(dark mysterious music) - Hey guys, and welcome
back to my channel. So today we're going to be talking about a case that has been
highly, highly requested by you guys in my case forum, and this case is absolutely wild. I see why so many people
wanted me to talk about it, and there's a lot to go over here, so let's go ahead and jump right in. So this is Skylar Annette Neese. She was born on February 10th, 1996. These are her parents,
Mary and Dave Neese. Mary worked as an administrative
assistant in a cardiac lab, and Dave was a product
assembler at Walmart, and Skylar was an extremely loved child. You can just tell by the
way that her parents talk about her that she was
the light of their lives. And she also was their only child, so she meant everything to them. - First time I saw her, yes, I can say that was the greatest
moment of my life, yeah. It was instant love. - And as she was growing
up, Mary and Dave said that Skylar was a very easy child, that she was very sweet and genuine. She had just a huge heart.
She loved to play outside. She loved animals. She would
bring home strays all the time. This one was a stray. (laughs) That's right, I'm talking about you. So when Skylar was in 2nd grade, she started meeting some new friends, and one of her new friends
was named a Shelia Eddy, and they became very, very close. And she went to another school. They met at a community center,
but they were super close, and when they did hang out,
they always had a lot of fun. When Mary and Dave first met Shelia, they thought she was a super nice girl. She had some issues at home. Her parents got divorced
when she was four years old, and her dad also was
disabled, so he couldn't work, so it was pretty stressful for her. And she was also an only
child just like Skylar, so the two of them
really bonded over that. And Mary and Dave really wanted to be as welcoming as they could to Shelia. They would have her over
all the time for dinners, play dates, all that stuff, sleepovers. She was so used to coming to their house that she would just walk right in, and they were fine with that. Skylar's family lived in
an apartment in Star City, West Virginia, which is a
small town in Magnolia County. And Skylar really enjoyed
playing with Shelia. She was definitely a fun
person to hang out with. She was a bit of a wild child, and I think that was
interesting to Skylar. And like I said, the girls
went to different schools, but when they got into high school, Shelia ended up transferring
to University High School, which is where Skylar went,
and they were really excited. And she really liked high school. She did really well in school, actually. Teachers really liked her, and she had high hopes one
day of becoming a lawyer. - Yeah, she wanted to
be a criminal lawyer, and she would constantly, "Do you think I'd make
a good lawyer, Mom?" And of course, Dave and I are,
or she'd say Dad, whichever, and we'd say, "The way you argue, oh, you'd be an excellent lawyer." - She was a very responsible kid. She also had a job in high school, and she worked at a Wendy's where two of her other friends worked as well, and really liked that job. So at school, she was
definitely known as a confident and I guess you could say popular girl. At this point, Shelia's
parents got remarried, and she really liked her stepdad, so she was feeling more comfortable in her home life than ever before. And now Skylar and Shelia were spending a lot more time together, so they were getting a lot closer, and they were thrilled
to be in the same school. And eventually, Skylar and
Shelia added a third person to their group. During their freshman year,
they met Rachel Shoaf. Rachel's parents were divorced. She had an older half brother
that she didn't grow up with. So like Skylar and Shelia, she
was raised as an only child. Before high school, Rachel went
to a private Catholic school and she was pretty sheltered
by a wealthy religious family. And people who know are said that she really seemed to like attention. She loved being in the school plays, and she wasn't just in the school plays. She was normally the
star of the school plays. And the three of them
were really, really close, and they spent all of
their free time together. If they weren't actually
physically together, they were texting, ad
they were actually really into Twitter as well, so they were constantly
talking to each other. A lot of people said they acted more like sisters than friends. They were really, really that close. To a lot of people, it seemed like nothing could ever break their friendship apart. And Mary and Dave were really happy that Skylar had such close friends. But eventually over time, they started having some
inter-group jealousy. I know so many of you have
probably experienced this. I know I definitely did with the two girls that I was friends with in high school. I'm still friends with them now. The three of us were really close, but sometimes two of us would be closer, and one person would feel left out. Sometimes two of us would hang out, and the other person was alone
or I would be left alone. I think a lot of people
have experienced this, and this was really starting to happen with Rachel and Shelia. They seemed to be a lot closer, and Skylar seemed to be left out and was often feeling alone. And by summer of 2012, Shelia
and Rachel were really close, and Skylar definitely felt
a little bit left out. And on July 4th, 2012, Skylar
was home alone because Rachel and Shelia had made plans
and didn't invite her. And, obviously this was really upsetting. So that day she was moping
around, feeling sad, feeling lonely, feeling left out, and her mom felt really bad for her. Her mom has suggested
that maybe she read a book or do some homework. Skylar was a very, very smart student. She was an honor student.
She absolutely loved to read. She really liked to read
a lot of the classics. So her mom thought this is something that she would wanna do
to make the time go by. But not even that sounded fun
to Skylar on that the day. She just felt really down. And that day she actually tweeted out, "Sick of being at fucking
home. Thanks, friends. Love to hang out with you all, too." So it was clear that Skylar was hurt by Shelia and Rachel
making plans without her. So the next night, July 5th, 2012, Skylar worked her shift at
Wendy's until about 10:00 PM. And when she got home, her parents were in the living room just watching TV, having a very casual night. She walked in, took a peek
at what they were watching, hung out for a second, and then gave them both a kiss
goodnight and went up to bed. - She put her arm around
her mom, gave her a kiss, and gave her a hug and
said, "I love you, Mom." She turned to me and
said, "I love you, Dad," and she went to the room. - However, Skylar actually
had some other plans. She decided that she was gonna
be sneaking out that night. So at about 12:30 AM on Friday, July 6th, Skylar snuck out of her house
through her bedroom window. Skylar used a small bench on the ground underneath the window
to help her climb out. And she took a bunch of
her regularly carried items with her, her purse, her
cell phone, her wallet. And there's actually surveillance
video that you can see of her leaving the apartment
complex at 12:31 AM. You can see in the clip she's walking through the parking lot across the street to where a car is
waiting, and then she gets into the back seat and they drive away. Now sneaking out was something that Skylar had been doing more of lately. She had definitely started
to rebel a little bit more. The three of them love to go
across the Pennsylvania border to Star City to smoke weed. They had just discovered that, and they'd also gotten
really into drinking. They would often stay out past curfew. She was getting in trouble sometimes. And a lot of what they
were concerned about was what was being posted on the internet. Like I said, all three of the girls were very, very active on Twitter. Rachel and Skylar were big into Twitter, but honestly not as much as Shelia. She tweeted probably twice as
much as both of them combined. She literally chronicled her
every thought and feeling. Here's just a few examples of her tweets. "I wish she were acceptable
to be naked all the time. It's okay if you hate me, as
long as I hated you first. Stepdad, stop walking around
the house without a shirt. It's gross, not to mention your
boobs are bigger than mine. There's a reason why sober and so bored sound
almost exactly the same. If you talk about how you're madly in love with Justin Bieber, I'd
probably want to stab you." So all three girls were
definitely rebelling, and Skylar's other friends
outside of these two started to notice and did not like
Shelia for this reason. They thought that she
was a little too wild. She seemed to always be
pushing the limits too far. Skylar's other friends thought that Shelia was a terrible influence on her. So her parents are noticing
that Rachel's a bad influence, her friends are noticing that
Shelia's a bad influence, and Skylar's friends
said that they even felt like Skylar was being
changed by the two of them, that her personality was being altered. And when her other friends tried to talk to her about it, she just dismissed it. She thought that they were totally out of line and that it wasn't true. Plus, her and Shelia had been friends since Skylar was a kid. She looked up to her like a sister almost, ad Rachel was really
close with Shelia, too, and really liked her,
gravitated towards her energy because Rachel was definitely
more of a rebel, too. She was also a popular girl. She had a lot of other friends,
but she really liked Shelia. And Rachel's other friends started to feel the exact same way that
Skylar's other friends did, tat Shelia was a bad influence on Rachel. They tried to talk to her,
but Rachel did not care. She thought that Shelia
was such a cool person, and nothing was gonna stop her
from being friends with her. In that year in school, there
were some rumors spreading around that Rachel and Shelia actually were starting to have a relationship, that the two of them were hooking up. A lot of people thought that's why Rachel was so defensive of Shelia. She didn't want anyone to
talk badly about her ever, but no one knew if this was actually true because Shelia and Rachel
also had boyfriends. But the two of them did
seem really, really close, and eventually, like I said, they just started to push Skylar away. They would make plans
without her all the time. They would dress like each
other to make her jealous, like purposely plan their outfits
to make her feel left out. And all during sophomore
year, Skylar and Shelia were fighting way more than usual, and it seemed like Rachel seemed to be what was really driving them apart. And Skylar, of course, vented
her frustrations on Twitter. She said, "I'd tell the whole school all of the shit I have on
everyone, which is a lot. Too bad my friends are
having lives without me. You're a two-faced bitch
and obviously fucking stupid if you thought I wouldn't find out. Just know I know. Hope you don't expect me to
give a fuck anymore. #Bye." Sorry if you were enjoying
looking at my cat. I took a little break and she peaced out, and you just don't tell cats
what to do, like I've said. So Bernie decided that he
was gonna take her place, so say hi. (soft mysterious music) So jumping in back to
the morning of July 6th. Skylar snuck out at 12:30 AM. That morning, Mary and Dave
got ready for work like normal, and they assume that
Skylar was in her room. She said that she was gonna
bed early the night before. Dave had planned to go
do his shift at Walmart, come back, and give Skylar his car so that she could take it
to her shift that Wendy's. So he got home midday as planned, and he went to Skylar's room. But when he got to her door, he realized that the door was
locked, which was unusual. Sometimes Skylar locked
her door for privacy, but it wasn't something she did very often and not normally in the middle of the day, but Dave didn't think too much of it. So he started knocking, calling for her. "Skylar, are you in there?"
And she didn't answer. And when he didn't hear anything, he instantly just got a wave of fear. It's one thing if you can
tell your kid's ignoring you or locking you out. You can hear a little
sounds, a breath, something. But he heard absolutely nothing, so he went outside of the house to the window so that he can look in. And when he got there, he saw
the small bench on the ground from when Skylar had snuck out, and he saw that the window was open. So of course, any dad's gonna
put this together right away. Skylar clearly snuck out. But of course, since it's now the daytime, Dave starts freaking out immediately because he figures something
could have happened to her if she did sneak out and
she's still not back by now, especially because her shift
at Wendy's was coming up, and she's a very responsible girl. She's gonna show up for her shift. So of course the first
thing he thinks of to do is call her friends and see
if they know where she is. So he calls Shelia, and she said that she had talked to Skylar around midnight the night before, but she hadn't heard from her since. She also said she had
no idea where she was and didn't even have an
idea of where she could be. So Dave contacted Mary, and
Mary, of course, was concerned, but she also just told him to stay calm. "Let's just see if we
can get ahold of her, figure this out. She's probably gonna show
up for her shift at Wendy's. She's not just gonna miss work." Said, "We're not gonna worry. I'll call them about 10 after four, give her time to clock in,
everything, see if she's there. - But of course, Mary was still
concerned and she came home. And when she did get home,
they actually got a call from Wendy's seeing that Skylar
had not showed up for work. And at this point, they
said the panic set in for both of them truly because they knew that she would not just
miss work like this. She was too responsible, this
is out of character for her, and the fact that she had
snuck out the night before was just so concerning. So of course, they contact
the police right away. They contacted the Star City Police to report Skylar missing. - [Dave] I have a daughter
that's 16 years old. Apparently, she snuck out
of her room last night, and she hasn't been seen since. None of her friends can get a
hold of her. I can't find her. - What's her name?
- Skylar Neese. - And the two of them start panicking. They start contacting
friends and relatives, Alerting them about what
is going on right away, trying to think of where Skylar
possibly could have gone. And not too long into all of this panic, Shelia actually calls back, and this time she admitted that she and Rachel picked up Skylar at 11:00 PM, which we know isn't true because we saw that surveillance footage that showed 12:31 AM. They said they hung out
with her for like an hour, and then they dropped
her off a little ways down the street an hour later. - I said, "Where did
you go? Where's Skylar?" And she said that Skylar
insisted they drop her off at the end of the street so we wouldn't hear her sneaking back in. - And then right after that, Shelia and her mom ended up coming to the Neese's house to help
look for Skylar right away. Shelia, Tara, and Mary went on one side of the street knocking on doors while Dave and the officer took the other side, and they asked everyone
in the neighborhood if they had seen anything,
if they had heard anything, maybe, in the middle of the night, if they had any security cameras installed or inside that could have
possibly picked something up. And of course at this point,
Dave and Mary and the police have not seen the surveillance footage of Skylar leaving at 12:31, which doesn't make sense
with Shelia's story. But suddenly, Mary remembered
that the apartment complex had just installed new
cameras on the building, and they had to have been working. And of course, in so
many true crime cases, we see cameras just not
working most of the time, which makes me very concerned and scared as a human being on this planet. But luckily, these cameras were new. They were just installed,
and they were working. So they went to the landlord, and he took them into
their office right away, and they started looking at
the surveillance footage. They watched that footage of
Skylar crossing the parking lot and getting into a vehicle. And at this point, they have no idea who
this vehicle belongs to. The footage is so grainy, they
can't make out who's in it, and they thought the
car actually was an SUV. So of course, as soon as the police see
this surveillance footage, they think Skylar is a runaway, that she's unhappy with her
home, that she purposely left, and she's probably just
out there somewhere. And her disappearance at this point did not qualify for an AMBER Alert. At this point in time, all
four of the following criteria has to be met before an
AMBER Alert could be issued. A child had to have
believed to be abducted, the child is under 18, the child may be in danger
of death or serious injury, and there is sufficient
information to indicate that the AMBER Alert would be helpful. Plus when this was all going on, there was still some bullshit around the whole wait for 48 hours to file a missing persons report, which, in most places, that
is not a thing anymore. That's not true. So Dave and Mary were trying their best to convince the police that Skylar would not just run away and not come back. Yes, she was sneaking out,
but she loved her life. She was so close with her
parents. She was a happy kid. This was not in her character to just leave and to stay gone. But of course, the police refuse
to listen to them, really. - First impression was
it could be a runaway. There are kids that run away all the time. - So Mary and Dave
really felt like they had to take matters into their own hands. So they printed out
flyers with her picture, her description, and what
she was last seen wearing and put them all up across the
county wherever they could. - It's the most helpless feeling
in the world. It really is. Everything that you cherish
in the world is gone, and you have no clue where to look for it, and it's a helpless feeling. It's a horrible, helpless feeling. - And Rachel and Shelia were devastated about Skylar being gone. They were very, very concerned. Shelia, according to Mary and Dave, seemed to be the most concerned. They said that she would
call them often just asking for updates on the
investigation and over and over would say, "I wish I had some information. I wish I knew something.
I wish I could help." So she was very cooperative. She asked to volunteer to
search, to pass out flyers. She basically said whatever she could do, she was willing to do, just let her know. So Mary and Dave felt like, "Wow. Skylar has a very good friend in Shelia. She cares about her a lot." Skylar had good friends in general. They're feeling the love
because so many people just were so devastated about
Skylar being missing, couldn't believe that
she would ever run away, knew that she didn't run in away, knew that something had to be wrong. One day, just a few days after Skylar had first gone missing, Shelia actually went up to Skylar's room, sat on her bed, and was just sobbing. Mary walked in, and they
had a nice moment together. They hugged, and they were trying to support each other through all of this. So luckily on June 9th, 2012, things start to get taken a little more
seriously by law enforcement, the fact that Skylar is still not there. And after looking more
into her background, they realized that this is
really out of character for her. So luckily, the West Virginia State Police and the FBI joined the search, and FBI agent Morgan Spurlock and Star City police
officer Jessica Colebank interviewed Shelia just days after Skylar was first reported missing. Now what's really, really
interesting is as soon as the investigator did her
first interview on Shelia, she instantly felt like
something was wrong. Her first read of Shelia was
that she was a narcissist. Not only that, she also
described her as wrong. On the other hand, Rachel had gone on a boating trip with her
mother on July 6th the day that Skylar had gone missing. Her mother was on the
trip and her mom's friend was on the trip, and they both
noticed a really gnarly cut on her ankle and thought it was strange. And on the following day on the 7th, Rachel actually had to go to church camp, so they had to interview her via phone. And when they talked to her, they said that she was
just very nonchalant. She was relaxed, saying, "I don't really know where Skylar is," but she didn't seem as
panicked as Shelia did. And she would also just say,
"Shelia knows more than me. Talk to Shelia. I don't really know much." She just was short about it, but she did agree to job come
in for an in-person interview, which is obviously crucial, as soon as she was back from church camp. But when Rachel got home from church camp, she didn't just come in right away, which you'd think that this would be a high priority for you. Your friend is missing. You'd probably be really concerned and wanting to help in any way you can. But the investigators actually had to track her down for that interview. It was not easy. And as soon as they brought her in, she said pretty much the exact same thing as she said on the phone, almost word for word at some points, and it started to seem really scripted because Shelia's story and Rachel's story were like exactly the same. So of course, investigators
looked into as much as they could, social media, computers, even Skylar's journal to
see if there were any clues. And the last entry that
Skylar had made in her journal was actually from a year
before she went missing, and in it, she talked a lot about Shelia. She would talk about how Shelia could get away with anything and that Shelia got all the
attention from the boys. And Skylar also seemed to be
very fascinated with Shelia. She wrote in detail
about Shelia's sex life. She seemed intrigued by it and almost living vicariously through her. And again, this is Shelia's sex life that she's writing about in her journal, and she's writing a lot
about it, very detailed. And it even included information about Shelia hooking
up with women as well. And one entry in the diary
even talked about a time where the girls were having
a sleepover at Rachel's house and they had broken into
her mom's liquor cabinet. Pretty common thing to do, right? And Skylar wrote in her
journal all about this and also about how once
they started drinking that Shelia and Rachel started hooking up. And in this entry, Skylar
talks about how she was locked in the bathroom with the girls while they were making out and stuff. And she said that she had nothing against them being bisexual. She was very supportive
of the LGBTQ community, but she just felt
uncomfortable being in the room with them while they were hooking up, which is very understandable. I feel like it's just
weird to be in a room with anyone hooking up when
you're just chilling there. And then two weeks later, Skylar made that tweet that
I read earlier that said, "I'd tell the whole school all
the shit I have on everyone, which is a lot, #ifIcouldgetawaywithit." So investigators continued to
search Skylar's social media, especially her Twitter for more clues. And they saw that after her
Wendy's shift on July 5th, she actually tweeted twice. One said, "You doing shit like this is why I will never completely trust you," and another that said, "All I do is hope." So Skylar went missing the summer between her sophomore and junior year. And of course, in a situation like this where no one knows what truly happened and you're in a high school setting, rumors are going to spread
like crazy, and they did. People started speculating
that she ran away. Maybe she ran away even with a boyfriend. Maybe she was abducted
by an online predator or brought into human trafficking. One of the rumors was
that she robbed a bank, and so she was on the run. And honestly, the bank
one has some merit to it because there was a bank in
Blacksville that was robbed about a week before Skylar disappeared and again about 10 days later. The younger brother of one of
the suspects had dated Shelia, so they thought there was
some type of connection, and he was also a person of
interest in Skylar's case. But Dave and Mary knew that Skylar definitely didn't run away. To them, they felt like there
were only two possibilities, either she was gone, and Mary
had a feeling pretty early on that Skylar was no longer with them. Dave definitely held out
hope for a lot longer. But if that wasn't the case, they said the only other
possibility that they considered was her being abducted
and being held by someone. So they knew that she
wouldn't just run away, that she wouldn't be off
living some new life. That was just not even in the
realm of possibility for them. Not only that, Skylar left
behind a ton of important items that if you were really running away, you probably would have taken. She had left her toothbrush,
her hair straightener, her contact lenses,
her cell phone charger. She even left her security blanket, which was her mother's old
nightgown that she called Goodie. And that thing meant
absolutely everything to her, so there's no way she
would have left without it. And out of all Skylar's friends,
which she had many friends, and people were really upset
over Skylar being gone, many kids in the high school
were experiencing depression, anxiety, fear over what was going on, wondering where she was. - Starting school without her, that was probably one of the hardest days through the whole thing. (slow poignant music) Skylar was a go-to person,
and she was just gone. - But it seemed that Shelia
was one of the people, if not the person having
the hardest time with it. She posted on Facebook,
"Skylar, come back. I seriously cannot deal
with school without you. I miss you too much." And Skylar's dad, Dave, actually
responded to her and said, "She will be home soon, honey. Love you," and Shelia
said, "Love you, too." And after a while, it
started to seem weird. And not only that, rumors at
the school were kicking up that Rachel and Shelia had something to do with Skylar's disappearance. A rumor also spread that
Skylar had overdosed and that maybe Rachel and
Shelia had hidden her body because they were afraid. Maybe they thought it was their
fault, something like that. That was all starting to brew. And it wasn't just in the school that these rumors were spreading. They were also spreading online. This case got a lot of attention online. There's a lot of people that
are interested in this case, understandably 'cause it's wild. But even back then when
she was just missing, people were speculating
maybe she was abducted. Maybe she was brought
into human trafficking, something like that. So like I said, police
were definitely starting to have their suspicions
about Shelia and Rachel. On September 3rd, warrants were issued to seize all of the electronic devices and communications of Shelia and Rachel. The police started
feeling really confident that they were on the right track, that Shelia and Rachel knew something. Maybe there really was
some type of accident, and they didn't wanna get in trouble, or they were covering
for Skylar in some way. They just got the sense
that they knew something, and they clued in Dave and
Mary into this a little bit. But they advised them, "Don't
tell Rachel and Shelia. Obviously don't compromise the case. This isn't a for sure thing. This is just what we're
thinking. We're feeling it out." Then on October 2nd, 2012,
Shelia posted a picture of her and Skylar on the
Team Skylar Facebook page that was created, and she said, "Skylar, sorry, I haven't
posted in a while. School has been taking up all my time. Me and Rachel miss you so
much, especially at lunch. We sit at the lunch table alone. Come back so we don't look
like loners anymore, LOL. School is so hard without you. Actually, everything is hard without you. I seriously think about you 24/7, and I miss talking to you
on the phone day and night. I know you wouldn't
like some of the things that are being said lately," which I'm pretty sure
she's mostly referring to the things that are being said about her and Rachel at this point. Shelia and Rachel were definitely
starting to feel the heat, and the amount of people
that thought that they had done something was
starting to increase over time. Eventually, things on
Twitter got pretty tense. Two anonymous Twitter
accounts were created, and they both started
following Rachel and Shelia, and they started harassing them and posting these really
cryptic messages to them. The first one said, "Luke 12:2. 'Nothing is covered up
that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known.'" "Being pretty little liars down together. #promisetoneverleaveyoucold." "Whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna
do when they come for you." And Shelia actually responded and said, "No one on this earth, you
can handle me and Rachel. If you think you can, you're wrong." So I'm not sure why it took so long for them to realize this, but when they started reviewing
the security footage again, police realized that Shelia had never picked up Skylar at 11:00 PM. So they tried to pull security footage from other places that Shelia
said that they had went over that hour when
they had picked her up. And once they saw footage
from a convenience store where they were at, they
realized that the car that had picked Skylar up, at 12:30 was actually Shelia's Toyota Camry. So of course, now they know that Shelia and Rachel were lying. They couldn't figure out why. So they actually created a persona online and posed as someone just
attending the high school so that they could keep tabs
on what the girls were posting. And he read through thousands of posts on Facebook and Twitter, constantly having to search the internet to decode the hashtags they were using, the shorthand that they were using. And he said that it
didn't take long for him to become incredibly suspicious of Shelia. She was tweeting all this
stuff about getting drunk, about skipping school,
school, about partying. She had tons of tweets about that, but then she randomly would
have one and there like, "I miss you Skylar,
please come back home." However, they kept bringing
Shelia and Rachel in, kept them questions, trying
to get a real read on them, but their story never changed. They were very much in sync about what they said was happening that night. And they noticed that the two
girls were very different. Rachel seemed very nervous, very reserved while she was being interviewed. But Shelia was very cheerful,
very upbeat, very confident. And according to the investigators, it seemed like she was flirting with some of them at one point. Shelia seemed to wanna stay as close to the investigation as possible. She was always asking for them to keep her updated for
any new information, constantly saying how she wishes
she knew more information. However, Rachel took
the opposite approach. She really just stayed
away from the whole thing and seemed nervous about it. She also kept her distance
from Mary and Dave, which was very different from the approach that Shelia was taking. She was constantly
talking to Mary and Dave, constantly using them as support. They were supporting her.
She was supporting them. - We worried more about how
her friends, mostly, yeah, mostly her friends, how they
were going to get along. They were just so devastated,
and we're trying to figure out how can we help them through this? - And like they said, she
always was part of the family because she had been
Skylar's friend for years. So by winter of 2012, police were starting to get
a little closer to the truth. Using other security camera
footage from various locations, they were able to piece
together the fact that the girls had driven to Blacksville the
night that Skylar disappeared, which Rachel and Shelia
had both originally denied. But their phone records
showed that the girls were texting Skylar when they claimed that she was with them,
which makes no sense. And at this point, police are
also throwing around the idea that maybe the night
that Skylar went missing, that the girls were
doing some type of drug. Maybe Skylar really did overdose, and Rachel and Shelia
just left her somewhere. And this started to make a lot of sense because every time that
they would interview Rachel, she seemed really, really nervous, like she didn't wanna get in trouble. And like I said, they were really sticking
to their same stories. The two of them were very
much on the same page about what happened that
night until one interview where Rachel told them
something completely different. She claimed that Skylar had run off into the woods that night. She said that she and Shelia
tried to run after her, tried to find her, but she was gone. So obviously, this is a huge
change from her original story. So they immediately call Shelia in and see if she has the same story, and of course, now she does. So it's very obvious that the
two of them are communicating and planning out what they're
going to tell the police. So by mid December, they
decided they need to give both of these girls a polygraph test and see if they can get something out of that. Now Shelia was a hard fail
on the polygraph test, definitely was being deceitful. So then of course, it was time
for Rachel to take her test. And on the way, her father
is bringing her there, and they're going to her
lawyers because she's gonna meet up with him
before the polygraph. And on the way there, she
jumps out of the car and runs to Shelia's house to get
help from Tara, Shelia's mom. Now, apparently Shelia's
mom had been really trying to slow down the investigation. She got in a fight with one
of the investigators, Jessica, the one I had mentioned. Jessica was actually taken off of the case because she called Tara a tool. So it's all really starting
to make a picture here. They're really starting
to put the pieces together of what may have happened, and
they're definitely thinking at this point something happened. The girls don't wanna admit it. There was a overdose. She drank too much. Something happened,
and it was an accident, and the girls are covering up for it. On December 16th, 2012, Mary wrote a very long Facebook message about Skylar's disappearance,
and in the post, she talked about how
Rachel and Shelia had lied, and she also implied in the message that Skylar was most likely dead. It was clear how they
were starting to feel. They definitely had turned
on Rachel and Shelia at this point and felt like
they had to be involved. And once this happened,
imagine how many rumors and stuff is gonna get stirred up from a mother making
a huge post like this. People were really starting
to turn on Rachel and Shelia. So this was having a major
mental toll on Rachel, not so much Shelia. She just didn't seem to care much, but Rachel was really struggling mentally from all of this pressure and scrutiny. Rachel's parents were really worried about their daughter's mental health. They wanted her to distance as much as she could from Shelia. They felt like she was this
terrible influence on her and that she was making
her more stressed out, giving her really bad anxiety, and they also didn't
like Tara, Shelia's mom. They just felt like she
was bad news as well. And this is really interesting,
but Rachel's parents, even though they were divorced, they ended up moving back in
together for Rachel's sake because Rachel's father
lived too close to Shelia. That's how concerned that they were. They were willing to
move back in together, even though they were divorced. So that just tells you how
seriously they are starting to see their daughter decline. She is stressing out. She
is carrying major anxiety. And I think in their minds,
they're probably starting to figure out that something
went wrong with Skylar, that she must know more. - She was acting out, getting into more family
altercations at home. - But what was really strange is when her parents made that decision to move back in together, they didn't tell Rachel
they were gonna do it, which is pretty shocking when your parents have been divorced for
a while for your dad to suddenly back into the house. That's just stressful on its own. Rachel just came home
one day and found out that her dad was living there now, so that really, really upset her. She was so upset, actually,
that as soon as she realized that he was living in the house, she started running
around the neighborhood, screaming and crying. Her parents chased her
around the neighborhood. They finally got her inside
and they got her into her room and locked her in there. Her mom called the police and
you can actually hear Rachel in the background of the call screaming. Her dad had to restrain her
because she was freaking out, and she started threatening
to kill herself. - I have an issue with a
16-year-old daughter of mine. I can't control her
anymore. She's hitting us. She's screaming. She's running
through the neighborhood. Give me the phone. (muffled screaming) No, no, this is over! This is over! My husband's trying to contain her. - No!
- Please hurry! - Rachel ended up being
taken to Chestnut Ridge, which is a psychiatric facility in Morgantown, West Virginia. And Shelia actually did try to
go see Rachel several times. She wanted to talk to her, but the staff had been
ordered to not let Shelia in, so she was never able to talk
with her during this time. And who knows what they
wanted to talk about. Rachel was released five days later, and as soon as she was released, her parents took her right
to their lawyer's office. And there, she finally
met up with the officers and took her polygraph test. And after seeing Rachel's
demeanor after all this, how burnt out she was, the police felt like they were gonna
get the truth from her. They felt like guilt had
just broken her down. They were gonna find out that Skylar had overdosed and they hid it. There was something like that going on. So they start interviewing her, thinking this is going to last awhile and gonna be difficult to get
the full story out of her. But only a few questions in, Rachel shocked them all by
saying, "We stabbed her." That's right. Rachel and Shelia stabbed
Skylar Neese to death. - She just glanced at us
and said, "We stabbed her." - And as you can imagine, the investigators' jaws just dropped. This was not even something
they were considering. They were thinking this was
a cover up for an accident. Now they're dealing with murder, and then she just starts
to spill everything. She told them how Skylar and Shelia usually spent
their spring break together, and that their sophomore year, they spent a week in Myrtle Beach. But according to Rachel, on this trip, the girls had fought the entire time. And when she got back,
Shelia complained to Rachel about how bad Skylar was, how much she didn't like her
anymore, and how she had to go. And what's really
interesting is at one point, there were some teachers and classmates that overheard Rachel and Shelia talking about how to get rid of a dead body. However, a few weeks before this, a dead body was found near their school, and so the teachers assumed
that they were about that. But of course, other kids in the school who had heard that thought that they were talking about killing Skylar. And it turns out that some of
those kids even told Skylar what they heard, but she dismissed it. She thought, "Rachel and Shelia would never do anything to harm me." And she kept hanging out with them all that final
spring semester leading up to summer. But obviously as summer came, Skylar was starting to catch on to the attitude Rachel and
Shelia had towards her. Like I said, on June 4th and
5th, she made a few tweets, some that I've already
read about her falling out with her and Rachel, such as, "Sick of being at fucking home. Thanks, friends. Love
hanging out with you, too. You doing shit like this is why I can never completely trust you. It really doesn't take
much to piss me off." And Shelia, on the 4th and
the 5th, did not tweet at all, which was pretty unusual for her. Like I said, she was the
most active on her Twitter. When they looked back at message,
they saw that on July 5th, Rachel and Shelia had texted Skylar, asking her to sneak out
with them that night. And at first, Skylar wasn't so sure. It actually took her a little
while to agree to join them. So it turns out that Shelia was the one driving the Toyota Camry that picked her up that night and that Rachel was sitting
in the passenger seat. Skylar got picked up around 12:30. She gets in the back of the car. And of course, the girls didn't realize that there was surveillance video, so they didn't think that out too well. But they drove downward toward Blacksville in Magnolia County, right
on the Pennsylvania border, which is 25 minutes away from Star City. Their plan was originally to take Route 19 to Route 7 to get to Blacksville, but Shelia ended up changing their course when she saw a state police
car parked at an intersection. But eventually, they did
get into Blacksville. They crossed into Pennsylvania, and then Shelia drove them
down this dark winding road, to the middle of nowhere. And I guess this is a spot that
the girls would drive a lot. It was just secluded,
and they would come here to smoke weed with Skylar. So this wasn't unusual to Skylar at all. According to Rachel, they
talked for a few minutes in the car, and then they got out. And when they got to
their normal smoking spot, Skylar realized that she had
left the lighter in the car. So she turned around toward the car to get it and started walking
that way when suddenly, Shelia and Rachel counted
out, "One, two, three," and on three, both girls
pulled out kitchen knives that they had taken from
their parents' house and started stabbing Skylar. Skylar started screaming, of
course, completely shocked but realizing what was
going on immediately. And she had been stabbed in the knee, so she tried to run, but she couldn't. According to Rachel, she fell backwards and stopped stabbing her and
that Shelia just kept going. And this is absolutely sick, one of the most disturbing
things I've ever heard, but they let her slowly
bleed out in front of them. They literally stood
back, the two of them, and watched her slowly die. And according to Rachel,
all Skylar could say before she died was, "Why?" Which is what all of
us would like to know. They waited until Skylar had died and it became completely silent. It turns out Rachel and Shelia had stabbed Skylar over 50 times, and Rachel talked about how
much they had premeditated this. They had packed up all the gear that they would need in their car,
including paper towels, rags, bleach, clean
clothes, even a shovel, and they had all of this
in the trunk of their car. So their next move was to get that shovel and try to dig a hole so that
they could bury her out there. But as they started to dig, they realized the ground
was too hard and rocky, and they could not make a hole. So instead, they dragged her
body over under this tree and just covered her with dirt and debris and branches and just random
things that they found. And this is a strange
move, but after that, they just turned off Skylar's cell phone and left it next to her body. After this, they washed
themselves off at the creek, and then they walked back to their car where they had a fresh change of clothes, got in the car like everything
was normal, and went home. On their way home, they
dumped off all the rags, all the evidence that they had, and they got back to their
houses around 6:00 AM. And you guys are not
gonna even believe this, but that morning, Shelia hops
on her Twitter and says this, "Always keep your cool." So of course, after Rachel
just tells them all this, the officers are completely shocked. Like I said from the beginning, they knew that there was probably a chance that the girls were involved,
that they knew something, they were covering up something, that something along
those lines was going on, but they did not consider
that they had plotted a murder and killed her in such a violent way. So of course they asked her, "Why?" That's a question we all wanna know. Skylar even was asking, "Why, why, why?" "why did you guys do this?" And this is unbelievable,
but they literally said that they did it because
they didn't like her. - She would not give us
any specific details other than they just didn't like her. And then when I asked her, "What do you mean you didn't like her? Clarify that," she said, "Oh, nothing, we just didn't like her." - They said they didn't wanna
be friends with her anymore, and this was the only
way to get rid of her. Rachel claimed that it
was as simple as that. So of course, police, they don't even know
where to start, right? They don't even have a body, so the first thing they're asking is, "Do you guys remember
where you put her body? Can you lead us to it?" And Rachel agreed, so they went out there to where she thought
they had dumped the body, but the area had been
completely covered by snow, and Rachel couldn't remember exactly where they put the body, so they had to wait
until all of it melted. So on January 4th, 2013, the police got a warrant
to seize every knife inside of Shelia's house. But not only that, they looked in her car and they found blood in her trunk. And while this was all going on, Shelia didn't know that
Rachel had confessed, but she was already starting
to figure it out just by the way they were acting and the evidence that they were pulling. She was a pretty smart
girl, you could say, and she caught on pretty quick
that their ship was sinking. But they wanted to get more out of Shelia while she was still in the
stage of lying to the police. So they had Rachel wear
a recording device, a listening device, and go
and hang out with Shelia and see what she could get out of her. However, Rachel got very nervous. They ended up not talking
about Skylar at all. They took a selfie together,
though, so that's great. Now at this point, Mary and Dave know that the police are onto the girls, but they don't know the latest
development from Rachel yet. They're still hopeful that
maybe there's a chance that Skylar's out there. Her whole family is
just so broken hearted. They're putting up flyers
everywhere they can, begging people for leads, just hoping that maybe
Skylar would come home. But just after the snow
melted in the area, police were able to
search that wooded area that Rachel had told them about. Of course, they did testing to make sure that this was really Skylar, but this was indeed Skylar's body. She was just left out there
on the ground by her friends. - When we first got word, we weren't allowed to even
let on of we knew. (chuckles) So yeah, it was-
- It was- - We even talked about it. - Yeah, and it was a we
knew, but do we believe it? Yeah, it was a yo yo. - So through the rest of
the winter and spring, the police made Rachel and
Shelia get homeschooled. So they never saw each other. On February 10th, 2013 Skylar's birthday, Rachel made a happy birthday
Twitter post to Skylar, and then after that, she tweeted, "I hate the shit I think about at night." On March 13th, they announced
the public in a press release that the body had been
found in Pennsylvania, and the public was just devastated because people were really,
really invested in this case. People were just really hoping
that she would be found, that there would be a better outcome, especially kids at the school. Kids at the high school
finding out were so upset. They had to bring in counselors and make sure everyone was doing okay 'cause it's hard when one of
your fellow classmates dies, especially in such a brutal way. And when other classmates are
suspected of being involved, it definitely makes it all more chaotic. So now it was official. Schuyler wasn't missing. She was murdered. However, it remember at this time, the girls are still technically
under investigation. Even though this confession
has been brought forward, they have to confirm everything. So even though a lot of
people in the community were already suspicious that
Rachel and Skylar had something to do with her death,
Shelia was still trying to publicly maintain her innocence. On her birthday, she also
made a message to Schuyler and said, "Rest easy, Skylar. You'll always be my best friend. I miss you more than you could ever know." She also tweeted, "Worst
day of my whole life." And Rachel was still doing this, too. Even though she knows that she
just confessed to the police that she stabbed Skylar, she
still had the nerve to write, "Rest in peace, baby. I love and miss you more than anything. May you finally have justice." What? Then on April 1st, 2013, a
month before she was arrested, Shelia seemed to confess to
her crime through Twitter. At 1:37 in the morning on April 1st, she tweeted, "We really did go on three." Are you fucking kidding me? The fact that they're so proud of this, like it's something cool,
"We really did go on three," as if it's like a inside
joke or something, I just can't even
understand the mind state of Shelia especially, both of them, for making these posts to be
tweeting about your friend that you killed in this loving
way, saying you miss her, but also straight up confessing
and writing these sub tweets about her death is so fucking wild to me. The next afternoon, she
tweeted again, saying, "They say you remember the past
better than it really was." So after they did this bit of an undercover
investigation with Rachel, she obviously has to turn
herself in eventually. She agreed early on that she would. So she turned herself in on May 1st, 2013 and pled guilty to second-degree murder. And she was transferred from juvenile to adult status and
officially pleaded to murder in the second degree,
unlawfully, feloniously, willfully, maliciously, and
intentionally causing the death of Skylar Neese by stabbing
her and causing fatal injuries. And the state of West Virginia
recommended a sentence of 20 years for her. Meanwhile, they got the
results back from Shelia's car that the blood in there
did belong to Skylar Neese, so that officially sinks her ship. And on the day that Shelia got arrested, she was actually just chilling at the Cracker Barrel with her mom, Tara. The police showed up at the restaurant, waited for them to come out,
and as soon as they did, they approached Tara and
Shelia in the parking lot, and she acted completely
shocked, very upset, and they arrested her
for first-degree murder. And she actually said to her mom, "Mom, is it gonna be okay?" And Tara said, "I don't know." Now Shelia definitely did
not realize the weight of what was really going to happen to her. So yeah, she was charged with murder, and they decided that they're
gonna try her as an adult. Now, the media had been
covering the story all along. The public was very interested. Dave and Mary were doing as
much press as they could, but once the arrests happened,
the coverage just boomed. It was nonstop. It was covered on HLN. It was even covered on
CNN by Anderson Cooper. So when it makes it to that level, lots of eyes are on this case. - It's such a disturbing story. What is next for these
two teenage suspects? - Anderson, 16-year-old
Rachel Shoaf had been charged with first-degree murder,
but after leading authorities to Skylar's body in the
woods, she cut a plea deal. She pled guilty earlier this
month to second-degree murder, but she still could get 40
years in prison, Anderson. Now the other girl, the other
suspect who hasn't been named, she is still charged as a
juvenile with first-degree murder, although a judge could
charge her as an adult. We're waiting on that decision. There is no word that a plea
deal is in the works for her. - Now, Shelia had already
been tried as an adult, so her name was released to the public, but Shelia was being held
as a juvenile at this point, so hers wasn't. But of course, people in the school knew that once Rachel was arrested that Shelia was probably involved, too. People put the pieces
together extremely quick. Shelia was indicted by a grand jury in West Virginia with
one count of kidnapping, one count of first-degree murder, and one count of conspiracy
to commit murder. And as soon as she was
charged as an adult, her name was released to the public, and people went wild online. Shelia is a very hated person online. And I must say, Shelia has a
real evil fucking vibe to her. She's like mean girls to the next level. After going up to Skylar's
parents during the whole search, pretending she was there for them, tweeting about how much she missed Skylar, all of that was so clearly fake because she would only show emotion when she was in court about going to jail, never about Skylar,
never about her family. It was always when jail was brought up and her future was brought up. Shelia was even smiling
at some points in court, and she seemed very worried
about her appearance, very into her hair. And of course, she pleaded not
guilty to all of the charges. The trial started on October 22nd, 2013, and Rachel's defense
attorney actually asked for her testimony to be suppressed because she had a lot of
mental health issues going on. They also asked the judge for
the trial to be postponed, and they did agree to that, so it was rescheduled
for January 28, 2014. And at this point, I think after thinking about it a little more,
realizing that there was no hope for her to get off for this, she ended up deciding to
take a plea deal instead. And in return for this, the
state of Pennsylvania agreed to not press additional charges on top of what she already had. So on January 24th, 2014, Shelia did plead guilty
to first-degree murder. But even her lawyer who,
normally, defense attorneys will, at least publicly, say
they believe their clients. But he was just like straight
up, "I looked at everything, and I couldn't find any
reasonable explanation for her actions." There was really nothing to defend. This was clearly premeditated. The two girls had talked about this. They thought about it
for a while for months. They had all the supplies ready to go, so there was nothing to be said. This is a clear premeditated
first-degree murder, period. So finally 18 months after
she murdered Skylar Neese in cold blood, Shelia was
sentenced to life in prison but with mercy, which means that she will be up for parole in 15 years. And Shelia never expressed any remorse, never said sorry to the family. In fact, she seemed more distracted in court with how she looked. She was wearing makeup. Her hair was done a
certain way, which Rachel, on the other hand, in
her trial and sentencing, looked very disheveled, very depressed. Clearly, the gravity of
everything had hit her. The next month, Rachel
was sentenced as well and got 30 years in prison because it was mostly Shelia that did
it, Shelia that initiated it once they looked more into everything. It was really Shelia leading the charge, but that was very controversial as well. A lot of people think she
should have gotten more time, and she would also be eligible for parole after serving only 10 years. Now Rachel, on the other hand, did apologize to the family in court. I will play that right now. - I 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
each day for what I've done. The person that did that
was not the real me, not the person I am, not what I'm made of, and not what I believe in. I don't think I ever thought that this would actually happen. I became scared and caught up in something that I did not wanna do. I never realized the gravity of my actions and how many people I've hurt. I hurt the Neese family
and those who love Skylar. I hurt my parents and shamed my family. I hurt my extended family and all of my friends who loved me. I heard my teachers and
those who believed in me. I hurt my church family, my community, and those who trusted me, and I hurt my Lord and
savior, Jesus Christ. My God bring eternal peace to Skylar and the entire Neese family. Again, I'm so sorry, and I pray each day for everyone involved, and I
pray each day for forgiveness. - And her family also
released a public apology through their lawyer, but Dave and Mary just do not accept it, especially from Rachel. - Rachel Shoaf also murdered
my daughter in cold blood. Skylar would not be where she was if it wasn't for Rachel Shoaf. You said yourself, your Honor, this is first-degree murder. She should not give any leniency, and she can take her apologies and everything else set
on them because that's about what they're
worth to me and my wife. She has done nothing but
make our lives a living hell since since day one. She did cooperate in
the end because she knew that it was closing in on her,
and yes, she would be caught. That's the only reason she feels remorse. - I completely sympathize with them. I can see how it would be near impossible to forgive someone that
took your only child from you like that in such a brutal way. The fact that they have to live with the thoughts about
her bleeding out alone in the fucking forest is just devastating. - We did a story a few days later, trying to help out and see if
anybody knew where Skylar was. I'll direct this both of you, but Dave ended that story
pleading, "Just come home, baby." When you think back and
those being the first words, at least the community got to hear about your missing daughter
and what you guys wanted, what do you think about? (Mary laughs) - A lot of tears.
- I wish that's what it was, she had just run away
and did come back, yeah. I don't (laughs) know how to answer that. - Doing fine, guys. - I don't know if I would ever be able to forgive these girls either. Dave is just extremely angry. He is so hurt to another
level, and Mary is, too, but Mary seems to have a little
bit more of an understanding and a bit more sympathy towards the girls. She believes that they have mental illness and that's why they did this, but she says their apology means nothing, she can't forgive them, and I get that. - I know they're mentally ill. You have to be to do something like that. But even at that, there's
still got to be some reason. Even mentally ill people,
if they don't like someone, they stay away from them. - They were jealous.
- I think that's a lot of it. - I think how two faced you can be and how sick in the head
you can be to walk up to grieving parents who
are crying their eyes out and hug them and tell
them it will be okay. - And in my mind, my opinion, again, that shows the depth of
their mental illness. They were trying so hard to cover it up, and they did a (beep)
good job, they really did. - So to this day, the two of
them are both incarcerated in the Lakin Correctional Center in Mason County, West Virginia. Now of course, the idea of
them getting out on parole is really upsetting and very
upsetting to Dave and Mary, and David vows that he
will not let that happen. He's gonna make sure
that they stay in jail, and there is one positive
outcome, you could say, from this whole situation,
and that is Skylar's Law, and this law actually changed
West Virginia's criteria for putting out an AMBER Alert. And basically now, an
immediate AMBER Alert will be put out to the public, even if the child is not
suspected of being kidnapped. Dave and Mary Neese are still, how can their life ever be happy again? They're missing a huge part of them, and that's what makes this so much harder is that Skylar was our only child, so now it's just the two of them. And luckily they're still
together, they have each other, and they seem to have a really
good supportive relationship, which is wonderful to see. But this has broken their hearts in a way that can never be repaired. They made the area where
Skylar's body was found into a really nice
Memorial area with a bench, with some stone, they put flowers there, they decorate it through the holidays, and it's just a nice place
for them to come and reflect. And for some of Skylar's friends who saw this very dangerous
relationship happening to come and sit and just
be with her in spirit. And I think that's really cool
that they have turned a place where something so her horrific happened into somewhere really
beautiful that they can heal. Now, normally I ask what you guys think at the end of the video, what
your opinions are in the case. But I know you guys are all
gonna feel the same way as me, that Skylar deserved so much better and that I'm just happy
that justice was served, that Rachel finally
hit that point of guilt where she came forward and told the truth because who knows if we would even know what happened to this day
if they kept it a secret? Maybe there wouldn't have
been enough evidence. I don't know, but I think
both of those girls need to absolutely stay behind bars. So yeah, just a really, really crazy case. I feel tired after talking
about this, honestly. For two teenage girls to be so evil, so calculated is honestly just terrifying. But let me know what you guys think, of course, in the comments below. I wanna hear your thoughts on this case. If you enjoyed this case, be
sure to give it a thumbs up, and I will make sure to do some more cases that are similar, some more solved cases. But that's it for me today, guys. I hope you guys are all staying safe out there in this crazy world, and I will see you in my next video. (slow dramatic music)
