Pretty Little Killers (39 page)

Rachel wasn't the only one who was acting out. So was Shelia. She and Rachel cut classes so they could be together, and spent their days hanging out at friends' houses, smoking weed.

Shelia had always pushed the boundaries, but usually backed down once Tara made it clear Shelia wasn't getting her way. But something had changed, and Crissy said Shelia was vocal and disrespectful whenever she challenged Tara's authority. Equally odd, Tara didn't say a word in reply.

That was the part Crissy found weird. “It was like Tara was afraid of Shelia,” Crissy said. She then related how Tara had confided she was giving Shelia weed and alcohol to calm her, after Shelia grew outraged one day and grabbed her mother's arm so hard Tara thought it was broken.

Shania knew how much her friend Shelia missed Skylar, so she slaved over the homemade Christmas gift. She wanted it to be the perfect present; she planned to give it to her when Shelia came to pick Shania up for a sleepover a few days before Christmas.

Shania was a little nervous because she wasn't sure how Shelia would react. Would she be happy or burst into tears? She had copied dozens of photos she knew Shelia would love, of Shelia's friends and family. There were shots of Shelia with Shania or Skylar, or all three girls together, an assortment of posed shots and selfies. Shania
labored over the fabric-covered collage for hours, carefully assembling it. She had far more photos than would fit, so she wrapped up the loose photos together, so Shelia would have them, too.

When she was done the collage looked fantastic, and Shania felt it helped memorialize their missing friend. Shania believed her present would provide Shelia with something tangible, something to hold onto—until Skylar returned.

Shelia's reaction to Shania's handmade gift was exactly what Shania had hoped for. Shelia loved her present, and she and Tara took turns looking at all of the pictures Shania didn't have room to place in the collage.

“Thank you,” Shelia said, giving Shania a big hug.

Shania didn't give the moment much thought until a week later, when she was back at Shelia's house. Shania saw the collage, but not a single photo of Skylar remained. Shelia had removed them all, and tossed them into the gift bag with the rest of the photos.

thirty-four

Nervous Breakdown

“Don't take my suitcase
out of the car because I'm going back to Dad's,” Rachel said.

Her mother was trying to remove the luggage when Rachel chimed in, right after they returned home from celebrating Christmas with Patricia's family. When Rachel saw her father's Jeep in the driveway, she didn't even plan to go inside with her mother. She wanted to leave as quick as she could, to go see Shelia.

“Your dad is sick again,” Patricia said, “so he's moving back in and I'm going to take care of him.”

Rachel didn't know it but Patricia and Rusty had concocted the story for their daughter's benefit before she and her mom began the drive back from Virginia. Patricia texted Rusty on the way back, telling him they were
almost home
. The last thing she wanted, Liz says, was to have another fight with Rachel.
You better hurry, because she's getting upset
, Patricia texted him.

She noticed the closer they got to home, the edgier Rachel became, as if she might explode from nervous energy. Patricia suspected part of it was because Rachel had been separated from Shelia for so long. That was the reason she wanted to take Rachel away. The police had warned her from the start and Colebank told
her Shelia was a pathological liar who was no good for Rachel. The rest of Rachel's anxiety probably stemmed from the fact the FBI wanted to question her the following day. Again. Patricia might be a screamer but most any mother would be, after all she'd been dealing with for the last five months. She wanted to scream again when she thought back to that day when Liz told her what Rachel said: “I had to make sure Tara didn't mind if I came to lunch with you,” Rachel had told Liz.

Trying to keep Rachel away from that girl—
and her mother
—had proved an impossible task. She remembered the day Rachel had jumped from the Jeep and run to Tara—and Rusty hadn't even told her. The whole time she thought Rachel was at the State Police office, taking her polygraph test. If it hadn't been for Liz, whom Rachel later confided in, she never would have known. Patricia felt her blood pressure rise just remembering that terrible day. Rachel could have been killed. Patricia couldn't understand why Rachel would feel she had to run away from the police when all they were trying to do was find Rachel's friend. To find Skylar, the girl Rachel had asked Patricia to let come live with them a year ago, when it looked like Skylar's family might be evicted. It hadn't come to pass, but Patricia had been touched by her daughter's compassion.

Who was this girl who defied her own mother, all while doing whatever Shelia and Tara asked her to, as if she was their puppet? Patricia couldn't understand why Rachel didn't try to do everything she could to help the police. Who was this girl? Where was her Rachel?

Patricia was no fighter. She knew that. She had never overcome her tendency to cower when someone threatened her. It was a holdover from her own childhood, and she couldn't do anything about it. Not so Rachel, who was much stronger and whose behavior had become more aggressive lately. Patricia dreaded the showdown that would occur if she and Rachel were alone when she figured out the ruse, when her daughter learned what was really going on.

Rusty had already arrived when Rachel realized her parents were actually trying to prevent her from staying with her father, but in Rachel's overwrought state, his presence provided no restraint.

Patricia cringed as Rachel began shrieking. “You're ruining my life!” she screamed at her parents in their driveway on December 28, 2012. “You're ruining my life!”

No matter how much Patricia and Rusty urged her to calm down, Patricia knew Rachel had gotten so worked up that she wouldn't. Even if she had wanted to, which she didn't, she couldn't have stopped the tornado whirling within her. Her teenage world as she knew it was imploding. Rachel couldn't contain five months of pent-up feelings a minute longer.

Since September her father's house across town had been Rachel's refuge from the recent strife between her and her mother. But more important, living with her dad was the only way she could be with Shelia. He let her see Shelia whenever she wanted to—unlike her mom. Even though Patricia had recently tried to keep her away from Shelia, just like the police told her to, Rachel would have none of it. She had to be with Shelia, see Shelia, have Shelia tell her what to do and say, every time the police came by with more questions. Shelia's sense of calm and control were what helped Rachel fend them off.

Patricia wasn't a fool. She knew Rusty wasn't just Rachel's father. He was her friend, her buddy. He knew how much she needed Shelia, and he didn't see the harm in Rachel being with her. But now? Now they were telling Rachel he was moving back in. She knew it was a scheme to keep her from seeing Shelia. Why was he willing to work with her now, Patricia must have wondered, when he never had before?

Rachel's screams were loud enough for the entire cul-de-sac to hear. Just as Patricia suspected, she saw through their act.

Trying to keep their private lives out of the public eye, Rachel's parents quickly guided her toward the front porch. Once inside Rachel's anguish only increased.

Amidst the drama, neither Patricia nor Rusty noticed Rachel's iPod. She held the device in her hand, FaceTiming everything live to
Shelia. If they had realized that, they might have been less worried about what their neighbors could hear and more worried about what Shelia might witness.

Patricia Shoaf has authorized her best friend Liz to share the details of Rachel's meltdown. Unlike earlier reports claiming Patricia was on top of Rachel on the floor, Liz says it was the other way around. Rachel punched Patricia in the eye and threw an unlit candelabra against a wall. In the ensuing melee Patricia and Rusty were both injured when they fell down the steps trying to get their daughter under control.

While Rachel raged in the background, Patricia called 911.

In the audio recording, she sounds remarkably calm. “I have an issue with a 16-year-old daughter of mine. We can't control her anymore,” Patricia said. “She's hitting us. She's screaming. She's running through the neighborhood.”

It sounds like Patricia is talking to Rachel next, when she says, “Give me the phone. Give me the phone.”

Rachel's screams punctuate the 911 call, until Patricia is heard telling her, “No. No. This is over. This is over.”

More screams erupt from Rachel before Patricia tells the dispatcher, “My husband's trying to contain her. Please hurry.”

As Patricia hung up, Rachel bolted upstairs and into her bedroom. She locked the door and began kicking holes in it. Rusty ran after her but she shoved her dresser in front of the door.

At this point, Rachel's screams were so loud a neighbor went to his window to see where the noise was coming from. That's when he heard Rachel threaten to take her own life.