True Crime All The Time - The Murder of Skylar Neese

Episode Date: January 21, 2019

Skylar was a well-liked and bubbly 16-year-old who lived in West Virginia. She had two best friends and three of them did everything together. As with many teenagers, their lives played out o...n social media. But the friendship between the trio began to fray and in 2012 Skylar's friends made the decision that they were going to end her life.Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss the strange and horrible events surround Skylar's death. She was a straight A kid who worked a part-time job. What happened with the relationship with this trio that was once inseparable? How can teenage girls plan and carry out the murder of their best friend and what were the true reasons behind it?You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationSponsors:Visit takecareof.com and use our promo tcatt50 to get 50% off your first month of vitamins especially put together just for you and your needs.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:34 and welcome to episode 114 of the True Crime All the Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in True Crime, Mike Gibson. Gibby, how are you? Hey man, I'm doing all right. Good. Good to hear it. Yeah. Did you have a good week at work? Yeah, work wasn't bad.
Starting point is 00:00:51 Good. My boss was in town. Yeah. How about that? Yeah. That's work. That's work, man. Work and work.
Starting point is 00:00:57 Remember that place? I do remember what works like. I do. Do you miss work at all, man? No. Not one bad. I miss the people. I will say that.
Starting point is 00:01:05 And I know a lot of them listen to the show. I do miss the people. There's some great people there. I don't miss the actual work. Do you remember what jeans used to be? I still wear jeans. Do you? I wore them today.
Starting point is 00:01:15 I had to leave the house. Oh. But then as soon as you got home, you found the sweats, pajamas. Exactly. All right. I just checking. All right, Gibbs. We've got a lot of Patreon and PayPal support.
Starting point is 00:01:26 So let's run through those. We had Karen Stavala. Hey, thank you. Brandon Logue. Thank you. Kayla Nelson Hendricks jumped out at our highest level. name for you. Melinda Mantilla. Camilla. Kiera Bird.
Starting point is 00:01:38 Hey, Kate O'Connor. Thank you, Katie. Connie Clark. Connie. Amanda Campbell. Thank you. Maggie Walker. Thanks, Maggie. Brittany La Belle. Ansley Papazon. Ooh, Le Papazon.
Starting point is 00:01:51 Eleanor. Thanks, Eleanor. Kayla Bailey. Hey, thanks, Kayla. Lauren Verholst. Verholst? I think so. Yeah. Desi White.
Starting point is 00:02:00 Hey, Desi. Jocelyn Hennon Camp jumped out higher than our highest level. ending camp. Amy Breeden. Thanks, Amy. Stephanie Golden. Oh, she's gold. Emily Kate.
Starting point is 00:02:10 Thank you, Emily. Pauline Kursis. Wow. Thank you. Bianca Russell. Bianca. Dana Adams. Thanks, Dana.
Starting point is 00:02:17 Jennifer Mosier. Ooh. Karazina Hart. And Brian Trum. Hey, thanks, Brian. So a lot of Patreon support there, but we've had a lot, and I'm trying to squeeze as many as I can. Now, we go back into the Vol Gibbs.
Starting point is 00:02:31 Let's go back. Back to the Future. future. It's Fawn Olson. Wow, Fawn. Thank you. Yeah, long-time supporter. Thanks for hanging with us. We appreciate that. And then we had a lot of PayPal support as well. We had Yvonne in the UK. Hey, Yvonne. Adam and Lindsay Newman. Oh, thank you. Melissa Buell. Joseph Waltham. Joseph. Candice Zugich. Yeah, maybe. I'm not sure. Dog tag furniture. Hey, dog tag. Whatever that is. Sounds cool. And Louina Llewellyn.
Starting point is 00:03:04 Oh, Louina. L-L. L-L. Loena. So a lot of great support. Yeah. Can't thank everybody enough. I know I ran through it fast, but there was a lot of names.
Starting point is 00:03:15 You did. All right, Gibbs. Right now, there is an episode out of true crime all the time unsolved. And we're talking about Julie Ray Harper. We are. And there's a tie-in in this case to Tommy Linsow. There is. One of, I don't want to say it's one of our favorite episodes, but it's an episode that you and I talk about a lot.
Starting point is 00:03:37 Yeah, it was a big episode for us. It was fascinating. Yeah, it had a lot of interesting parts to it. It did. So there's a connection there. There is. Julie's son is murdered. Yep.
Starting point is 00:03:48 They think she did it. Sure. And then all of a sudden, here comes Tommy Lynn sells and twist and turns. Twist and turns. Rabbit holes and all that good stuff. Exactly. So make sure. you check that out. And listen, CrimeCon is coming up in June, right? It's in New Orleans. We've mentioned it.
Starting point is 00:04:07 It is. They've given us our code. So if you're thinking about going or you know you're going to sign up, make sure you use our code. It's crime all the time 19. I even think if you contact them and give them the code and you already bought your pass, they might take it that way. Oh yeah. I don't know. Some reason I think last year. If you didn't use a code maybe. Yeah, I think last year they, They honored it. So I don't know. You need to reach out to them. Yeah, give it a try.
Starting point is 00:04:34 It helps us out. Yeah, because I know some of you already bought your passes. Sure. We've heard from a lot of people. And I'm really excited about going. The good thing is, me and Mike are not sharing a room the first night this time. It's not going to happen. There's no snuggling.
Starting point is 00:04:45 Nothing. There's no planes, trains, and automobiles. I'm on my own. Nothing like that. On my own. We did put out a Patreon-only episode yesterday. Yeah, we did. It's a good one.
Starting point is 00:04:56 I thought it was good. It was on a guy named Doug Feldman. The Harley King. killer to me. Yeah, he's the term. They call him the Terminator because he was shooting people on a Harley motorcycle. Except he never come back. He ain't never coming back from that. He ain't coming back. All right, Gibbs. Are you ready to get into this episode of true crime all the time? I'm ready. This is one that we've had a lot of requests for. And it's one that I've had on the list for a long time. And it's the murder of Skyler Nice. Yeah. Happened in 2012. She was 16 years. She was 16 years.
Starting point is 00:05:30 years old. You know, this was a murder that shocked a community. And really the world wants all the facts about what really happened came out. Because when the police finally announced the identity of her killers, number one, it turned out to be two high school girls. But then really, you know, the big thing is they were her best friends. So in a lot of ways, this case has, you know, some similarities with the Shonda sharer case that you and I did. And that case scared us a little bit, right? As parents, that one kind of shook us up. And not just us.
Starting point is 00:06:13 We heard from a lot of people. These kind of cases shake people up. And this one's going to be similar. Yeah, they really, I know those other ones shook me up. When you get down to it and you start asking all the questions, I mean, really, how can anyone, let alone two young girls. plan and carry out the murder of their best friend. What possible reason could anyone have for doing that?
Starting point is 00:06:38 I mean, let's face it, there's no reason. In most of the cases that we do, the reason that the killers have in their mind is so far out there. And it's going to be the exact same in this case. Yeah. And I think what's interesting about this case as well is that it happened during the social media age, right? This case is not that old.
Starting point is 00:07:03 Happened in 2012. So some of the things that happened before and after were caught on Twitter and Facebook. And we're going to talk about social media. Yeah. Because like I always tell my kids, be careful what you put out there. It doesn't go away. No, it stays. Even if it's pulled off of Twitter or Facebook, somebody's probably got a screenshot.
Starting point is 00:07:28 of it or it's out there somewhere. I still have that one of you. I know, and you're trying, you're holding it over my head. I might blow it up all the time. You know, when we sit at a table at CrimeCon, get one of those big stands, you know, of you on this photo and, you know. It'll just be me wearing suspender and ladenhosen. Well, I have that one too. I was going to start with the furry one.
Starting point is 00:07:51 Oh, you got a different one? Yeah, I was going to roll out a different one each day. Okay. All right. But let's talk a little bit about Skyler, N. niece. She was born on February 10th, 1996 to Dave and Mary niece. She was born in 1996. Yeah. Same year my daughter was born. It's like when you go into the gas station, regardless of what you're buying, a lot of times I'll look up. I'll see that sign. Yeah. There's like one for
Starting point is 00:08:17 cigarettes and there's one for beer. Oh, you've got to be a certain age. And I'm like, cheesy Pete's that's your high school graduation date or whatever now. Oh, there's a way. Well, now it's way way over that but I mean if you were born in 2000 right you can buy cigarettes I don't know is what's the age 18 yeah I've never smoked so yeah 18 18 um you can buy cigarettes lottery I guess what all that stuff 2000 2000 man now David Mary niece didn't have any other children so Skyler was an only child she grew up near Morgantown West Virginia Morgan town was Michigan Morgan Town is one of the bigger cities in West Virginia. It's home to West Virginia University, the mountaineers.
Starting point is 00:09:04 Been there. Have you? Yeah. I've never been there. I've been to West Virginia. I've been to some places in West Virginia. I've never been to Morgan Town. I've never been to the West Virginia University.
Starting point is 00:09:15 The one thing I know about them is they knocked my wildcats out of the tournament. What was that Bob Huskins or somebody like that? Bob Huggins. Huggins. Yeah. Yeah, not the actor, Bob Huskins or whatever. I don't think. You're talking about the guy that played in Jessica Rabbit?
Starting point is 00:09:33 Yeah. That's not Bob. Not him? I think his name's Bob, but it's not Hutchins. Huskins. It does start with an H, but I can't think of it. English, you know? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:09:46 Again, love when you add that really hard-hitting, pertinent, and factual information. It's good stuff, man. It's good stuff. Add it to the library. Exactly. But Morgantown is a little over an hour south of Pittsburgh. It's really just a little bit over three hours from both Columbus, Ohio and Washington, D.C. So it kind of gives you an idea geographically of where it is in the country. Been to D.C. too, a few times. Yeah, I have too. I really enjoy Washington, D.C. Yeah. Did you go there like I did to do some advising? I did not. Okay. No. Not in an official. government security clearance activity like you would have. I was more of a sightseer.
Starting point is 00:10:34 Yeah. Well, I acted like a sightseer? Yeah, right. So I got to the tunnels and I worked my way to where I needed to be. The only thing I don't like about Washington, D.C. is all the walking. I mean, you pretty much have to walk most places. Where else you're going to park on K Street and what you're never going to find a spot there.
Starting point is 00:10:52 Skyler had a very normal childhood. You know, she had loving parents. She was social. She had friends. And I think Gibbs, she really just generally loved life. Skyler met Sheila Eddie when they were both around eight years old. And although they didn't go to the same school, the pair hit it off and they became great friends.
Starting point is 00:11:17 And I do think that's somewhat unusual, right? It's not unusual to meet someone that doesn't go to your school when you're that young. But unless they're your. neighbor or live like right in your area. Yeah. It's weird to really develop that type of relationship and stay friends long term. But that's what happened here. That's not typical. Yeah, because you're not going to see them every day at school like you would your classmates. But Skyler and Sheila had a great relationship to did things together. They stayed all night at each other's houses. Skyler's parents have said that they thought of Sheila Eddie as part of the family.
Starting point is 00:11:57 Just another daughter. Yeah, another daughter. To the point Gibbs that a lot of times she just walk into the house without knocking. Kind of like me when I come over here. Yeah. Just come on in. You're more than welcome. Pull up a chair.
Starting point is 00:12:10 I mean, there's a shotgun that is facing the door, but you're still more than welcome. Yeah. I mean, you just don't pull the trigger. Yeah. No, no. Luckily, you're like, oh, it's Gibby. And you back away. So you only get mad when I sit in your chair.
Starting point is 00:12:23 But you know that's a really good friend. Oh, yeah. And I'm sure you've had some over the years when you were younger. I had some like that. Just people that were around all the time. Trusted them, didn't worry about anything. No, no. When they came over, they just walked in and said, hey, what's going on?
Starting point is 00:12:39 Leave them in your house while you're gone. But that's how close the pair was. But it really, it wasn't until their freshman year at university high school that they attended the same school. And that's why I thought it was so strange. All the way from eight years old. So probably around what, Gibbs, second grade? I think so. Second third grade.
Starting point is 00:13:00 Yeah. I'm going second. Go second. To freshman year, they didn't attend the same school, but somehow managed to create this bond, this very close friendship. Through my space. And sustain it. Well, I think that's a good point.
Starting point is 00:13:16 There had to have been some type of communication. You've got mail. I think it would have been a lot harder when you and I were kids in the, in the, in the 70s or early 80s. It would have been really rough, man. You'd be like, hey, you're home for the holidays. Yeah, to have a friend that lived. I don't know how far she lived, but it was they didn't, she didn't even live in the same
Starting point is 00:13:37 town. But it was also at university high school that they met a fellow classmate named Rachel Schoev. So Skyler and Sheila were best friends. They get to know Rachel. And it's like they become the three amigos. the three musketeers, three best friends. Rachel and Sheila didn't have any brothers or sisters either. So it was really the three of them.
Starting point is 00:14:03 They did everything together. People that knew them said later on, you never hardly saw them apart. But there's that old saying, Gibbs, right? Three is a crowd. Yeah. And that saying exists for a reason. A lot of times when you have a trio,
Starting point is 00:14:22 no matter what kind of, you know, trio it is. Right. One person is going to get left out of things sometimes, squeezed out sometimes. Sure. Pushed out. I mean, that's what's going to happen essentially in this situation. But talking about Skyler, she was intelligent, bubbly, hardworking. She was described as having these amazing, bright blue eyes, ivory skin. She had a dimple in her chin. She was a very cute girl. She played the flute. She loved animals. And she was described by everyone as being extremely loyal.
Starting point is 00:15:03 So if you were her friend or you were someone that she trusted, she would do anything for you. Never stab you in the back. Always be there for you. Oh, nymph. Exactly. She was, she was energetic. She was positive. I don't know how to describe her laughing.
Starting point is 00:15:28 It was more a giggle. It was like a he-he-he-he-he-he, you know, a little kid voice. And as she was laughing at you, she'd be saying stuff and giggling at the same time. She was kind. Very bubbly. Bubly. She had a smile to light up her room. So Gibbs, that was Dave and Mary talking about their daughter, Skyler.
Starting point is 00:15:53 Yeah. It's sad. It is sad. There's no doubt about it. But it's also interesting to hear them talk about Skyler and what they remember, right? What do you, they remember her laugh. They talked about that a lot. So I mentioned she's going to high school.
Starting point is 00:16:10 She's also working part time at Wendy's. She had a 4.0 grade average. And I think that's very impressive, right? Simultaneously holding down a part time job, going to school, and getting straight. days. Impressive. She had a dream of becoming a criminal attorney. So to me, you put all these things together and what you get is a very impressive young girl, positioning herself to do big things in the future. Now, all three of the girls, Skyler, Sheila and Rachel, they were similar in some ways, but different in others. Sheila has been described as the dark haired. Sometimes it
Starting point is 00:16:54 was bottle blonde, beauty of the group. Kind of like you. Yeah, I'm usually the beauty of the group. Yeah. Especially when I put on my Eric Estrada hair piece. Oh, that's the best piece. Oh, yeah. You should wear that for CrimeCon. I will. I will. Need that. See if anybody notice. Sheila was wild. She was fun to be around. She was like the life of the party type person. Okay. But she was also extremely controlling. She didn't always make the best decision. And a lot of times people that are kind of wild and carefree don't. Yeah. So she was a control freak.
Starting point is 00:17:29 I would say that's probably accurate. Yeah. But at the same time, wild and free. For herself. For herself. Yeah. But wanted to control what others did. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:40 That's a control freak. Many of Skyler's other friends didn't like her. They thought she was a bad influence. Now, then you talk about Rachel. Rachel was taller. She had red hair. She was in the theater in high school. she acted in some plays, but she came from a very religious, somewhat affluent family.
Starting point is 00:18:01 So she hadn't gone to school with either of these girls until high school because she attended Catholic school all the way up until it was time to go to the public high school. But really, when you look at all three of them, they were social, they all had friends. They all did pretty well in school. I mean, Skyler was either really bright or she cracked the books on. a nightly basis. Yeah. Because she had a 4.0. But really, they were just normal teenage girls. Like the ones upstairs? Not quite like the ones that I have upstairs, because they're going to do some things that, well, ultimately, they're going to do some things that nobody should ever do. But they're
Starting point is 00:18:42 going to, there's some facts about them that. Push some boundaries. Of doing some things that a lot of kids do that I hope my kids don't. Yeah. But, you know, who knows? You got good kids. Don't worry. So you have this trio of best friends. And they go through freshman year and everything's really good, right? They have a great freshman year. They partied a little bit. And that's what I was talking about. They experimented with alcohol. They experimented with weed as a lot of kids do. Sure. Isn't that what a freshman year is? Yeah. Especially freshman year in college. But in high school, I know kids are doing that. I'm hoping mine aren't. their weekly drug test says they're not, but... They're weak people...
Starting point is 00:19:25 Is that why you had me pissing a cup again? Yeah. I buy three every week. Two for my kids and one for you. But in every group, Gibbs, you know this. There's a leader in every group. Yeah. And thanks for following me.
Starting point is 00:19:38 Whether it's spoken or unspoken, right? You don't have to go around saying, hey, I'm the leader. There's usually someone that everybody kind of gravitates towards... Oh, yeah. sets the agenda. Well, in this group, it was definitely Sheila. First of all, she's a controlling person. Yes.
Starting point is 00:19:57 So that's part of it. But I think she was charismatic. She was wild and free. I think people like to be around her. But then you talk about them getting into their sophomore year. And that's when things really started to change because the group dynamic started to shift around. It became Skyler and Rachel. trying to hold on to their bond with Sheila.
Starting point is 00:20:25 And think about it. For Skyler, this is a bond that she'd had for half of her life. This had been her best friend. For a very long time. Right. She's now 16 years old. They met when she was eight. Half of her life, this girl had been her best friend.
Starting point is 00:20:41 Rachel's the new girl. But people change. Right. They're older. They can drive. Hormones start kicking in. Oh, yeah. A lot of things.
Starting point is 00:20:50 change. Sheila and Rachel had boyfriends and they were sexually active. So they got that in common. Yeah. Those two have that in common. And Skyler was not. But she knew all the details. This is something that, you know, she would write about in her diary. Sheila especially would confide in her, would tell her basically that all the things that she was doing in pretty graphic detail. Yeah. I think that's normal for a lot of friends at that age. They talk. I think they do. No, I don't doubt that. Now, what's been said is maybe that's one of the reasons that Skyler hadn't become sexually active. She didn't need to. She was hearing it all from her friend. Could have been scary too, you know. Yeah. You know, if you never have, you hear that kind of stuff, you're like, you know what? I'm good.
Starting point is 00:21:42 And I don't know that Skyler partied as much as the other two, but she definitely did party. There's no doubt. out about that. She was involved in drinking and at least smoking wheat. But you can see, Gibbs, like how under these circumstances, the bond between Sheila and Rachel may have grown stronger. Well, it had to because the other bond had to be getting weaker because they didn't have a lot of things in common. Right. You know, when you, your other friend is having sex, partying more, you're with them more. It's just natural. They're doing the same things you're doing. Yeah. And the third person is not. Right. So it's just going to be a natural course. And there were signs that started to appear showing that the relationship between Skyler and Sheila,
Starting point is 00:22:31 lifelong friends essentially, began to fray. And like I mentioned, a lot of this played out through social media and especially Twitter. These girls were really into Twitter. Like a lot of people do, they spent a lot of time on social media documenting their memories, their feelings. I've seen stats that say within the year or two of the three of them kind of forming this trio, they sent around 10,000 tweets. That's a lot of tweets. That seems like a lot. Man, that's a lot.
Starting point is 00:23:07 In one article, it said, and I don't know how they did this calculation, they said that between text messages and tweets and other social media, Facebook and whatever, Sheila Eddie touched her phone like 900 times a day. Really? Because they had calculated. And that was just for. Oh, because they see how many times she's tweeted. And she had to touch her phone X amount of time.
Starting point is 00:23:33 How many incoming and outgoing messages? And that was 900. That's not playing games. That's not anything else. That's crazy, man. That's a big number. Yeah. I think today, at least on the iPhones, I know there's some app or something.
Starting point is 00:23:48 Not an even app. Just part of your iPhone. Like the operating system? Yeah. There's a button you hit will tell you how many time, how long you were active on your phone. How many keystrokes you performed, your swipes or whatever. So. I did not know that.
Starting point is 00:24:05 Yeah. There you go. Mine's always low. I guarantee you mine's low because, number one, I don't like to talk on the phone. I never see you with your phone. No. Ever. For hat time, I don't even know where it is.
Starting point is 00:24:16 I just don't want to be tied to it. Yeah. But you're not. I'm not. You don't even wear your Apple watch anymore. No. I bought an Apple watch. I ended up giving it to my wife just because I like watches.
Starting point is 00:24:28 Yeah. And I have a big collection of watches. But with that, it's almost like that's the only watch you can wear. So I ended up giving it to her. Well, she'll get more use out of it because she's, you know, fitness person. Sure. So tell her every time she needs to stand or do a pushup or something, I'm sure of it. All right, Gibbs, let's take a quick break to talk about our new sponsor, CARO.
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Starting point is 00:25:51 So take advantage of this month's special New Year offer. For 50% off your first month of personalized care of vitamins, go to take care of.com and enter our promo code T-Cat-50. That's T-C-C-C-T-F50. That's take care of.com promo code T-Cat-Cat-Fi. 50. But getting back to this massive number of tweets, I mean, most of them were mundane, right? Like teenagers do, I had spaghetti for dinner. Yeah. I like the Kardashians, whatever. You do like the Kardashians. I do not. I'm saying that's what they were saying. You got their t-shirt on right now. Is that Chloe or the other one of the other two? I don't even know their names. That's how bad it is. Okay. But one thing that was fascinating of the roughly 10,000,
Starting point is 00:26:40 half of them were put out by Sheila. So there's three of them to make 10. Yeah. She, dominated. She made almost 5,000 tweets during this time period. And some of them were, I'll say a little out there. I saw some that said, I wish it was acceptable to be naked all the time.
Starting point is 00:27:00 This is a 16, 17 year old girl in high school. Yeah. Saying that, I cannot express how much I love being naked. Hey, as long as you look good. and of age, do what you want. But that's young. So like right now, maybe I'll just strip down. Just like that Seinfeld episode on the train, on the subway,
Starting point is 00:27:20 Jerry falls asleep, wakes up. Next thing he knows he sees that guy reading the newspaper with all his clothes off. Well, you do know you're in my house. So your freedom only extends so far. There's boundaries? To get naked. Yeah. We're going to have the boundaries talk again?
Starting point is 00:27:34 Yeah. Your First Amendment rights kind of got chopped in half a little when you walked through my door. You don't even let me take my shoes off, man. There was one Gibbs that said, if you talk about how much you love Justin Bieber, I probably want to stab you. Now, it's actually kind of funny. I don't really care for Justin Bieber either, but it's not funny once we know what's going to happen. Right. It's almost like a little bit of foreshadowing. The girls also took a lot of selfies. They posted those online. Again, this is just all stuff that normal kids do. But then in an instance, Incident occurred at a sleepover involving the three girls.
Starting point is 00:28:14 And this was something that Skyler documented in her diary. So apparently they were staying over it at one of the girls' house. They raided the liquor cabinet. They got a little tipsy. And Skyler walked in on Sheila and Rachel having some type of intimate moment. Okay. I'm not exactly sure if that started the slide, but it was the story. spring of 2012 when things started to unravel. And again, you can tell from the girls' documented
Starting point is 00:28:48 tweets that something was going on. Skyler wrote, too bad my friends are having lives without me. A girl, a girl, a bitch, a bitch. So this is a tweet that Skyler put out. Okay. In May of that year, she said, you're a two-faced bitch and obviously, fuck. stupid if you thought I wouldn't find out. The problem with tweets is there's no context. You know, number one, you don't, it's not to anyone in particular, a tweet, isn't it? Unless you, unless you tag someone yet. Right. These aren't. These are just, they're just tweets out in the world. Gotcha. But I think as we go along, because we're going to talk a lot about tweets and stuff in this episode, you can pretty much figure out that it's directed at one of these two girls, most likely.
Starting point is 00:29:37 In June, Skyler posted a couple of tweets that have been dissected. The first one said, won't miss anyone from school over summer because if we're really friends, we'll hang out. If we aren't, we won't. Just know I know. So it's really that last part that's been dissected. The just know I know. Yeah. Just know I know.
Starting point is 00:30:00 The second one said, I tell the whole school all the shit I have on everyone, which is a lot. hashtag if I could get away with it. That one's really been dissected. A lot of people have said that, you know, some of these tweets, especially that last one, was a veiled threat of exposing what she knew about this affair or relationship or whatever you want to call it. Sure. Between Sheila and Rachel.
Starting point is 00:30:31 Oh, I think, you know, there's good reasoning behind it. Sure. Was that? Plus, they were fighting all the time at the time. this point. Well, that's the thing. They were fighting a lot. Classmates would come out later and said, you know, it was evident. They saw it every day in their interactions at school. But all of that brings us up to July 5th, 2012. Skyler worked her shift at Wendy's and then she came home. And she actually sent the last two tweets that she ever made just before she left her shift at Wendy's. One read,
Starting point is 00:31:04 you doing shit like that is why I will never completely trust you. And the last one said, all I do is hope. But again, you can't tell who these are directed to. But who else would it be, right? Given what we've talked about. So she comes home. Her parents are in the living room watching TV. Skyler kissed them both, told them she was tired and that she was going to bet.
Starting point is 00:31:30 Skyler's dad, Dave, woke up the next morning to find his. His daughter's bed had not been slept in. He found the screen to her bedroom window had been removed. And there was a stepstool under the window. Telling sign, for sure. Yeah, for me, that's a panic. I think I would be in panic mode realizing that my daughter wasn't home. She had crept out of the window the night before and never came back.
Starting point is 00:32:01 So they're worried about her. They're worried about the scene in her bedroom. But things get worse when Skyler doesn't show up to her shift at Wendy's because she had never once missed a shift since she started working there. That's bad. That's a bad sign. Yeah. And they're extremely worried. They called 911 to report her missing.
Starting point is 00:32:24 Of course. You'd have to. So the police came out. They took a report and said they would start investigating. Now the one thing that the nieces knew, they knew that Skyler didn't run away. Her contacts were still in her room. She took her purse and her cell phone, but she didn't take the cell phone charger. Knowing that she was coming back, she didn't need it, right?
Starting point is 00:32:46 Right. Just running out for a little bit. I'll charge my phone tonight. There is not a teenager on the planet that would leave their charging device at home, some way to charge their phone. Never. if they plan to be gone for any length of time. It just wouldn't happen. No.
Starting point is 00:33:05 They wouldn't be able to survive if they didn't have their phone. Later that day, Skyler's parents received a call from Sheila Eddie. And Sheila proceeded to tell them what happened the night before. So what she said was that it was her, Skyler, and Rachel. They had all snuck out of their houses to meet up. They were going to go driving around. They said they picked Skyler up at 11. P.m. They drove around. They smoked some weed. And then Sheila and Rachel dropped Skyler back off just before
Starting point is 00:33:39 midnight. So from that chronology, they weren't gone very long. No. Less than an hour. Seems logical. It seems logical that they would be gone less than an hour or it seems logical that what they're saying. The chronology says they're, yeah. But apparently they said Skyler was worried about waking up her parents. So she asked them to drop her off down the road a little bit. It's a common tactic, right? In the old days, me and my buddy used to take out his mom's car when we were like 14. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:34:11 But we would have to put it neutral and move it down the driveway far enough before we started it up. And they're done that. And then we'd drive for about three or four hours at night. We were like 14 years old. It was having fun, man. My mom used to have a vet. We used to take that out like that.
Starting point is 00:34:25 We weren't supposed to touch it. A corvette? Yeah. Really? Yeah. This was a Chivet. Oh, I had a Chivet. I remember those days.
Starting point is 00:34:34 No, this was a Corvette. Stingray. My brother used to take my dad's Corvette out. It was like a... Well, shit, Gibbs. How many Corvettes did you guys have? It was 63 red with the white, you know, wing panel things on the side. Richie Rich over here has got multiple Corvettes.
Starting point is 00:34:49 They were just in a Corvette phase at one point. Oh, yeah. We still had the ugly green wagon with the... panel running down the side. Like the family truckster? Yeah. Yeah. We had that for a while. That was always sweet ride to take out. Now, a lot of people came out to help search for Skyler. Right. This is something that we see in a lot of the cases that we do. At one point, both Sheila and Rachel joined in the search. So they're out there to be good friends, right? Their good friend is missing. Their best friend. They want to help. Yeah. I'm here to help. Police tracked.
Starting point is 00:35:27 Skyler's cell phone. They tracked her credit cards. None of them were used. Police did find some surveillance video from the apartment complex that showed Skyler getting out of her window and getting into an unknown car at 1235 a.m. Okay. So at least they were able to get a detailed time. Yeah, they could definitely pinpoint to time 1235 a.m.
Starting point is 00:35:53 This was in the parking lot. And then the car drove away. The problem was the video wasn't great. It was black and white. It was said to be pretty grainy. Yeah, those videos can be pretty rough. They couldn't get much information from it. But they had Sheila's and Rachel's story.
Starting point is 00:36:09 But they wanted to interview them directly. And I think they were suspicious of them from the very start. Police said that Sheila didn't act as you would expect someone to act if their best friend was missing. So not emotional at all. Nope. Not emotional. Very flat. And one article it said the only time she got emotional was when they asked some probing questions
Starting point is 00:36:38 that she didn't want to answer. Then she got the old tears in the eye. She would bring out the waterworks. Rachel had gone to a two-week Catholic church camp. So police called and talked to her on the phone. And again, the conversation was described as very nonchalant, not an ounce of worry about her supposed best friend.
Starting point is 00:37:03 But one of the biggest things I took from what the investigator said was that their stories were exactly the same. It was said that they were essentially verbatim in that raised suspicion. Very rarely do two people say the exact same things. if they do, that normally means that they've rehearsed it. They've talked about it ahead of time. And they're both spouting the same exact details. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:37:32 Initially, the niece family stood up for the girls. Right. They couldn't believe that there was any way. These two girls who were, you know, at their house all the time. Like family. Like family. Sisters don't do that to other sisters. No.
Starting point is 00:37:50 Could have been involved. in any way and anything bad happening to Skyler. But that would soon change. Police found Skyler's diary in her room and they read about the story that she wrote, you know, how the three got drunk, what she witnessed Sheila and Rachel doing. So this raised their suspicion a little bit. Naturally. Meanwhile, Sheila and Rachel were back at school.
Starting point is 00:38:17 They're going on with their lives, but there were a lot of rumors. flying around the school about what happened to Skyler, which you would imagine what happened in any case such as this. People thought she ran off. Maybe she OD'd on drugs. But a lot of the rumors included Rachel and Sheila. Because remember, they very rarely did anything apart. The three of them were attached at the hip for much of the time.
Starting point is 00:38:45 Some of their classmates knew. Something wasn't right. because Sheila and Rachel, they continued to post on social media, but it really wasn't what you would think they would be posting. It wasn't the, where are you, Skyler? Come back, Schuyler. Please people, prayers and thoughts about Skyler. It wasn't that. It was the, I want to be naked. I like the Kardashians. Let's go party. Everything but what you would think you should be posting for somebody if you cared and loved about. Yeah, they would throw one of those in every now and then. But it was very strange.
Starting point is 00:39:26 And people began calling them out on it. You know, they began replying, posting comments saying that Rachel and Sheila would be uncovered. Essentially saying, hey, we know you had something to do with this. Sheila posted a tweet that said, no one on this earth can hand. me and Rachel. And if you think you can, you're wrong. And it wasn't just other kids. So the police got in on this act as well. They actually had a younger officer pose as a high school kid, interact with them, monitor their posts. And again, it was just a bunch of posts about partying, living it up. And they would sprinkle in every 30 or 40 posts, something about Skyler.
Starting point is 00:40:11 It just wasn't what people thought they should. They should be doing. Because I think a lot of people looked at the occasional Schuyler post as a show, you know, doing that for effect. So the police questioned a lot of people, right, during this investigation. They questioned a lot of students. When they interviewed Sheila and Rachel for a second time, they showed up with attorneys. Out of all the high school kids interviewed, they were the only two people that,
Starting point is 00:40:41 that brought an attorney. But this investigation gives it dragged on for months and months. At one point, Sheila took a polygraph, which she didn't do that grade on. And Rachel was on her way to the station to take a polygraph when she jumped out of her father's car. Wow.
Starting point is 00:41:02 That's telling too. It's not a good sign. No, it's not good. She just jumped out of the car and ran off to someone else's house. Yeah. I'm not going to do this. By this point, the nieces were no longer defending Sheila and Rachel.
Starting point is 00:41:16 And Skyler's mother actually went on the offense a little bit. She took to Facebook with a post that said, These girls are more guilty than originally suspected. It looks like foul play has occurred and murder has not been ruled out. So at this point, Gibbs, these girls, they must have been feeling a tremendous amount of pressure. The police are questioning them. Lie detector tests.
Starting point is 00:41:40 A bunch of people are accused. accusing them on social media, calling them out, including Skyler's own mother. It got so bad that they stopped going to school. They started homeschooling. But I look at Sheila Eddie and I don't think she was ever going to crack. I just think there was something in her makeup. You look at her tweets. You look at her posts.
Starting point is 00:42:05 I don't think she was going to crack at all. But that wasn't the same for Rachel. She got to the point where she did. crack. She flipped out one day at her house. Her mom and dad had to restrain her. And they ultimately had to call 911 and say, you know what? Hey, our daughter's out of control. She's hitting us. She's flipping out. She was admitted to a mental health facility. And it's there in January 2013, Rachel made the decision to tell the truth. Just couldn't keep it bottled up anymore. No. It just ate at her, ate at her. Yeah. And I think that says,
Starting point is 00:42:41 something about her. Now, what it says, I don't know, maybe that she's not quite as cold-blooded as Sheila was. She's got a little bit of human in it. She got a little bit of a heart. It's just a little sliver. Because I honestly don't believe Sheila Eddie had any remorse. I just don't think she had any feelings in a negative way about what she did, which we're getting ready to talk about. Well, it was all about her. Her whole life was about her. Only her. I think you're right. So what happened was Rachel had her attorney contact the authorities to try to work out a deal. And they did.
Starting point is 00:43:19 They struck up a deal. And they got her to wear a wire when Sheila showed up at the hospital to see her. And she tried to get Sheila to incriminate herself. But it didn't work. She was pretty sharp. Yeah. I don't know if she knew something was up. By this point, she didn't fall for it.
Starting point is 00:43:37 So the police around in the other room with the headphones on? Maybe. But it didn't matter. matter. I mean, Rachel told them everything. She said, Skyler and Sheila were always fighting. And it really kind of started out as a joke between Rachel and Sheila that they should get rid of Skyler. They didn't need her. Kind of how we talk about morph? A little bit. Yeah. We don't need morph. You don't need more. Criminology would be all right without him. He's going to hear this and crack up. But it escalated. This talk escalated one day. They were in science class when,
Starting point is 00:44:11 they finally decided to do it. So it was no longer talk. They had made the decision. They were going to get rid of Skyler niece. That's the scary part. You know, when people joke all the time, you know, or say stupid scenarios. People say things they don't mean in the heat of the moment. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:44:30 A lot of stuff like that happens. I wish he was dead. But they don't really, I mean, maybe at that moment they kind of do. But if they had the knife in their hand, would they really push it through? No, most people would not. So Rachel was scheduled to go on this Catholic church camping trip in about a month. And they decided to plan it out so that this happened right before she left. So they got a shovel.
Starting point is 00:44:55 They got some knives, some cleaning supplies. And they loaded all of this into the trunk of Sheila's car. And on the night of July 5th, they drove to Skyler's apartment night early morning of the 6th, whatever you want to call it. They called her on the phone to come out and join them. And they had these knives hidden in their sweatshirts. They told Skyler they were going to drive somewhere. They were going to smoke. They were going to get high. And they did. They found a secluded place. They'd probably done this, you know, numerous times before. But once they got to the place, the girls began to count to three. This was something they had talked about beforehand. When they got to
Starting point is 00:45:38 three, they took out their knives and they began stabbing Schuyler in the back and in the neck. At one point, she got away and she started to run, but they caught up with her, chased her down, and they just continued stabbing her until she died. Their intention was to bury her. That's why they brought the shovel along, but they couldn't break up the ground with the shovel. And a lot of people don't realize, depending where you live, depending on what kind of ground it is, it's not always like in the movies
Starting point is 00:46:12 where you can just step on it and you're going to be pulling out these huge clods of dirt. And there's areas of the country that are so rocky. I mean, we here in Ohio have a ton of rock. Yeah. In our soil. Clay and rock.
Starting point is 00:46:26 Yeah. Limestone. So that didn't work the way they thought it would. So they ended up dumping Skyler's body off the road, hidden under some tree branches. So Rachel's telling authorities all of this. And they start talking about what did Skyler say as this was happening?
Starting point is 00:46:45 And Rachel said, you know, her last words were why. There's just one word. Why? Looking up at them as if saying, why are you doing this to me? How could you do this to me? Right. But it's when authorities ask Rachel why they did it, that they get what is really a chilling answer because she said, well,
Starting point is 00:47:07 we didn't like her anymore as simple as that simple i mean to me it just it gives me chills to think that's the basis that's the reasoning to take another human being's life you know what we didn't like her anymore we didn't wonder in the group so we're just going to offer exactly that's what we're going to do rachel led authorities to the spot where they dumped schuyler's body and they found a body but remember this is months and months later and by the time they found it, the head was missing. Terrible. It is.
Starting point is 00:47:40 It's gruesome. Now, they, they didn't do that, right? That was scavengers, animals, something. They would eventually find the skull. But what they did find was a cell phone. And they were pretty easily able to determine that it was Skyler's phone. Had pictures of the three of them on it. Not hard to tell whose phone is.
Starting point is 00:48:01 No way to deny that. No. It wouldn't be for a couple of months that they would. positively ID the body as Skyler knees. I think one thing that's interesting in this case, Gibbs, is they didn't arrest either one of these girls during this whole period of time, right? Rachel's already admitted what they did. Months goes by.
Starting point is 00:48:24 So she does this in January. They find the body. They don't ID the body till March. They still have not arrested either of these girls. And what police said is that they wanted to make. sure they had enough evidence against Sheila and probably to do that they didn't want to tip their hand by arresting Rachel. But what ends up happening is these girls are still on social media. They're tweeting. Like nothing happened. They're posting. Like nothing happened. Well,
Starting point is 00:48:53 they had to have known something happened because their relationship kind of fizzled. And I think they started sniping at each other on social media. But Rachel even went on a vacation with her mother in April. This is three months after she told police what they did. They allowed her to go on a vacation with her mom. I mean, she was posting vacation pictures, living it up, having a great time. So Sheila was apparently obsessed with the show Law and Order SVU. She tweeted about a lot. Oh, can't wait to watch Law and Order SVU, Marathon, you know, all these different things. But towards the end, there was a tweet that said, I wonder if they ever have an episode where they don't figure out what happened. Okay.
Starting point is 00:49:44 So it's like all these tweets are like very telling. It's almost as if these tweets are tipping their hand, right? When you're tweeting out what you're thinking, well, you're telling everybody what you're thinking. You are. It's out there. And Sheila made a bunch of tweets that in ways seem to be related to. Skyler and or her murder. In one, she said, we really did go on three.
Starting point is 00:50:11 Again, there's really not much context to it. No, but after what Rachel said that they went on three, you can put that together pretty easily. There was one that said, if you only knew, you'd shit down your leg. Really? Yeah. Okay. Again, if you only knew what?
Starting point is 00:50:32 Tell me what? What we did. Yeah. Right? Now, I'm making an inference, but. But I think most people probably do too. I think so too. One said, I hate seeing or hearing things that remind me of you because you're the last
Starting point is 00:50:46 person I want to be reminded of. So again, this is Sheila. To me, that tweet's probably only directed at one of two people, either Skyler or Rachel. Because at this point, her and Rachel are kind of fighting. But to me, I see it as more of a comment about Skyler. Because Skyler's in the news all the time. So Sheila and Rachel were eventually arrested.
Starting point is 00:51:10 Sheila was arrested in a cracker barrel parking lot on May 1st, 2013. I'm not sure why I laughed there, but there's just something funny to me about being arrested in a cracker barrel parking lot. Yeah. She was shocked. I really think Gibbs that she thought she was going to get away with this murder. She was hoping. I don't know. I think she was almost more than hoping. Because again, this is May of 2013.
Starting point is 00:51:39 It's almost a year since the murder. It's a good 10 months for sure. Apparently, she told one of the arresting officers, please don't put me in with any bad people. What got news for you? You're a bad person. You're a bad person. But if you get arrested for murder, chances are you're going to be in with some bad people. And you deserve to be in with some bad people. And you might have some bad things happen to you. Then she asked the officer, you're going to put me in the back of the car? People will see me. And the guy says, yes, Sheila, you're being arrested for murder. It's almost like she was, she was ashamed to be in the back of the car wasn't fully getting the gravity of the situation. Being seen in the back of the car should be the least of your worries at this
Starting point is 00:52:30 point. Both Sheila and Rachel were charged as adults. And it was the next year, January 24th, 2014, Sheila Eddie pleaded guilty to first degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison. So again, Gibbs, this isn't a case where we're going to go into trial. I mean, they both pleaded guilty. She actually took a plea, which, you know, for pleading guilty, prosecutors drop the kidnapping charge as well as some conspiracy charges. So, I mean, she's still got life for murder, but she'll actually be eligible for parole in 2008. The one thing about Sheila is she never said a thing to Skyler's family. And I found that hard to believe. You know, this is a girl that, like we said, was considered part of the family, had been at their house, had probably eaten dinner with them
Starting point is 00:53:26 hundreds and hundreds of times killed their daughter and doesn't say a word to them. Not a sorry. Not a, I can't believe I did this, nothing. Sheila, Eddie, how do you plead to the offense of murder and the first degree of the felony charged in count three of the indictment in this case? Guilty. So I just wanted to play a little bit so you could hear her talk. All she says was guilty, but there really wasn't much to it.
Starting point is 00:53:53 No, is it? Sounds a little sad, but. Well, as verbose as she was on social media. Right. She was the exact opposite when it came to talking to the cops and in court. It was one word answers, yes, no, things like that. The very next month, Rachel Schof pleaded guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to 10 to 30 years. So that's what she got in her plea for helping the police.
Starting point is 00:54:24 the police telling them about everything that happened, she'll be eligible for parole in 2023. So she's only eligible for parole five years earlier than Sheila, but I think her chances of getting out are much, much better. I mean, her sentence is only 10 to 30 years. 10 to 30? Now, I say only 10 to 30 years. That's a long time if you did 30 years in prison. But that's not me feeling sorry for her at all, obviously. The thing about Rachel, though, is she gave a very long apology. It was very, from what I thought Gibbs, very sincere to the niece family during her sentencing phase.
Starting point is 00:55:09 But her father wasn't buying it. He said, you can never say you're sorry to me or my wife because you're not. There will never be closure for us as far as you two are concerned. you defied our trust. And I got a short clip of him I want to play. Yes, Rachel Sof did tell us where Scott her was. Yes, Rachel Schof did cooperate. Rachel Schof also murdered my daughter in cold blood.
Starting point is 00:55:34 Scholar would not be where she was if it wasn't for Rachel Sof. 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 to 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. 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.
Starting point is 00:56:02 Your Honor, I ask you give her 40 years and plus if you can. Thank you, sir. So there you can hear him. And I don't blame him at all. No, no. I mean, you put trust in your child's friends and what they did and how they did it. It's just, yeah. Well, it was such a callous murder, too.
Starting point is 00:56:22 Yeah, I mean, it wasn't, nothing needed to happen. There was no reason behind it. So I mentioned Rachel's family, right up front, very religious, somewhat affluent family. They issued an apology through their attorney. And they said, there's no way to describe the pain that we too are feeling. We are truly sorry for the pain that she has caused the niece family. And we know her actions are unforgivable and inexcused. Our daughter has admitted her involvement and she has accepted responsibility for her actions.
Starting point is 00:56:56 Our hearts are broken for your loss and we are still trying to come to terms with this event. I mean, this wrecked their lives as well, right? Completely destroyed the niece family. Yeah. Everybody involved came out damaged. Yeah. I mean, the other families, they're shattered as well. I mean, how would you ever come to terms with the fact that the daughter that you,
Starting point is 00:57:19 you raised would make the decision to do something so horrible to someone else. I asked the question, but I don't think you would ever come, you could ever come to terms with it. It's just not possible, right? In your mind, you could never reconcile how she could have done that. Now, one thing gives, we have to talk about is this diary entry, this incident that happened where Skyler saw Rachel and Sheila. neither Skyler's family nor the police believe that Eddie and Schof killed Skyler because they were afraid she would out them. Police believe in talking with the girls that this was more of a thrill kill, right? They got a thrill out of this.
Starting point is 00:58:07 But there's no doubt not everyone thinks that way. There are a lot of people that believe these two girls murdered Skylar niece because they were scared. They were scared that she would start telling people things they didn't want to get out. And it's why I thought it was important to kind of go through those tweets. Some of them seemed like veiled threats. And I think that's why a lot of people, you know, they point to those tweets and say, she was close. She was thinking about, you know, doing whatever, telling the whole school, putting them on blast, whatever the kids are saying these days. Put them on blast.
Starting point is 00:58:48 Putting them on blast. Put them on blast. Yeah. But I don't know what the real answer is. All I know is that Rachel and Sheila didn't give that as the reason. And Skyler's mother came out in interviews and said, you know what? She had a number of friends that were lesbians. She would have never outed someone that didn't want to be outed.
Starting point is 00:59:14 Right. Even if she was fighting with them. It just wasn't the type of person that she was. That's what her mother said. Both Sheila and Rachel are incarcerated in the same facility, the Lakin correctional facility in West Columbia, West Virginia. I had to look it up. But West Columbia is right on the Ohio River on the border between Ohio and West Virginia.
Starting point is 00:59:36 It's really not all that far from us. Pretty close. Not too far. Pretty close. But the one thing about it is that I know at Rachel, sentencing hearing. Her attorney argued for the fact that they should not be housed in the same correctional facility because of the fact that Rachel turned on Sheila, she gave her up.
Starting point is 01:00:02 It does seem like it would be a bad idea unless they are somehow 100% separated. It doesn't seem like it's a good recipe at all. Mary and David Knee, Skyler's parents, they continue to talk about her story. And they put forth or helped get put forth something called Skyler's Law. And it's basically an addition in West Virginia to the Amber Alert. And what it does is it allows the Amber Alert coordinator to determine whether or not an Amber Alert should be issued. as opposed to letting the law enforcement agencies figure out or decide whether or not to put out an Amber
Starting point is 01:00:51 Alert. So you have a coordinator who looks at all the facts and all of this and says, you know what? I know it hasn't been X amount of time, but this person is not a likely candidate to run away. This is what I'm thinking. And so we're going to go ahead and do it. And I think also they're trying to get it expanded into some other states. And we see this in a lot of cases, right? The parents want something positive to come out of this tragedy.
Starting point is 01:01:18 They're never going to get their daughter back. But can they do something good in her memory? And that's what they're trying to do. Which is good. It is good. Because I think, you know, if you look back at when Skyler first disappeared, I think the very initial thought by police was that she ran away. And so technically didn't fit the criteria for an.
Starting point is 01:01:41 Amber alert. Right. That criteria is child is believed to be abducted, is under 18, maybe in danger of death or serious injury, and there is sufficient evidence to indicate that an amber alert would be helpful in locating the missing child. I think a lot of times when people go missing, especially kids, the first thought is, well, they ran away. They'll be back. I think the problem with that, Gibbs, is the first X, whatever it is, 24 hours, 48 hours is like the most important time. In solving a lot of cases, that's where kind of the crucial period is. So if you're basically sitting on the sidelines and waiting that period out and now we're going to start an investigation, you've lost that very crucial time. I don't know, Gibbs.
Starting point is 01:02:33 These cases I said up front, they scare me. Yeah, these cases give me nightmares, man, you know? And they should. Just don't expect the youth to be like this. No, I mean, we're parents. And I was thinking about it earlier today. There's no way to know every single thing, every single moment of the day that your child is thinking or that your child is doing. Especially as they get older, you know, they get more freedoms.
Starting point is 01:03:01 They're, they've got a car. They're driving. They're staying at friends' houses, things like that. There's no way for parents to know every detail of what is going on. For me personally, I just hope that, you know, I've taught them the right lessons and that they'll make the best possible decisions in different situations. I try to get to know their friends. I try to get to know their friends' families, things like that.
Starting point is 01:03:27 But, you know, who they're hanging out with, who they're dating. But you just never know. And you can't know everything. I do think at the end of the day. it comes down to decision making, right, on the part of a child. The same way it does as an adult. You and I cover mostly cases about adults. They make a decision to either do the right thing or kill somebody.
Starting point is 01:03:56 And these girls had that very same decision. They had the choice. That day in that class, they made the decision, but they thought this would be a good thing to do. I still don't know how they come up. with that. It just boggles my mind. And I do think today with the element of social media, right, something you and I didn't have as a 16 year old. We'll just use the age 16. I think today kids have a lot more choices. They have more decisions to make about what they do in real life.
Starting point is 01:04:31 and you can say in the digital world, as it doesn't quite seem like real life, but it has real world, real life consequences, right? You say the wrong thing online. You make a threat against somebody online. It's damaging,
Starting point is 01:04:49 man. Yeah. And it's there. You say you're going to do something at school that is violent. You're going to get suspended or expelled in real life. So again, all you can do is,
Starting point is 01:05:01 monitor, right, the best you can and hope that you've put your kids in a position to make the right decisions. That is it for the murder of Skyler-Neese. We've got some voicemails, though, Gibbs. You want to cleanse? This cleanse. Let's cleanse a little. Hi, this is Sherry from Panama City, Florida, actually, Lynn Haven, but Panama just got a category five hurricane. And thank God, my twin daughters told me about podcasting before this happened, because we've had to no power, no water, no cable. And you guys have really sustained me through this and kept me saying, listening to true crime. Anyway, thanks so much for what you do.
Starting point is 01:05:42 And I'm not either way. I'm both Gibby and Fergie. So you guys keep doing what you're doing. Thanks. Bye. We're helping out in the time of crisis in a hurricane. That's what we do. We're like FEMA, but not.
Starting point is 01:05:58 Okay. FEMA podcast. FEMA podcast. I do love Panama City. Or let's say I did when I was in college. I haven't been there in quite a, quite a number of years. Hey, Mike and Gibby.
Starting point is 01:06:11 I'm calling from Lafayette, Louisiana. Love your show. But I just had to mention on the Russell Williams podcast, Mike, if I heard you say nuclear instead of nuclear, keep your own time ticking. Boy, Gibbs, I got some shit about nuclear. But I will say this. I know I say nuclear, and to me it sounds better, and I think I'm going to keep saying it that way.
Starting point is 01:06:38 Nuclear? Mm-hmm. My wife also says it that way, too. We figured that out the other night. We both say it the exact same way. Okay. It's an Ohio thing? How would I say it, nuclear?
Starting point is 01:06:48 I don't know how you say anything. Nuclear. Nuclear. I don't know. Say it. Nuclear. Well, that's the way I said. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:06:55 But it's actually nuclear. Nuclear. Nuclear. You just add three syllables to it. Yeah, I just add it up, you know. But that's one that I don't know if I can change. Nuclear just sounds so much better to me, and it's much easier to say it that way. I think I'm going to stick with it.
Starting point is 01:07:14 You just stick with it? Yeah. All right. Nuclear. Hey, guys. This is Chelsea calling from Louisville, Kentucky. Go wild cats. I just wanted to give a shout out to you guys.
Starting point is 01:07:24 I just started listening to you all about a week ago. I had never listened to podcasts before. I just typed True Crime into the search bar. You all popped up. I've listened to about four different podcasts. You all are my absolute favorite. I love the way you tell your stories. I am going backwards.
Starting point is 01:07:41 I'm in about the 80s right now. I'm getting ready to listen to Meligmato, which, of course, happened right here in Louisville, and I remember hearing about it as a kid. So I'm excited to listen to it and hear your all's take on it. I love the way you all share. I think you all really compliment each other. And I would also like to find out how to become a Patreon that I've been hearing you all talk about.
Starting point is 01:08:05 I just love listening to you guys. I'm a true crime junkie. And I just think you all are great. So I'm going to go listen to Melignano now. And like you guys, always say, keep your own time ticket. See you. Well, we sure appreciate that, Chelsea. Yeah, it was good.
Starting point is 01:08:23 That was a good voicemail. And go Wildcats. There is the Wildcat. So becoming a Patreon member, and it's not something that you and I talk about really on the podcast. We give shoutouts, but it's really easy. You just go to patreon.com slash true crime all the time. Look it up. Don't be telling people what to do.
Starting point is 01:08:43 Look it up. I said you can go. No, you need to do it. That extra episode's worth it, man. You're like, you need to do it. That extra episode's worth it. Hello, Mike and Gibby. This is Kelsey.
Starting point is 01:08:53 I just wanted to call real quick and say, thank you to both of you for putting out such a great podcast. You know, in marriage, they always tell you to pick your battles. My husband and I just found out we were pregnant with our first child and we're getting rid of all of our subscriptions to make money for it. And you guys are the battle I picked with my Patreon subscription. So I wanted to tell you how awesome you guys are and how much that means. And not only that, but your podcast is the very first thing I do in the morning is put it on to help me keep my mind off of how sick I feel. So again, thank you guys. You make such a different. these days and I appreciate it and you guys are awesome. Stay safe and keep your own time thinking.
Starting point is 01:09:30 Wow. Love that. Yeah. So not only are we helping with the hurricane, we're helping her out with her pregnancy. Yeah. I don't know how. We didn't intend to do that. We weren't trying to do that. I'm glad we did. But I'm glad that we made it easier. Yeah. And I appreciate, you know, however the podcast helps you. Some people, it helps them go to sleep. I think the sound of my voice maybe puts people to sleep. I've heard that. I've heard that too. That's cool.
Starting point is 01:09:59 However you want to use it. You're good with that. I'm good with that. All right, man. Hey, Mike and Gibby. This is Stephen Lato calling from the wonderful state of Ohio as well. First of all, I'll just get this out of the way that I've been listening to your podcast for a couple of years now. and I love it.
Starting point is 01:10:24 Also listening to T-Cat Unsolved and Criminology, and I love those two. I wanted to say regarding the whole thing about completing suicide rather than committing suicide. I'm an individual who has schizoaffective disorder, schizophrenia plus depression, in my case, and I am a suicidal person. Right now I'm not actively suicidal, but I just wanted it to say I really appreciate the effort to include these new terms. The term committing suicide should be abolished.
Starting point is 01:11:13 I love you guys, and I'm Team T-Cat all the way. So stay safe and keep your own time ticking. All right. That was Stephen. So I want to start off Gibbs by saying to Stephen that we love him too. Yeah, absolutely. And appreciate, you know, hanging in with us. Sounds like almost from the beginning. Yeah, listens to, you know, not only the podcast that you and I do, but criminology that Morp and I do. And I do think, you know, it says a lot about Stephen. I think it took a lot of guts to leave that voicemail. You know, he was open. He was sharing. a lot about himself. I really appreciate that. That's not an easy thing to do. So again, wanted to say we love you too, buddy, and hang in there. And we're always here for you. All right. No mail bag today. No mail. No mail. Didn't get any. Didn't get any. Nothing good, huh?
Starting point is 01:12:08 So that is it for another episode of true crime all the time. So for Mike and Gibby, stay safe and keep your own time ticking.

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