The Savage Murder of Skylar Neese: The Truth Behind the Headlines Read online

  Patricia Shoaf: Rachel’s mother, Patricia works as a sales representative for Comcast Cable and handles some of their business accounts. By turns lenient and controlling, Patricia believed presenting an image of perfection to the world is vital.

  Rusty Shoaf: Rachel’s father, Rusty works at an upscale men’s store in Morgantown. He looked the other way as Patricia controlled Rachel, preferring to be his daughter’s friend rather than her parent.

  Law Enforcement (in order of appearance)

  Officer Robert McCauley: A part-time Star City police officer at the time of Skylar’s disappearance, McCauley is a veteran law enforcement officer who took the initial 911 report of Skylar’s disappearance. McCauley turned the case over to Officer Colebank because it required a full-time investigator. He has since retired.

  Officer Mike Teets: Teets stopped Skylar and her friends after curfew in the late spring of 2012. He released Floyd Pancoast and Brian Moats, both of whom were over 18. He called Shelia’s and Rachel’s fathers and drove Skylar home.

  Officer Jessica Colebank: The first Star City police officer to work full-time on Skylar’s case, Colebank was obsessed with finding Skylar throughout the fall of 2012. Along with the FBI and West Virginia State Police, she logged hundreds of hours on the case, and was one of the first investigators to insist that Shelia and Rachel were hiding something.

  Chief Vic Propst: Chief of the Star City Police Department, Propst is a longtime law enforcement officer who functioned in a supervisory role in the investigation into Skylar’s disappearance.

  FBI Agent Morgan Spurlock: An FBI agent and accountant, Spurlock is known for his boyish looks and ever-present backpack. He worked on the bank robbery case and Skylar’s disappearance.

  Corporal Ronnie Gaskins: The lead investigator on Skylar’s case, the thoughtful, soft-spoken state trooper initially took an interest in Skylar’s disappearance when he thought it might be connected to area bank robberies. Gaskins enlisted the aid of Trooper Chris Berry and together the two tracked down many of the key facts about the case.

  Senior Trooper Chris Berry [no relation to the author]: A self-assured, brash state trooper, Berry was originally transferred from the Fairmont detachment specifically to investigate the bank robberies. He took a personal interest in finding Skylar because he was so moved by the contents of her diary. Working on the case, often without pay, severely strained Berry’s marriage.

  Monongalia County Sheriff’s Deputy Timothy Hunn: A friend of Jessica Colebank’s, Hunn procured ATVs for himself, Colebank, and Berry to ride during their off-hours, searching the backwoods of the remote, tree-covered western panhandle of the county.

  Greene County Coroner Gregory Rohanna: An elected Pennsylvania official, Rohanna refused to release Skylar’s remains in early July. His actions created a huge public outcry and focused even more media attention on the murder, as people threatened to protest on his office steps.

  The Court

  Monongalia County Prosecuting Attorney Marcia Ashdown: Ashdown has been prosecutor since 1996 and was lead prosecutor in the case of West Virginia v. Shelia Eddy. Although she runs a tight-lipped prosecutor’s office, she has been known to speak out on issues involving the rights of women and children. She is also a zealous prosecutor in child abuse cases.

  Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Perri DeChristopher: Second chair in the case against Shelia Eddy, DeChristopher is known as an effective litigator. She just completed a two-year term as secretary of the West Virginia Prosecuting Attorneys Association. She functioned as the Neeses’ primary contact about progress in the cases against Rachel and Shelia.

  Mike Benninger: Shelia’s defense attorney, Benninger is a big bear of a guy who got his start as a personal injury attorney. Benninger has a commanding demeanor in the courtroom. He reportedly told Shelia’s parents his job was to simply keep her from receiving a life sentence.

  John Angotti: Rachel’s lead defense attorney, Angotti is known as a thorough and skilled criminal lawyer, the son of former Monongalia County prosecutor Sam Angotti. He is experienced, well-connected, and smart.

  Monongalia County Circuit Judge Russell M. Clawges: Known as a deliberative and fair judge, Clawges has held the position since 1997. He and his wife reared two daughters.

  University High School Faculty

  Sherri Burgess: A new principal at the time Skylar disappeared, Burgess mandated that faculty and staff not discuss Skylar’s murder or events subsequent to it. Her actions in the wake of Skylar’s murder have been widely criticized by students and parents.

  Pete Cheesebrough: An assistant principal at University High School, Cheesbrough was arguably the “face” of the UHS administration. He was well liked by UHS students.

  Richard Kyer: Rachel’s drama teacher, Kyer consistently defended Rachel, telling other students to leave her alone. The day after Rachel was charged with Skylar’s murder, it was rumored Kyer was so distraught he missed school.

  Dan Demchak: A UHS science teacher at the time of Skylar’s murder, Demchack taught the class in which students say they overheard Rachel and Shelia discussing the best way to dispose of a body. He has since retired.

  Skylar’s Law

  Becky Benson Bailey: Becky went to school with Dave Neese and was ranting one night over the inaction in Skylar’s case when she came up with the idea to expand the AMBER Alert program. Skylar’s Law mandates that police contact the AMBER Alert system and that the AMBER system treat all missing children and teenagers—regardless of how they came to be missing—as actual kidnapping cases unless an investigation proves otherwise.

  Chuck Yocum: One of Tom Bloom’s former students, Chuck became interested in Skylar’s disappearance and helped Bailey write Skylar’s Law. He works in the public school system in Maryland.

  Tom Bloom: A Monongalia County commissioner and retired high school counselor, Tom is familiar with Skylar and many of the students involved in this case. He helped revise Skylar’s Law and drew the attention of state legislators to the bill.

  Charlene Marshall: When Tom Bloom came to her asking for help getting Skylar’s Law introduced into the 2013 session of the legislature, the 80-year-old Marshall went to work. She was largely responsible for getting unanimous support from both the West Virginia Senate and House of Representatives. The bill became the top priority for politicians and sailed through with bipartisan support in just one session.

  Chapter 1

  The Death of Skylar Neese

  Sixteen-year-old Skylar Neese kept a black cushioned vanity bench in her closet so she could climb out of her bedroom window at night. She used it when she snuck out for the last time at 12:31 a.m. on July 6, 2012. After stashing the bench around the corner of the apartment building, she hurried to a waiting silver Toyota Corolla and climbed into the backseat.

  Skylar was probably apprehensive about joyriding with Shelia and Rachel that night. Her two best friends had ditched her more than once in the previous week. Her friendship with them seemed to be falling apart, and Skylar had no idea why.

  When they were freshmen, they were a well-known trio at University High School. Skylar had been ecstatic when Shelia Eddy—her Shelia—transferred there from an outlying rural area. Skylar and the tiny blonde beauty had been friends since second grade, and she could imagine how fantastic it was going to be, because Shelia loved to laugh, have fun, and party.

  Rachel was the new addition to the Skylar and Shelia club. She had graduated from middle school at Saint Francis, the local parochial school, and then chosen to attend UHS. A popular redhead, Rachel was an aspiring stage actress, and Skylar thought her singing voice was exquisite. She also thought Rachel was pretty and funny. Skylar and Shelia had met Rachel when the three had a class together, and the next thing Skylar knew, wherever she and Shelia were, so was Rachel. Which was fine by Skylar, who made friends with everyone. They were inseparable: the blonde, the redhead, and the beautiful brunette with big blue eyes.

  Sitting in the backseat, watching Rache
l and Shelia up front laughing, Skylar might have thought about the beach trip she and Shelia had taken and how badly it had ended. That argument between her and Shelia—the most recent argument, the one that ruined their six-day vacation at Myrtle Beach in June—still wasn’t resolved. Her tweets proved it. About eight that night Skylar had tweeted, you doing shit like that is why I will NEVER completely trust you. Skylar no doubt wondered what it would take to return to the days of their earlier friendship.

  Rachel had been acting a little odd the last few days, also. She had grown distant and reserved. Skylar would have wanted to resolve whatever was happening between the three of them. Bad feelings were poison to her, as she wrote in her English class and her diary.

  As Shelia, Rachel, and Skylar headed away from Star City, past the Sheetz and across the four-lane bridge over the Monongahela River, Skylar tried not to notice how closely they were following the U-Haul truck. She preferred to look out the side window and ponder their friendship problems.

  The night had cooled down to the mid-seventies, and the high, clear sky full of stars belied the violence of the storm that had hit less than a week earlier. Just over the bridge, the devastation from the recent derecho became obvious. The area was heavily forested and hadn’t been cleared of toppled trees, broken branches, and general debris left behind by the eighty-mile-an-hour winds.

  Skylar had only agreed to join them because she believed they were going to ride around for a while, chat, and get high. Since Rachel was leaving for church camp in a couple of days, there had been some talk of going to a party later. But a mile south of her father’s house in Brave, Pennsylvania, Shelia pulled the little Toyota off to the side of the road and parked. Skylar thought they were going to smoke a joint and decide what other fun they could have that night. She didn’t suspect that her two best friends had something much darker in mind.

  Undoubtedly, neither Shelia nor Rachel mentioned the real reason they invited her to join them on that midnight drive. Nor did they say a word about the shovel, bleach, paper towels, or Handi-Wipes stashed in the trunk of the car.

  Skylar never knew about any of that, so she never got the chance to restore harmony. Instead, on the count of three, Shelia and Rachel pulled out the knives they’d hidden under their clothes and savagely attacked Skylar, stabbing her again and again and again. When they finally stopped, Skylar’s “best friends” stood beside her until she stopped breathing. They watched her die. The murder, cleanup, and burial under rocks, dirt, and fallen branches took more than four hours.

  ***

  Almost a year later, Rachel Shoaf confessed, turned State’s evidence, and pled guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Skylar Neese. Shelia Eddy insisted for almost nine months that she was innocent. But on January 24, Shelia, too, pled guilty—to first-degree murder. She was sentenced to life in prison.

  People who have followed the tragic story know that Shelia’s last-minute plea came about because Rachel confessed. They may not know that before Rachel confessed, she had an emotional breakdown and was committed to Chestnut Ridge Center, a psychiatric hospital. Some people also know bits and pieces of the puzzle: the rumored lesbian affair between Shelia and Rachel, the growing discord between Skylar and her two friends, and the fact that Shelia and Rachel planned the murder as much as a year in advance.

  But few people know that Rachel’s descent into despair began the night she stabbed Skylar to death. Or that she later talked to God in the pages of her diary. Rachel wrote that only He knew what had happened the night of July 6—and it was going to stay that way. Appearances were of the utmost importance to Rachel, who treated the entire UHS student body and the community of Morgantown, West Virginia, to the performance of her lifetime, to keep anyone from finding out the truth.

  For six tumultuous months, no one did. A budding actress and singer with no small amount of talent, Rachel convinced all her friends that she was innocent. That she had had nothing to do with Skylar’s disappearance.

  Unfortunately for Rachel, the only person she couldn’t convince was herself.

  Chapter 2

  Breakdown

  “You ruined my life!” Rachel screamed at her parents in their driveway on December 28, 2012. “You ruined my life!”

  Rusty and Patricia urged her to calm down. But to Rachel, what was happening was a disaster of epic proportions. Her father was moving back home. She loved her dad, but his house across town had been her refuge from all the tensions and fights between her and her mother. Now he was saying he would help Patricia keep an eye on Rachel. Her screams were loud enough for the entire cul-de-sac to hear.

  Trying to keep their private lives out of the public eye, Rachel’s parents quickly moved toward the front door of their home. Once inside, though, the argument grew so intense it raged like a house fire.

  Amidst the drama, neither Patricia nor Rusty noticed Rachel’s iPod. She held the device in her hand, FaceTiming everything live to Shelia. If they had seen it, they might have been less worried about what their neighbors could hear and more worried about what Shelia might witness.

  What Shelia saw was the fight that led to Rachel’s breakdown and her involuntary commitment to the local psychiatric hospital. According to Shania Ammons, who heard the story from her close friend Shelia hours later, all hell erupted inside the Shoaf living room that December day.

  Shelia told Shania all about it. Patricia was on top of Rachel on the floor. The fight was ugly and violent. The screaming grew so shrill on Shelia’s iPhone that Shelia’s mother, Tara, heard it from the next room. She rushed into Shelia’s bedroom to investigate. By then, Rachel was yelling, “Help me! Help me!”

  In the ensuing melee, someone called 911. According to 911 logs, the state police arrived two minutes later, at 7:10 p.m. By then, neighbors said that both Rachel and her mom had angry red marks all over their faces.

  Shelia raced to the emergency room and waited for four hours, wondering what was happening to Rachel. Shania later said that by the time Shelia was allowed to see Rachel, “her face was all bruised and knotted and swollen, and she had marks all over her.”

  People close to the Shoafs say the reality was far worse than the story Shania relayed. In one version, Rachel chased Patricia with a kitchen knife. In another she picked up a lit candelabra and smashed it against her mother’s head. People who saw Patricia in the days following the family quarrel say her face was so badly bruised it hurt them to look at her.

  The state troopers didn’t witness any of that; by the time two cruisers arrived on the scene, Rachel had barricaded herself in her bedroom. There, she screamed so loudly one of the neighbors went to his window to find out what all the commotion was. He heard Rachel threatening to take her own life.

  “You’ve ruined my life,” she insisted between sobs. “I’m going to kill myself!”

  The two troopers had to use bolt cutters to remove Rachel’s bedroom door. They dragged her out, wild-eyed and still shrieking. She was cuffed and led from the house, then placed into the backseat of a police car. She sat, still sobbing, while a single trooper interviewed Patricia and Rusty inside.

  As the cruiser pulled away from the curb, Rachel continued to cry uncontrollably. She was trying to talk, too, but between the tears and the hiccups and sniffling, the young trooper had difficulty understanding her words. From what he could make out, he was certain the teenager was troubled by more than just a fight with her parents.

  “… the one you’re looking for… killed her,” he thought he heard Rachel say just before she went silent.

  It was almost dawn when Patricia arrived home the next day, after attending Rachel’s mental hygiene hearing. There, it was determined Rachel, just 16, was a danger—either to herself or to others—and she was committed to Chestnut Ridge Center.1

  ***

  For almost six months, Rachel had performed the role of “typical teenager.” While the life of pretense and lies was emotionally exhausting for her, that was her choice. When h
er carefully constructed facade dissolved, her parents had no such choice: they were forced to confront reality.

  Mary and Dave Neese, Skylar’s parents, didn’t have the luxury of choice, either. Skylar’s disappearance tore through them. It sapped their strength and left them drained. They lived a number of private and public hells after losing their only child. The police investigation seemed to yield little. Every day Mary and Dave volleyed between hope and despair. Family and close friends rallied around at first, but that support eventually soured, dissolving into a whirlpool of accusations and innuendo. Skylar’s absence quickly sparked fires at UHS, too, since the pretty teen trio had been a fixture there. Some teenagers said Skylar had run away. Others said she had overdosed and her body had been dumped somewhere. Rumors roared like forest fires as some students whispered that Rachel and Shelia were hiding something, while others defended them, insisting that neither Shelia nor Rachel had anything to hide.

  In spite of Rachel’s amazing performance, by the time she broke down and was carted off to Chestnut Ridge, some teenagers were even saying that Skylar had been killed the night she disappeared.

  ***

  The story of Skylar’s disappearance and murder is about much more than the smart, vibrant teenager and the two girls who called her “bestie.” It’s a story about how an online group that convened to search for Skylar and comfort Mary and Dave only ended up deepening their grief. It’s about the role social media played before and after Skylar’s murder, and it’s about broad inferences amplified fifty-fold by Twitter and Facebook. This account explains why the FBI was on the case like lightning, a scant two days after Skylar was reported missing, and the rumored connection between Skylar’s murder and a rash of bank robberies in the region. It’s also about how law enforcement managed to log thousands of hours on the case, all while appearing to do nothing—until their efforts paid off.