Pretty Little Killers (25 page)

Blind terror swept over Mary and Dave. Friends and residents throughout the region had similar reactions. Their worst fears could be true; Star City might have a predator loose. If so, he was targeting teenage girls.

Elise Nix was found the next day. She was merely staying with a friend, she told authorities. Her case turned out to be typical of the runaways Colebank searched for: gone a few hours or overnight, later found at a party or staying at a friend's house.

Mary and Dave's reaction to the news of Nix's disappearance illustrated just one effect losing Skylar had on them. Now Mary and Dave keenly felt the pain of any parents whose child vanished.

twenty-one

Social Problems

When Dave read Shelia's
August 10, 2012, post, he swallowed the lump in his throat, placed his large hands on the keyboard, and began to type:
Hang tough babe. Do not let things get you down
!

Despite Mary's growing suspicion that Shelia was lying, Dave didn't let it stop him from weighing in with his support. It was, after all, what Skylar herself would have done if the tables were turned and Shelia was missing. Skylar had a big heart, and was always doing things for other people—especially if they didn't have anyone else to come to their aid. Dave and Mary repeatedly said Shelia was like a daughter to them—before and after Skylar's death. They joked about it with the girls themselves, when Skylar was still alive. They continued saying it when she no longer was—repeatedly, online, and in front of the TV cameras.

After a while, Shelia replied to Dave's paternal post:
it's hard but im trying, love you
!

Looking back, the Lawrences all agreed: eighth grade was the turning point in Skylar's life. Morgan said Skylar seemed to
change right before high school: “Skylar as a seventh grader, I don't think I ever could have seen her doing the things she did as a sophomore. She was always very goody, very innocent in everything. Then we got to freshman year, and Shelia showed up and things started changing.”

Morgan tried to advise her friend against hanging out with the new crowd, but Skylar wouldn't be dissuaded.

Shelia wasn't the only one Morgan worried about, although she admitted Shelia was sneaky. That new crowd was composed of girls who were experimenting with drugs and sex, and who ran around with older boys—even college-age ones. Boys Morgan didn't know—and didn't want to know.

Ever so slowly, Morgan's friendship with Skylar slipped away. Even though the three girls—Morgan, Skylar, and Shelia—had freshman history together, Skylar was pulling away from Morgan and vice versa.

“It happened gradually over that year,” Morgan recalled. “I had friends other than just Skylar, and Shelia only had Skylar because Shelia had only been at that school for three months . . . More and more, every time you had to pick a partner, it was them. Every time you had a conversation, it was just them.”

Still, Morgan wasn't overly concerned when she first heard Skylar was missing. She thought Skylar was mad at “Miss Mary.” Morgan knew Skylar would be back as soon as she cooled off.

But when Skylar was still gone a week later, Morgan's thoughts turned dark. “She's not coming back,” Morgan told her mother, Cheryl.

Skylar wasn't just leaving long-time friends like Morgan Lawrence behind. As with most teenagers, Skylar had begun drawing away from her parents. She still loved Mary and Dave and spoke highly of them—even to her peers. However, independence was coming too quickly and Skylar was forging ahead in her own world.

When Skylar's relationship with Shelia intensified, the entire social foundation Skylar had built over the years began to shift. Many of Skylar's other friends drew away because of how they felt about Shelia. They preferred not to be around her. A few even described Shelia as “bad news” long before the murder.

Even though Skylar was aware her friends were uneasy about Shelia, it didn't matter. When Skylar wanted something she couldn't be denied, and her obsession with Shelia was consuming. By nature Skylar was caring and responsible, but right then, more than anything, she wanted to have fun and be cool, and Skylar equated Shelia with both.

Even Officer Colebank agreed. “Shelia carries herself well in front of other people. She's pretty. She has pretty hair.” In short, Shelia's looks perfectly fit the standard for teenage beauty. Colebank believes Skylar compared herself to Shelia and wanted to do all the things Shelia could do and get away with.

Skylar also met people through Shelia—Crissy Swanson, Shania Ammons, Eric Finch, Dylan Conaway, and even Rachel Shoaf—people she might never have met on her own. During her freshman year, while hanging out with this edgier crowd and experiencing the world in a new, adventurous way, Skylar began habitually sneaking out of the house at night.

As teenage mischief goes, Skylar's was fairly benign at first. She mostly snuck out on weekends during the school year and typically rode around with her friends. They smoked pot sometimes, but that doesn't seem to be the primary reason Skylar snuck out. Skylar left mostly to socialize. At night, in the dark and in secret, Skylar was becoming her own person.

Mary believes Skylar's problems began when Shelia moved to town: “They were always together at school, always together [after school]. That is when Skylar seemed to start getting in trouble. Her attitude changed. She was nastier, more argumentative.”

One huge regret for Mary and Dave is not paying more attention to the changes in Skylar's behavior. Even more, they regret not realizing where those changes were coming from—since they now know Skylar's behavior was tied to her friendship with both girls. Shelia especially seemed to be a bad influence.

Mary remembers the time she and Skylar got into a screaming fight while Skylar was on the phone with Shelia. As Skylar accused Dave and Mary of trying to control her, she used language her parents rarely heard from her. Looking back, Mary realized Skylar sounded like Shelia's clone. She called Mary disrespectful names, like the ones Shelia called her mother.

In hindsight, Mary now believes Skylar was putting on a performance for Shelia to gain her friend's approval. Skylar wanted Shelia to see that she was cool.

Mary wishes with all her heart she had recognized what was really happening to her daughter.

twenty-two

Roll Call

Everyone had a message
for Skylar. People from around the world posted greetings and other words of comfort on the TeamSkylar<3 page the week before school resumed. Mostly they wrote they hoped the pretty teen was safe. They also wished she could read their messages. And they prayed Skylar would return home so she could start school with the classmates who missed her.

Shania Ammons' poignant message told Skylar no problem was too big to prevent her friend's return:
come home babe. that's all we ask. our junior year starts this week and you need to be here. . . . whatever is bothering you we can work through it. . . . <3

Long-time friend and fellow Wendy's employee, Hayden McClead, added a moving message:
Skylar, it's been wayyy to long since we last talked. schools starting in 4 days and I don't know what I'll do without you there. I miss having you there when I need advice on something. . . . I hate going everyday and you not being there
. . . .

Even Shelia's mother, Tara, had a message:
Hello Skylar. I hope that you are reading this post. You need to come home. Shelia is really missing you. . . . Your friends need you to be in school Thursday morning. I love you and hope that you come home soon
.

While words of love and encouragement were pouring in, fissures were forming in TeamSkylar<3. Among the more than 3,000 members, sniping and insinuations were becoming the norm. To make matters worse, the Hunts took away Mary and Dave's administrative rights. While Skylar's parents wanted to control the sniping by denying access to “haters,” the mother-son administrative team refused to monitor what people said in their posts. Censorship was not part of the group's plan. Jennifer Hunt claimed the decision to remove the Neeses as administrators was made for “legal reasons.” Without any sort of boundaries, TeamSkylar<3 was rapidly becoming a place to bicker. More and more, it was attracting mean-spirited people.

Mary and Dave could only watch in growing pain and horror as one person after another made false accusations. They had seen suggestions that they had caused Skylar to run away, that Dave was abusing Skylar, even that Dave had gotten Skylar pregnant. Wild speculation was rampant. The site that began as a tool to help find Skylar slowly turned into one that blamed her own parents of being responsible for her disappearance. Heartbroken and disgusted, Dave and Mary finally turned off their computer.

Stressed and alone in their Star City apartment, Skylar's parents couldn't even look at each other, much less speak. They were afraid the poison spilling over onto the TeamSkylar<3 page would somehow find its way into their home. They vowed not to let that happen. When Skylar walked through their apartment door, they didn't want her to see them snapping and screaming at each other.