Pretty Little Killers (13 page)

It sounds like Skylar was warning someone, saying she knew something was going on behind the scenes, some secret Shelia (or she and Rachel) was trying to keep from her. Maybe Skylar realized that not only had Shelia and Rachel been sexual that time in Rachel's bedroom—but that they really were a couple.

Equally possible is this: Rachel was being very friendly with another girl while at Young Life church camp during this time, a fellow camper said. If Skylar heard that rumor and believed Rachel was cheating on Shelia with someone else, she could have been lashing out at Rachel—and threatening to tell Shelia. Given Skylar's fierce loyalty to her friends, this also seems plausible.

Or, is it possible that because of the trio's growing schism—as evidenced by oft-repeated and ever-increasing volatile arguments—Skylar had finally begun to believe the school rumor that Shelia might want to harm her? Or that both girls did?

Gaskins said it was possible Shelia did make a pass at Skylar, but admitted the prosecution still had no way of knowing—because Shelia refused to say what the beach fight was about. The only
information that police have comes from a witness, another student, who reported seeing Shelia and Rachel argue just after Shelia and Skylar returned from the beach.

The Twitter fight happened June 9 at the same time Rachel was returning from Young Life. That evening she and Shelia met in the UHS parking lot, where a male student later told police he overheard them arguing. He thought they were fighting over him and asked the girls about it. Shelia and Rachel were quick to dismiss his concern, saying their anger wasn't about each other or him.

They were upset, they confessed, with Skylar, over “something on Skylar's Twitter,” the student told police.

Could it be because one—or both—girls knew exactly what Skylar meant, when she tweeted the ominous phrase:
just know I know
?

Rachel had left town with her Young Life friends midmorning on June 4, and was in Rockbridge, Virginia, through June 8. Several Morgantown teens were at camp, too, but only one other girl, Devon (not her real name), remembers anything remarkable about Rachel's time there.

Until Shelia came along, Devon said she had been quite close to Rachel, and she, too, had tried to warn her Shelia wasn't a good influence. Rachel never listened—until she and Devon went to church camp together.

While there Rachel, possibly having realized Shelia really intended to carry out their plan to kill Skylar, told Devon she was worried.

“I have to get away from Shelia.” That was all Rachel said, and after returning home, she seemed to do just that.

“For a couple of weeks,” Devon said, “Rachel was back with our Young Life group, hanging with us and not Shelia.”

If so, it's doubly tragic Rachel finally saw the need to escape Shelia's sphere of influence—only to then be pulled back in. Or was it a case of hoping she could mislead her friends to make them
believe she was trying to escape, so she could later convince them Shelia had killed Skylar?

Everyone agrees: Rachel Shoaf was a follower, not a leader. What was less clear was whether she let Shelia lead her into an act of murder—or whether she went willingly. Either way, less than one month later both girls' decision irrevocably changed their lives and those of their families.

It matters not whether Rachel followed Shelia because Shelia brainwashed her or because she was equally determined to kill Skylar. The choice to do so left the tiny town of Brave “unrecognizable,” one resident said, and its people heartsick “that this kind of evil seeped into our midst.”

Instead of celebrating her sweet sixteenth birthday with cake and candles, Rachel was helping Shelia plan Skylar's murder. So while no one knows what Shelia said in reply to Skylar's angry Twitter outburst—if she said anything at all—it isn't hard to figure out how Shelia felt about it. That very night, both girls viewed Skylar as a threat, and set a date to kill her.

Gaskins says that on June 10, after the two girls met in the UHS parking lot, they put their plan into action. First, they began researching the various ways to kill someone. Since neither girl had any experience shooting a firearm, they opted for knives. After all, they reasoned, they didn't even have to buy a knife—there were plenty in their mothers' kitchens.

They weren't sure how to go about stabbing Skylar to death, so they researched the best way to kill a person with a knife. After reading their options, they decided stabbing or severing the jugular vein was the surest way. No doubt during their sophomore biology class they would have learned this vein was a major blood vessel—and a deep wound there could easily be fatal.

Killing her, they imagined, would be the easy part. What about hiding her afterward? They tossed a couple of ideas around as casually
as if they were playing a game of basketball. Perhaps they could get their hands on some acid somewhere. That would definitely do the trick. But they thought it might make people curious if they began asking about where to buy acid, so they quickly dismissed the idea.

Shelia, a big fan of TV shows like
Law & Order
, probably came up with the idea to feed Skylar to pigs. This is a commonly used device in television, as pigs are known for their strong jaws. In recent years episodes of
CSI
and
Criminal Minds
both featured victims who were fed to pigs.
¹⁶

In addition, Shelia's father's trailer, her grandfather's house, and all the Eddy land out behind Blacksville were surrounded by coal mines and farmland. Finding a pig or two to eat Skylar after she was dead shouldn't be difficult at all. Of course, they probably worried they might wake up some sleeping farmer if they tried to drag her body over to a hog trough. They couldn't risk that.

In the end, it was much easier than either acid or pigs: they would take Skylar out to one of their favorite places to get high, smoke a few joints, and then bury her there behind the Eddy land. That place was so dark and deserted, no one would ever find the girl they had both come to hate.

seven

Skylar Neese Must Die

Skylar had no idea
of the evil awaiting her when she climbed out of her bedroom window at 12:31
A.M
. on July 6. After stashing the bench around the corner of the apartment building, she hurried to a waiting silver Toyota Camry and climbed into the back seat.

Skylar was probably apprehensive about joyriding with Shelia and Rachel.
¹⁷
Her two best friends had ditched her more than once the previous week, and the girls' tweets told the tale. They were insistent, and said since a bad derecho in late June had caused Rachel's church camp plans to be rescheduled, it was a good night to sneak out and smoke weed before Rachel left.

For hours that evening, while at work, on her way home, even after she arrived home, Skylar and Eric Finch, a close friend Skylar met years earlier through Shelia, had been texting each other. In between Skylar learned something either Shelia or Rachel—or both girls—had done. It upset her and at 10:48
P.M
. Skylar voiced her public displeasure when she tweeted,
you doing shit like that is why I will NEVER completely trust you
.

She continued receiving text messages from both girls, trying to get back in her good graces, and telling her they really wanted her to join them. They promised not to fight. Skylar still wasn't sure how well the night would go. Lately her friendship with Shelia and Rachel had been falling apart, and she wasn't sure how much longer it would last.

Skylar's childhood friendship with Shelia was as precious as her cell phone—it was her lifeline—and she couldn't stand the thought of losing it. She blamed the rift on Rachel and Shelia having sex together, because since then they had become inseparable. Skylar didn't like it, but she couldn't seem to do anything about it.

They must have convinced her, though, because a few minutes after 11
P.M
. Skylar let her guard down. She was going to try not to be angry with them, and thought maybe—just maybe—she and Shelia could get back to the way they were, before Rachel came along and ruined everything.

She said as much at 11:15
P.M
., when she retweeted her friend Jillian Molnar's tweet,
All I do is hope
.

Sitting in the back seat, watching Rachel and Shelia laughing up front, Skylar may have thought about how things used to be. She may have remembered her Honors English journal entry from September 20, nearly a year ago, when she wrote she was closer to Shelia than anyone she had met, and she couldn't “imagine life without her.” Perhaps she thought about how she and Rachel had “formed a bond that will last a lifetime,” and how dull her life would be without Rachel in it.

She may have wondered about the beach trip she and Shelia had taken and how badly it ended. That argument between her and Shelia—the
most recent
argument, the one that ruined their six-day vacation at Myrtle Beach in June—still wasn't resolved. Skylar no doubt wondered what it would take to return to the days of their earlier friendship. Or if, by now, it was possible.