#17: Real Life Mean Girls - Screenshots, Secrets, and a Locked Bedroom Door

What happens when teenage loyalty turns into something else?

When 16-year-old Skylar Neese vanished from her West Virginia home in July 2012, police first suspected she had run away. But as days passed and her closest friends offered matching stories—and inconsistent timelines—investigators began to suspect something far darker. This episode unpacks the unraveling of a friendship, the mounting lies, and the shocking confession that revealed everything.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Before we begin. Do you have a theory about this
case or a story of your own? Leave a message
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Files without the space, or head over to night watchfiles
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insights might be featured in a future episode. I'm Harper
Finley and this is night Watch Files. A quick thank

(00:26):
you to our newest Patreon supporters, Kevin b maass Gina
and Madison Watt. We're glad to have you with us.
Join them for just three dollars a month to get
ad free episodes a day. Early Friday, July sixth, twenty twelve,
it began like any ordinary summer morning in Star City,
West Virginia. Dave and Mary Nice were going about their day,

(00:47):
unaware that by nightfall, everything they thought they knew about
their world, about their daughter would begin to fall apart.
From that day on, life would be split into two
distinct halves. Before and after the night before, their daughter
Skyler had worked her regular evening shift at Wendy's. She
clocked out at ten, came home like she always did,

(01:08):
and slipped into her routine. She dropped her uniform off
for Mary to wash. She told her father good night,
Love you, daddy, she said, as he drifted to sleep
on the couch. Then she went into her room, locked
the door. That was that. Skuyler was fifteen, but she
carried herself like someone much older, responsible, self sufficient. She

(01:29):
didn't get into trouble. She didn't cause worry. The next afternoon,
Dave walked down the hallway and knocked on her door.
He needed her to give him a ride back to work.
Skyler never missed a chance to get behind the wheel,
but this time there was no answer. He called her name,
knocked louder, Still nothing. Maybe she'd stepped out. Maybe she'd

(01:50):
gone shopping with a friend. That was his first thought.
But then something gave him pause. The door had been
locked from the inside. He went to the hallway closet,
pulled out a wire coat hanger, and jimmied the old lock,
something every tenant in the building had learned to do
over time. Within seconds, the door gave way, The bed

(02:10):
was made, her phone charger was still plugged in. The
room was quiet, too quiet. Skuyler wasn't there, No note,
no sign of a struggle, just a sealed bedroom and
a creeping sense that whatever had happened. It hadn't been
an accident. Dave stood alone in the silence, staring into
the empty room, and somewhere deep in his gut, he

(02:31):
knew something wasn't right. In Star City, West Virginia, nestled
in the shadow of Morgantown's rolling hills, the Nice family

(02:53):
led a quiet life. Their world wasn't extravagant. It didn't
need to be, because for Mary and Dave Nice, everything
began with a moment that might have seemed trivial to
someone else. It was outside a local bar where Dave,
a DJA known around town, was nursing a shattered jaw
after being jumped by three men. Mary, a stranger at
the time, saw the crowd and pushed her way through.

(03:15):
She didn't ask if she could help. She told him
she was taking him to the hospital. Dave couldn't speak,
but he could listen, and while his jaw was wired shut,
he was certain of one thing. Mary was the most
beautiful woman he had ever seen. He scribbled a note
asking her to the movies. Mary, who'd once had a
crush on the djay, couldn't believe it was happening. They

(03:37):
started dating. He still couldn't talk, but she didn't care.
In the months that followed, their bond deepened. Mary described
it as effortless, as if she'd always known he was
the one that certainty only grew stronger when she found
out she was pregnant. At first, she was terrified. She
worried she wasn't cut out to be a mother, but

(03:57):
all of that disappeared when their daughter, Skuyler Anette nie
came into the world on February tenth, nineteen ninety six.
Mary later called it instant love. They never became wealthy.
There were no family estates or expensive trips. The Nieces
lived paycheck to paycheck, but in their home love was constant.

(04:18):
Skyler grew up in a household where laughter and debate
were daily staples. Mary held the family together with humor
and resolve. Dave and Skyler were inseparable best friends who
turned the mundane into play. One of their favorite games
was baby body Slam. He'd toss her gently onto the bed,
her laughter echoing through the house. She was fearless. Dave

(04:40):
saw it early. On a trip to the beach, Skyler,
despite not knowing how to swim, ran straight into the ocean.
That trip was only possible because of an accident. A
few days before Thanksgiving in nineteen ninety nine. Mary had
just dropped Skyler off at daycare when a lumber truck
in front of her suddenly reversed. She laid on the
hor tried to back away, but there wasn't time. The

(05:04):
truck climbed onto the hood of her car. The air
bags deployed, snapping her left forearm. When she woke up,
blood was dripping down her arm. Her hand hung limply
and she had to lift it with the other just
to move it. She was alone, Skyler wasn't in the car.
That was all that mattered. The injury required surgeries, metal plates,
and months of recovery. Eventually, her arm returned to near

(05:27):
full strength. The insurance company covered her medical bills and
offered a settlement. It wasn't a fortune, but it was
enough for a modest trip to Ocean City the following summer.
For a family that rarely had anything extra. That meant
the world At home, Skyler's sharp mind and strong sense
of fairness kept everyone on their toes. She was never

(05:48):
one to let an argument slide, even when it came
to football. Dave, a passionate West Virginia University fan was
watching a game one day when Skyler came into the room.
She saw him yelling at the screen fear at a
player's mistake. She asked him, calmly, Daddy, what do you
care so they lose? Why get all worked up about it?

(06:08):
He tried to defend himself, citing a mist play. She
didn't back down. How does that affect you? She asked,
How is your life going to change if they lose
or if they win? For that matter. Dave didn't have
an answer. He brushed her off, told her to go upstairs,
but the question stuck. Something about the way she framed
it unsettled him. Slowly he started watching the games differently,

(06:30):
more detached, less angry. That was Skuyler. She didn't just
speak her mind. She made you think. Sometimes it stung,
but often it changed you. The niece's lives were shaped
by resilience, love, and a daughter who never let the
people around her grow stagnant. Skyler wasn't content with the
surface of things. She saw deeper, and she expected others

(06:53):
to do the same. They had no idea then, just
how much her presence, her fire, and her convictions would
come to define not only their family, but the community
they lived in. Sheila Ray Eddie was an only child.
Her mother, Tara Eddie Clendon and raised her alone in
the small, economically depressed town of Blacksville after divorcing Sheila's

(07:15):
father in two thousand. Greg Eddie had suffered a traumatic
brain injury in a car crash that left him permanently disabled.
He wasn't always dependable, but he never stopped loving Sheila.
He was known to show up at the golf course
asking for a Sodie Pop for his daughter, still talking
about her like she was a little girl. Tara did

(07:36):
what she could. She struggled financially, but worked hard to
become an accountant. Neighbors described Sheila in different ways. Some
said she was quiet, others found her strange. One even
recalled hearing Sheila threaten her own mother. Her cousin believed
her parents were permissive. There were signs of trouble early on,
but they were easy to dismiss. In twenty ten, when

(07:58):
Sheila was sixteen, everything changed. Tara remarried, this time to
Jim Clendenen, a coal mine foreman. The family moved to
nearby Morgantown, and with that came a new life. Manicured nails,
straightened hair, expensive clothes. Sheila was given the world she'd
never had in Blacksville. But Sheila's most important connection wasn't new.

(08:21):
She'd known Skuyler Nie since the second grade. They'd first
met at the Shack Neighborhood House, a community center just
outside of Morgantown, spending their summers swimming winters at each
other's homes. Their mothers were close in age and had
known each other as teenagers. Now they were starting high
school together at UHS, and Sheila was ecstatic. To outsiders,

(08:42):
Sheila was boy crazy and sharp tongued. She leaned on
charm and flirtation. At her previous school, she'd been popular.
At UHS, she was relatively unknown, but with Skuyler by
her side, she found her footing again. Skuyler's cousin, Kyle Machaud,
had already taken a disliking to Sheep years earlier. He
called her a bad seed. Whether he saw something others

(09:05):
missed or just didn't like her, it's hard to say,
but Kyle wasn't the only one. At UHS, many students
described Sheila as the least liked of the trio that
trio was completed by Rachel's Chauff. Rachel came from different circumstances.
Her childhood had been more stable, at least financially. She
was the daughter of Rusty and Patricia Chauf. Rusty ran

(09:27):
an upscale men's clothing store in Morgantown until it folded.
He had a son from a previous marriage and had
been widowed before marrying Patricia. Rachel was four when her
parents divorced. From then on, she was raised primarily by
her mother. Patricia was a single mom working in communications,
known for helping other young mothers in the community. They

(09:48):
were never wealthy, but Rachel grew up in comfort. She
was an anxious child at home, but nurturing with others.
She loved to sing and act. Her favorite game when
she was younger was playing Blues Clues on the family computer.
As she got older, she began volunteering with the Special Olympics,
where friends recalled she fiercely protected the kids she worked with.

(10:11):
Rachel didn't grow up with Skuyler or Sheila. Her family
didn't move in the same circles, but during their freshman
year at University High School, the three girls were placed
in the same class. From there, things moved quickly. They
became inseparable. Quick break ads keep the show running, but

(10:38):
if you want to skip them, the ad free versions
on Patreon for just three bucks a month, links in
the show notes and we're back. Thanks for sticking through that.
Let's get back to it. By the time Schuyler Niece
was fifteen, her world revolved around two people, Eddie and

(11:00):
Rachel Chauff. To those looking in from the outside, the
friendship between the three seemed unremarkable, typical even they were inseparable.
They laughed loudly, whispered behind text books, posted selfies with
song lyrics as captions. They were almost always seen as
a unit. But under that polished surface, things were more complicated.

(11:21):
Skuyler and Sheila's history stretched back nearly a decade. Their
connection was familiar, deeply rooted. When Sheila transferred to University
High School in October twenty ten, it felt like a reunion.
Both girls were thrilled. Sheila requested a class schedule that
matched Skuyler's in full. It was a deliberate move, and
one that drew them even closer. Not long after they

(11:44):
met Rachel Chauff, the three were placed together in a
freshman class and something clicked. Rachel was new to their dynamic,
but it didn't take long for her to fit in,
and soon they became what some teachers and classmates would
later call a package deal. Each girl brought something different
to the table. Skuyler was the achiever. She took honours classes,

(12:05):
maintained strong grades, and had clear goals a scholarship college,
law school. She was serious about her future, but she
also had a quiet magnetism. Her friends described her as compassionate, sharp,
and loyal to a fault. At home, she was affectionate
and talkative, especially with her mother. She helped around the

(12:26):
house stayed up late talking about her dreams. Mary Nice
later said her daughter had a heart big enough for everybody.
Sheila was confident and assertive. She'd been popular at her
old school in Blacksville. At University High, she was starting
from scratch, but she didn't seem to mind. Her looks
and sharp tongue drew attention. She knew how to work

(12:48):
a room or a classroom, and used flirtation to hold
influence over people. Though she was bright and made good grades,
classmates described her as dramatic and divisive. Rumors clung to her. Still,
people gravitated toward her, especially Schuyler. Rachel was the performer.
She came from a more affluent background and had a

(13:08):
talent for the spotlight, singing, acting, leading youth events at
her church. She volunteered regularly at the Special Olympics and
was vocal about her Catholic faith. She came off as polite, disciplined,
and soft spoken, but in smaller groups, Rachel could be intense.
She cared deeply about how others saw her, and at

(13:28):
times seemed to lose herself in the personalities of the
people she was around. Together, they balanced each other out,
at least on the surface. Outside of school, they were
often on the move, driving around town, smoking weed, laughing
at inside jokes. The joy rides gave them a sense
of freedom. They'd park in empty lots, scroll through Twitter,

(13:49):
or talk for hours about boys, their futures, their frustrations.
Sometimes they'd drink at sleepovers, usually vodka. Sheila's house was
the preferred gathering place. Her mother, Tara, didn't set many rules.
She trusted the girls to take care of themselves. They
use that space as their own, a little kingdom where

(14:09):
they could be reckless without consequence. Skyler, in particular, cherished
the friendship. In a journal entry written for Honors English
in September twenteen eleven, she described her feelings with unmistakable sincerity.
I'm closer to Shila than anyone I've ever met. I
can't imagine life without her. Of Rachel, she wrote, We've

(14:31):
formed a bond that will last a lifetime. Without her,
life would be dull. To Skuyler, these weren't passing friendships.
They were central to her identity. But the power within
the trio wasn't equally distributed. Sheila had an undeniable pull.
In one video posted online, the three girls are seen
playing a game which way would you rather die? The

(14:52):
camera captures the tone clearly. Sheila is directing, setting the terms.
Rachel and Skyler echo each answer with near sight simultaneous agreement.
Their voices are lighter, almost performative, while Sheila's is firm.
She's in control. When Sheila got a car, that control
only expanded. It was a gift from her mother and
stepfather after she turned sixteen. With it, she gained mobility

(15:17):
and autonomy. She became the driver in every sense of
the word. Other teens speculated she used her car to
manipulate situations, deciding who got a ride, where they'd go,
when they'd leave. It was subtle but unmistakable, and Skyler
began to change. Her mother noticed it first. The girl
who used to stay up late laughing in the kitchen

(15:37):
had grown more irritable, she argued more. Her tone had shifted.
She'd picked up on Sheila's sarcasm, even using it against
her parents. Mary Niece believed her daughter was trying to
impress Sheila, trying to match her attitude, her confidence, her edge. Still,
Skuyler held on to the friendship. She saw the best
in people. She didn't back away from those she loved,

(16:00):
even when they started to drift. But behind the scenes,
tensions were beginning to build. Sheila was becoming more erratic.
There were small things. She once manipulated a classmate into
stealing test answers from a teacher's desk, not for advantage
but for amusement. It was a power play, and Rachel
went along with it. As the months wore on, Skyler's

(16:22):
place in the trio began to feel less secure, and
while she may have sensed the shift, she didn't know
how deep it went or what it would eventually lead to.
For now, the three girls remained close, laughing, posting, sharing
every corner of their lives online and in person, but
the tone was starting to shift, and Skyler unknowingly, was

(16:43):
moving closer to a breaking point. It was a warm
spring night in Cheat Lake, West Virginia, the kind of
evening that lures teenagers out of their homes and into
the illusion of freedom. No destination, no plan, just the
pull of the open road and the thrill of doing
something they weren't supposed to. Skuyler Nice had orchestrated the outing.

(17:07):
She called it joy riding, driving around, music turned up,
windows down, tweeting from the back seat, passing a joint
between laughs. She and Sheila Eddie had done it many
times before. Their parents didn't know. There was just one problem.
Neither of them could drive. At that moment, Skuyler reached
out to a nineteen year old acquaintance named Floyd Pancoast.

(17:31):
She convinced him to give them a ride. Floyd brought
along an eighteen year old friend, Brian Motes, who ended
up behind the wheel. Once they had the car, they
picked up Sheila and Rachel's chauff. Sheila lived just a
few minutes from Schuyler's apartment. By the time they pulled away,
there were five of them in the car. As they
cruised downhill through Star City, they weren't thinking about the curfew,

(17:54):
but Officer Mike Teats was on patrol and he noticed
the vehicle moving too quickly. He pulled them over. Star
City enforced a strict curfew ten p m for any
one under the age of eighteen. When Officer Teats checked Ideas,
he immediately knew what he was dealing with. The two
young men, Pancoast and Moats were released. They were legal adults,

(18:17):
the girls were not. Officer Teats drove Sheila, Rachel, and
Schuyler to the Star City police station. From there he
began making calls. Rachel and Sheila were prepared. They hadn't
given their mother's numbers. Rachel claimed her mother might become violent.
Sheila thought her father would be more lenient, so Officer
Teats called the fathers instead. Both men arrived quietly, collected

(18:41):
their daughters, and slipped them back into their homes. Neither
Tera Eddie Clendinen nor Patricia's chauff found out what had
happened that night. Skuyler didn't have the same option. Her
family didn't own a home phone. Mary and Dave Nice
didn't have cell phones. Only Skuyler did, and only for emergencies,
so Officer Teats drove her home himself. When he pulled

(19:03):
up outside the apartment, Mary and Dave were waiting, Skuyler
stepped out of the patrol car. Nearly hysterical. She was inconsolable,
not because of the scoldings she expected from her parents,
but because she believed Rachel was going to be beaten.
It's all my fault, she sobbed. She admitted she'd planned
the whole thing, that the joy ride had been her idea.

(19:25):
Her guilt was raw and immediate. Mary tried to cut
through the panic. She warned her daughter of what could
have happened, of what teenage boys were capable of. What
if they hurt you, she asked, What if they raped you,
killed you. Skuyler didn't argue, but her focus remained on Rachel.
Rachel's going to be in such trouble, she kept repeating,

(19:47):
over and over. It was a side of Skuyler her
parents hadn't seen before, this level of self reproach, this
fear for some one else's safety. It hit Mary and
Dave hard. She had already punished herself. That much was clear,
so they let it go. There was no grounding, no
confiscated phone, no restrictions, just a long talk and a
silent mutual decision that the lesson had been learned. The

(20:10):
Nieces believed Skuyler had internalized the risk that she'd come
through this shaken but smarter. What they didn't know, What
no one knew, was that this night, this one moment
of rule breaking, would later stand out as a kind
of turning point, not because it saved Skuyler from punishment,
but because it offered a rare, unfiltered glimpse into how

(20:31):
deeply she cared, how instinctively she blamed herself, and how
much power these friendships held over her. Friday, July sixth,
twenty twelve, For Dave and Mary Nice, the morning began

(20:51):
like any other, but by the end of the day
their world would be split into two parts. Before and
after Skuyler had worked her usual ship if at Wendy's
night before, she clocked out at ten, came home and
went through her routine, dropped her dirty uniform off for
Mary to wash, said good night to her father, Love you, Daddy,
as he dozed off on the couch. Then she went

(21:13):
into her bedroom and locked the door. It was nothing unusual.
Skyler was responsible, self sufficient. Fifteen going on twenty five.
The next afternoon, Dave knocked on her bedroom door. He
wanted her to drive him back to work. If Skyler
knew the car would be available, she never wasted time,
but this time there was no answer. He called her name.

(21:35):
Still nothing. His first thought was that maybe she'd gone
shopping with a friend. But then he paused. He remembered something,
something that didn't add up. Her door had been locked
from the inside. He retrieved a coat hanger from the
hallway closet. The locks in the apartment were old and
easy to pop. Within seconds, the door opened, the bed

(21:56):
was made, the room was empty. There was no note,
no sign of Skyler. Dave's unease deepened. He picked up
the phone and called Mary. She told him to stay calm.
Maybe Skyler had stepped out and accidentally locked the door
behind her, but Dave's instincts said otherwise. Something wasn't right.
He didn't wait. He took the day off from work,

(22:18):
telling his supervisor he had to find his daughter. He
stepped out onto the small balcony to smoke, hoping it
would help him think. That's when he noticed something, something
that made the bottom drop out of his stomach. A
small black vanity bench sat just beneath Skyler's bedroom window.
It was positioned carefully angled toward the wall. Dave walked

(22:39):
down to get a closer look. The screen was off,
the window, leaning against the building. The glass pane was open.
That's when it hit him. Oh my god, she snuck out.
He called Mary again. This time there was no calming
him down. She left work immediately, and the pieces started
falling into place. Mary remembered noticing bruises on Skyler's thighs recently.

(23:02):
She'd brushed them off at the time, but now it
was obvious Skyler had been climbing out the window. Dave
reached for the phone and called Sheila. If anyone knew
where Skyler was, it would be her. Sheila sounded casual.
She said she'd spoken to Skyler around midnight but hadn't
seen her since nothing out of the ordinary. By now
Mary was home too. They waited, hoping she'd come back,

(23:26):
that this would all turn out to be a misunderstanding.
Then Wendy's called, Skyler hadn't shown up for her shift.
Mary's voice shook. She told Dave to call nine one one.
Officer Bob McCauley arrived at the apartment at four forty
one pm. Soon after, Sheila called again, this time to
tell Mary the whole truth. She and Rachel had picked

(23:47):
Skyler up around eleven pm the night before for a
joy ride. They'd driven around for a bit and then
dropped her off near the end of the street around
eleven forty five, far enough from the building so Skyler
could sneak back in without waking her parents. The story
was plausible. Skyler had done it before. She was wilful,
independent and headstrong. Mary and Dave believed it, but Mary

(24:11):
wasn't satisfied. She asked their landlord, Jim Gaston, if they
could review the building's surveillance tapes. Gaston agreed, and soon
the group gathered Dave, Mary, Officer macauley, Sheila, and Sheila's
mother Tara. They fast forwarded through the early morning footage.
At twelve thirty one a m Skyler appeared. She moved

(24:31):
quickly across the parking lot toward a waiting vehicle. It
was grainy low res a blurry gray car. Skyler opened
the back door and climbed in. There was no struggle,
no hesitation. Whoever was inside, she knew them. Sheila looked
at the screen and said the car wasn't hers. Hers
was a silver Toyota Camry. She claimed she dropped Skyler

(24:52):
off before midnight. The theory formed quickly. Sheila and Rachel
dropped Skyler off. She must have snuck out again. Someone else,
someone in that second car, must have picked her up.
The Nieces clung to the idea that this was a
runaway situation. Maybe she was hiding out with friends, maybe
she was angry and needed time. But Dave couldn't shake

(25:14):
the dread. He said later that when he saw that footage,
the quick walk, the silent climb into the car, it
felt like he was watching his daughter disappear. The car
drove off into the dark, and Skyler Nie was gone.

(25:36):
Quick break ads keep the show running, but if you
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for just three bucks a month. Links in the show
notes and we're back. Thanks for sticking through that. Let's
get back to it. In the early days after Skyler

(25:57):
Nice disappeared, the search felt like a united front. Neighbors,
friends and strangers came forward. Volunteers combed sidewalks, wooded paths,
and creek beds. The hope was fragile, but it was
still alive. One of the first to offer support was
Sheila Eddie. On Saturday, July seventh, the day after Skuyler vanished,
Sheila and her mother, Tara Eddie Clendon and joined Mary

(26:18):
and Dave Nice to canvass the neighborhood. They printed fliers,
knocked on doors, walked the winding trail that ran along
the river, an old railway bed now used for jogging
and biking. Sheila clutched the posters as tightly as Tara
held Mary's hand. At times, Sheila broke down in tears,
hugging Mary like a sister. Tara promised they'd be back

(26:39):
the next day and the day after that. As long
as it took to Mary, it was comforting. The girls
had been inseparable for years. Seeing Sheila cry over her
missing friend, clutching a pillow in Scuyler's room, sobbing into
it like she belonged there, Mary didn't think. Twice. She
rubbed Sheila's arm and told her it would be okay.

(26:59):
She kept coming back. She asked questions, lots of them.
What are the police saying now? Did they find anything?
Any updates at all? And Mary answered she answered every time.
Unbeknownst to the Nieces, officer Jessica Colebank was beginning to
look at Sheila with different eyes. On July eighth, Officer
Bob McCauley handed off the case. Star City PD needed

(27:23):
someone full time in Colebank, who just returned from two
days off, took the file. The contents gave her pause.
The cell phone records were already in They showed a
tight web. Most of Skuyler's activity centered on just two names,
Rachel Chouff and Sheila Eddie. Colebank had a reputation. She
wasn't a detective by title, but she had the instincts

(27:44):
for it. She studied suspects, carefully, paid attention to voice,
to body language, to the cracks that formed when someone
told a lie twice. And Sheila's story from the beginning
didn't sit right. I found it hinky, she later said
to Colebank. This wasn't a runaway. Something was off, and
Sheila and Rachel were hiding it. Still, the search continued

(28:08):
On July tenth, Sheila went with her distant cousin Chrissie Swanson,
and another friend to put up more flyers in Fairview.
Chrissie had made dozens of copies. They stapled them to polls,
taped them to shop windows, covered the area in Schuyler's face.
They ran out of time before they ran out of flyers. Later,
Chrissie found the extras in her trunk and couldn't bring

(28:29):
herself to throw them away. But something strange began to happen.
The posters kept vanishing. At a grocery store in Saberton,
they were taken down repeatedly. The same thing happened at
a local beauty salon. Mary's sister Carol Michaud, had asked
a beautician to hang one up in the window. It
was taped at all four corners, but not long after

(28:50):
it was gone, the shop owner remembered something. That same day,
Sheila and Tara had come in. Tara was getting Sheila's
hair highlighted. Carol didn't know what to make of it.
Maybe Sheila took it down herself. Maybe Tara did it
trying to protect her daughter from the distress of seeing
her friend's face plastered everywhere, but the effect was the same.

(29:12):
Skyler's name was being erased. On July twelfth, Skuyler's cousin,
Ricky Woodhall, posted on Facebook. She didn't know Skyler personally,
she'd never met Mary or Dave, but she wanted to help.
She's a wild one, Ricky wrote, So we're hoping it's
just an extended teenage party break, but the thought of
it being something else is terrifying. It was well meant,

(29:36):
but inaccurate, and it reflected something deeper. How easy it
was to accept the version of Skyler she projected online,
not the girl who still carried childhood stuffed animals in
her backpack, who planned to become a lawyer, who adored
her dog Leelu and hated injustice. Her image had become
a shadow of herself, something edited, sharpened, distorted. On Friday,

(29:58):
July thirteenth, new lead came in. A girl matching Skyler's
description had been seen in Carolina Beach, North Carolina. She'd
been spotted walking the boardwalk with a red haired girl.
Mary and Dave didn't hesitate. Their car wasn't in the
best shape, but they were ready to risk it. Carol
Michaud stepped in. She offered her own vehicle. The drive

(30:19):
would take nearly nine hours, but if it meant finding Skyler,
if there was even a chance, it was worth it.
Officer Colbank didn't share their optimism. She'd seen Skyler's digital footprints.
The fighting between the three girls, Skyler, Sheila Rachel was unmistakable.
Even if Skyler had left on her own, the situation

(30:39):
was more complicated than it appeared. She called Rachel. Rachel
was at church camp. She claimed she didn't even know
Skyler was missing. The lead turned out to be false.
The girl in North Carolina was a runaway, but not Skyler.
When Mary and Dave returned home, the weight of it
all hit them like a collapse. Skyler's phone was still

(30:59):
at home, her charger untouched, her contact lenses, her beloved dog.
She hadn't planned to be gone for long. Mary said
it out loud for the first time on Sunday, July fifteenth.
I don't think we're getting her back. Carol felt it too.
It was as if something had settled, cold and silent
in all of them, a feeling they couldn't shake, a

(31:21):
certainty they didn't want to name. It had been nearly
two weeks since Skuyler niece vanished through her bedroom window
into the quiet West Virginia night. Her parents had plastered
her photo across town, hoping some one had seen her,
hoping she had simply run off for a few days
and would come walking back through the front door. But

(31:44):
Officer Jessica Colebank, now lead investigator on the case, wasn't hopeful.
She didn't believe the neat rehearsed version of events being
handed to her, and she especially didn't believe Sheila Eddie.
From the beginning, Coalbank had sensed something was wrong. The
story Sheila told didn't hold together under even mild scrutiny.

(32:04):
The details were too tidy, the timeline too convenient, The
tone of her voice detached, emotionally hollow. Now it was
time to speak to Rachel Chauff, the other girl who,
according to Sheila, had been with Skuyler the night she disappeared.
That interview took place on Thursday, July nineteenth. By this point,
Rachel had been home from church camp for several days.

(32:27):
She had promised to visit the station to give her account.
She never showed, so Coalbank, accompanied by FBI special agent Morgan,
Spurlock decided to go to her directly. They arrived at
the Chauf Residence, a modest, split level home in Morgantown.
They were let inside by a neighbor, Kim Keener, after
Rachel's mother, Patricia Chauff, was reached by phone and gave

(32:50):
permission for the interview to proceed. Inside the house, the
setting was casual, but the tension was palpable. Rachel sat
in the upstairs living room, cross from Officer Coalbank on
the couch, while agent Spurlock took a nearby chair. Several others,
Rachel's boyfriend Mackinsei Bogg's, Patricia's friend Kelly Kerns, and neighbor

(33:11):
Kim Keener were present in the house. They eventually stepped downstairs,
giving the group some space but not complete privacy. Rachel's
demeanor during the interview didn't exactly match that of a
panicked or distraught teenager. She wasn't trembling, she wasn't crying,
She wasn't begging for her friend to be found. Instead,

(33:32):
she looked irritated. She doodled absent mindedly on a notepad
with a pencil. She avoided eye contact. She seemed bothered
by the fact that she had to answer the same
questions she had already discussed with others, particularly Sheila, And
yet that's precisely what raised red flags. When asked to
recount what happened the night Skuylard disappeared, Rachel offered the

(33:55):
same story Sheila had already told, almost word for word.
According to her, she and Sheila had picked up Skuyler
around eleven p m. On the night of July fifth.
The three girls had gone out for a ride, smoked
a little weed, talked, drove around for a bit, and
then some time around eleven forty five p m. Skuyler

(34:15):
became angry for reasons Rachel couldn't clearly explain. Rachel said
that Skuyler demanded to be led out, not in front
of her building, but at the end of the street
on University Avenue, away from where her parents might hear
the car pull up. That was the last time Rachel
said that they saw her. She claimed she wasn't sure

(34:36):
exactly where they'd driven during the ride. She said she
had been pretty messed up, that she hadn't been paying
attention to the roads. She recalled maybe being on Pattison Drive,
but emphasized they stuck to side streets to avoid police.
That detail struck Coalbank as implausible. Pattison Drive was one
of the busiest roads in the area. If they were

(34:58):
trying to avoid attention, they wouldn't have taken that route,
and Rachel's inability to name a single street beyond that
felt to Coalbank like deliberate deflection, especially when Rachel quickly
added that Sheila was the driver so she would know better.
Coalbank had seen this pattern before. People who lie often
try to stall. They answer questions with questions, they dodge specifics,

(35:22):
they redirect, and they do it with rehearsed certainty that
begins to unravel when pressure is applied. Rachel's tone, her
body language, and her vague account all fell into that pattern. Worse,
she had already given Coalbank a reason to doubt her
just days earlier, when Coalbank tried contacting Rachel at church camp,
Rachel claimed she didn't even know Skuyler was missing. For

(35:44):
a girl supposedly so close to Skyler part of a
trio that had once seemed inseparable, that excuse didn't add
up when Coalbank asked if she'd seen or heard anything
Rachel brushed it off and suggested she call Sheila instead.
She said Sheila was closer to Skyla than she was.
Another red flag. During the interview, Special Agent Spurlock pulled

(36:06):
out a map of Star City in hopes that visual
cues might help Rachel piece together where they had driven
that night. He told her plainly that no one cared
about the marijuana. What they cared about was Skuyler. Rachel
gave little in return. Downstairs, Rachel's boyfriend Mackenzie listened to
parts of the conversation and seemed confused. Afterward, he told

(36:28):
Kim Keener that the story he'd always heard was that
Skuyler was dropped off by eleven forty five pm home safe.
What Rachel was saying now didn't exactly contradict that, but
it had shifted in tone. There were new details, subtle changes, hesitations. Keener,
for her part, didn't hold back. She said what no

(36:48):
one else was yet willing to say out loud. You
don't sneak out and get back home at eleven forty five.
She told McKenzie, you sneak out at eleven forty five. Rachel,
according to those watching her that day, seemed to be unraveling,
not all at once, but slowly. She wasn't just repeating
a story, she was trying to maintain one. For Colbank,

(37:09):
the interview confirmed what she had suspected from the start.
Rachel wasn't telling the truth. Neither was Sheila. Both girls
were lying. Colbank couldn't prove it yet, but she could
feel it in the way Rachel spoke, in the inconsistencies,
in the rigid timeline that didn't account for real life.
In the absence of grief or confusion, there was no

(37:30):
genuine panic, no emotion that matched the magnitude of what
had supposedly happened to their best friend. What stood out
most wasn't what Rachel said, but what she didn't say.
There was something hollow in her tone, a trace of shame,
and beneath that fear, not the kind of fear that
comes from being in trouble, the kind that comes from

(37:51):
knowing something, something awful. When the interview ended, Officer Colbank
left the Chauff home with more questions than answers, but
with one so certainty in mind. The truth wouldn't come willingly.
She would need phone records, she would need data. She
would need to trace their movements, message by message, location

(38:11):
by location, because whatever happened to skuyler Nie that night,
Rachel and Sheila were at the center of it, and
they weren't talking. Not yet. By late summer twenty twelve,
the search for skyler Nie had stretched into its second month.

(38:34):
The flyers were still up around Morgantown, some torn, some faded,
many quietly removed. Her parents hadn't given up, but they
were growing more exhausted by the day. Leeds trickled in
few with any substance. Rumors churned through school hallways and
social media feeds. Officer Jessica Colbank remained convinced that Sheila

(38:54):
and Rachel weren't telling the truth, but she wasn't the
only one watching closely anymore. On July sixteenth, twenty twelve,
the investigation into Skuyler's disappearance took on a new layer
when Corporal Ronnie Gaskins and Senior Trooper Chris Berry from
the West Virginia State Police became involved. At first, they

(39:15):
weren't even focused on Skuyler's case. Trooper Barry had been
transferred to Morgantown to investigate a string of bank robberies,
not missing persons, but the second robbery of the Huntington
National Bank in Blacksville that day brought them into a
larger network of local criminal activity and unexpectedly into Skuyler's orbit. Gaskins,

(39:37):
the more senior of the two, began to wonder if
the two cases were connected. It sounded far fetched at first,
but in law enforcement, coincidences are always worth testing. What if,
he asked, Barry Skyler had found out something she shouldn't have.
What if she had seen something, knew something about the robberies,
and what if someone had silenced her to keep it hidden.

(39:59):
On July Buly nineteen, during a routine interview with a
suspect in the bank robberies, Derreck Conaway, Gaskins cracked a
joke that changed the course of the case. He asked,
casually whether Derreck had been trying to hide a dead body.
The reaction that followed was anything but casual. Derek froze,
his eyes widened, his pulse quickened, He became visibly shaken.

(40:22):
It wasn't just nerves, Gaskins noted, It was panic enough
to raise suspicions that something larger might be going on.
Back at his residence, the troopers recovered a revolver that
closely resembled the one used in the robberies. Derek was
clearly still on the hook for those crimes, but to
Gaskins and Barry, it was now impossible to rule out
some connection to Skuyler. That shift in perspective brought them

(40:45):
into Skuyler's case in earnest. By August twenty seventh, they
began working more directly with the Nieces. Gaskins and Barry
visited Mary and Dave Nice at home, hoping to piece
together what the girl's closest to Skuyler were either unable
or unwilling to tell. They were shown Skyler's diary, a
collection of handwritten thoughts, hopes, worries, and frustrations. Trooper Barry

(41:10):
later said that reading it made Skuyler come alive. In
his mind. She stopped being just a photo on a
missing person flyer. She became a person, a daughter, a friend,
a girl with dreams. He became personally invested. From that
moment forward, it was while reviewing the case materials alongside
Officer Coalbank and FBI special Agent Morgan Spurlock, that they

(41:32):
finally uncovered something concrete. They went back to the surveillance
footage from Skuyler's apartment complex. Shila and Rachel had both
claimed that they picked Skyler up around eleven pm on
July fifth, and dropped her off again around eleven forty
five pm. It was the same story, repeated verbatim in
both of their interviews, but the camera didn't agree. On

(41:56):
the tape, time stamped twelve thirty one a m. On
July six, Skuyler could be seen leaving her bedroom window.
She moved quickly across the parking lot, climbed into the
back seat of a blurt out gray sedan, and shut
the door behind her. There was no earlier footage showing
a car pulling in at eleven p m, no sign
of an earlier drop off at eleven forty five. That

(42:19):
meant one thing. Sheila and Rachel had lied. The car
they claimed not to recognize was Sheila's, a silver Toyota Camry,
the exact make and model Sheila drove. Once Barry caught
the detail, he walked Gascons through it. Gaskins didn't hesitate,
he agreed. The realization hit hard. The girls are definitely lying,

(42:41):
Barry said. It was a turning point described later as
a major crack in the stone wall the girls had
built around their version of the truth. But that wall
was about to collapse from another direction. Entirely that same winter,
Rachel's chauff began to unravel. Her emotional decline had started
months earlier, not long after Skuylar disappeared. Friends and school

(43:03):
staff had noticed. She cried constantly. Her grades slipped, She
used marijuana heavily at home. She picked fights at school.
She withdrew. It became harder to pretend she was just
getting on with her life, and by the end of
December twenty twelve, her behavior turned violent. On the evening
of December twenty eighth, Rachel exploded. It happened at her

(43:25):
family's home. Her mother, Patricia, said something that triggered her,
something ordinary but enough to light the fuse. Rachel snapped.
She screamed at her parents in the driveway, you're ruining
my life, then hit Patricia in the face hard enough
to leave a bruise. She hurled a candelabra at the
wall and stormed upstairs, Barricading herself in her room behind

(43:49):
the locked door. She kicked holes in the wood and
shoved a dresser against it. Then she screamed something that
no parent can ignore. I'm gonna kill myself. Overheard the
threats and called nine one one. When the state troopers arrived,
they found Rachel back downstairs, exhausted, trembling, sitting on the couch.

(44:09):
Her parents were shaken, both slightly injured in the chaos. Patricia,
initially furious in asking for Rachel to be arrested, was
advised by the troopers to consider a different path. They
recommended a mental hygiene hearing, a legal process that would
allow her to be evaluated and treated. The Chaffs agreed.

(44:29):
That night, Rachel was taken to Chestnut Ridge Center, a
psychiatric hospital in Morgantown. She would stay there for five days,
receiving care and evaluation. During that time, Sheila Eddy tried
several times to visit her, but security turned her away
each time. Patricia had made it clear only family would
be allowed in whatever hold Sheila once had over Rachel, emotional, social,

(44:54):
or otherwise, was starting to crack. Even Sheila could feel it.
Rachel was at her breaking point, and in just over
a week, she would do the unthinkable. Quick break ads
keep the show running, but if you want to skip them.

(45:15):
The ad free versions on Patreon for just three bucks
a month. Links in the show notes and we're back.
Thanks for sticking through that. Let's get back to it.
By the start of December twenty twelve, Corporal Ronnie Gaskins
believed the investigation was closing in. On December first, both

(45:38):
Sheila Eddie and Rachel Chauff were interviewed separately. It was
during these interviews that Gaskins noticed a critical inconsistency. Rachel
had changed her story. She no longer claimed they'd dropped
Skyler off at the end of her street. This time,
she said they took her to the Conaway House, a
property in Blacksville. It was a small but significant shit,

(46:00):
one that Sheila hadn't been warned about. Later that day,
Shila contacted her attorney, apparently panicked, and attempted to adjust
her own version of events. She now claimed they'd dropped
Skyler off at a house in Blacksville as well, but
it didn't match Rachel's version. For Gaskins, that was confirmation
Rachel had altered the story without looping Sheila in, and

(46:23):
Sheila trying to catch up had only revealed how deeply
their narratives were unraveling. It was the moment Gaskins quietly
moved both girls from persons of interest to official suspects,
and yet the case remained open without definitive proof of
what had happened to Skuyler. That changed in early January
twenty thirteen. On January third, just five days after being

(46:47):
released from Chestnut Ridge, Rachel Chauf met with her attorney
John and Gotti, FBI special agent Rob Ambrosini, and Corporal
Ronnie Gaskins. What began as another routine inquiry about skyler
disappearance turned into the most pivotal moment in the investigation.
Gaskins and Ambersini began by gently revisiting old questions. Was

(47:09):
there an accident, an overdose? Had something gone wrong that
the girls were too afraid to admit. Rachel didn't stall
this time. She looked at the men in the room
and set it out loud. We stabbed her, she added, Shila,
and I we stabbed Skuyler. The room went silent. Gaskins
later said he had braced himself for this possibility, but

(47:31):
hearing it out loud was still surreal. Rachel explained that
the three of them had driven out to a remote spot.
There was no argument. There was no confrontation. The act,
she claimed was planned. When asked why why she and
Sheila had done this, Rachel didn't offer justification. She didn't
try to soften it. Her only explanation was, we just

(47:52):
didn't like her. The confession was chilling in its flatness.
Rachel showed them a three inch scar on her ankle,
playing that Skyler had grabbed at her leg during the struggle,
clawing at Rachel's knife in a desperate attempt to survive.
The scar was a small but crucial detail corroboration, and
it marked the turning point in the case. In exchange

(48:14):
for a plea deal, Rachel agreed to lead authorities to
Skuyler's body. The first attempt came the very same day,
January third, but thick snow covered the hills and back roads.
Rachel tried to retrace her steps, but couldn't locate the
exact spot. The landscape had changed. It had been almost
six months since the murder. The cold made everything look different,

(48:36):
but by January sixteen, after the snow had melted, the
search resumed. Gaskins and an FBI cadaver dog team arrived
at the GPS coordinates. Rachel had provided. They began walking
along a gravel road off a desolate stretch about twenty
miles from Skuyler's home. The cadaver dog trained to detect
human remains beneath the surface alerted. Within minutes, under a

(48:59):
mound of rock, tree branches, and tangled brush, investigators found
the remains of a body. The first items gascons recognized
were pieces of clothing, a yellow print shirt and a
pair of green shorts, stained and weathered, but matching exactly
what Skyler had been wearing the night she disappeared. The
clothing had degraded from months of exposure, but the sight

(49:22):
of them was unmistakable. Then came the detail that struck
every one at the scene. Cold Skuyler's head was missing.
They would later confirm that animals had scattered parts of
her remains in the months since the killing, but in
that moment, the scene was haunting. The violence of what
had happened, the casual cruelty of it, was finally visible.

(49:44):
Two months later, on March thirteenth, twenty thirteen, the U. S.
Attorney's Office made it official the body found in the
woods had been positively identified as skuylar niece Based on
DNA evidence processed by the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia,
and even then there was more. On March twenty nine,

(50:04):
Gaskins returned to the crime scene with First Sergeant Chad Tierney.
They scanned the area again, hoping to find what was
still missing. Within minutes, Gaskins spotted something pale catching the light.
It was Skuyler's skull, lying just feet from where the
rest of her remains had been discovered. It hadn't been buried,
it had simply been missed. Gaskins would later say that

(50:26):
finding it was strangely easy, and that fact disturbed him
more than he could explain. The full truth was finally surfacing.
Rachel had confessed Skuyler's body had been found. The forensic
evidence aligned, but one question still lingered, and it would
follow the case long after the legal process played out. Why.

(50:51):
At first they were nearly inseparable. Skuyler, Niee Sheila Eddy,
and Rachel Chauff had formed what seemed like a tight
knit trio, a typical teenage friendship marked by inside jokes,
shared secrets, and constant texting. But over time, what began
as closeness turned into conflict as the school year progressed,
their dynamics shifted. According to those who knew them, the

(51:13):
friendship began to unravel under the weight of tension, jealousy,
and hostility. What had once been a bond now bred
mistrust and isolation. Early signs of the fracture began appearing.
By late summer of twenty eleven, Skuyler and Sheila in
particular had started arguing regularly, with many of these disputes
spilling over into public view on social media. The fights

(51:35):
were often cryptic to outsiders but deeply personal to the
girls involved. Friends noticed a marked increase in emotional instability,
crying spells, impulsive behavior, and self harm. Marijuana use also
intensified during this period, and the girls were reprimanded on
more than one occasion by school officials. A particularly troubling

(51:57):
moment occurred during a sleepover in August twenty eleven, held
at Rachel's home. All three girls had been drinking vodka
at some point that night. While Skuyler was still in
the room, Sheila and Rachel engaged in sexual activity. According
to later accounts, Skyler was trapped, unable to leave the bedroom,
and the situation quickly escalated into a loud, volatile argument.

(52:21):
The noise was so disruptive that Rachel's mother had to intervene.
In the aftermath, Skyler wrote about what she had witnessed
in her diary. She expressed discomfort, particularly about Sheila's shifting
attention toward Rachel. For Skuyler, it was yet another indication
that she was being left out, sidelined in a friendship
that had once made her feel important. Over the following months,

(52:45):
the sense of exclusion deepened. Skyler began describing herself as
a third wheel. Friends like Amaret Hughes noticed that Skuyler
seemed more withdrawn, frequently expressing frustration about being ignored or mocked.
Rachel and she La at times would wear matching outfits.
They shared their own inside jokes. Skuyler's temper grew shorter,

(53:07):
her tweets became more aggressive. One read yet another reason
to fucking hate you. You're really starting to push it, Hashould,
I dare you to give me one more. Friends like
Daniel Havadar would later recall hearing really nasty fights between
Sheila and Skuyler, with Rachel often caught in the middle,
rarely intervening. By the fall of sophomore year, the tension

(53:29):
wasn't just social, it was drifting into something more disturbing.
During one of their biology classes, Sheila casually turned to
a classmate and asked, Hey, do you know how to
dispose of a body? Rachel, sitting beside her, reportedly leaned
over and whispered ssh, no names. Not long after, Sheila
turned her attention to the teacher and asked, seemingly out

(53:51):
of nowhere, what kind of acid could dissolve a human body?
According to Rachel's later confession, this was when the idea
of killing Skyler first immerged. Urged not as a concrete plan,
but as a concept, something theoretical, A disturbing what if
that both girls entertained more seriously than they admitted at
the time. Skyler was not unaware of the shift in tone.

(54:14):
She had been told by Nick Tamaski that Sheila and
Rachel were making violent jokes about her. When confronted, the
girls framed it as a game, just playing would you
rather and making dark jokes about death. Skyler tried to
laugh it off, but her social media post told a
different story. On September sixth, twenty eleven, she tweeted, I'd

(54:35):
tell the whole school all the shit I have on everyone,
which is a lot. Hashtag if I could get away
with it. That line, cryptic and charged, was interpreted later
as a warning. Skyler, who had seen and heard more
than most of her classmates realized, was signaling that she
could expose secrets. Those who knew her believe this tweet
was directed specifically at Sheila and Rachel, particularly regarding the

(55:00):
incident at the sleepover and the growing sexual tension between
the two. By spring of twenty twelve, the idea of
murder no longer seemed like a joke, at least not
to Rachel. She confided in classmate Wendy Evans that she
couldn't stand Skyler and believed Skuyler would blackmail us and
tell all our secrets if we stopped being friends with her.

(55:22):
At the end of the conversation, Rachel said quietly, at
this point, I wouldn't mind if she died. The final
shift occurred in June twenty twelve, during a family beach vacation.
Skyler had joined Sheila's family for their annual trip, and
by all accounts, the tension between the girls reached a

(55:42):
breaking point during those few days. The exact nature of
the conflict has never been confirmed, though it's been speculated
that a sexual advance was made and rejected, triggering the fallout.
What is known is that when they returned to Morgantown,
Sheila told Rachel flatly, Skyler has to die. From that
moment on, the plan was no longer theoretical. Sheila and

(56:05):
Rachel began researching methods. They debated whether to shoot her,
stab her, or dispose of her in some other way.
They looked up techniques for severing the jugular vein, believing
it would bring a quick death. They talked about acid
baths and feeding the body to pigs before settling on
a spot they both knew well, a secluded patch of

(56:26):
land behind Sheila's father's property in Brave, Pennsylvania, where they
had often gone to smoke marijuana. It was familiar, private
and remote. They chose knives because neither girl knew how
to use a gun. Rachel stole a shovel from her
father's house and placed it in the trunk of the car.
Sheila brought two kitchen knives, hiding them under her hoodie.

(56:48):
They packed a makeshift clean up kit, bleach, handy wipes, paper,
towels and clean clothes in case something went wrong. By
the end of June, the plan was fully in motion.
The argument, the resentment, the sense of betrayal, it had
all curdled into something irreversible. All that remained was for
them to choose a night, and for Skuyler to say yes.

(57:17):
July sixth, twenty twelve, Skuyler Niece agreed to go out
with Sheila Eddie and Rachel Chauff that night, under the
impression it would be like so many of their past
late night drives, just the three of them, smoking, laughing
and venting about whatever was weighing on them. Her original
plans had changed. The church camp she was set to

(57:38):
attend had been postponed due to a violent durecho that
had passed through the region. With the weather cleared and
a free night ahead, Skyler saw an opportunity to unwind
before Rachel left town again. She spent the evening texting
with friends, including Eric Finch, unaware of what was waiting
for her just beyond the city limits. That night, she

(57:59):
also appeared to be up to set with one of
the girls. At ten forty eight pm, she posted a
vague but pointed message on Twitter. You doing shit like
that is why I will never completely trust you. No
one knew at the time how deeply that line would
resonate in hindsight. At twelve thirty one, A m. Skuyler

(58:19):
climbed out of her bedroom window and quietly moved a
small vanity bench she used to help lower herself from
the sill. She stashed it around the corner of the
apartment building and then walked toward the waiting silver Toyota
Camry parked just out of view. There was no hesitation
in her step, no indication of alarm. She got into

(58:40):
the back seat without incident. It was Sheila's car, and
the people inside weren't strangers. The three girls set off
into the early morning darkness. As they left the city limits,
a state police cruiser briefly appeared on the road ahead,
Knowing they were under age and carrying marijuana. Sheila turned
the car around, taking a different route to avoid being seen.

(59:03):
They joked and laughed outwardly calm, but inside, two of
them already knew how the night would end. As one
later put it, their thoughts in that moment were chillingly
in sink. You have no idea Skyler, no idea at all.
They headed north on I seventy nine, took the Mount
Morris exit, and drove west on Route seven toward Blacksville.

(59:23):
From there, they turned onto Morris Run Road, a narrow
rural stretch that cut through woods and hills still scarred
from the recent storm. It was a place all three
knew well. They had smoked there before, Skuyler had no
reason to feel uneasy. Sheila eventually pulled over about a
mile south of her father's house. It was late and
the road was quiet, the kind of silence that isolates,

(59:47):
the kind of place where no one would hear what
was about to happen. In the trunk, they had brought
everything they believed they would need. Bleach, paper, towels, clean clothes,
a trash bag, and weapons. Two kitchen knives hidden under
Sheila's and Rachel's hoodies. They stepped out of the car together,
heading a short distance down the road. According to later testimony,

(01:00:10):
Sheila pulled out a joint, pretending to light it, but
her lighter wasn't working. Skuyler turned back to the car
to get her own. That moment, when her back was
turned was the agreed upon signal. Rachel began a quiet countdown, one, two, three.
On that third beat, both girls attacked. Skyler was struck

(01:00:30):
from behind. Confused and wounded, she stumbled and tried to flee,
but Rachel tackled her in the middle of the road.
She fought hard. Skyler was small, but physically strong and
not easily overpowered. In the chaos, she managed to grab
Rachel's knife, slicing open Rachel's ankle in the process. Despite
her resistance, Skyler was overwhelmed. The stabbing intensified the attackers

(01:00:53):
became more frantic. Rachel and Sheila continued to strike, their
efforts described by prosecutors as increasingly savage. It was clear
from the nature of the wounds thirty to fifty stab
wounds in total, that the killing was personal. Prosecutors later
referred to it as overkill. Skuyler, bleeding and fading, cried
out the only question that ever mattered, why. No answer came.

(01:01:18):
As her strength drained away, Skuyler stopped moving. Eventually she
stopped breathing. The girls watched her die. During the frenzy,
both Sheila and Rachel accidentally pocket dialed people. Sheila called
her own voicemail and Rachel unknowingly dialed the next boyfriend.
Neither call resulted in contact, but the accidental dials would

(01:01:39):
later serve as quiet reminders of how frantic and disorganized
the murder truly was. Beneath its planned exterior. With Skyler dead,
Sheila and Rachel dragged her body off the road and
toward a shallow area near a creek, trying to dig
a grave, but the ground was too hard, the soil
rocky and uncooperative. After several failed attempt heaps, they gave up. Instead,

(01:02:02):
they pulled debris, branches, leaves, loose stones over her body,
covering her as best they could. They stripped out of
their bloody clothes and used the wipes and paper towels
to clean themselves they had prepared for this. They each
had a spare set of clothes, everything else the knives,
Skuyler's purse, and iPod, the used cleaning supplies, and the

(01:02:24):
shovel was stuffed into trash bags. According to Rachel's later account,
Sheila took care of the disposal. She claimed not to
know where anything ended up. Investigators would later learn that
Officer Jessica Coalbank suspected the girls had celebrated after the murder,
possibly by having sex, a disturbing detail that pointed to

(01:02:44):
the bond they believed had been solidified through killing. The
entire sequence, from the drive to the attack, to the
cover up and the clean up, took just over three hours.
By dawn, skuyler Nie was gone, her body was hidden,
and her two killers were back in more Town, returning
to the routines of teenage life, texting, tweeting, smiling, lying

(01:03:06):
The plan had worked for now. Quick break ads keep
the show running, but if you want to skip them,
the ad free versions on Patreon for just three bucks
a month, links in the show notes and we're back.

(01:03:27):
Thanks for sticking through that. Let's get back to it.
The discovery of schuyler niece's remains brought with it a
complex and painful form of resolution for her parents, Mary
and Dave Nice. While the confirmation of their daughter's death
marked the end of the long period of uncertainty, it

(01:03:47):
did not soften the devastation. It only reinforced what they
had feared all along. In February twenty thirteen, weeks before
any public announcement had been made, Mary privately shared the
news of Skuyler's confirmed death with two of Skyler's closest friends,
Daniel Hovader and Hayden macleed she didn't want them to

(01:04:08):
hear it from a press release. The news became public
during a candlelight vigil held on February ten, twenty thirteen,
what would have been Skuyler's seventeenth birthday. Monngalia County Commissioner
Tom Bloom quietly pulled Dave nie aside during the gathering.
He informed him that Skuyler's body had been found and

(01:04:29):
that Rachel Chauff had confessed to her murder. Dave, stunned
but composed, passed the information along to people who had
spent months helping the family search supporters, like Tammy Henry
and Becky Benson Bailey, so they could finally put down
their flyers and stop looking. The tragedy was far from over.
Despite the confession and identification of Skuyler's remains, the Green

(01:04:53):
County Coroner, Gregory Rohanna, refused to release the body to
her family. Rohanna claimed that further invents instigation was needed
and that the FBI still had custody of the remains.
His refusal sparked public backlash. Mary and Dave, exhausted and grieving,
began organizing a picket in front of the Coroner's office.

(01:05:13):
That protest never happened. Rohanna eventually relented, agreeing to release
Schuyler's body back to West Virginia, but the damage was done.
The nieces were not only mourning the loss of their daughter,
they were being forced to fight for her even in death.
On the morning of May one, twenty thirteen, Rachel Chauff
turned herself in to Montingalia County Circuit Court, having been

(01:05:37):
transferred to adult status. She formally pleaded guilty to second
degree murder. Until sentencing, she was held at the Northern
Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Wheeling, West Virginia. Her sentencing
took place on February twenty six, twenty fourteen. Judge Russell
Clodge's junior handed down a thirty year sentence with eligibility

(01:05:58):
for parole after ten year years. Rachel stood in court
and addressed the niece family directly. She said, I am
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 for
what I've done. Her attorney emphasized that Rachel had shown
genuine remorse and prayed daily for forgiveness from the Nieces,

(01:06:22):
from her own family, and from the community at large.
In contrast, Sheila Eddy maintained her innocence for almost nine
months following Rachel's confession, even after failing two polygraph tests.
In December twenty twelve, she refused to admit any role
in Schuyler's death. Sheila was arrested later the same day.
Rachel entered her plea May one, twenty thirteen, in the

(01:06:46):
parking lot of a cracker barrel. Corporal Ronnie Gaskins, Agent
Morgan Spurlock, and Trooper Chad Tierney took her into custody
without incident. On September fourth, twenty thirteen, Judge Claudge's transfer
inferred Sheila's case from juvenile to adult court. That ruling
allowed her name to be released publicly for the first time.

(01:07:07):
Later that month, a grand jury indicted Sheila on four
felony charges, first degree murder, kidnapping, and two counts of
conspiracy to commit kidnapping and murder. At her arraignment on
September seventeen, Sheila entered a plea of not guilty to
all charges, but on January twenty fourth, twenty fourteen, Sheila

(01:07:27):
changed course. In a surprise courtroom development, she pleaded guilty
to first degree murder. The plea carried a sentence of
life in prison with mercy, making her eligible for parole
after fifteen years. She was transferred to Lake In Correctional
Facility for Women on January twenty nine. Unlike Rachel, Sheila
offered no apology and expressed no remorse. Her attorney read

(01:07:51):
a prepared statement acknowledging the niece's pain, but Sheila remained silent.
The lack of contrition was noted by the judge and
would be remembered by the parole board. The case attracted
national attention, and the public's interest did not stop at sentencing.
In an episode of the podcast three titled Why Why Why,

(01:08:12):
hosts Justine Harmon and Holly Miller interviewed Stormy Wilson, a
former inmate who had served time at Laken Correctional Center
alongside both girls. Laken, nicknamed Camp Cupcake after Martha Stewart's
more famous stint at Alderson, is often criticized for its
relatively comfortable conditions. Wilson noted that inmates have access to music,

(01:08:34):
video games, and tablets, and are able to stay in
near constant communication with the outside world. Sheila and Rachel,
serving time for one of the most high profile murders
in West Virginia's history, quickly became Laken's most recognizable inmates.
According to Wilson, both received stacks and stacks of fan mail,

(01:08:55):
with enough outside support that they would never be without
even if their families were no longer in Wilson described
Sheila as someone who thrives in prison. Popular among other inmates.
Sheila had formed what Wilson called her own little colony,
adding she's like the queen aunt. Rachel's experience behind bars

(01:09:15):
appeared markedly different. Wilson said, I don't think she's going
to survive anywhere. Despite the nature of their crimes, both
girls found opportunities within the system. Each earned a culinary degree.
Rachel additionally obtained a cosmetology license, organized prayer groups, led
the choir, and participated in holiday plays. She even married

(01:09:37):
another inmate, a woman named Amy, after Amy's release, though
the marriage ended in divorce by twenty twenty two. At
her twenty twenty three parole hearing, Rachel Schoff acknowledged publicly
and under oath for the first time that she and
Sheila killed Schuyler to protect a secret. The two were
in a sexual relationship and feared being outed. Dave Nice

(01:10:00):
attended the hearing and repeated what he had expressed many
times before. Skuyler was denied every life experience because of
two people who had once called themselves her best friends.
He told the board, because of the malicious monster, my
child will never get a limo ride to her prom. Instead,
she got a ride in a corner's vehicle. There was

(01:10:21):
no sparkling gown for Skuyler, just a body bag. She
will never have a certificate of graduation, only a death certificate.
Because of this inmate's actions, the board denied Rachel Schauff's
request for parole. She had been written up for a
disciplinary infraction since her last hearing, and she still lacked
a post release housing plan, both key factors in the

(01:10:43):
board's decision. She was told to return for a new
hearing no sooner than June twenty twenty five, and was
advised to maintain a clean record if she hoped to
be reconsidered. According to the West Virginia Division of Corrections
and Rehabilitation, Rachel's rejected release date is April thirtieth, twenty
twenty eight. Sheila Eddie, serving life with Mercy, will have

(01:11:07):
her first parole eligibility hearing after May one, twenty twenty eight.
Whether she will show any remorse by then or whether
it will matter, remains to be seen. For Mary and Dave,

(01:11:30):
Nice life fractured permanently. The day Skyler disappeared marked the
end of the future they had imagined with their daughter.
On July third, twenty thirteen, almost exactly one year after
Skyler went missing, Mary, Dave, and Skuyler's aunt Carol, were
brought to the Morgantown State Police Detachment. Skyler's remains were
returned to them in a sealed bag. Officers recommended they

(01:11:53):
not open it. They sat with it quietly, talking to Skyler,
telling her they loved her, that her friends missed her.
Dave kissed both ends of the bag and tried to
make her smile the way he always had. Well, hell,
I can't tell which end is which. The betrayal they
felt was total. Their daughter's killers weren't strangers. They were

(01:12:14):
girls who had slept over, shared meals, called themselves friends.
The trust that had once existed between families between young
people was gone, and while some of the community mourned
with them, others turned on them, spreading rumors accusing them
online of hiding information or being involved. The pain, already unbearable,

(01:12:35):
was made worse by the cruelty of strangers. The family
chose cremation. Skuyler's ashes were placed in an urn with
her last school portrait. A memorial was held on July twentieth,
twenty thirteen. Over a thousand people came. Many wore purple,
Skuyler's favorite color. At the end of the service, Dave
Nie spoke the last words his daughter would ever hear

(01:12:56):
from him, no one can ever hurt you again. Baby.
In the years since, Mary and Dave have remained quiet
but persistent. Their work helped pass Schuyler's Law, legislation that
changed how authorities respond when a child disappears in West Virginia.
It's since been used as a reference by lawmakers in
other states. The shock didn't stop with the Nice family.

(01:13:20):
Friends like Daniel Hoveader, Hayden Maclydd, and shaniah Ammons were devastated.
Many had sensed that something was wrong, but the truth
that Sheila and Rachel had planned Schuyler's murder, carried it
out together, and then lied to everyone for months, left
them reeling. At University high school, administrators issued a directive

(01:13:41):
that students were not to discuss the case on campus.
Some felt that policy helped maintain order. Others believed it
suppressed the very conversations that could have led to the
truth sooner. The silence for many became another wound. Those
closest to the investigation, officer Jessica Colbank, Corporal Ronnie Gaskins,
Trooper Chris Berry, and FBI agent Rob Ambrosini worked for

(01:14:05):
months without knowing if the case would ever break. Each
felt a personal connection to Skuyler. Each carried something of
the case with them after it was over. Colbank, in particular,
remained angry at how quickly people had dismissed the possibility
that two teenage girls could commit such a crime. People
didn't want to believe it, she said. They thought pretty

(01:14:25):
girls couldn't be capable of something so brutal. FBI profiler
Ken Lanning described it as a convergence of factors that
adults struggled to make sense of. Emotional immaturity, impulsivity, cruelty,
Some investigators believed it was a thrill kill. Others believed
it was fear turned homicidal. There's no way to measure

(01:14:46):
how much was lost on the night of July sixth,
twenty twelve. The girl who fought for her life in
the middle of a dark Pennsylvania road was kind, loyal, smart,
and quick to laugh. She was sixteen. Murder did not
happen in an alleyway or at the hands of a stranger.
It happened in the back seat of a car driven
by her best friend. Skuyler's story is remembered today not

(01:15:09):
only for the brutality of what happened, but for how
it unfolded quietly, deceptively, and so close to home. Her
death left behind more than sorrow. It changed how law
enforcement approaches missing teens. It forced a reevaluation of the
idea that danger comes from strangers, and it reminded many
that the face of evil doesn't always look like a threat.

(01:15:32):
Skuyler Nie was born on February tenth, nineteen ninety six.
She died on July sixth, twenty twelve. The exact time
of death was never determined, but the pain left behind
continues to mark every hour since the people who loved
her still remember, still fight, still grieve, and always will.

(01:16:03):
For more information on this case, Night Watch Files would
like to recommend Pretty Little Killers The Truth Behind the
Savage Murder by Deleen Berry and Jeffrey C. Fuller, which
heavily informed this episode. U