Skyler Neese was a 16-year-old teenager who lived with her parents in Morgantown, West Virginia, United States. On July 6, 2012, she sneaked out of her house to spend some quality time with her friends. She never came back.
Dave and Mary Neese were the parents of young Skyler. They worked in a supermarket of the Walmart chain and in a drug laboratory for heart disease, as explained by local media.
For her part, the teenager studied at the secondary school in her city and worked in the afternoons at the Wendy’s restaurant.
Like any woman at that age, Skyler had two friends who she trusted a lot and kept her company all the time: Rachel Shoaf and Shelia Eddy. The three remained together until death separated them.
The mysterious murder of the young woman shocked everyone in Morgantown. The investigations of the case and the findings were documented by the local media ‘Metro News, The Voice of West Virginia’.
Shelia Eddy & Rachel Schoaf updated mugshots. Skylar Neese was murdered by Eddy & Schoaf on July 6, 2012 #truecrime #skylarneese #sheliaeddy #rachelshoaf pic.twitter.com/cpol5RaNsp
– Carol DaRonch (@CarolDaRonch) May 7, 2020
The facts: Skyler, the young woman murdered by her best friends
On the night of July 6, Skyler arrived home tired after a long afternoon at work. She just went to her room and closed the door.
The next day her father Dave came home from work and went looking for his daughter to deliver the car. To his surprise, she wasn’t home. Her mother Mary managed to force open the door to her room, but she wasn’t there either.
In the midst of concern, the young woman’s parents called her friend Shelia, who told them that she had spoken with her for a few hours, but that she had not heard from the young woman again.
A few hours later, Skyler’s friend called her dad and confessed that they had been together that night with Rachel, but had only been out with her for an hour.
I love them both !!!! You see Skylar Neese and Shelia Eddy in this vid. ! pic.twitter.com/hxqQzSLZj0
— that dead girl (@thatdeadg1rll) January 19, 2022
Video captures when Skyler climbed out of her bedroom window
Some time later, Dave and Mary went to the local authorities, who showed them the security videos of the street where they lived. The cameras managed to capture when the young woman went out the window of her room and got into a white van.
For her parents, a big question remained: “With whom and why did our daughter run away?”
Days passed and still nothing was known about the whereabouts of the young woman. The FBI investigation agency entered the case together with the State Police, but everything remained an enigma.
Shelia and Rachel desperately joined the search. They showed the love they had for her friend on social media, posting photos with her and saying how much they missed her.
It was rumored at the girls’ school that Skyler was in contact with an internet sex offender, though suspicions took a turn when Shelia and Rachel began behaving strangely.
loose ends
The authorities questioned the two teenagers and, surprisingly, both had inconsistencies in their versions, which is why they began to be considered suspicious.
In order to clarify the case, the Police decided to subject the young women to a polygraph test. Shelia was calm and cool, but Rachel didn’t even make it.
Skylar Neese was a girl who vanished from her home in West Virginia around midnight on July 6, 2012. Her body was found in January 2013 in Pennsylvania.
She was killed by her best friends, Shelia Eddy and Rachel Shoaf. Shoaf told police they planned and carried out her murder. pic.twitter.com/M4PR50xaps
— TRUE CRIME TUESDAYS (@TCTuesdays) February 10, 2022
That day, Rachel panicked and fled the car her parents were transporting her to take her to the test. Ever since her friend had died, she was having strange and aggressive behaviors.
Moments later, the girl’s mother called the emergency line saying her daughter was uncontrollable. She hit them, yelled at them and they still couldn’t figure out the reason for her behavior.
Rachel, in the midst of her desperation, decided to go to the authorities and confess to the crime. She and Shelia had stabbed and killed Skylar because “they didn’t like him and didn’t want to be friends with him anymore,” they told authorities.
The teenager led investigators to the location where her friend’s body was found. It was a hidden forest on the outskirts of the city. The victim’s body had several stab wounds, according to the local media ‘Metro News, The Voice of West Virginia’.
What really happened to young Skyler?
Some time ago, the three young women had gathered at Rachel’s house to have a good time. That day they consumed alcohol and lost track of their actions. While intoxicated, Rachel and Shelia had a sexual affair that Skyler witnessed.
The young women agreed that it would be a secret between the three of them, although Skyler did something that seemed to break the promise; she posted on her Twitter account: “I’ll tell the whole school the sh…t I know.”
The three friends began to argue over trivial issues, but everything went much further than that. Rachel and Shelia were so enraged that they started planning a murder.
Skylar Neese and Shelia Eddy were best friends since elementary school, but things deteriorated quickly once Rachel Shoaf entered the picture. Looking back at the Skylar Neese Case https://t.co/XHex3p0Dhh pic.twitter.com/G5IEst465S
— Fresh Edits (@Fresh_Edits_) April 24, 2021
On July 6, 2012, Skyler received a call from her friends, who convinced her to go out for a while to smoke marijuana and “smooth things together”.
Before midnight, a white Toyota van passed by the young woman: it was Shelia and Rachel. They went to a secluded place where they could be quiet to talk.
When they reached a forest, the three teenagers got out of the vehicle so they could smoke. On the way out, they realized they hadn’t gotten the lighter out, so Skyler offered to go get it.
At that moment, her two friends pounced on her, stabbing the edges of two knives into various parts of her body. It all happened so fast that Skyler didn’t have time to understand why they were doing it, but she was dead in no time.
Was it for a simple trill? It didn’t seem logical. Skyler was a staunch supporter of the LGBTIQ community, she wouldn’t have to be mad at her friends for being in a relationship.
The problem is that Rachel came from a very conservative and religious family. Also, she was in a romantic relationship with a man, so having sex with a woman would be a complete scandal.
The truth is that, whether or not that was the reason, the two young women murdered their friend. The two were found guilty of homicide and remain in a prison serving their sentence.
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