Member Since: 8/18/2013
Posts: 5,092
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Teen girls murder best friend, live normal lives for months
(Disclaimer: this story is about a year old but I never saw anything on ATRL about it and it's a story worth telling, plus some of the sentences and court hearings are still ongoing. TLDR towards the bottom if you don't feel like reading it all)
The Murder of Skylar Neese
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For nearly nine months, the people of this small West Virginia town saw the face of missing 16-year-old honors student Skylar Neese everywhere – beaming at them from fliers on utility poles, in gas stations, even at the local tattoo parlor.
She had been missing since she slipped out of her bedroom window one night last summer, but some in this town of fewer than 2,000 people never believed she had run away.
Police chased numerous leads with no luck. The break finally came when one of Neese's friends admitted plotting with another girl to kill her – shocking even the investigators working the case.
The two girls were charged with luring the straight-A student at University High School out of her family's apartment in the middle of the night, stabbing her to death at an agreed-upon moment and hiding her body under branches in a Pennsylvania township about 30 miles away from her house, according to court documents.
The pair – one of whom has now pleaded guilty – had spent time with Neese's mother after the slaying and even helped with the search.
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The mystery began July 6, 2012, when Neese climbed out of her bedroom window. Surveillance video showed her getting into a car at the end of her street in a quiet residential neighborhood near West Virginia University. With no sign of fear, no money and no contact lenses, she apparently expected to return.
When she didn't, Dave and Mary Neese worried. Police initially suspected their daughter was a runaway, but they knew better. They walked up and down Crawford Street with Neese's photo, then plastered fliers everywhere.
"You couldn't go 5 feet without seeing her," said 24-year-old Brittany Crouse, who moved in around the time of the disappearance. "Everybody really, really wanted her to come home."
For months, police chased down tips to no avail. The transcript from Shoaf's hearing shows the break came Jan. 3, when she finally told investigators the truth – and where to find the body.
But it wasn't until March that authorities confirmed it was Neese, and silence followed until the day of the plea hearing.
"I think police who were involved in the front lines of that interview and that part of the investigation were stunned at Rachel Shoaf's confession," Ashdown told Judge Russell Clawges that day. "She confessed to a plan and conspiracy with another juvenile to kill Skylar Neese. A plan carried out."
The three girls drove to Wayne Township, Pa., got out of the car and the suspects pretended to socialize with Neese.
"And, at a planned and agreed upon moment," Ashdown said, the girls "attacked and stabbed Skylar to death, and they left her there."
They tried to bury Neese, she said, but covered her with branches when they couldn't.
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Source
Shelia Eddy and Rachel Shoaf, Skylar's murderer's, killed Skylar on July 6th, 2012. Here are some screenshots and quotes from what they posted on social media after they killed her.
On May 1st, 2013, Rachel Shoaf plead guilty to second-degree murder and confessed that she and Shelia had murdered Skylar. After months of pretending to be sad that Skylar was dead, missing her, posting old pictures with her, searching for her with authorities, helping her mother search for her, and living normal lives for at least 5 months. This is the most unsettling and disturbing case I've heard of in a LONG, long time.
TL;DR - Two girls murdered their best friend and went on for months pretending they didn't, helping search for her with authorities, lying to the victims mother about it, and living normal lives. One of the girls broke down and confessed to authorities that she and another girl killed the best friend. They're now in jail - one is serving life in prison and the other is serving 30 years.
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