homophobia remains a problem here.

  Early in the investigation, it was believed Rachel Shoaf could have been afraid her church family would disown her if they found out she was having sex with another girl. Or that she would lose Mikinzy if he found out. Shelia would stand to lose, too, for being Rachel’s lover, because her father’s family is from the more rural Blacksville area, where homophobia is even more ingrained. But people who know Tara Eddy-Cle
ndenen said they were sure she would have had no problems with Shelia if she was a lesbian, so there was that.

  Or so it was thought, until recently, when Crissy Swanson shared information she gleaned from her mother. “My mom told me that Tara was very, very, very sure that her daughter would never be gay,” Crissy said, adding that while talking about Skylar’s murder and the lesbian rumors, “Tara said ‘my daughter will never end up like somebody like that.’

  “She said, ‘You know her, all she’s dated is boys, boys, boys . . . She’ll never end up that way,’” Crissy said Tara told her mother.

  Crissy believes this may be why Shelia felt she had to hide her relationship with Rachel. “Because neither parent would have agreed,” Crissy said. “I thought she would love Shelia no matter what. That’s her child.”

  Another question that begs an answer is whether Skylar was going to reveal Shelia and Rachel’s secret. Did she threaten to, and if so, is that why they were so afraid? Why would they think Skylar was going to tell, if she had not done so in the year since she saw them having sex?

  The easiest answer is: she did tell.

  Skylar told Shania not long before school let out in 2012. Shania said Skylar told her about the two girls’ sexual relationship a couple of months before they killed her.

  Shania could have accidentally let the secret slip out, and perhaps told Shelia what Skylar revealed to her. Shania’s grief has not subsided; she continues to experience difficulties from losing Skylar (to murder) and Shelia (to prison), and her tweets paint a picture of a very angry, depressed teenager. That’s how Shelia found out, and could be why she said Skylar had to die.

  In addition, one month after Rachel and Shelia had sex in front of Skylar, Skylar apparently did threaten to tell—or else Rachel and Shelia perceived her September 6 tweet, id tell the whole school all the shit i have on everyone, which is a lottttt, as a threat. One month later, they began joking in biology class about killing Skylar.

  In late spring, after Shelia realized Skylar was telling their mutual friends about her sexual relationship with Rachel, she told Rachel, who, in turn, confided in Wendy, saying she wouldn’t care if Skylar died.

  Coming full circle, perhaps, just as Shelia and Rachel learned Skylar was talking about their lesbian acts, Skylar learned or finally began to believe the rumor about them wanting to kill her, which the just know I know tweet seems to confirm.

  But what if it doesn’t? Or what if, like Lanning said, there are several reasons for Skylar’s murder—not just one simple one?

  “The combination of the two girls together,” Lanning said, “it may very well be that no one of them on their own would have done this. It was something about (that combination) . . . that played a role in this happening.”

  It wasn’t the cause, and in Lanning’s mind, the murder didn’t occur because of one singular reason.

  “You can’t say, ‘She did this because [Skylar] was going to expose their lesbian sexual relationship,’” Lanning said. “I just don’t think it’s that simple. It’s a complicated series of things that all come together, and it’s the totality of all of this that results” in murder.

  Colebank also believes it’s much darker than the two girls trying to keep their relationship secret.

  “You get girls drunk, they’re gonna make out,” she said. “People know that and they don’t care.”

  Colebank believes the lesbian sex didn’t have anything to do with Skylar’s murder. Instead, she believes “it was completely a thrill kill.”

  For both girls, who didn’t have much in life to challenge them, the planning and execution of the murder was exciting. “They have everything they’ve ever wanted. They’re given everything,” Colebank said. “Nothing was a challenge for them. They could go out and party all they wanted, get any guy they wanted. They hated Skylar.”

  The idea of planning and then getting away with such a horrific crime was thrilling for both girls, Colebank believes, but it was especially exciting for Shelia, who sat back and played the innocent while the police chased all the false leads. The way both girls taunted the police in public, on Twitter, Colebank says, shows they “were enjoying the game.”

  Shelia loved watching crime shows like Law & Order and Special Victims Unit (SVU), and Colebank believes it was a short walk for her to go from watching those shows to wondering if she and Rachel could get away with murder.

  Colebank is the only officer who will say outright that Skylar’s murder was a thrill kill. However, other officers who worked alongside her wonder if she might be right. The young officer has been right about a great many things in this case, so when she says she believes Shania Ammons was next on Shelia’s list, it’s a chilling possibility.

  Shelia was treating Shania the same way she did Skylar, investigators later learned after finding a few text messages between the two girls. “Shania was Shelia’s next victim,” Colebank said.

  For instance, Colebank related how Shania would text Shelia, saying, “Hey, let’s hang out. I know this is rough on you.”

  “Yeah, we should hang out,” was Shelia’s reply.

  When Shania said she would ask Tara if they could, Shelia would text Tara, saying, “Say no, just say no. I hate her. I don’t want to hang out with her.”

  That, Colebank said, is exactly what Shelia did to Skylar.

  Since she seems to be right about that, it’s hard to ignore Colebank when she casually brushes aside another “gut feeling” she had. That one involves Shelia and Rachel having sex after they killed Skylar.

  It’s not the first time someone in law enforcement or the mental health field has brought up that possibility. Besides, sex is one tool Shelia used in her life on the edge.

  Colebank says Shelia lives for excitement—and Skylar paid the price. It wasn’t enough for them to kill Skylar, either. She believes Shelia and Rachel then had to defame Skylar’s memory by celebrating at the very site where they murdered her.

  Most likely, the female officer is right. While there were no beds available at Lakin when she was sentenced January 24, Shelia was transferred there not long afterward. Just as Colebank predicted, Shelia continues to use sex as a tool. Someone close to the case said Shelia’s having sex with a male guard—who was then fired—got the teen killer an immediate transfer to the adult women’s prison.

  While in detention, Shelia has written letters to loved ones. Her own words indicate such behavior is entirely in line with her character. Lanning analyzed some of those letters and said Shelia lives in a make-believe world she has created. “She’s already getting ready to move on,” he said, referencing Shelia’s desire to “go back to the old times” when she gets out of prison. Times that, for her, included riding around in cars, playing carefree games, and smoking weed.

  Lanning said Shelia’s attitude is not based in reality. “She acts like this whole thing was just a bump in the road. She’s going through life and then [she murders Skylar], now she’s got to figure out how to regroup.”

  Equally disturbing, she tends to blame her problems on two superficial factors. “So the two things that she suggests caused all of this,” Lanning said, “are moving to Morgantown and meeting Rachel.” These seem to her the biggest mistakes. If she could undo anything, it would be that—not scheming and killing Skylar, he added.

  More important, Lanning’s analysis found Shelia “seems to be in some kind of, almost, unwillingness to accept the reality of what she did.”

  This might explain why Shelia didn’t tell the Neeses she was sorry when she had the chance at her plea and sentencing hearing. Not only does she not feel any guilt or shame for her actions, Lanning said; she “doesn’t hint at any remorse over what she did.”

  People want to know why these girls killed Skylar, and in such a savage way. “It’s not [a] simple answer,” Lanning said, adding that it’s anything but. “In my opinion, it’s a convergence of a whole set of circumstances.”

  In addition, the expert behavior analyst b
elieves Shelia is damaged in some serious way. “I think, rooted in that, is some type of flaw in this young woman’s character. She’s got some fundamental character flaw, whether it’s genetic or whether it’s rooted in some environmental problem. Most likely it’s some combination of both.”

  While Shelia seems, at least on the surface, to be a typical teenager, “there’s something wrong with her,” Lanning said. “Lots of things that happened in this case happen every day in every high school across America, and no one gets killed.”

  Colebank agrees. Not long after Shelia was transferred to Lakin Correctional Facility, Dateline aired an episode about Skylar’s murder. Colebank was responding to a 911 call at CVS in Star City when a woman in her sixties recognized the young officer and mentioned the murder case.

  “I don’t believe it,” the elderly customer said, “I don’t believe those two sweet little girls did that.”

  That, Colebank told her, is because we live in a naïve society. The woman kept talking, and Colebank found it difficult to keep silent.

  Why do people keep doing that? It’s making me mad. Even though she wanted to, Colebank didn’t give voice to her thoughts. Walk away, you need to walk away from me right now.

  Colebank’s anger is justified. After all, she’s one of the investigators who—along with Gaskins, Berry, and Spurlock—sacrificed countless hours to find the answers about Skylar’s disappearance and then, later, unravel the mystery of her murder.

  It’s no wonder, then, after all this, that Colebank can’t understand why people don’t believe two pretty, fresh-faced teenagers could deliberately kill their good friend.