December 16, 2023 • 26 mins
Drama is a normal part of the teenage years, but sometimes, this drama is taken too far. On July 5, 2012, 16-year-old Skylar Neese snuck out of her Morgantown, West Virginia home to go joyriding with her two "best friends", Shelia Eddy and Rachel Shoaf, but these two girls had other plans for how the night would unfold. After six long months of searching for Skylar ever since she snuck out in July, her remains were located in a wooded area in Greene County, Pennsylvania after Rachel Shoaf had a breakdown and confessed to the gruesome crime her and Shelia had committed.
Sources Tuko (2022)Sportskeeda (2023)Unilad (2022)Ranker (2021)All That's Interesting (2023) Dateline NBC: Season 22 Episode 25: Something Wicked (2014) Audio WBOY 12 News-One of Skylar Neese's killers denied parole (May 9, 2023)
Blue Light Diaries-Betrayed: The Tragic Fate of Skylar Neese
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/dark-deeds--6216218/support.
Sources Tuko (2022)Sportskeeda (2023)Unilad (2022)Ranker (2021)All That's Interesting (2023) Dateline NBC: Season 22 Episode 25: Something Wicked (2014) Audio WBOY 12 News-One of Skylar Neese's killers denied parole (May 9, 2023)
Blue Light Diaries-Betrayed: The Tragic Fate of Skylar Neese
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/dark-deeds--6216218/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hello, listeners, and welcome backto another episode of its Crime Time.
I know that today's case has beenfeatured literally everywhere on podcasts, documentaries,
and the like, but I can'thelp but to be bothered by it every
time I hear about it, andit has a message behind it that I
really wish I would have even listenedto during my teenage years. Now,
obviously my life didn't turn out thisway, but there's a good message behind
(00:24):
it, and it's tragic that thishad to happen. And this is the
case of Skylar Nice. All right, everyone, it's crime Time. Before
(00:59):
we continue, I just want toplace a disclaimer here that the content of
this case involves crimes on a minorso if you feel that you cannot handle
this, then please feel free toclick away. Skyler Annette Nie was born
(01:21):
on February tenth, nineteen ninety six, to parents David and Mary Nice in
Morgantown, West Virginia. They livedin a place in Morgantown called Star City.
She was the only child of Davidand Mary. Mary worked as an
administrative assistant in a cardiac laboratory andDavid worked as a product assembler at Walmart.
When Skyler was a child. Shewas very rambunctious, she was super
(01:45):
intelligent. She just loved talking toeveryone. She was very outgoing and just
had a big personality. She mether first friend, Morgan Lawrence, in
I believe it was preschool or somethingof that nature, before she ever started,
you know, going into actual school. So Morgan Lawrence was her first
(02:08):
friend and they were very very closefor a long time. And she was
also a family friend. Her familywere I guess her parents were also friends
with Skyler's parents. Skyler attended UniversityHigh School and she was said to be
a great student who was a highacademic achiever. She excelled in almost every
subject in school, and even ifit was a subject that she didn't really
(02:30):
like or she found boring, shestill did very well in them. So
when Skyler did hit high school,her and her friend Morgan Lawrence kind of
they didn't really part ways, butthey kind of grew apart. And part
of this, I believe is dueto who Skyler had been hanging out with.
The type of people that Skyler hungout with, they just weren't for
(02:51):
you know, Morgan, they weren'tpeople that she wanted herself around. So
her and Skyler were still friends,It's just that they weren't as close as
they or when they were younger.Everybody that knew Skyler in school said she
was very bubbly and just happy golucky, kind of like she was when
she was young, and she wasa very good and loyal friend. She
(03:13):
did anything for her friends. Afterhigh school, her dream was to be
a criminal defense attorney. She wasalso an avid reader, and she held
a job at Wendy's where she workedwith her two best friends. After school.
She had a best friend who's namewas Sheila Eddie, and she met
(03:34):
Sheila in elementary school at the ageof eight. Her and Sheila had been
very very close since they met.They were in separable, at least that's
what everyone says. So during theirfreshman year, though, Sheila met another
girl named Rachel Chauff and the pairthen became a trio. While the trio
was also said to be inseparable,it seemed as though Rachel and Skyler were
(03:55):
kind of always competing to be thecloser friend of Shila. Just due to
Skyler and Shila being already very closeand Rachel came into the group, it
seemed as though Sheila kind of becamecloser with her and didn't spend as much
time with Skyler. Rachel was alsoa very outgoing, open person, and
(04:18):
she had aspirations of going to Broadway, kind of being on Broadway show.
She was just into musicals and thingslike that during school and her dream was
to make it to Broadway and bean actress on Broadway. Rachel was a
lot different than the other girls though, just because she was raised very very
(04:40):
strict, very religious, very Catholic, and of course Skyler was an only
child, so she kind of wasraised very different. She Now, obviously
she still had roles and things likethat, but her parents kind of just
let her be a teenager for themost part. But of all of the
(05:00):
three, Sheila was the one thatreally didn't have too much structure. From
what I've gathered, she did allsorts of things, and she was kind
of the bad influence of the group. From what I've gathered, she did
things, you know, experimented withalcohol, drugs and things like that,
and she would take the girls,the other girls, you know, places
(05:20):
to smoke marijuana in the woods andthings like that. So she really didn't
have a lot of structure. Skylerhad been said to be the rock of
the group because she was always emotionallysupporting the two other girls. Because Sheila
and Rachel had parents who had beendivorced and their home lives weren't the greatest.
While like I said, Skyler wasan only child who had a very
(05:42):
good home life. Her parents werevery loving, very nurturing, and Skyler's
mother at one point had said ofShila, quote, Skyler thought she could
save her. I could hear onthe phone given Shila all kinds of hell.
Don't be stupid, what were youthinking. On the other hand,
though Shila was so much fun.She was always silly and she was always
(06:03):
doing crazy stuff. End quote.Sheila was seen as being the fun loving
girl of the trio, and shewas accepted by Skyler's parents as if she
had been one of their own children. Quote. Sheila didn't even knock on
the door when she came over,She just came on and end quote.
And that was also by Skyler's mother. Rachel had been said to be the
opposite of Shila, and this iswhat I had kind of discussed. She
(06:25):
was very well liked as well.She enjoyed being in the school place and
She'd come from a very strict Catholicfamily, so she sort of idolized Shila
because Sheila was wild, she hadthis care free attitude, and as far
as it seemed, Rachel just reallywasn't allowed to be herself around her parents.
So when Rachel came into the trio, as I had discussed a little
(06:47):
earlier, it did seem to puta wedge between Sheila and Skyler because they
were always fighting. Then. Skyleroften tweeted during their fights, and one
of her tweets spread quote your twoface and obviously fucking stupid if you thought
I wouldn't find out end quote,and another too bad my friends are having
lives without me end quote. Soit seemed to be a typical teenage drama.
(07:09):
It happens a lot, especially ingroups of girls, and a boy
in their school reported that one timeduring sophomore year, he and Rachel were
at a play and they were ata play practice for Pride and Prejudice,
and Rachel had her phone up towhere you're laughing. She told the boy
listen to the Shila and Skyler arefighting end quote. So Skyler didn't know
(07:30):
that Shila had actually put her ona three way calling and allowed Rachel to
just kind of listen in on thefight. So this is kind of what
I was saying in the beginning aboutthis message. When you're a teenager,
you hang out with people, youhang out with your friends, and even
if you fight and things like that, and you know this person isn't good
for your life, or you knowthey're a backstabber and they might not be
(07:53):
good for you or you know,good to be your friend, you still
let them around, and bad thingscan happen. I was younger, as
with most teenagers probably you know,I had people in my life like that
where I just repeatedly kept allowing themto hurt me and do things to me
that friends don't do to friends.And you're young and dumb, and you
(08:13):
know, you think that'll quit.And then you get to a certain age
where you're just kind of tired ofthat drama and you're tired of having people
like that around and you grow upa little bit. So a lot of
teenagers do this. But that's whyI said, there's a good message in
this case. And it's depressing.It's, you know, a really really
tragic case, but this kind ofnegativity if there's this kind of negativity in
(08:37):
your friendships or your friend groups,then maybe you need to step back because
friends don't treat friends this way.And like I said, that's a message
that I know a lot of teenagersfind difficult to kind of, you know,
get it through their heads, likethese fights aren't healthy and it's hard
to repair a friendship after this kindof stuff happens. But anyway, on
(09:03):
July fifth, Skyler had come homefrom working at Wendy's and then Skyler,
Rachel, and Sheila had actually hadplans of sneaking out that night. The
girls had invited Skyler to go outinto the woods with them to smoke the
marijuana and after they get high,they would they had planned to ride around
(09:24):
and then they were going to dropSkyler back off at her home and Skyler
would have to try to sneak backin without her parents hearing her. So
she wanted the girls to drop heroff kind of at the end of the
street and she was going to walkhome. She I believe this was the
first time she had made plans tosneak out as far as I could tell,
(09:46):
it wasn't something that she frequently did. So Skyler came home from work
on July fifth, and then laterin the night, I guess she snuck
out and the girls, you know, we're the marijuana and driving around and
everything. And then when her dadgot home the next morning, I believe
(10:09):
he went to her room and heactually realized that she wasn't home. So
he saw this little stool by herbedroom and knew, you know, something
wasn't right. She must have snuckout last night and she never came home,
and that's kind of why he wasworried, because she just didn't act
like that she would have come homeat least, So he started making phone
calls. He called her friends.He was about to call her job at
(10:31):
Wendy's, but they actually ended upcalling first and had asked about her and
said that she hadn't showed up forwork, which is not like her.
She always showed up for work.Sheila then called Mary, which is Skyler's
mom, and told her that theyhad actually snuck out to smoke some marijuana,
and she said that Skyler had themdrop her off at the end of
(10:52):
the street so she wouldn't wake herparents. Then her dad finally called the
police because Skyler had been missing foraround twenty four hours and police kind of
thought she could have been a runawayjust because they knew she snuck out and
she never came home, and theythought, Okay, maybe she ran away,
Which this kind of frustrates me alittle bit. They think they think
this about every kid that goes missing, and I don't think it makes a
(11:15):
difference, you know what I mean, whether a person's a runaway where they
were kidnapped, they suddenly brought home, so it should be treated the same
way. And I'm not saying allpolice departments, but there are quite a
few cases I've heard where they kindof don't take it seriously and they're just
like, oh, you know,they're teenager, they're young and dumb,
and they'll just get sad about runningaway and eventually come back, and they
kind of don't do everything they canto, you know, look for this
(11:39):
child. But I just don't thinkit matters why they're missing. They need
to, you know, be located. Regardless, police have found footage of
Skyler getting into a car at aroundtwelve thirty am, so this would have
been one technically July sixth. Sheilacame by to actually cry with Skyler's parents
and help search for she sat withSkyler's parents and cried and everything, and
(12:05):
you know, because they were close, and she was helping the family try
to locate Skyler. Her parents,namely her dad, made an appearance on
a local news station. There waseven a community candlelight vigil that was held
in which Rachel and Sheila showed upthere. And police found out that Skyler's
(12:26):
phone and debit card hadn't been usedsince she was missing, so that was
also terrifying to them because if shehad run away, she was gonna need
money, or she was gonna needmoney to be taking care of herself,
she would have used her phone.I'm sure. There were also bank robberies
in the area, and there wererumors swirling that Skyler had actually attended some
kind of teenage party with the bankrobbers. So these guys were there and
(12:48):
there had been some sort of overdoseat this party, and the partiers kind
of hid the body and they thoughtmaybe she was the person that overdose and
she got hidden. But kids inschool were just making up tons of rumors.
The town was, you know,how it has been something happens.
Rumors were flying, and because shehadn't been located and there was like,
no real leads, real good leads. Rumors were just way out of proportion.
(13:11):
They blew out of proportion. Allkinds of things happened. People thought
Rachel and Sheila were hiding something forSkyler, like where she ran away to,
or maybe they were hiding something forsomeone that did something to Skyler.
So people started thinking that Rachel andSheila were kind of in on this plot
to help Skyler run away, andthey weren't telling anyone, or someone did
something to Skyler and they were kindof hiding, you know, this information
(13:35):
because they didn't want to get thatperson in trouble. Rachel and Sheila eventually
started feeling the pressure when the FBIstarted questioning everyone. They started questioning everyone
in the school, the family again, just to get an idea of what
exactly happened and how life was leadingup to Skyler's disappearance. In Christmas twenty
(13:58):
twelve, the Nieces really didn't celebChristmas that year. They, you know,
their daughter was still missing and theydidn't really have a reason to celebrate
by gifts and everything because they hadan only child. So without their only
child there to celebrate, it justdidn't feel like the holidays. Rachel and
Sheila eventually stopped attending high school,and they say that Rachel was kind of
(14:26):
mentally not okay. She was actingnow, going crazy, and this wasn't
like her because she was very strictand as far as I could find,
she did respect her mother and shewas good to her parents. But on
one occasion, Rachel's mom actually hadto call the police because Rachel was having
(14:46):
a literal breakdown at the house.She was breaking things, screaming like there
is a n I'm on one callfrom her mother, which I will place
in here if I can locate thatagain. But you could hear her in
the back around screaming. So policecame over and Rachel was taken to a
(15:20):
mental health facility. And then afterbeing released from this mental health facility,
she wanted to meet at her lawyer'soffice because she was ready to tell her
lawyers something. Rachel actually went intothe interview room and had to pull up
a trash can beside her because shewas afraid she was going to throw up.
(15:41):
She was very nervous, sick,you know, just acting very strangely.
She had something very important to tellthem, so she eventually just said
it out loud. She just said, we stabbed her, and that was
about Skylar. The girls had beenplanning it for months, so Skyler,
are sorry. Skyler. Rachel andSheila were close, but they did have
(16:08):
a lot of fights. So Racheland Sheila had been planning it for months
behind Schyler stack that they were goingto kill her. She was, you
know, for whatever reason, theyjust didn't like her anymore and they were
going to kill her. Rachel providedthe shovel and Sheila provided the knives.
They gathered cleaning supplies to put inthe car, and they kind of packed
(16:30):
the car and everything, got theirlittle murder kit ready and they drove to
get Skyler that night. And thenthe girls drove nearly an hour almost to
the Pennsylvania border, and Skyler gotup. After the girls had been kind
of sitting there in the woods awhile. Skyler got up to go to
the car and the girls counted tothree, so they both counted to three,
and on the count of three,they started to stab Skyler. Skyler
(16:52):
fought really hard and she just askedthe girls why why they were doing that
to her? And then they threwher in a small and they covered her
with branches and dirt. They Iguess tried to dig a hold of Burrier,
but it didn't work. You know, they just weren't prepared for how
difficult it is. So they kindof dug a really tiny little hole and
(17:14):
kind of pushed her into it andtried to cover her up with branches,
leaves, some dirt, and Rachelactually told the police the location of the
body. Human remains that were unrecognizablewere found there to be skylars, And
even though Rachel confessed and led themto her body, they didn't arrest her
because Ronnie Gaskins, who was thepolice officer or the detective in charge of
(17:41):
working this case, wanted to useRachel to somehow get Shila to confess because
those who shared that secret together andthey felt that if they could get her
to talk, maybe wire tap her, wire tap Rachel and then get Shila
to tell the story. Now,all of this happened about six months.
Six months after sky went missing,they found her remains and they were very
(18:02):
decomposed, they were unidentifiable, andthey used in all records, and of
course, like I said, theywere Skyler's. But this happened a while
ago, like a while after theconfession happened a while after the body had
been buried and everything, so thegirls kind of kept it a secret for
(18:23):
six months, and then they stoppedattending school and Rachel, you know,
I had this breakdown and eventually didconfess because that kind of stuff I'm sure
gets to you. You know,you're you're a young teenager. And Rachel
wasn't raised that way. She shewasn't the you know, like bad teenager,
(18:45):
not bad, but she she wasn'tone to get into trouble and experiment
with all that stuff. And thenof course she met Sheila, and she
changed as a person, and evenSkyler changed her. Her friend Morgan had
talked about Skyler hanging out with thesetwo girls and she really like it because
she just didn't think they were goodinfluences and good people for Skyler's life,
but they were her friends, andso you know, what do you do?
(19:07):
I mean, Skyler kept came outwith them. So Sheila actually had
hidden cameras placed in her home bythe police, and Rachel went over to
have a discussion with her and tryto get her to talk about the murders
but or the murder, but thepolice didn't actually get anything from the videos.
(19:30):
As far as I can tell,Rachel didn't even bring it up.
She just didn't want to be responsiblefor taking Shila down to you know,
she didn't want to be responsible forSheila getting caught, so she didn't do
anything in the videos. Police caughta warrant for Sheila's car, and a
positive ID was made on Skylar's remainsfound in Blacksville. Shila still acted sad
(19:55):
like she was mourning Skylar. Sheposted things on Twitter and everything like that,
and even if the girls were stillfree, people around town suspected they
did it. In April of twentythirteen, blood was finally positively identified in
Sheila's car as Skyler's blood. Mayone of twenty thirteen, Rachel pleaded guilty
(20:17):
to second degree murder. Sheila wasarrested in a cracker barrel parking lot while
she was there with her mom,So she was eating a cracker barrel and
they came up and arrested her becauseof the blood being ideed. Morgan Lawrence,
which I said was Sheila's old friend, discussed in the show for Dayline
(20:41):
NBC that she didn't like Shila orRachel and that when Skyler started thing out
with them. She changed. Agirl in school overheard Sheila and Rachel actually
discussing ways to kill somebody, andat one point they made a comment that
they wouldn't mind if Skyler died.So they talked about that kind of stupid
stuff in school all the time infront of people, which is dumb,
(21:02):
because you know, even joking aboutthat stuff is sickening, but really planning
it and then talking about it infront of all these people in school just
blows my mind out. How youknow, stupid they were, But they're
young, dumb, and I guessthey think that it was cool to brag
about that sort of thing. Intwenty fourteen, Sheila pleaded guilty and she
(21:22):
got life in prison with parole eligibilityin twenty twenty eight, so four more
years and she'll be eligible before parole. Rachel, out of the two,
is the one that is remorseful.There's no excuses, of course for what
she did. But I feel likeSheila was definitely the ring leader of the
trio. As I had mentioned,she was the one that got you know,
(21:45):
the girls into trouble doing things suchas that, and I feel like
she was a very intimidating presence,and I know I learned her thought probably
because Skyler just didn't take her crap. You know, Skyler wasn't gonna sit
back and take and take her fightingwith her and treating her like crab,
(22:10):
but Rachel kind of allowed it.Rachel was easily manipulated. But there's no
excuses, like I said, forwhat happened. But I definitely feel like
Sheila was a ring leader. Ifyou watch Rachel, she was devastated about
it and she showed remorse. ButSheila kind of if you watch her in
(22:32):
some of the interviews and you watchher in court, she just very snobby
about things, like doesn't seem tocare. Rachel was eventually sentenced to thirty
years in prison. There is nowa law known as Skyler's Law, and
it is for amber alerts being requiredeven if a teen is suspected of being
(22:52):
a runaway, because they wouldn't putan amber alert out for Skyler whenever she
went missing because they felt like sheran away, so they didn't bother the
amber alert. And then there's thatSkyler's Law now in several states in which
they have to put an amber alertout even if Fatina suspected of running away,
and to this day, they stillweren't exactly sure of a motive on
(23:15):
why these girls would want to dosomething like that, But it is supposedly
all of this happened because Skyler hadcaught Sheila and Rachel having some sort of
sexual relations and she knew they weretogether, so she kind of walked in
on them having sexual relations or youknow, knew that these two girls were
(23:36):
dating or something. And the claimwas that she threatened to tell people about
the two girls' relationships at one pointbecause they were fighting all the time.
And I guess it was claim thatSkyler threatened, like, I'm going to
tell everybody, you know what,I want to tell everybody about your relationship,
and they killed her to silence her. Now I'm not exactly sure,
(23:59):
but you know, the truth tothat, But I feel like that definitely
could be a thing that definitely seemsto be you know, a valid,
a valid motive for these girls becausethey're young, they're teenagers and oh my
goodness, you know, if itgets out that we're dating, like and
I understand Rachel was raised very religious, so I'm not sure exactly what our
(24:22):
family, what her family's feelings wouldbe if they found out her daughter was
dating, you know, a female, so that could very well be why
they did it to Skylarn. Butyeah, this case has just blowed my
mind because a girl that you lovedand was supposed to be your friend and
you've been planning on killing her formonths, and you know, if you
(24:45):
hate somebody in your friend group,just tell them, like, just tell
them, hey, we don't wedon't feel called be hanging out with you
anymore. We don't want to beyour friend anymore. Sure that hurts our
feelings, but why, you know, why do this? Why do something
this disgusting? You know, planto kill her for months, like,
just tell them, hey, Idon't want to hang out with you anymore,
to waste all that time, youknow, thinking they're making this person
(25:07):
think that you're their friend and youlove them, and then you do the
ultimate betrayal, the ultimate backstabbing,and kill them. And of course the
reverse goes the other way too.If you feel like people aren't treating you
properly and you're not getting anything outof your friend group but negativity and disrespect,
it's definitely time to cut ties withthem. Because obviously this is the
(25:30):
worst case scenario. But things likethis happen. So don't allow yourself to
be treated, you know, crappyor disrespected, or to be disrespected,
because that's just no way to live. Rachel's chauff was put up for her
parole hearing on May ninth of twentytwenty three, and she was denied parole.
And I'm going to play a littlerecording here of Schuyler niece's family after
(25:52):
they had heard the news of Rachelbeing denied her role here in today's family
waited right here in anticipation and seeingif one of Scholar's killers would be set
free. The words that Nissa's familywas hoping to hear parole dined. And
(26:17):
she doesn't deserted paroles. She neverdid deserve p parols. She's a rat.
The kind of deal, all right, everyone, That concludes this episode
of its Crime Time. If youenjoyed, please consider subscribing on whatever platform
you get your podcasts. Thanks forlistening, and until next time,
Hello, listeners, and welcome backto another episode of its Crime Time.
I know that today's case has beenfeatured literally everywhere on podcasts, documentaries,
and the like, but I can'thelp but to be bothered by it every
time I hear about it, andit has a message behind it that I
really wish I would have even listenedto during my teenage years. Now,
obviously my life didn't turn out thisway, but there's a good message behind
(00:24):
it, and it's tragic that thishad to happen. And this is the
case of Skylar Nice. All right, everyone, it's crime Time. Before
(00:59):
we continue, I just want toplace a disclaimer here that the content of
this case involves crimes on a minorso if you feel that you cannot handle
this, then please feel free toclick away. Skyler Annette Nie was born
(01:21):
on February tenth, nineteen ninety six, to parents David and Mary Nice in
Morgantown, West Virginia. They livedin a place in Morgantown called Star City.
She was the only child of Davidand Mary. Mary worked as an
administrative assistant in a cardiac laboratory andDavid worked as a product assembler at Walmart.
When Skyler was a child. Shewas very rambunctious, she was super
(01:45):
intelligent. She just loved talking toeveryone. She was very outgoing and just
had a big personality. She mether first friend, Morgan Lawrence, in
I believe it was preschool or somethingof that nature, before she ever started,
you know, going into actual school. So Morgan Lawrence was her first
(02:08):
friend and they were very very closefor a long time. And she was
also a family friend. Her familywere I guess her parents were also friends
with Skyler's parents. Skyler attended UniversityHigh School and she was said to be
a great student who was a highacademic achiever. She excelled in almost every
subject in school, and even ifit was a subject that she didn't really
(02:30):
like or she found boring, shestill did very well in them. So
when Skyler did hit high school,her and her friend Morgan Lawrence kind of
they didn't really part ways, butthey kind of grew apart. And part
of this, I believe is dueto who Skyler had been hanging out with.
The type of people that Skyler hungout with, they just weren't for
(02:51):
you know, Morgan, they weren'tpeople that she wanted herself around. So
her and Skyler were still friends,It's just that they weren't as close as
they or when they were younger.Everybody that knew Skyler in school said she
was very bubbly and just happy golucky, kind of like she was when
she was young, and she wasa very good and loyal friend. She
(03:13):
did anything for her friends. Afterhigh school, her dream was to be
a criminal defense attorney. She wasalso an avid reader, and she held
a job at Wendy's where she workedwith her two best friends. After school.
She had a best friend who's namewas Sheila Eddie, and she met
(03:34):
Sheila in elementary school at the ageof eight. Her and Sheila had been
very very close since they met.They were in separable, at least that's
what everyone says. So during theirfreshman year, though, Sheila met another
girl named Rachel Chauff and the pairthen became a trio. While the trio
was also said to be inseparable,it seemed as though Rachel and Skyler were
(03:55):
kind of always competing to be thecloser friend of Shila. Just due to
Skyler and Shila being already very closeand Rachel came into the group, it
seemed as though Sheila kind of becamecloser with her and didn't spend as much
time with Skyler. Rachel was alsoa very outgoing, open person, and
(04:18):
she had aspirations of going to Broadway, kind of being on Broadway show.
She was just into musicals and thingslike that during school and her dream was
to make it to Broadway and bean actress on Broadway. Rachel was a
lot different than the other girls though, just because she was raised very very
(04:40):
strict, very religious, very Catholic, and of course Skyler was an only
child, so she kind of wasraised very different. She Now, obviously
she still had roles and things likethat, but her parents kind of just
let her be a teenager for themost part. But of all of the
(05:00):
three, Sheila was the one thatreally didn't have too much structure. From
what I've gathered, she did allsorts of things, and she was kind
of the bad influence of the group. From what I've gathered, she did
things, you know, experimented withalcohol, drugs and things like that,
and she would take the girls,the other girls, you know, places
(05:20):
to smoke marijuana in the woods andthings like that. So she really didn't
have a lot of structure. Skylerhad been said to be the rock of
the group because she was always emotionallysupporting the two other girls. Because Sheila
and Rachel had parents who had beendivorced and their home lives weren't the greatest.
While like I said, Skyler wasan only child who had a very
(05:42):
good home life. Her parents werevery loving, very nurturing, and Skyler's
mother at one point had said ofShila, quote, Skyler thought she could
save her. I could hear onthe phone given Shila all kinds of hell.
Don't be stupid, what were youthinking. On the other hand,
though Shila was so much fun.She was always silly and she was always
(06:03):
doing crazy stuff. End quote.Sheila was seen as being the fun loving
girl of the trio, and shewas accepted by Skyler's parents as if she
had been one of their own children. Quote. Sheila didn't even knock on
the door when she came over,She just came on and end quote.
And that was also by Skyler's mother. Rachel had been said to be the
opposite of Shila, and this iswhat I had kind of discussed. She
(06:25):
was very well liked as well.She enjoyed being in the school place and
She'd come from a very strict Catholicfamily, so she sort of idolized Shila
because Sheila was wild, she hadthis care free attitude, and as far
as it seemed, Rachel just reallywasn't allowed to be herself around her parents.
So when Rachel came into the trio, as I had discussed a little
(06:47):
earlier, it did seem to puta wedge between Sheila and Skyler because they
were always fighting. Then. Skyleroften tweeted during their fights, and one
of her tweets spread quote your twoface and obviously fucking stupid if you thought
I wouldn't find out end quote,and another too bad my friends are having
lives without me end quote. Soit seemed to be a typical teenage drama.
(07:09):
It happens a lot, especially ingroups of girls, and a boy
in their school reported that one timeduring sophomore year, he and Rachel were
at a play and they were ata play practice for Pride and Prejudice,
and Rachel had her phone up towhere you're laughing. She told the boy
listen to the Shila and Skyler arefighting end quote. So Skyler didn't know
(07:30):
that Shila had actually put her ona three way calling and allowed Rachel to
just kind of listen in on thefight. So this is kind of what
I was saying in the beginning aboutthis message. When you're a teenager,
you hang out with people, youhang out with your friends, and even
if you fight and things like that, and you know this person isn't good
for your life, or you knowthey're a backstabber and they might not be
(07:53):
good for you or you know,good to be your friend, you still
let them around, and bad thingscan happen. I was younger, as
with most teenagers probably you know,I had people in my life like that
where I just repeatedly kept allowing themto hurt me and do things to me
that friends don't do to friends.And you're young and dumb, and you
(08:13):
know, you think that'll quit.And then you get to a certain age
where you're just kind of tired ofthat drama and you're tired of having people
like that around and you grow upa little bit. So a lot of
teenagers do this. But that's whyI said, there's a good message in
this case. And it's depressing.It's, you know, a really really
tragic case, but this kind ofnegativity if there's this kind of negativity in
(08:37):
your friendships or your friend groups,then maybe you need to step back because
friends don't treat friends this way.And like I said, that's a message
that I know a lot of teenagersfind difficult to kind of, you know,
get it through their heads, likethese fights aren't healthy and it's hard
to repair a friendship after this kindof stuff happens. But anyway, on
(09:03):
July fifth, Skyler had come homefrom working at Wendy's and then Skyler,
Rachel, and Sheila had actually hadplans of sneaking out that night. The
girls had invited Skyler to go outinto the woods with them to smoke the
marijuana and after they get high,they would they had planned to ride around
(09:24):
and then they were going to dropSkyler back off at her home and Skyler
would have to try to sneak backin without her parents hearing her. So
she wanted the girls to drop heroff kind of at the end of the
street and she was going to walkhome. She I believe this was the
first time she had made plans tosneak out as far as I could tell,
(09:46):
it wasn't something that she frequently did. So Skyler came home from work
on July fifth, and then laterin the night, I guess she snuck
out and the girls, you know, we're the marijuana and driving around and
everything. And then when her dadgot home the next morning, I believe
(10:09):
he went to her room and heactually realized that she wasn't home. So
he saw this little stool by herbedroom and knew, you know, something
wasn't right. She must have snuckout last night and she never came home,
and that's kind of why he wasworried, because she just didn't act
like that she would have come homeat least, So he started making phone
calls. He called her friends.He was about to call her job at
(10:31):
Wendy's, but they actually ended upcalling first and had asked about her and
said that she hadn't showed up forwork, which is not like her.
She always showed up for work.Sheila then called Mary, which is Skyler's
mom, and told her that theyhad actually snuck out to smoke some marijuana,
and she said that Skyler had themdrop her off at the end of
(10:52):
the street so she wouldn't wake herparents. Then her dad finally called the
police because Skyler had been missing foraround twenty four hours and police kind of
thought she could have been a runawayjust because they knew she snuck out and
she never came home, and theythought, Okay, maybe she ran away,
Which this kind of frustrates me alittle bit. They think they think
this about every kid that goes missing, and I don't think it makes a
(11:15):
difference, you know what I mean, whether a person's a runaway where they
were kidnapped, they suddenly brought home, so it should be treated the same
way. And I'm not saying allpolice departments, but there are quite a
few cases I've heard where they kindof don't take it seriously and they're just
like, oh, you know,they're teenager, they're young and dumb,
and they'll just get sad about runningaway and eventually come back, and they
kind of don't do everything they canto, you know, look for this
(11:39):
child. But I just don't thinkit matters why they're missing. They need
to, you know, be located. Regardless, police have found footage of
Skyler getting into a car at aroundtwelve thirty am, so this would have
been one technically July sixth. Sheilacame by to actually cry with Skyler's parents
and help search for she sat withSkyler's parents and cried and everything, and
(12:05):
you know, because they were close, and she was helping the family try
to locate Skyler. Her parents,namely her dad, made an appearance on
a local news station. There waseven a community candlelight vigil that was held
in which Rachel and Sheila showed upthere. And police found out that Skyler's
(12:26):
phone and debit card hadn't been usedsince she was missing, so that was
also terrifying to them because if shehad run away, she was gonna need
money, or she was gonna needmoney to be taking care of herself,
she would have used her phone.I'm sure. There were also bank robberies
in the area, and there wererumors swirling that Skyler had actually attended some
kind of teenage party with the bankrobbers. So these guys were there and
(12:48):
there had been some sort of overdoseat this party, and the partiers kind
of hid the body and they thoughtmaybe she was the person that overdose and
she got hidden. But kids inschool were just making up tons of rumors.
The town was, you know,how it has been something happens.
Rumors were flying, and because shehadn't been located and there was like,
no real leads, real good leads. Rumors were just way out of proportion.
(13:11):
They blew out of proportion. Allkinds of things happened. People thought
Rachel and Sheila were hiding something forSkyler, like where she ran away to,
or maybe they were hiding something forsomeone that did something to Skyler.
So people started thinking that Rachel andSheila were kind of in on this plot
to help Skyler run away, andthey weren't telling anyone, or someone did
something to Skyler and they were kindof hiding, you know, this information
(13:35):
because they didn't want to get thatperson in trouble. Rachel and Sheila eventually
started feeling the pressure when the FBIstarted questioning everyone. They started questioning everyone
in the school, the family again, just to get an idea of what
exactly happened and how life was leadingup to Skyler's disappearance. In Christmas twenty
(13:58):
twelve, the Nieces really didn't celebChristmas that year. They, you know,
their daughter was still missing and theydidn't really have a reason to celebrate
by gifts and everything because they hadan only child. So without their only
child there to celebrate, it justdidn't feel like the holidays. Rachel and
Sheila eventually stopped attending high school,and they say that Rachel was kind of
(14:26):
mentally not okay. She was actingnow, going crazy, and this wasn't
like her because she was very strictand as far as I could find,
she did respect her mother and shewas good to her parents. But on
one occasion, Rachel's mom actually hadto call the police because Rachel was having
(14:46):
a literal breakdown at the house.She was breaking things, screaming like there
is a n I'm on one callfrom her mother, which I will place
in here if I can locate thatagain. But you could hear her in
the back around screaming. So policecame over and Rachel was taken to a
(15:20):
mental health facility. And then afterbeing released from this mental health facility,
she wanted to meet at her lawyer'soffice because she was ready to tell her
lawyers something. Rachel actually went intothe interview room and had to pull up
a trash can beside her because shewas afraid she was going to throw up.
(15:41):
She was very nervous, sick,you know, just acting very strangely.
She had something very important to tellthem, so she eventually just said
it out loud. She just said, we stabbed her, and that was
about Skylar. The girls had beenplanning it for months, so Skyler,
are sorry. Skyler. Rachel andSheila were close, but they did have
(16:08):
a lot of fights. So Racheland Sheila had been planning it for months
behind Schyler stack that they were goingto kill her. She was, you
know, for whatever reason, theyjust didn't like her anymore and they were
going to kill her. Rachel providedthe shovel and Sheila provided the knives.
They gathered cleaning supplies to put inthe car, and they kind of packed
(16:30):
the car and everything, got theirlittle murder kit ready and they drove to
get Skyler that night. And thenthe girls drove nearly an hour almost to
the Pennsylvania border, and Skyler gotup. After the girls had been kind
of sitting there in the woods awhile. Skyler got up to go to
the car and the girls counted tothree, so they both counted to three,
and on the count of three,they started to stab Skyler. Skyler
(16:52):
fought really hard and she just askedthe girls why why they were doing that
to her? And then they threwher in a small and they covered her
with branches and dirt. They Iguess tried to dig a hold of Burrier,
but it didn't work. You know, they just weren't prepared for how
difficult it is. So they kindof dug a really tiny little hole and
(17:14):
kind of pushed her into it andtried to cover her up with branches,
leaves, some dirt, and Rachelactually told the police the location of the
body. Human remains that were unrecognizablewere found there to be skylars, And
even though Rachel confessed and led themto her body, they didn't arrest her
because Ronnie Gaskins, who was thepolice officer or the detective in charge of
(17:41):
working this case, wanted to useRachel to somehow get Shila to confess because
those who shared that secret together andthey felt that if they could get her
to talk, maybe wire tap her, wire tap Rachel and then get Shila
to tell the story. Now,all of this happened about six months.
Six months after sky went missing,they found her remains and they were very
(18:02):
decomposed, they were unidentifiable, andthey used in all records, and of
course, like I said, theywere Skyler's. But this happened a while
ago, like a while after theconfession happened a while after the body had
been buried and everything, so thegirls kind of kept it a secret for
(18:23):
six months, and then they stoppedattending school and Rachel, you know,
I had this breakdown and eventually didconfess because that kind of stuff I'm sure
gets to you. You know,you're you're a young teenager. And Rachel
wasn't raised that way. She shewasn't the you know, like bad teenager,
(18:45):
not bad, but she she wasn'tone to get into trouble and experiment
with all that stuff. And thenof course she met Sheila, and she
changed as a person, and evenSkyler changed her. Her friend Morgan had
talked about Skyler hanging out with thesetwo girls and she really like it because
she just didn't think they were goodinfluences and good people for Skyler's life,
but they were her friends, andso you know, what do you do?
(19:07):
I mean, Skyler kept came outwith them. So Sheila actually had
hidden cameras placed in her home bythe police, and Rachel went over to
have a discussion with her and tryto get her to talk about the murders
but or the murder, but thepolice didn't actually get anything from the videos.
(19:30):
As far as I can tell,Rachel didn't even bring it up.
She just didn't want to be responsiblefor taking Shila down to you know,
she didn't want to be responsible forSheila getting caught, so she didn't do
anything in the videos. Police caughta warrant for Sheila's car, and a
positive ID was made on Skylar's remainsfound in Blacksville. Shila still acted sad
(19:55):
like she was mourning Skylar. Sheposted things on Twitter and everything like that,
and even if the girls were stillfree, people around town suspected they
did it. In April of twentythirteen, blood was finally positively identified in
Sheila's car as Skyler's blood. Mayone of twenty thirteen, Rachel pleaded guilty
(20:17):
to second degree murder. Sheila wasarrested in a cracker barrel parking lot while
she was there with her mom,So she was eating a cracker barrel and
they came up and arrested her becauseof the blood being ideed. Morgan Lawrence,
which I said was Sheila's old friend, discussed in the show for Dayline
(20:41):
NBC that she didn't like Shila orRachel and that when Skyler started thing out
with them. She changed. Agirl in school overheard Sheila and Rachel actually
discussing ways to kill somebody, andat one point they made a comment that
they wouldn't mind if Skyler died.So they talked about that kind of stupid
stuff in school all the time infront of people, which is dumb,
(21:02):
because you know, even joking aboutthat stuff is sickening, but really planning
it and then talking about it infront of all these people in school just
blows my mind out. How youknow, stupid they were, But they're
young, dumb, and I guessthey think that it was cool to brag
about that sort of thing. Intwenty fourteen, Sheila pleaded guilty and she
(21:22):
got life in prison with parole eligibilityin twenty twenty eight, so four more
years and she'll be eligible before parole. Rachel, out of the two,
is the one that is remorseful.There's no excuses, of course for what
she did. But I feel likeSheila was definitely the ring leader of the
trio. As I had mentioned,she was the one that got you know,
(21:45):
the girls into trouble doing things suchas that, and I feel like
she was a very intimidating presence,and I know I learned her thought probably
because Skyler just didn't take her crap. You know, Skyler wasn't gonna sit
back and take and take her fightingwith her and treating her like crab,
(22:10):
but Rachel kind of allowed it.Rachel was easily manipulated. But there's no
excuses, like I said, forwhat happened. But I definitely feel like
Sheila was a ring leader. Ifyou watch Rachel, she was devastated about
it and she showed remorse. ButSheila kind of if you watch her in
(22:32):
some of the interviews and you watchher in court, she just very snobby
about things, like doesn't seem tocare. Rachel was eventually sentenced to thirty
years in prison. There is nowa law known as Skyler's Law, and
it is for amber alerts being requiredeven if a teen is suspected of being
(22:52):
a runaway, because they wouldn't putan amber alert out for Skyler whenever she
went missing because they felt like sheran away, so they didn't bother the
amber alert. And then there's thatSkyler's Law now in several states in which
they have to put an amber alertout even if Fatina suspected of running away,
and to this day, they stillweren't exactly sure of a motive on
(23:15):
why these girls would want to dosomething like that, But it is supposedly
all of this happened because Skyler hadcaught Sheila and Rachel having some sort of
sexual relations and she knew they weretogether, so she kind of walked in
on them having sexual relations or youknow, knew that these two girls were
(23:36):
dating or something. And the claimwas that she threatened to tell people about
the two girls' relationships at one pointbecause they were fighting all the time.
And I guess it was claim thatSkyler threatened, like, I'm going to
tell everybody, you know what,I want to tell everybody about your relationship,
and they killed her to silence her. Now I'm not exactly sure,
(23:59):
but you know, the truth tothat, But I feel like that definitely
could be a thing that definitely seemsto be you know, a valid,
a valid motive for these girls becausethey're young, they're teenagers and oh my
goodness, you know, if itgets out that we're dating, like and
I understand Rachel was raised very religious, so I'm not sure exactly what our
(24:22):
family, what her family's feelings wouldbe if they found out her daughter was
dating, you know, a female, so that could very well be why
they did it to Skylarn. Butyeah, this case has just blowed my
mind because a girl that you lovedand was supposed to be your friend and
you've been planning on killing her formonths, and you know, if you
(24:45):
hate somebody in your friend group,just tell them, like, just tell
them, hey, we don't wedon't feel called be hanging out with you
anymore. We don't want to beyour friend anymore. Sure that hurts our
feelings, but why, you know, why do this? Why do something
this disgusting? You know, planto kill her for months, like,
just tell them, hey, Idon't want to hang out with you anymore,
to waste all that time, youknow, thinking they're making this person
(25:07):
think that you're their friend and youlove them, and then you do the
ultimate betrayal, the ultimate backstabbing,and kill them. And of course the
reverse goes the other way too.If you feel like people aren't treating you
properly and you're not getting anything outof your friend group but negativity and disrespect,
it's definitely time to cut ties withthem. Because obviously this is the
(25:30):
worst case scenario. But things likethis happen. So don't allow yourself to
be treated, you know, crappyor disrespected, or to be disrespected,
because that's just no way to live. Rachel's chauff was put up for her
parole hearing on May ninth of twentytwenty three, and she was denied parole.
And I'm going to play a littlerecording here of Schuyler niece's family after
(25:52):
they had heard the news of Rachelbeing denied her role here in today's family
waited right here in anticipation and seeingif one of Scholar's killers would be set
free. The words that Nissa's familywas hoping to hear parole dined. And
(26:17):
she doesn't deserted paroles. She neverdid deserve p parols. She's a rat.
The kind of deal, all right, everyone, That concludes this episode
of its Crime Time. If youenjoyed, please consider subscribing on whatever platform
you get your podcasts. Thanks forlistening, and until next time,
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