Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder. Reader discretion is advised.
Dateline NBC looks into the murder of West Virginia teenager Skylar Neese. The episode “Something Wicked” will air on NBC this Sunday, April 7, 2024, at 10 p.m. ET. A synopsis for the upcoming episode reads, “When Skylar Neese vanished without a trace, police initially thought the teen ran away, but hints on social media pointed to a more sinister reason for her disappearance. Andrea Canning reports.”
According to ABC News, 16-year-old Skyler Neese was an accomplished high school student with a 4.0 GPA. She worked a part-time job, was socially active, and was an only child. Her father, Dave Neese, described her to ABC 20/20 as “a very bubbly person” who was “very loyal to her friends” and also to the ones “she thought was her friends.”
Neese snuck out of her home in Star City after midnight on July 6, 2012. She reportedly met with her two high school best friends, Rachel Shoaf and Shelia Eddy, but never returned home. Surveillance footage captured the teen sneaking out of the apartment and getting into a car around 12:30 a.m.
The following morning, Neese’s family found out that she had snuck out sometime during the night. That day, the teen failed to show up to work, and her parents filed a missing person’s report. Mary Neese said they only learned about the events of that night from Shelia Eddy.
Mary said, “She [Eddy] proceeded to tell me that her, Skylar, and Rachel had snuck out the night before and that they had driven around Star City.” Eddy’s story was that the three smoked marijuana before they dropped Neese off at the end of the road from her apartment building “because she didn’t want to wake us up sneaking back in.”
The case remained unsolved, and Neese was presumed missing until a shocking confession came months later. The confession eventually led authorities to a gruesome discovery and the truth behind the strange disappearance.
Who killed Skylar Neese and how was the case solved?
Per ABC News, authorities continued to investigate Skylar Neese’s disappearance for months after she went missing in July 2012. They got a break in the case on January 3, 2013, when Rachel Shoaf, with whom she was on the night she disappeared, confessed to murdering her. Shoaf admitted to her attorney and police that she and Shelia Eddy stabbed Neese to death.
After confessing to the crime, Shoaf led authorities to Neese’s remains in a wooded area in Brave, Pennsylvania. She claimed that they murdered their friends because they just “didn’t like her.” Police later found blood belonging to the victim in Eddy’s car.
The outlet stated that Rachel Shoaf told police she and Shelia Eddy planned Skylar Neese’s murder together during science class. The girls planned to pick up Neese from her house at night and drive to a remote area to smoke marijuana. They planned to stab their best friend on the count of three while in the woods.
People Magazine reported that on the night of July 6, the three high school best friends drove to the remote wooded area where Eddy and Shoaf stabbed Neese with kitchen knives. The girls then denied knowing anything about their missing friend’s whereabouts. Eddy told Neese’s mother that they drove around town getting high that night after sneaking out and dropped off their missing friend at the end of the road from her apartment building for her to sneak back in.
In the days leading up to the murder, Skylar Neese made a series of strange tweets, per ABC News. On July 4, two days before the incident, Neese tweeted, “It really doesn’t take much to p*** me off.” Another tweet said, “Sick of being at f****** home. Thanks ‘friends,’ love hanging out with you all too.” On July 5, she again tweeted, “You doing s*** like that is why I can NEVER completely trust you.”
The New York Post reported that in the months after the murder, Shelia Eddy made a series of disturbing tweets. While most of Eddy’s tweets were about her typical day-to-day activities, one said, “no one on this earth can handle me and rachel if you think you can you’re wrong.”
Moreover, ABC News reported that Eddy remained indifferent even after her accomplice in the crime, Rachel Shoaf, confessed to her role in the murder. After authorities discovered Skylar Neese’s remains, Eddy tweeted, “Rest easy Skylar, you’ll ALWAYS be my best friend,” along with a photo montage of her and Neese together. In a following tweet, she called it the “worst day of my whole life.” Another tweet she made on March 30, 2013, said, “We really did go on three.”
The New York Post stated that authorities arrested Shelia Eddy on May 1, 2013, in connection with Skylar Neese’s death. They then charged both teens with murder. Eddy pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and received a life sentence in prison with parole.
Meanwhile, Rachel Shoaf pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and got a 30-year prison sentence. Shoaf’s parole hearing took place in 2023, during which she said she was in a relationship with her accomplice in the crime, Shelia Eddy. Per People Magazine and West Virginia Metro News, she claimed that they feared Neese would tell people about it. The parole board denied Shoaf parole, reported Metro News.
Dateline NBC‘s episode will chronicle Skylar Neese’s murder case on Sunday, April 7, 2024.
