Dateline NBC - Something Wicked

Episode Date: July 4, 2023

In this Dateline classic, a popular 16-year-old goes missing in the dead of night in rural West Virginia. Andrea Canning reports. Originally aired on NBC on March 7, 2014.Andrea Canning catches up with the Neeses to discuss Rachel Shoaf’s parole hearing, their advice to parents of teenagers, and their continued advocacy for change following their daughter’s murder. After the Verdict available now only by subscription to Dateline Premium on Apple Podcasts. LINK: https://apple.co/3D15KCL

Tonight on Dateline. She was beautiful. Her eyes were just remarkable. I was going to be there for her, she was going to be there for me. It didn't matter what it was. I thought that maybe she'd been kidnapped. There's nothing that I could have done or anyone could have done. Skylar going missing was a tough pill to swallow. First impression was it could be a runaway.

She slowly walked down to a car in the backseat and she drove away. Something's wrong, something's bad wrong. It's always Sheila, Skyler, Rachel, always together. Sheila seemed so upset to have lost her best friend. I told Rachel if you know anything you need to say what happened. Gossip going around that there was this teenage party, possible overdose. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, things start to get ridiculously out of control. The locals would whisper in each other's ears. They planned that crime, not just for hours, but days, weeks, months.

This was diabolical. What are we dealing with? Evil comes in all shapes and sizes. Teenagers tangled up in a murder mystery. Who was behind it? I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline. Tonight, Andrea Canning with Something Wicked. In the gentle rolling hills of northern West Virginia, in a sweet college town in the heart of coal country, live three teenage girls.

Their photos capture a moment in time. They were smart, talented, lovely, everything a parent could hope for in a daughter. And so who could have guessed, just by looking, that some of them carried a dark secret about a friend. Long County 911, do you have an emergency? I have a 16-year-old daughter. She has not been home, hasn't went to work. I am scared to death. These teens played a strange and haunting game. Would you guys rather suffocate or get shot?

Get shot. A game of betrayal that would go way beyond typical teenage drama. She's calling out, help me. You know, why, why, why? And at the center of it all was a girl named Skylar. Dave and Mary Neese welcomed their only daughter Skylar to the world back in 1996. Tell me about the day she was born. Was that the greatest moment of your life? I wouldn't go that far. First time you saw her? First time I saw her, yes, I can say that was the greatest moment of my life. Yeah, it was instant love.

They live in Star City, a small suburb of Morgantown, West Virginia, where Dave worked at Walmart and Mary at a medical office. Skylar was a whirlwind, a rambunctious, precocious toddler who owned her parents' hearts. Hey, gorgeous. Hi, Daddy. You're a beautiful baby. She was reading way before she was supposed to, doing math and stuff way before she was supposed to, so she was a very intelligent little girl.

Thanks for me. Whee! When Skylar started nursery school, she made her first friend, Morgan Lawrence. Morgan was drawn right away to Skylar. Did she kind of light up her room? Oh, yeah. She had the giggle and the laugh. The girls' families became good friends, too. Morgan's parents, Dave and Cheryl, say Morgan and Skylar were like sisters. What are your memories of Skylar when she was this high?

She giggled all the time. It just filled our house. She had the biggest eyes. You just wanted to hug her. They were good girls, got good grades. Morgan dreamed of becoming a meteorologist, Skylar a criminal lawyer. They also had a pact that they would always be there for one another. And you would both be in each other's wedding parties? Everyone has a sister to put in their wedding, and we had each other. As freshmen at Morgantown's University High School, the two girls drifted apart a little. With a new school came new friends. Classmate Daniel Hovatter says the

bubbly Skylar fit in right away. Friends came first with her. She was always about hanging out with friends if she didn't have work or school. Soon, Skylar had two new BFFs, Sheila Eddy, who the nieces had known for years, and Rachel Schoaf, a striking redhead with Broadway aspirations. It wasn't long before they were calling themselves the Three Musketeers, and in pictures, they looked the part. They were literally together every second of every day. It seemed like they hung out all the time. And like all teenage girls, they shared videos and photos with each other and online,

giving us a glimpse into their world. Skylar and Sheila just having fun. Now let me try to go on your back with this. And of course they occasionally got into trouble, but even then it was for typical teenage things. Dave and Mary weren't too concerned. She's a straight-A student who loves her parents. Did you sort of chalk it up to, okay, we're not thrilled, but she's a straight-A student who loves her parents. Did you sort of chalk it

up to, okay, we're not thrilled, but she's a teenager? Exactly. When Summer rolled around after her sophomore year, Skylar seemed happy. She had a job at Wendy's, which she loved. On Thursday, July 5th, 2012, she came home after work and got ready for 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. The next day, Dave planned to meet Skylar in their apartment at lunchtime.

He was surprised that she wasn't there. A little worried, he called Mary. I thought she was out with one of her other friends. I figured they went swimming or shopping. Dave called her friends, including Sheila. No one had seen her. Next, he went outside and found more cause for worry. A small bench was tucked near Skylar's window, and the window screen was missing. At this time, I called Skylar's cell phone. I said, hey, you're in trouble. You better be calling me right away.

So I called her cell phone about 10 times. I called Mary again. Again, Mary told him to calm down. She said Skylar was expected at work at 4. I said, we're not going to worry. I'll call them about 10 after 4, give her time to clock in, everything, see if she's there. But Mary didn't get a chance to call Wendy's. They called us first, wanting to know if she was coming to work. Was that a big moment for you? Yeah. A few minutes later, there was another big surprise, a call from Sheila.

She said that she had to tell me the truth, and I said, well, what truth? She said, well, we snuck out last night. Mary's heart fell. Skyler had done that once before, gone on a late night joyride with Rachel and Sheila. That time they'd been caught for being out after the town curfew. And now here was a worried Sheila saying they'd done it again. 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. Now that missing screen and bench outside Skylar's window made sense. Skylar had put it there to boost herself up so she could get back in,

but it left them with a terrifying possibility. My first instinct was someone abducted her from the end of the street to our house. Dave called the police. 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 over. I can't find her. What's her name? Skylar Neese. The Neese's world had fallen apart. Their only daughter had disappeared into the night. And now she'd been gone for nearly 24 hours. Where was Skyler? Coming up.

Concern for Skyler begins to grow. I just had this horrible feeling in my heart that something terrible had happened. A grainy piece of videotape is about to give police one giant clue. What can they glean from this? She slowly walked down to a car and she got in the back seat. Star City, West Virginia has just 1,800 residents, only one stoplight. Schuyler going missing was a tough pill to swallow for the entire community. Police officer Jessica Colbank caught the Schuyler niece case. First impression was it could be a runaway.

There are kids that run away all the time. It wasn't long before Officer Colbank got the video from the security cameras at the Neese's building. Schuyler's friend, Sheila Eddy, had said Schuyler was home around midnight. So what was this car doing pulling up around 12.30 a.m.? Who was in it? Dave Neese watched horrified as there on the tape out walked Skyler. She slowly walked down to a car that was sitting there waiting on her. She got in the back seat, I could tell that, and she drove away.

Police couldn't quite make out a license plate or tell the maker model. Skyler's mom, Mary, had a theory. She made it home, snuck back in the window, then a second person or persons had parked behind the building and she snuck out a second time. But why?

Who was in the car and where did they go? The police didn't issue an Amber Alert since it looked like Skylar left voluntarily. Once that video came out that she willingly got in this car, they're not going to come out and look for somebody driving around in a car. Skylar's friend Sheila came right over. She spent a lot of time here telling us that it'll be okay, she'll be home, and I really miss her, I love her, I want her back. The next day, Sheila sat with Mary on Skyler's bed, both of them crying.

Did it bring you comfort when Sheila would come by being Skyler's best friend? It did me a little bit, yeah, knowing that how could Skyler leave her behind? Mary and Sheila took to the streets together, yeah, knowing that how could Skylar leave her behind? Mary and Sheila took to the streets together, posting flyers for Skylar. They would knock on the doors and ask, have you seen this girl? And we kept showing the pictures to people and nobody had seen her. Sheila was very, very worried about what had happened to Skylar. Chrissy Swanson was a close family friend of Sheila's and saw Sheila's distress firsthand.

She was trying so hard to help them find anything, so hard to help them figure out what had happened. The Star City police are still looking for a missing 16-year-old. Dave made a plea for help on local news station WBOY. We love our baby. We want her home. By Sunday night, Skylar had been gone the whole weekend. Her family, including her Aunt Carol, was heart sick. I just had this horrible feeling in my heart that, you know, something terrible had happened and it wasn't like her to run away or disappear like she did. Mary told me that night, she said,

something's wrong, Dave, something's bad, wrong. The community held a candlelight vigil. Skylar's school friends came, including Rachel and Sheila. They were crying, came up and hugged me, and Mary just crying her eyes out. The only thing Mary could say was, what can we do to help these girls? How can we help these girls?

Skyler's family friend Morgan Lawrence was upset too. She was away at camp when she read on Facebook that Skyler was missing. How worried were you? Oh, I was sick to my stomach all the time, worried. So was Officer Colbank. She was at it nonstop. I'd come back to the office in the evenings, you know, watching the video, getting Facebook records. Colbank was swamped with tips from people saying they'd seen Skylar from Morgantown to New York and even California. Each sighting was a dead end. At the same time,

Colbank pulled Skylar's records. What she found was ominous. Skylar wasn't using her cell phone or her ATM card. Colbank now had serious doubts that Skylar had run away. Usually runaways, they take items with them that they want, especially if she had contacts and glasses. She didn't take that stuff with her. And then police got an important new lead in the case. There had been two bank robberies in the nearby town of Blacksville. Both of them had

gone down around the time Skyler vanished. I was working with other investigators on those bank robberies. While looking into the robberies, Ronnie Gaskins of the West Virginia State Police was called into Skyler's case. There had been a tip that somehow Skyler had been at a party with the suspected bank robbers when something bad happened. What was the theory? There were just rumors, you know, gossip going around that there was this teenage party, there was a possible overdose, and people there were scared, so they hid the body. It seemed unlikely. Skyler didn't use heavy drugs. It was just a lot of tracking down rumors, tons and tons and tons of rumors. All leading nowhere.

By now, Schuyler had been gone more than a month. Gaskins vowed he would find her. I don't like to make promises in my line of work, but the only promise I made to Dave was we would never stop. You know, never give up in trying to find out what happened to Schuyler. Their search for Schuyler had taken them across the United States. What they didn't know then was that the truth was right there in Morgantown at University High. Coming up.

Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook things start to get ridiculously out of control. Whispers in the hallways. Was someone hiding something? Police are about to get a break. That was an aha moment. Finally, we have something to go on. When Dateline continues. The first day of school, the fall of 2012, was heartbreaking. One of university high school's top students, Skylar Neese, had disappeared during the summer. Classmate Shania Ammons.

Starting school without her, like that was probably one of the hardest days through the whole thing. Like Skylar was a go- the hardest days through the whole thing. Like, Skylar was a go-to person, and she was just gone. Skylar's friend, Morgan Lawrence, was dreading roll call. I didn't have any classes with her, thank God. You didn't want to hear her name called? It's not the same. It's, you know, you can't tell the teacher. We don't know if she's coming back.

Sheila, come here. In some ways, life seemed normal. Skylar's good friend, Sheila Eddy, seen here in this video taken in the classroom, was back in school. I don't want my baby to look like him. So was BFF Rachel Schoaf, singing for friends in this video. The world around me changes. Rachel got the lead in the fall play, but everyone was worried about Skylar. And in school hallways and on social media, rumors flew.

Between Twitter and Instagram and Facebook, you just see things start to get ridiculously out of control. Kids saying things from Skylar had overdosed and things that Skylar's in a different country. Daniel Hovatter was in drama with Rachel and knew how close the three girls were. He wondered if Rachel and Sheila might be helping cover something up for Skylar. There had been rumors going around, oh, Rachel and Sheila know where she's hiding. Daniel knew Rachel and Sheila were the last ones to see Skylar. He wondered if they were protecting last ones to see Skylar. He wondered if they were protecting her or maybe protecting someone else. Either way, they had to know

something. There were probably a good three, four, five times where I told Rachel, if you know anything, you need to say what happened or where she's at. Daniel wasn't alone. Writers Dailene Berry and Jeff Fuller live in the Morgantown area and have written a book about Skylar's case. They've spent hours combing through what kids were saying on social media. The one thing that stood out to me is that people, teens, were tweeting Sheila and Rachel had to know something. Why don't you guys just talk? Just say something. Yeah. You know, tell us what you know. The heat got turned up on the girls when the FBI showed up and started interviewing students. I was only interviewed once. I guess I was nervous because I was like, it's the FBI. Like,

they're serious. They asked me about Rachel and Sheila, if they seemed any different. And I was telling them they didn't seem different, but they were secluded to themselves more. The normal fall rituals like football and homecoming were punctuated with police visits to Rachel and Sheila. Kids say Rachel left play rehearsal to meet with the FBI. Mary and Dave Neese, desperate to find their daughter, thought the police were wasting their time investigating the girls they knew so well. I even went to the police and said, will you leave Sheila alone, please? I said, you guys

are harassing her 24-7. The kid's going through enough right now. Leave her alone. She was like our daughter. But investigators were convinced the two girls knew more than they were saying. That fall, Ronnie Gaskins interviewed each girl repeatedly. How was Sheila's demeanor in these meetings you would have with her? Calm, collect, would look at you right in the face, right in your eyes. He says Rachel seemed distracted. She would draw on the desk, play with the pencil.

Just her nonverbal cues spoke a lot. Their story never varied. They picked Skylar up, drove around Morgantown, smoked a little pot, and dropped her off a few blocks from home. It was like a recording with these two. In the meantime, the officers had begun to collect physical evidence and it didn't match In the meantime, the officers had begun to collect physical evidence, and it didn't match up with the story the girls had been telling. Surveillance video from a convenience store put the girls' car not heading east, as they'd said, but heading west, toward Blacksville.

And the girls' phone records from that night showed Rachel's phone hanging off a cell tower in Blacksville. That was an aha moment. Finally we have something to go on that's different from their story. Now even Skylar's parents joined the chorus of people trying to get the girls to talk. I started posting on Facebook things about karma. Karma will get you. You can't hide. We were pushing. We were pushing the girls to get them to say what happened. By late November, the pressure seemed to be taking its toll on Rachel. In an interview, she surprised police by changing her story, admitting for the first time that they did drive to Blacksville that night. And that's where Skyler told them to let her out of the car.

Blacksville, where those bank robberies had happened. The next day, Sheila changed her story to say the same thing. That must have been a big red flag for you. Absolutely. At school, kids say Rachel was increasingly rattled. Rachel seemed distressed. She seemed like she was very upset over something. I mean, this was eating at her heart.

Rachel Schoaf was about to crack. Coming up. This is over. Please hurry. An emergency at home and an interview with police. What exactly was Rachel Schoaf about to reveal? We were speechless. Christmas 2012 came and went for Skylar Neese's parents, Dave and Mary.

It had been six months since their daughter had disappeared. The holidays must have been very tough that year, Christmas time. We didn't celebrate. No. We didn't put up any tree. We didn't do anything. Just another day. Yep.

Around that time, Rachel Schoaf and Sheila Eddy stopped attending University High. Their few remaining friends told authors Dailene Berry and Jeff Fuller that Rachel seemed agitated. She was acting out, getting into more family altercations at home. So the walls were closing in on Rachel. Vaughn County 9-1-1, do you have an emergency? I have an issue with a 16-year-old daughter of mine. We can't control her anymore. And then, on December 28th, Rachel apparently snapped. Her upset mother called the police. And Rachel was taken to a mental health facility. A few days later, Corporal Ronnie Gaskins got a big surprise.

Rachel wanted to meet at her lawyer's office. She had something she wanted to say. Take us inside that attorney's office with Rachel. What was her demeanor? I remember her pulling up a wastebasket next to her. She's afraid she's going to throw up. And then we started asking her the questions that we thought she would answer. She overdosed, was there a party? And I remember she just, her face got really red and and she just glanced at us and said we stabbed her. It wasn't an accident. It was a murder. And not only had Rachel and Sheila killed Skyler, they had planned it for months.

All the while looking and acting like the best of friends, as Sheila and Skyler do in this video. As part of the plan, Rachel and Sheila settled on the night of July 5th as the ideal time to kill Skylar. Earlier that day, Rachel had obtained the shovel from her father's residence. They put it in Sheila's trunk. They brought the clean clothes, cleaning supplies, and according to Rachel, Sheila had provided the kitchen knives. They called Skylar to say they were on their way over.

Pulled up to the residence. And there is Skylar, sneaking out in that grainy surveillance video. The car is Sheila's, and inside are Skylar's two best friends. Skylar gets in the car, and they go driving. And they drove for nearly an hour, for miles and miles, on dark, winding roads out past Blacksville.

They get to the scene, they park the car, and they found an area where they could sit and talk. Schuyler leaves to go back to the car, and then Rachel said, on three. According to Gaskins, Rachel said she counted one, two, three, and on three, the two girls began. That's when her and Sheila started stabbing Skylar from behind. Gaskins says Skylar fought hard to defend herself. Did Rachel indicate what Skylar's last words were, her final moments in that meeting?

She said, Skylar just said, why? That's all she said. Rachel said the girls covered the body with dirt and branches, threw their bloody clothes in the trunk, and left Skylar there. Did Rachel express how she felt when the crime was over? I just remember her saying that this was something she wanted to get done before she went to church camp.

How did you feel when she said, I had to get this done before church camp? What are we dealing with? Did you ask Rachel why? Why did you two do this? 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. After telling police the story rachel led authorities down that lonely road past blacksville to a spot just across the pennsylvania border there they eventually found a few scattered human remains and sent them to a lab for testing

i just couldn't imagine the pain and suffering and the fear she went through her being alone in that place with her two best friends and she knew what was happening when he started stabbing her authorities kept rachel's confession secret even from the nieces while the investigation continued the fbi told mary and dave only that remains believed to be schuyler's had been found. I broke down pretty bad, yeah. We both did. That was a bad day. It was so lonely and so deserted. And it was a horrible thing to know that she had been there and no one knew. One, two, three, go.

Happy birthday, three, go. Happy birthday, Skylar. In February of 2013, just as they had since she was a little girl, I'm ready. the nieces gathered with friends on Skylar's birthday, this time without her. They quietly told the Lawrences their awful news. Did your heart just break for Mary and Dave? My heart was slowly breaking the entire time. I remember the first thing I felt, it was just like a surreal of,

I know she's not, you know, out there in the cold. Ronnie Gaskins had a confession from Rachel, and she led him to a body. But it wasn't enough. Why wouldn't you arrest somebody right away who's confessed to killing someone? She had lied to us a number of times before, so we had to say, well, who's to say she's lying again? So we had to corroborate her statement.

What's more, Gaskins needed Rachel, so he didn't arrest her. Instead, he was about to use Rachel to get Sheila. Coming up, grieving or pretending? Sheila seemed like she was so upset to have lost her best friend. She even asked me, how could someone do this to Skylar?

Will the truth catch up to Sheila Eddy when Dateline continues. Corporal Ronnie Gaskins was on a mission to put two girls behind bars. It was one of those where you couldn't get there fast enough. Rachel Schoaf had just confessed to teaming up with Sheila Eddy to kill their friend, Skylar Neese. Now she was cooperating with police. Gaskins and his fellow investigators hatched a plan. Rachel would invite Sheila to her house. As hidden cameras rolled, she would try to get Sheila to incriminate herself. We were close by in case something happened.

Sheila did come over. She tweeted this photo of herself and an uncomfortable-looking Rachel, with the caption, Finally got to see Rach. But police didn't record anything to pin Sheila to the crime. The girls did not disclose anything specific. They were just very casual. A few days later, the police went to Sheila's house with a warrant.

We seized every kitchen knife we could find. Then the FBI seized Sheila's car, and they were able to find a presence of DNA in the trunk. DNA in Sheila's trunk. If it proved to be Skyler's, it would be critical to Gaskin's case, a direct link connecting the girls to Skyler's, it would be critical to Gaskin's case, a direct link connecting the girls to Skyler's death. They shipped a sample off to the lab and waited. Meanwhile, Gaskin's got a positive ID on the human remains found out past Blacksville. It was Skyler. The search for Montague County teenager Skyler Neese is over. At University High School, confirmation that Skylar had been

found dead was heartbreaking. I was devastated. It was, it was crazy. Shania called her friend Sheila as soon as she heard the awful news. I was crying and she was crying. There was Sheila, suspected murderer, crying tears for Skylar. And she's like, who do you think could have done this? Why would somebody do that to Skylar? Sheila also cried with her friend Chrissy Swanson. And once Skylar's body was found, Sheila seemed like she was so upset to have lost her best friend.

She couldn't believe that something like this would happen. She even asked me, how could someone do this to Skylar? And Sheila let everybody know how sad she was. She tweeted things like, Worst day of my whole life. The pain is real. And rest easy, Skylar. You'll always be my best friend.

I miss you more than you could ever know. But social media revealed two sides to Sheila. She could mourn Skylar, but on Twitter and Facebook, she and Rachel also seemed carefree. As the police continued their investigation, Sheila posed in photos at the prom. Rachel tweeted, I need a mimosa, or ten. Rachel tweeted, The locals would whisper in each other's ears and say, how are they still free? Blogger Cole Bartiromo started following this case early on

and was struck by Sheila's tweets. Things like, ain't no rest for the wicked. And incredibly, this apparent reference to that countdown to Skylar's murder. We really did go on three. It's unbelievable that she feels she's so invincible to tweet this publicly. And then finally, by mid-April 2013, Ronnie Gaskins got the one critical piece of evidence he needed, confirmation that Skylar's blood had been found in Sheila's trunk. On top of the video surveillance, the phone records, Rachel's statement, at that point we felt confident

we had the probable cause to make the arrest. Now authorities told Skylar's parents the whole story. Their daughter's two best friends had killed her. I feel like I have to turn away. I think about it every day. I think about the misery my child must have been through. And I'm helpless. I can't help her. She's calling out, help me. You know, why, why, why? Animals got her. They can't help her. She's calling out, help me. You know, why, why, why?

Animals got her. They didn't even care. Nope. They just threw her out like a bag of trash. On May 1, 2013, in exchange for her cooperation with police, Rachel Schoaf pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Within minutes, Gaskins raced across Morgantown, his heart pounding. Obviously, we were going lights and sirens because we had a murder warrant to serve. Sheila was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the parking lot of the local Cracker Barrel restaurant, where she and her mom were having lunch. Sheila was crying, and she kept asking her mother,

is everything going to be okay? And her mother, I don't know, Sheila. Gaskins had promised Skyler's parents he wouldn't quit until the case was solved. It felt good for once that she was coming with us. The question of who had been answered, but people were haunted by an unanswered question. Skyler's last word, why? Coming up I became caught up in something that I did not want to do The accused killers head to court And the motive for murder?

They planned that crime for days, weeks, months What could that be? Sheila Eddy was not about to give in without a fight. There she was in September 2013, a lone blonde teen in a crowd of accused men pleading not guilty to the kidnapping and murder of Skylar Neese. This was terrible news for Skylar's parents. I don't want to go through a trial and hear the gruesome details of all this. That would tear me apart. With a trial looming, the question on everyone's mind was why. Investigators wanted to know too, and in the halls of University High, they got

glimpses of a motive, saw snapshots of a troubled three-way friendship. Morgan Lawrence saw a disturbing dynamic firsthand. I was not a huge fan of Rachel and Sheila. As far back as freshman year, Morgan had worried that her friend Skyler was heading into a place she might not belong when she became close friends with Rachel and Sheila. Morgan especially didn't like Sheila. She hung out with the wrong crowd. She had lots of friends that were 20-some years old.

That's just a little strange. Morgan says she'd watched, uneasy, as the three girls became inseparable. Skylar's cousin Kyle adored Skylar and says he felt uneasy too. You'd walk through the halls, you don't see one without the other. It's always Sheila, Schuyler, Rachel, always together. By sophomore year, he saw changes in Schuyler. And it seemed like about that time she didn't have that same nice quality to her. She was more sour, I think, toward people.

She started almost acting the way that Sheila acted. It must have been hard to see her changing. It's difficult to watch it in general, and it's even harder whenever it's someone as close as someone that you called your family. Students told writers Jeff Fuller and Dailene Berry that by mid-sophomore year, the three girls' relationship had begun to deteriorate. They've written about this in their book, The Savage Murder of Skylar Neese. Sheila and Rachel were dissing Skylar when she wasn't around and putting her down and that kind of thing. So it was kind of a two-faced situation. Yeah. Students say that around this time, they started hearing Rachel and Sheila

discuss the best way to kill someone. And Rachel's friend, Fantasia Liller, recalls a chilling conversation. Rachel was ranting to me how much she didn't like Skylar one day. Well, she said word for word, I'm pretty sure, was, I wouldn't mind if she died at this point. Which makes this cell phone video all the more haunting, because it was captured by Skylar six months before she was killed. You said it two times. Sheila asked Skylar and Rachel to choose the best way to die. Would you guys rather suffocate or get shot? Get shot. Shot. Wait, it depends on where. Would you rather in the head? Shot. There'd be no suffering at all.

Drowning or suffocating? Suffocating. It's almost the same thing. I know, but... An incredibly disturbing scene. Friends say in the months before Skylar's death, she and Sheila fought constantly. Late on July 5th, Skylar tweeted this. You doing blank like that is why I will never completely trust you. Later that night, Skylar is seen here on that surveillance tape, driving away from home for the last time. What were they fighting about? There's a possible answer. Hallway whispers that

Rachel and Sheila had developed a sexual relationship and that Skylar knew and threatened to out them. Did they kill her to keep their secret? In January 2014, Dave and Mary finally got the news they'd been hoping for, a plea deal. Sheila Eddy, how do you plead to the offense of murder in the first degree of the felony charged in count three of the indictment in this case? Guilty. Sheila's attorney, Michael Benninger, read a statement from Sheila and her family. My client and her family recognize that the Niece family is in a constant state of despair, loneliness, and sadness as a result of Skylar's death. Sheila was sentenced to life in prison and is eligible for parole in 2028. A month later, Dave and Mary went back to court,

this time for Rachel Schoaf's sentencing. Rachel has a profound sadness at this loss and a profound sadness for Mr. and Mrs. Neese. Therapist Patricia Bailey was hired by Rachel's family to meet Rachel in prison. From the day I met Rachel, she has said to me, I deserve to be in here. I did something terribly wrong.

I hurt somebody. Rachel does miss Skyler very much so, and then she also weeps for her because she knows that she cannot undo the past and that she will never see her again. In court, Rachel apologized directly to Dave and Mary. 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. I became scared and caught up in something that I did not want to do. I never realized the gravity of my actions and how many people I've hurt. Skyler's dad, who had once defended the girls, didn't mince words. Yes, Rachel Shope did cooperate. And Rachel Shope also murdered my daughter in cold blood. She can take her apologies and everything else and sit on them because that's about what they're worth to me and my wife.

She has done nothing but make our lives a living hell since this day one dave and mary wish they'd known more about what was going on in skyler's life in the months before she died what is your biggest regret if you have one not knowing the girls better you know and i don't know if anyone could have known him that well but there had to be a sign somewhere there had to be a clue rachel chef would you please stand rachel was sentenced to 30 years in prison in may of 2023 she went before the parole board and said she and sheila had been in a romantic relationship and schuyler knew they feared schuyler would tell their secret so they decided to kill her we reached out to sheila's, but she declined to comment.

Rachel was denied parole. Prosecutor Marsha Ashdown says don't be fooled by the girl's appearance. They planned that crime not just for hours, but days, weeks, months. The horror of that really is what strikes us in the end, not how those girls look in shackles. Young, old, attractive, unattractive, male, female, doesn't matter. Evil comes in all shapes and sizes. These days around Morgantown, there's lingering damage.

People who feel they'll never trust anyone again. After I had heard all that, I didn't really want to become friends with anybody else. It's like finding out your little sister was a murderer. I still to this day have trust issues. Skylar's friend, Morgan Lawrence, told us she thought about all the milestones she and Skylar planned to mark together. You two should be doing everything alongside each other. Yeah, they didn't just, you know, take away a bride. They took away a bridesmaid. Skylar's second parents say they'll miss out too. When Morgan walks down the aisle, yes, Skylar won't be there. She will be. She'll be watching over her? She will.

In June 2013, Dave and Mary had a memorial service at the site where Skylar was killed. And they're proud to have helped pass Skylar's Law, which requires amber alerts even when police suspect a teen has run away. A national version of Skylar's Law was passed by Congress in February 2019. It's peaceful here now. They come here often, even in the winter, to tend the small garden they've built for Schuyler. Mary, how do you want Schuyler to be remembered?

The happy, loving little girl that she was. And the smile. That smile could light up a room. That's all for this edition of Dateline. We'll see you again Friday at 9, 8 Central. And of course, I'll see you each weeknight for NBC Nightly News. I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, good night.