When Mean Girls Become Murderers
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Hey guys, and welcome back to my channel. So today we're going to be talking about a case that has been highly, highly requested by you guys in my case form. And this case is absolutely wild.

I see why so many people wanted me to talk about it and there's a lot to go over here So let's go ahead and jump right in. So this is Skylar Annette niece. She was born on February 10th 1996 these are her parents Mary and Dave niece Mary worked as an administrative assistant in a cardiac lab and Dave was a product assembler at Walmart and Skylar was an extremely loved

You can just tell by the way that her parents talk about her that she was the light of their lives. And she also was their only child, so she meant everything to them. First time I saw her, yes, I can say that was the greatest moment of my life.

- Yeah, it was instant love. - And as she was growing up, Mary and Dave said that Skylar was a very easy child, that she was very sweet and genuine. She had just a huge heart. She loved to play outside. She loved animals. She would bring home strays all the time. This one.

Was a stray. That's right. I'm talking about you. So when Skylar was in second grade, she started meeting some new friends and one of her new friends was named Sheila Eddie and they became very, very close. And she went to another school. They met at a community center, but they were super close. And when they did hang out, they always had a lot of fun.

When Mary and Dave first met Sheila, they thought she was a super nice girl. She had some issues at home. Her parents got divorced when she was four years old and her dad also was disabled so he couldn't work. So it was pretty stressful for her. And she was also an only child just like Skylar. So the two of them really bonded over that. And Mary and Dave really wanted to be as welcoming as they could to Sheila. They would have her over

all the time for dinners, playdates, all that stuff, sleepovers. She was so used to coming to their house that she would just walk right in and they were fine with that. Skylar's family lived in an apartment in Star City, West Virginia, which is a small town in Magnolia County. And Skylar really enjoyed playing with Sheila. She was definitely a fun person to hang out with.

She was a bit of a wild child and I think that was kind of interesting to Skylar. And like I said, the girls went to different schools, but when they got into high school, Sheila ended up transferring to university high school, which is where Skylar went. And they were really excited and she really liked high school. She did really well in school. Actually, teachers really liked her and she had high hopes one day of becoming a lawyer. Yeah, she wanted to be a criminal lawyer and she would constantly...

Do you think I'd make a good lawyer, Mom? And of course, Dave and I are, she'd say, Dad, whichever. And we'd say, the way you work, you'll be an excellent lawyer. She was a very responsible kid. She also had a job in high school, and she worked at a Wendy's where two of her other friends worked as well, and she really liked that job. So at school, Sheila was definitely known as a confident and, I guess you could say, popular girl.

At this point, Sheila's parents got remarried and she really liked her stepdad. So she was feeling more comfortable in her home life than ever before. And now Skylar and Sheila were spending a lot more time together. So they were getting a lot closer and they were thrilled to be in the same school. And eventually Skylar and Sheila added a third person to their group. During their freshman year, they met Rachel Shove. Rachel's parents were divorced. She had an older half brother that she didn't grow up with.

So like Skylar and Sheila, she was raised as an only child. Before high school, Rachel went to a private Catholic school and she was pretty sheltered by a wealthy religious family. And people who know her said that she really seemed to like attention. She loved being in the school plays and she wasn't just in the school plays, she was normally the star of the school plays. And the three of them were really, really close and they spent

All of their free time together if they weren't actually physically together They were texting and they were actually really into Twitter as well So they're constantly talking to each other. A lot of people said they acted more like sisters than friends They were really really that close

To a lot of people it seemed like nothing could ever break their friendship apart. And Mary and Dave were really happy that Skylar, you know, had such close friends. But eventually over time they started having some inter-group jealousy. I know so many of you have probably experienced this. I know I definitely did with the two girls that I was friends with in high school. I'm still friends with them now. The three of us were really close but sometimes

Two of us would be closer and one person would kind of feel left out. Sometimes two of us would hang out and the other person was alone or I would be left alone. You know, I think a lot of people have experienced this and this was really starting to happen with Rachel and Sheila. They seem to be a lot closer and Skylar seemed to be left out and was often feeling alone.

And by summer of 2012, Sheila and Rachel were really close and Skylar definitely felt a little bit left out. And on July 4th, 2012, Skylar was home alone because Rachel and Sheila had made plans and didn't invite her. And obviously this was really upsetting. So that day she was moping around, feeling sad, feeling lonely, feeling left out.

And her mom felt really bad for her. Her mom suggested that maybe she read a book or do some homework. Skylar was a very, very smart student. She was an honor student. She absolutely loved to read. She really liked to read a lot of the classics. So her mom thought, you know, this is something that she would want to do to make the time go by. But not even that sounded fun to Skylar on that day. She just felt really down.

that day she actually tweeted out, "Sick of being at fucking home. Thanks friends. Love to hang out with you all too." So it was clear that Skylar was hurt by Sheila and Rachel making plans without her. So the next night, July 5th, 2012, Skylar worked her shift at Wendy's until about 10:00 PM. And when she got home, her parents were in the living room, just watching TV, having a very casual night. She walked in, kind of took a peek at what they were watching, hung out for a second, and then gave them both a kiss goodnight and went up to bed.

She put her arm around her mom, gave her a kiss and gave her a hug and said, I love your mom. She turned to me and said, I love you, dad. And she went to the room. However, Skylar actually had some other plans. She decided that she was going to be sneaking out that night. So at about 12:30 AM on Friday, July 6th, Skylar snuck out of her house through her bedroom window. Skylar used a small bench on the ground underneath the window to help her climb out.

And she took a bunch of her, you know, regularly carried items with her, her purse, her cell phone, her wallet. And there's actually surveillance video that you can see of her leaving the apartment complex at 12:31 AM. You can see in the clip, she's walking through the parking lot across the street to where a car is waiting. And then she gets into the back seat and they drive

Now sneaking out was something that Skylar had been doing more of lately She had definitely started to rebel a little bit more three of them loved to go across the Pennsylvania border to Star City to smoke weed They had just discovered that and they had also gotten really into drinking. They would often stay out past curfew She was getting in trouble sometimes and a lot of what they were concerned about was what was being posted on the internet and

Like I said, all three of the girls were very, very active on Twitter. Rachel and Skylar were big into Twitter, but honestly, not as much as Sheila. She tweeted probably twice as much as both of them combined. She literally chronicled her every thought and feeling. Here's just a few examples of her tweets. I wish it were acceptable to be naked all

If you talk about how you're madly in love with Justin Bieber, I probably want to stab you. So all three girls were definitely rebelling.

and Skylar's other friends outside of these two started to notice and did not like Sheila for this reason. They thought that she was a little too wild. She seemed to always be pushing the limits too far. Skylar's other friends thought that Sheila was a terrible influence on her.

So her parents are noticing that Rachel's a bad influence. Her friends are noticing that Sheila's a bad influence. And Skylar's friends said that they even felt like Skylar was being changed by the two of them, that her personality was kind of being altered. And when her other friends tried to talk to her about it, she just dismissed it. She thought that they were totally out of line and that it wasn't true. Plus her and Sheila had been friends since Skylar was a kid. You know, she kind

of looked up to her like a sister almost. And Rachel was really close with Sheila too and really liked her, gravitated towards her energy because Rachel was definitely more of a rebel too. She was also a popular girl. She had a lot of other friends, but she really liked Sheila. And Rachel's other friends started to feel the exact same way that Skylar's other friends did.

that Sheila was a bad influence on Rachel. They tried to talk to her, but Rachel did not care. She thought that Sheila was such a cool person and nothing was going to stop her from being friends with her. And that year in school, there were some rumors spreading around that Rachel and Sheila actually were starting to have a relationship that the two of them were hooking up. A lot of people thought that's why Rachel was so defensive of Sheila. She didn't want anyone to talk badly about her

ever but no one knew if this was actually true because sheila and rachel also had boyfriends but the two of them did seem really really close and eventually like i said they just started to push skylar away they would make plans without her all the time they would dress like each other to

make her jealous, like purposely plan their outfits to make her feel left out. And all during sophomore year, Skylar and Sheila were fighting way more than usual. And it seemed like Rachel seemed to be what was really driving them apart. And Skylar of course, vented her frustrations on Twitter.

She said, "I'd tell the whole school all of the shit I have on everyone, which is a lot. Too bad my friends are having lives without me. You're a two-faced bitch and obviously fucking stupid if you thought I wouldn't find out. Just know I know. Hope you don't expect me to give a fuck anymore. #bye." Sorry if you were enjoying looking at my cat. I took a little break and she peaced out. And you know, you just don't tell cats what to do, like I've said. So Bernie decided that he was gonna take her place, so say hi.

So jumping back to the morning of July 6th, Skylar snuck out at 1230 AM. That morning, Mary and Dave got ready for work like normal. And they assumed that Skylar was in her room. She said that she was going to bed early the night before. Dave had planned to go do his shift at Walmart, come back,

and give Skylar his car so that she could take it to her shift at Wendy's. So he got home midday as planned and he went to Skylar's room. But when he got to her door, he realized that the door was locked, which was unusual. Sometimes Skylar locked her door for privacy, but it wasn't something she did very often and not normally in the middle of the day. But Dave didn't think too much of it. So he started knocking, you know, calling for her, Skylar, are you in there? And she didn't answer.

And when he didn't hear anything, he instantly just got a wave of fear. You know, it's one thing if you can tell your kid's ignoring you or locking you out, you can kind of hear a little sound, a breath, something, but he heard absolutely nothing. So he went outside of the house to the window so that he could look inside.

And when he got there, he saw the small bench on the ground from when Skylar had snuck out and he saw that the window was open. So of course, any dad's gonna put this together right away. Skylar clearly snuck out. But of course, since it's now the daytime, Dave starts freaking out immediately because he figures something could have happened to her if she did sneak out and she's still not back by now.

Especially because her shift at Wendy's was coming up and she's a very responsible girl. She's gonna show up for her shift So, of course the first thing he thinks of to do is call her friends and see if they know where she is So he calls Sheila and she said that she had talked to Skylar around midnight the night before but she hadn't heard from her since she also said she had no idea where she was and didn't even have an idea of where she could be so Dave contacted Mary and

Mary of course was concerned, but she also just told him to stay calm. Let's just see if we can get a hold of her or figure this out. She's probably going to show up for her shift at Wendy's. She's not just going to miss work. Said we're not going to worry. I'll call them about 10 after four, give her time to clock in everything. See if she's there. But of course, Mary was still concerned and she came home. And when she did get home, they actually got a call from

from Wendy's saying that Skylar had not showed up for work. And at this point they said the panic set in for both of them truly because they knew that she would not just miss work like this. She was too responsible. This is out of character for her. And the fact that she had snuck out the night before was just so concerning.

So of course they contact the police right away. They contacted the Star City Police to report Skylar missing. And the two of them start panicking. They start contacting friends and relatives, alerting them about what is going on.

right away trying to think of where Skylar possibly could have gone and not too long into all this panic Sheila actually calls back and this time she admitted that she and Rachel picked up Skylar at 11 p.m. which we know isn't true because we saw that surveillance footage that showed 12:31 a.m. they said they hung out with her for like an hour and then they dropped her off at

a little ways down the street an hour later. - I said, "Where did you go? Where's Skylar?" And she said that Skylar insisted they drop her off at the end of the street so we wouldn't hear her sneaking back in. - And then right after that, Sheila and her mom ended up coming to the niece's house to help look for Skylar right away. Sheila, Tara, and Mary went on one side of the street knocking on doors while Dave and the officer took the other side. And they asked everyone in the neighborhood if they had

seen anything, if they had heard anything maybe in the middle of the night, if they had any security cameras installed or inside that could have possibly picked something up. And of course at this point Dave and Mary and the police have not seen the surveillance footage of Skylar leaving at 12

31, which doesn't make sense with Sheila's story. But suddenly Mary remembered that the apartment complex had just installed new cameras on the building and they had to have been working. And of course, in so many true crime cases, we see cameras just not working like most of the time, which makes me very concerned and scared as

human being on this planet. But luckily, these cameras were new, they were just installed, and they were working. So they went to the landlord, and he took them into their office right away. And they started looking at the surveillance footage. They watched that footage of Skyler crossing the parking lot and getting into a vehicle. And at this point, they have no idea who this vehicle belongs to. The footage is so grainy, they can't make out who's in it.

and they thought the car actually was an SUV. So of course, as soon as the police see this surveillance footage, they think Skylar is a runaway, that she's unhappy with her home, that she purposely left and she's probably just out there somewhere.

And her disappearance at this point did not qualify for an Amber Alert. At this point in time, all four of the following criteria has to be met before an Amber Alert could be issued. A child had to have believed to be abducted. The child is under 18. The child may be in danger of death or serious injury. And there is sufficient information to indicate that the Amber Alert would be helpful.

Plus, when this was all going on, there was still some bullshit around the whole wait for 48 hours to file a missing persons report, which in most places that is not a thing anymore. That's not true. So Dave and Mary were trying their best to convince the police that, you know, Skylar would not just run away and not come back. Like, yes, she was sneaking out, but she loved her life. She was so close with her parents. She was a happy kid, you know.

This was not in her character to just leave and to stay gone. But of course the police refused to listen to them. First impression was it could be a runaway. There are kids that run away.

all the time. So Mary and Dave really felt like they had to take matters into their own hands. So they printed out flyers with her picture, her description, and what she was last seen wearing and put them all up across the county, wherever they could. It's the most helpless feeling in the world. It really is. I mean, everything that you cherish in the world is gone and you have no clue where to look for it.

And it's a helpless feeling. It's a horrible, helpless feeling. - And Rachel and Sheila were devastated about Skylar being gone. They were very, very concerned. Sheila, according to Mary and Dave, seemed to be the most concerned. They said that she would call them often just asking for updates on the investigation and over and over would say,

i wish i had some information i wish i knew something i wish i could help so she was very cooperative she asked to volunteer to search to pass out flyers she basically said whatever she could do she was willing to do just let her know so mary and dave felt like wow skylar has a very good friend in sheila she cares about her a lot

Skylar had good friends in general. I mean they're feeling the love because so many people just were so devastated about Skylar being missing couldn't believe that she would ever run away knew that she didn't run away knew that something had to be wrong one day just a few days after Skylar had first gone missing Sheila actually went up to Skylar's room sat on her bed and was just sobbing Mary walked in and they had you know a nice moment together they hugged and

And they were kind of trying to support each other through all of this. So luckily on June 9th, 2012, things start to get taken a little more seriously by law enforcement. The fact that Skylar is still not there. And after looking more into her background, they realized that this is really out of character for her.

So luckily the West Virginia State Police and the FBI joined the search and FBI agent Morgan Spurlock and Star City Police Officer Jessica Colbank interviewed Sheila just days after Skyler was first reported missing. Now what's really, really interesting is as soon as the investigator did her first interview on Sheila,

she instantly felt like something was wrong. Her first read of Sheila was that she was a narcissist. Not only that, she also described her as wrong. On the other hand, Rachel had gone on a boating trip with her mother on July 6th, the day that Skylar had gone missing. Her mother was on the trip and her mom's friend was on the trip and they both noticed a really gnarly cut on her ankle.

and thought it was kind of strange. And on the following day, on the 7th, Rachel actually had to go to church camp

so they had to interview her via phone and when they talked to her they said that she was just very nonchalant she was kind of relaxed saying you know i don't really know where schuyler is but she didn't seem as panicked as sheila did and she would also just say you know sheila knows more than me you know talk to sheila i don't really know much she just was kind of short about it but she did agree to come in for an in-person interview which is obviously crucial

as soon as she was back from church camp. But when Rachel got home from church camp, she didn't just come in right away, which you'd think that this would be a high priority for you. You know, your friend

Missing you'd probably be really concerned and wanting to help in any way you can but the investigators Actually had to track her down for that interview like it was not easy and as soon as they brought her in she said Pretty much the exact same thing as she said on the phone Almost word-for-word at some points and it started to seem really scripted because

Because Sheila's story and Rachel's story were like exactly the same. So of course investigators looked into as much as they could, social media, computers, even Skylar's journal to see if there were any clues. And the last entry that Skylar had made in her journal was actually from a year before she went missing. And in it she talked a lot about Sheila. She would talk about how Sheila could get away with anything.

and that Sheila got all the attention from the boys. And Skylar also seemed to be very fascinated with Sheila. She wrote in detail about Sheila's sex life. She seemed kind of intrigued by it and almost

living vicariously through her. And again, this is Sheila's sex life that she's writing about in her journal. And she's writing a lot about it, very detailed. And it even included information about Sheila hooking up with women as well. And one entry in the diary even talked about

a time where the girls were having a sleepover at Rachel's house and they had broken into her mom's liquor cabinet. Pretty common thing to do, right? And Skylar wrote in her journal all about this and also about how once they started drinking that Sheila and Rachel started hooking up. And in this entry, Skylar talks about how she was locked in the bathroom with the girls while they were making out and stuff. And she said that she had nothing against them being

bisexual. She was very supportive of the LGBTQ community, but she just felt uncomfortable being in the room with them while they were hooking up, which is very understandable. I feel like it's just weird to be in a room with anyone hooking up when you're just chilling there. And then two weeks later, Skylar made that tweet that I read earlier that said, I tell the whole school all the shit I have on everyone, which is a lot.

Hashtag if I could get away with it. So investigators continued to search Skylar's social media, especially her Twitter for more clues. And they saw that after her Wendy's shift on July 5th, she actually tweeted twice. One said, you doing shit like this is why I will never completely trust you. And another that said, all I do is hope.

So Skylar went missing this summer between her sophomore and junior year. And of course, in a situation like this where no one knows what truly happened and you're in a high school setting, rumors are going to spread like crazy. And they did. People started speculating, you know, that she ran away. Maybe she ran away even with a boyfriend. Maybe she was abducted by a man.

by an online predator or brought into human trafficking. One of the rumors was that she robbed a bank and so she was on the run. And honestly, the bank one has some merit to it because there was a bank in Blacksville that was robbed about a week before Skylar disappeared and again, about 10 days later.

The younger brother of one of the suspects had dated Sheila, so they thought there was some type of connection. And he was also a person of interest in Skylar's case. But Dave and Mary knew that Skylar definitely didn't run away. To them, they felt like there were only two possibilities. Either she was gone

Mary had a feeling pretty early on that Skylar was no longer with them. Dave definitely held out hope for a lot longer. But if that wasn't the case, they said the only other possibility that they considered was her being abducted and being held by someone.

So they knew that she wouldn't just run away, that she wouldn't be off living some new life. That was just not even in the realm of possibility for them. Not only that, Skylar left behind a ton of important items that if you were really running away, you probably would have taken. She had left her toothbrush, her hair straightener, her contact lenses, her cell phone charger. She even left her security blanket, which was her mother's old nightgown that she called Goody. And

And that thing meant absolutely everything to her. So there's no way she would have left without it. And out of all Skylar's friends, which she had many friends and people were really upset over Skylar being gone. Many kids in the high school were experiencing depression, anxiety, fear over what was going on, wondering where she was. - Starting school without her, like that was probably one of the hardest days through the whole thing.

Like Skylar was a go-to person and she was just gone. But it seemed that Sheila was one of the people, if not the person, having the hardest time with it. She posted on Facebook, Skylar, come back. I seriously cannot deal with school without you. I miss you too much. And Skylar's dad, Dave, actually responded to her and said, she will be home soon, honey. Love you. And Sheila said, love you too. And after a while, it started to seem...

kind of weird. And not only that, rumors at the school were kicking up that

Rachel and Sheila had something to do with Skylar's disappearance. A rumor also spread that Skylar had overdosed and that maybe Rachel and Sheila had hidden her body because they were afraid, maybe they thought it was their fault, something like that. That was all starting to brew. And it wasn't just in the school that these rumors were spreading, they were also spreading online. This case got a lot of attention online. There's a lot

of people that are interested in this case, understandably 'cause it's wild. But even back then when she was just missing, people were speculating, you know, maybe she was abducted, maybe she was brought into human trafficking, something like that. Like I said, police were definitely starting to have their suspicions about Sheila and Rachel. On September 3rd, warrants were issued to seize all of the electronic devices and communications of Sheila and Rachel.

the police started feeling really confident that they were on the right track, that Sheila and Rachel knew something. Maybe there really was some type of accident and they didn't want to get in trouble or they were covering for Skylar in some way. They just got the sense that they knew something and they kind of clued in Dave and Mary

into this a little bit, but they advise them, you know, don't tell Rachel and Sheila, obviously don't compromise the case. This isn't a for sure thing. This is just kind of what we're thinking. We're feeling it out. Then on October 2nd, 2012, Sheila posted a picture of her and Skylar on the team Skylar Facebook page that was created. And she said, Skylar,

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. School has been taking up all my time. Me and Rachel miss you so much, especially at lunch. We sit at the lunch table alone. Come back so we don't look like loners anymore.

Which I'm pretty sure she's mostly referring to the things that are being said about her and Rachel at this point.

Sheila and Rachel were definitely starting to feel the heat and the amount of people that thought that they had done something was starting to increase over time. Eventually things on Twitter got pretty tense. Two anonymous Twitter accounts were created and they both started following Rachel and Sheila.

They started kind of harassing them and posting these really cryptic messages to them The first one said Luke 12:2 Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known being pretty little liars down together Hashtag promise to never leave you cold. What you gonna do what you're gonna do when they come for you

you and sheila actually responded and said no one on this earth can handle me and rachel if you think you can you're wrong so not sure why it took so long for them to realize this but when they started reviewing the security footage again police realized that sheila had never picked up skyler at 11 p.m

So they tried to pull security footage from other places that Sheila said that they had went over that hour when they had picked her up. And once they saw footage from a convenience store where they were at, they realized that the car that had picked Skylar up at 12:30 was actually Sheila's Toyota Camry. So of course now they know that Sheila and Rachel were lying.

they couldn't figure out why. So they actually created a persona online and posed as someone just attending the high school so that they could kind of keep tabs on what the girls were posting. And he read through thousands of posts on Facebook and Twitter, constantly having to search the internet to decode, you know, the hashtags they were using, the

shorthand that they were using and he said that it didn't take long for him to become incredibly suspicious of Sheila. She was tweeting all this stuff about getting drunk, about skipping school, about partying. She had tons of tweets about that but then she randomly would have one in there like

"I miss you, Skylar. Please come back home." However, they kept bringing Sheila and Rachel in, kept asking them questions, trying to get a real read on them, but their story never changed. They were very much in sync about what they said was happening that night. And they noticed that the two girls were very different.

Like Rachel seemed very nervous, very reserved, you know, while she was being interviewed. But Sheila was very cheerful, very upbeat, very confident. And according to the investigators, it seemed like she was kind of flirting with some of them at one point.

Sheila seemed to want to stay as close to the investigation as possible. She was always asking for them to keep her updated for any new information, constantly saying how she wishes she knew more information. However, Rachel took the opposite approach. She really just stayed away from the whole thing and seemed nervous about it. She also kept her distance from Mary and Dave.

which was very different from the approach that Sheila was taking. She was constantly talking to Mary and Dave, constantly using them as support. You know, they were supporting her, she was supporting them. We worried more about how her friends, mostly her friends, how they were going to get along. We were just so devastated and

You know, we're trying to figure out how can we help them through this? And like they said, she always was like part of the family because she had been Skylar's friend for years. So by winter of 2012, police were starting to get a little closer to the truth. Using other security camera footage from various locations, they were able to piece together the fact that the girls had driven to Blacksville the night that Skylar disappeared, which Rachel and Sheila had both originally denied.

But their phone records show that the girls were texting Skylar when they claimed that she was with them, which makes no sense. And at this point, police are also kind of throwing around the idea that maybe the night that Skylar went missing, that the girls were doing some type of drug. Maybe Skylar really did overdose and Rachel and Sheila just left her somewhere.

And this started to make a lot of sense because every time that they would interview Rachel, she seemed really, really nervous. Like she didn't want to get in trouble. And like I said, they were really sticking to their same stories. You know, the two of them were very much on the same page about what happened that night until one interview where Rachel told them something completely different. She claimed that Skylar had run off into the woods that night. She

She said that she and Sheila tried to run after her, tried to find her, but she was gone. So obviously this is a huge change from her original story. So they immediately call Sheila in and see if she has the same story. And of course now she does. So it's very obvious that the two of them are communicating and planning out what they're going to tell the police. So by mid-December, they decided they need to give both of these girls a polygraph test and see if they can kind of get something out of that.

Now, Sheila was a hard fail on the polygraph test. Definitely was being deceitful. So then, of course, it was time for Rachel to take her test. And on the way, her father is bringing her there. And they're going to her lawyer's because she's going to meet up with him before the polygraph. And on the way there, she jumps out of the car and runs to Sheila's house to get help from Tara, Sheila's mom. Now, apparently, Sheila's mom had been

really trying to slow down the investigation. She got in a fight with one of the investigators, Jessica, the one I had mentioned. Jessica was actually taken off of the case because she called Tara a tool. So it's all really starting to make a picture here. They're really starting to

put the pieces together of what may have happened and they're definitely thinking at this point something happened the girls don't want to admit it there was a Overdose she drank too much, you know something happened

and it was an accident and the girls are covering up for it. On December 16th, 2012, Mary wrote a very long Facebook message about Skylar's disappearance. And in the post, she talked about how Rachel and Sheila had lied. And she also implied in the message that Skylar was most likely dead. It was clear how they were starting to feel. They definitely had turned on Rachel and Sheila at this point and felt like they had to be involved. And once this happened, imagine how many rumors

and stuff is gonna get stirred up from a mother making a huge post like this. People were really starting to turn on Rachel and Sheila. So this was having a major mental toll on Rachel. Not so much Sheila, she just didn't seem to care much. But Rachel was really,

really struggling mentally from all of this pressure and scrutiny. Rachel's parents were really worried about their daughter's mental health. They wanted her to distance as much as she could from Sheila. They felt like she was this terrible influence on her and that she was making her more stressed out, giving her

really bad anxiety. And they also didn't like Tara, Sheila's mom. They just felt like she was bad news as well. And this is really interesting, but Rachel's parents, even though they were divorced, they ended up moving back in together for Rachel's sake because Rachel's

Rachel's father lived too close to Sheila. That's how concerned that they were. They were willing to move back in together, even though they were divorced. So that just tells you how seriously they are starting to see their daughter decline. She is stressing out. She is carrying major anxiety. And I think in their minds, they're probably starting to figure out that something went wrong with Skylar, that she must know more. She was acting out, getting into trouble.

more family altercations at home. - But what was really strange is when her parents made that decision to move back in together, they didn't tell Rachel they were gonna do it, which is pretty shocking when your parents have been divorced for a while, for your dad to suddenly move back in the house. I mean, that's just stressful on its own. Rachel just came home one day and found out that her dad was living there now.

That really, really upset her. She was so upset actually that as soon as she realized that he was living in the house, she started running around the neighborhood screaming and crying. Her parents chased her around the neighborhood. They finally got her inside and they got her into her room and locked her in there.

Her mom called the police and you can actually hear Rachel in the background of the call like screaming. Her dad had to like restrain her because she was freaking out and she started threatening to kill herself. I have an issue with a 16 year old daughter of mine. I mean, I can't control her anymore. She's screaming, she's running through the neighborhood. Give me the phone. Give me the phone.

Rachel ended up being taken to Chestnut Ridge, which is a psychiatric facility in Morgantown, West Virginia. And Sheila actually did try to go see Rachel several times. She wanted to talk to her, but the staff had been ordered to not let Sheila in. So she was never able to talk with her during this time. And who knows what they wanted to talk about.

Rachel was released five days later and as soon as she was released her parents took her right to their lawyer's office and there she finally met up with the officers and took her polygraph test and after seeing Rachel's demeanor after all this how burnt out she was the police felt like they were gonna get the truth from her they felt like guilt had just broken her down they were gonna find out that you know Skylar had overdosed and they hid

hit it. There was something like that going on. So they start interviewing her thinking this is going to last a while and going to be difficult to get the full story out of her. But only a few questions in. Rachel shocked them all by saying, we stabbed her. That's right. Rachel and Sheila stabbed Skylar Neis to death. She just, you know, clan status and said we stabbed her.

And as you can imagine, the investigators' jaws just dropped. This was not even something they were considering. They were thinking this was a cover-up for an accident, and now they're dealing with murder. And then she just starts to spill everything. She told them how Skylar and Sheila usually spent their spring break together, and that their sophomore year, they spent a week in Myrtle Beach. But according to Rachel, on this trip, the girls had fought the entire time.

And when she got back, Sheila complained to Rachel about how bad Skylar was, how much she didn't like her anymore, and how she had to go. And what's really interesting is at one point,

There were some teachers and classmates that overheard Rachel and Sheila talking about how to get rid of a dead body. However, a few weeks before this, a dead body was found near their school. And so the teachers assumed that they were talking about that.

But of course, other kids in the school who had heard that thought that they were talking about killing Skylar. And it turns out that some of those kids even told Skylar what they heard, but she dismissed it. She thought, you know, Rachel and Sheila would never do anything to harm me. And she kept hanging out with them all

that final spring semester leading up to summer. But obviously as summer came, Skylar was starting to catch on to, you know, the attitude Rachel and Sheila had towards her. Like I said, on June 4th and 5th, she made a few tweets, some that I've already read about her falling out with Sheila and Rachel, such as sick of being at fucking home,

Thanks friends, love hanging out with you too. You doing shit like this is why I can never completely trust you. It really doesn't take much to piss me off. And Sheila on the 4th and the 5th did not tweet at all, which was pretty unusual for her. Like I said, she was the most active on her Twitter. And they look back at messages, they saw that on July 3rd,

5th, Rachel and Sheila had texted Skylar asking her to sneak out with them that night. And at first Skylar wasn't so sure, it actually took her a little while to agree to join them. So it turns out that Sheila was the one driving the Toyota Camry that picked her up that night.

and that Rachel was sitting in the passenger seat. Skylar got picked up around 12:30. She gets in the back of the car. And of course the girls didn't realize that there was surveillance video. So they didn't think that out too well, but they drove downward toward Blacksville and Magnolia County right on the Pennsylvania border, which is 25 minutes away from Star City.

Their plan was originally to take Route 19 to Route 7 to get to Blacksville, but Sheila ended up changing their course when she saw a state police car parked at an intersection. But eventually they did get into Blacksville, they crossed into Pennsylvania, and then Sheila drove them down this dark,

winding road kind of to the middle of nowhere and i guess this is a spot that the girls would drive a lot it was just kind of secluded and they would come here smoke weed with schuyler so this wasn't unusual to schuyler at all according to rachel they talked for a few minutes in

The car and then they got out and when they got to their normal smoking spot Skylar realized that she had left the lighter in the car So she turned around Toward the car to get it and started walking that way when suddenly Sheila and Rachel counted out one two three

And on three, both girls pulled out kitchen knives that they had taken from their parents' house and started stabbing Skylar. Skylar started screaming, of course, completely shocked, but realizing what was going on immediately. And she had been stabbed in the knee, so she tried to run, but she couldn't. According to Rachel, she fell backwards and stopped stabbing her, and that Sheila just kept running

Going and this is absolutely sick sick one of the most disturbing things I've ever heard but they Let her slowly bleed out in front of them They literally stood back the two of them and watched her slowly die and according to Rachel all Skylar could say before she died was why and

Which is what all of us would like to know. They waited until Skylar had died and it became completely silent. It turns out Rachel and Sheila had stabbed Skylar over 50 times.

And Rachel talked about how much they had premeditated this. They had packed up all the gear that they would need in their car, including paper towels, rags, bleach, clean clothes, even a shovel. And they had all of this in the trunk of their car.

So their next move was to get that shovel and try to dig a hole so that they could bury her out there. But as they started to dig, they realized the ground was too hard and rocky and they could not make a hole. So instead they dragged her body over near this tree and just covered her with

with dirt and debris and branches and just random things that they found. And this is kind of a strange move, but after that, they just turned off Skylar's cell phone and left it next to her body. After this, they washed themselves off at the creek and then they walked back to their car where they had a fresh change of clothes, got in the car like everything was normal and went home. On their way home, they dumped off

All the evidence that they had and they got back to their houses around 6:00 a.m. You guys are not gonna even believe this but that morning Sheila hops on her Twitter and says this always keep your cool So, of course after Rachel just tells them all this the officers are completely shocked Like I said from the beginning they knew that there was probably a chance that the girls were involved that they knew something they were covering up something that

something along those lines was going on, but they did not consider that they had plotted a murder and killed her in such a violent way. So of course they asked her why? That's the question we all want to know. Skylar even was asking why, why, why, why did you guys do this? And this is unbelievable, but they literally said that they did it because they didn't like her. - She would not give us any specific details

They said they didn't want to be friends with her anymore. And this was the only way to get rid of her. Rachel claimed that it was as simple as that.

So of course police they don't even know where to start right like they don't even have a body So the first thing they're asking is do you guys remember where you put her body? Can you lead us to it and Rachel agreed? So they went out there to where she thought they had dumped the body but the area had been completely covered by snow and Rachel couldn't remember exactly where they put the body so they had to wait until all of it melted

So on January 4th, 2013, the police got a warrant to seize every knife inside of Sheila's house. But not only that, they looked in her car and they found blood in her trunk. And while this was all going on, Sheila didn't know that Rachel had confessed, but she was already starting to figure it out just by the way they were acting and the evidence that they were pulling. She was a pretty smart girl, you could say, and she caught on pretty quick and

that their ship was sinking. But they wanted to get more out of Sheila while she was still in the stage of lying to the police. So they had Rachel wear a recording device, a listening device, and go and hang out with Sheila and see what she could get out of her. However, Rachel got very nervous. They ended up not talking about Skylar.

at all. They took a selfie together though, so that's great. Now at this point, Mary and Dave know that the police are, you know, onto the girls, but they don't know the latest development from Rachel yet. They're still hopeful that maybe there's a chance that Skylar's out there. Her whole family is just so brokenhearted. They're putting up flyers everywhere they can, begging people for leads, just hoping that maybe Skylar would come home.

But just after the snow melted in the area, police were able to search that wooded area that Rachel had told them about. Of course, they did testing to make sure that this was really Skylar, but this was indeed Skylar's body. She was just left out there on the ground by her friends. When we first got word, we weren't allowed to even let on that we knew. So yeah, it was kind of a...

We even talked about it. Yeah, and it was kind of a we knew, but do we believe it? Yeah, it was a yo-yo.

So through the rest of the winter and spring the police made Rachel and Sheila get homeschooled so they never saw each other. On February 10th 2013 Skylar's birthday Rachel made a happy birthday Twitter post to Skylar and then after that she tweeted I hate the shit I think about at night. On March 13th they announced the public in a press release that the body had been found in Pennsylvania and the public was just

devastated because people were really, really invested in this case. People were just really hoping that she would be found, that there would be a better outcome, especially kids at the school, like kids at the high school finding out were so upset. They had to bring in counselors and make sure everyone was doing okay. Cause it's hard when one of your fellow classmates dies, especially in such a brutal way. And when other classmates are suspected of being involved, it definitely makes it all

more chaotic. So now it was official. Skylar wasn't missing. She was murdered. However, remember this time, the girls are still technically under investigation. Even though this confession has been brought forward, they have to confirm everything. So even though a lot of people in the community were already suspicious,

that Rachel and Skylar had something to do with her death, Sheila was still trying to publicly maintain her innocence. On her birthday, she also made a message to Skylar and said, "Rest easy, Skylar. You'll always be my best friend. I miss you more than you could ever know." She also tweeted, "Worst day of my whole life." And Rachel was still doing this too.

Even though she knows that she just confessed to the police that she stabbed Skylar. She still had the nerve to write, rest in peace, baby. I love and miss you more than anything. May you finally have justice. What? What? Then on April 1st, 2013, a month before she was arrested, Sheila seemed to confess to her crime through Twitter. At 1.37 in the morning on April 1st, she tweeted, we really did go on three. Are you fucking kidding me?

The fact that they're so proud of this, like it's something cool. We really did go on three as if it's like a inside joke or something. I just can't even understand the mind state of Sheila, especially both of them for making these posts to be tweeting about your friend that you killed in this loving way saying you miss her, but also straight up confessing and writing these like sub tweets about her death.

It's so fucking wild to me. The next afternoon, she tweeted again saying, they say you remember the past better than it really was. So after they did this bit of an undercover investigation with Rachel, you know, she obviously has to turn herself and eventually she agreed early on that she would. So she turned herself in on May 1st, 2013 and pled guilty to second degree murder.

And she was transferred from juvenile to adult status and officially pleaded to murder in the second degree by unlawfully, feloniously, willfully, maliciously, and intentionally causing the death of Skylar niece by stabbing her and causing fatal injuries. And the state of West Virginia recommended a sentence of 20 years for her.

Meanwhile, they got the results back from Sheila's car that the blood in there did belong to Skylar Neece, so that officially sinks her ship. And on the day that Sheila got arrested, she was actually just chilling at the Cracker Barrel with her mom, Tara. The police showed up at the restaurant, waited for them to come out, and as soon as they did, they approached Tara and Sheila in the parking lot, and she acted completely shocked, very upset,

and they arrested her for first degree murder.

And she actually said to her mom, mom, is it going to be okay? And Tara said, I don't know. Now, Sheila definitely did not realize the weight of what was really going to happen to her. So yeah, she was charged with murder and they decided that they're going to try her as an adult. Now the media had been covering the story all along. The public was very interested. Dave and Mary were doing as much press as they could. But once the arrest happened, the coverage just boomed.

It was nonstop. It was covered on like HLN. It was even covered on CNN by Anderson Cooper. So when it makes it to that level, you know, lots of eyes are on this case. It's such a disturbing story. What is next for these two teenage suspects?

Anderson's 16-year-old Rachel Shove had been charged with first-degree murder, but after leading authorities to Skyler's body in the woods, she cut a plea deal. She pled guilty earlier this month to second-degree murder, but she still could get 40 years in prison, Anderson. Now, the other girl, the other suspect who hasn't been named, she is still charged as a juvenile with first-degree murder, although a judge could...

Now, Sheila had already been tried as an adult, so her name was released to the public, but Sheila was being held as a juvenile at this point, so hers wasn't. But of course, people in the school knew that once Rachel was arrested, that Sheila was probably involved too. People put the pieces together extremely quick.

Sheila was indicted by a grand jury in West Virginia with one count of kidnapping, one count of first degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. And as soon as she was charged as an adult, her name was released to the public and people went wild online. Sheila is...

a very hated person online. And I must say, Sheila has a real evil fucking vibe to her. She's like mean girls to the next level. After going up to Skylar's parents during the whole search, pretending she was there for them, tweeting about how much she missed Skylar, all of that

was so clearly fake because she would only show emotion when she was in court about going to jail. Never about Skylar, never about her family. It was always when jail was brought up and her future was brought up. Sheila was even smiling at some points in court and she seemed very worried about her appearance

very into her hair. And of course she pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. The trial started on October 22nd, 2013. And Rachel's defense attorney actually asked for her testimony to be suppressed because she had a lot of mental health issues going on. They also asked the judge for the trial to be postponed and they did agree to that. So it was rescheduled for January 28th, 2014. And at this point, I think after thinking about it a little more,

realizing that there was no hope for her to get off for this, she ended up deciding to take a plea deal instead. And in return for this, the state of Pennsylvania agreed to not press additional charges on top of what she already had. So on January 24th, 2014, Sheila did plead guilty to first degree murder, but even her lawyer who, you know, normally defense attorneys will, will

will at least publicly say they believe their clients, but he was just like straight up. I looked at everything and I couldn't find any reasonable explanation for her actions. There was really nothing to defend. This was clearly premeditated. The two girls had talked about this.

thought about it for a while, for months. They had all the supplies ready to go, so there was nothing to be said. This is a clear premeditated first degree murder, period. So finally, 18 months after she murdered Skylar Neis in

whole blood. Sheila was sentenced to life in prison, but with mercy, which means that she will be up for parole in 15 years. And Sheila never expressed any remorse, never said sorry to the family. In fact, she seemed more distracted in court with how she looked. She was wearing makeup. Her hair was done a certain way, which

Rachel on the other hand in her trial and sentencing looked very disheveled very depressed I mean clearly the gravity of everything had hit her the next month Rachel was sentenced as well and got 30 years in prison because it was mostly Sheila that did it Sheila that initiated it once they looked more into everything it was really Sheila leading the charge

But that was very controversial as well. A lot of people think she should have gotten more time and she would also be eligible for parole after serving only 10 years. Now Rachel on the other hand did apologize to the family in court. I will play that right now. I'm so sorry. I don't know if there's a proper way to make this apology because there are not even words to describe the guilt and remorse that I feel each day for what I've done. The person that did that was not the real me.

Not the person I am. Not what I'm made of and not what I believe in. I don't think I ever thought this would actually happen. I became scared and caught up in something that I did not want to do. I never realized the gravity of my actions and how many people I've hurt. I hurt the Niece family and those who love Skylar. I hurt my parents and shamed my family. I hurt my extended family and all of my friends who loved me. I hurt my teachers and those who believed in me.

I hurt my church family, my community, and those who trusted me. And I hurt my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. May God bring eternal peace to Skylar and the entire Neese family. Again, I'm so sorry, and I pray each day for everyone involved, and I pray each day for forgiveness. And her family also released a public apology through their lawyer, but Dave and Mary just do not accept it, especially from Rachel. Rachel Schoepf also murdered my daughter in cold blood.

Scott, I would not be where she was if it wasn't for Rachel. So you said yourself, Your Honor, this is first degree murder. She should not give you any leniency and she can take her apologies and everything else that's said on them because that's about what they're worth to me and my wife. She has done nothing but make our lives a living hell since this day one.

She did cooperate in the end because she knew that it was closed in on her and yes, she would be caught. That's the only reason she feels remorse. - I completely sympathize with them. I can see how it would be near impossible to forgive someone that took your only child from you like that in such a brutal way. The fact that they have to live with the thoughts about her bleeding out alone in the fucking forest is just devastating. - We did a story a few days later.

trying to help out and see if anybody knew where Skylar was. I'll direct this to both of you, but Dave ended that story pleading, just come home, baby. When you think back, and those being kind of the first words, at least the community got to hear about your missing daughter and what you guys wanted. What do you think about her tears? I wish that's what it was. She had just run away and didn't come back. Yeah, I don't know how to answer that.

Doing fine, guys. I don't know if I would ever be able to forgive these girls either. And it seems like Mary, I mean, Dave is just...

extremely angry. He is so hurt to another level. And Mary is too. But Mary seems to have a little bit more of an understanding and like a bit more sympathy towards the girls. She believes that they have mental illness and that's why they did this. But she still, you know, she said their apology means nothing. She can't forgive them and I get that. I mean, I know they're mentally ill. You have to be to do something like that.

But even at that, there's still got to be some reason. Even mentally ill people, if they don't like someone, they kind of stay away from them. They were jealous. I think that's a lot of it. I think how two-faced you can be and how sick in the head you can be to walk up to grieving parents who are crying their eyes out and hug them and tell them it'll be okay. And in my mind, my opinion...

Again, that shows the depth of their mental illness. You know, they were trying so hard to cover it up and they did a good job. They really did. So to this day, the two of them are both incarcerated in the Lakin Correctional Center in Mason County, West Virginia. Now, of course, the idea of them getting out on parole is really upsetting and

and very upsetting to dave and mary and dave vows that he will not let that happen he's going to make sure that they stay in jail and there is one positive outcome you could say from this whole situation and that is schuyler's law and this law actually changed west virginia's criteria for putting out an amber alert and basically now an immediate amber alert will be put out to the public even if the child is not suspected of being

kidnapped. Dave and Mary Neese are still, you know, their life, how can their life ever be happy again? They're missing a huge part of them. And that's what makes this so much harder is that, you know, Skylar was their only child. So now it's just the two of them. And luckily they're still together. They have each other and they seem to have a really good supportive relationship, which is wonderful to see. But this

has broken their hearts in a way that can never be repaired. They made the area where Skylar's body was found into a really nice memorial area with a bench, with some stone. They put flowers there. They decorated through the holidays and it's just a nice place for them to come and reflect. And for some of Skylar's friends who kind of saw this very dangerous relationship happening to come and sit and just be with her, you know, in spirit. And I think that's really cool that they have turned a place where something so horrible

horrific happened into somewhere really beautiful that they can heal. Now normally I ask what you guys think at the end of the video, what your opinions are in the case, but I know you guys are all gonna feel the same way as me, that Skylar deserved so much better

And then I'm just happy that justice was served, that, you know, Rachel finally hit that point of guilt where she came forward and told the truth. Because who knows if we would even know what happened to this day if they kept it a secret. Maybe there wouldn't have been enough evidence. I mean, I don't know. But I think both of those girls need to absolutely stay behind bars. So yeah, just...

really, really crazy case. I feel tired after talking about this, honestly. For two teenage girls to be so evil, so calculated is honestly just terrifying.

That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then stay safe out there.