Shelia Eddy, One Of The West Virginia Teens Who Murdered Their Best Friend Because They ‘Just Didn’t Like Her’

In July 2012, teenagers Shelia Eddy and Rachel Shoaf basically stabbed their ideal good friend Skylar Neese in the back — and Shoaf later on confessed that they killed her simply because they “just did not like her” any longer.

When young people make your mind up to oust a buddy from their group, they can be cruel. For the shunned, it can sense like the conclude of the world. For Skylar Neese, it was the close of her life.

In the early morning hrs of July 6, 2012, teenagers Shelia Eddy and Rachel Shoaf lured their greatest close friend, 16-yr-previous Neese, into the woods of Pennsylvania less than the guise of cigarette smoking cannabis there. As an alternative, the ladies counted to 3 — then stabbed Neese in the back, brutally murdering her.

This is the story of how Shelia Eddy assisted Rachel Shoaf murder their very best friend — then pretended to aid Skylar Neese’s loved ones look for her when she went “missing.”

The Peculiar Disappearance Of Skylar Neese

Skylar Neese, Shelia Eddy, and Rachel Shoaf have been greatest friends at their substantial faculty in Star City, and they were seemingly inseparable. They have been normally on social media, publishing pics of on their own evidently owning a excellent time jointly.

But a closer look at the posts reveals there could have been pressure brewing between the girls. Angry, imprecise tweets Neese posted shortly ahead of her dying hinted she was escalating annoyed with her buddies, and that they may perhaps have been excluding her.

On July 4, 2013, she tweeted, “it definitely doesn’t choose a great deal to piss me off,” followed by, “sick of currently being at f—ing residence. many thanks ‘friends’, enjoy hanging out with you all also.” The upcoming working day, she tweeted, “you performing shit like that is why I will By no means wholly have confidence in you.”

Then, right after midnight on July 6, Skylar Neese snuck out of her Star Metropolis house by her bedroom window. She remaining her cell cell phone charger at property and still left the window open up, as if she planned to return, WPXI reported. In accordance to Discovery, her father, David Neese, later on noted that the condominium complex’s surveillance footage showed Skylar coming into a vehicle all over 12:35 a.m.

The future morning, Skylar’s dad and mom found out she was long gone and claimed her missing. But for the reason that she was a teenager and appeared to have left willingly, law enforcement rapidly decided she was a runaway and not in threat. No Amber Alert was originally issued.

6 months afterwards, law enforcement would find Skylar Neese’s body in the woods of Pennsylvania.

Rachel Shoaf Tells The Police What She And Shelia Eddy Did

As the law enforcement continued to research for Skylar Neese, her household dispersed lacking individual flyers all-around the area. Shelia Eddy joined them. NY Daily Information reviews she went door-to-doorway handing out flyers, seemingly attempting to discover her missing friend. She even comforted the distraught moms and dads of the female she assisted murder.

Law enforcement finally observed that the car that had picked Neese up belonged to Eddy, so they interviewed her. Eddy claimed she had picked Neese up close to 11 p.m. and that she, Neese, and Shoaf experienced driven around for about an hour obtaining large prior to they dropped Neese off around her residence.

By September, the FBI had joined the situation and started interviewing Skylar Neese’s close friends. Authorities started to suspect that Shoaf and Eddy were being hiding something.

Ultimately, Shoaf broke. In January 2013, she confessed to plotting with Shelia Eddy to destroy Neese.

She stated she and Eddy experienced picked Neese up that evening and driven to Pennsylvania. They smoked some weed and drove all around, in advance of they lastly stopped and walked into a wooded space. As Neese turned all around to go locate a lighter in the auto, Shoaf and Eddy counted, “One, two, 3 …” and started to brutally stab Neese.

Afterwards, it was noted that Shoaf claimed, “Die, b—-” as they murdered their mate.

Once it was around, the girls tried out to bury the human body, but the ground was much too challenging. Rather, they included Neese’s overall body with branches and rocks and left it there, where by it remained for 6 months.

When asked why they killed their friend, Shoaf admitted that they did it simply because they just “didn’t want to be buddies with her any more.”

The Trials Of Shelia Eddy And Rachel Shoaf

After she confessed, Rachel Shoaf led law enforcement to the place she and Shelia Eddy had hid Skylar Neese’s human body in Brave, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles from Star Town, ABC News experiences. In March 2013, police introduced to the community that Neese had been uncovered lifeless.

Immediately after the news broke, Shelia Eddy, who had nevertheless to confess, continued to act as via almost everything was typical. She took to Twitter, creating, “Rest simple skylar, you are going to Always be my bestfriend. i overlook you much more than you could ever know.”

But two months later, she tweeted, “We seriously did go on three,” seemingly corroborating her buddy Rachel Shoaf’s confession that they had stabbed Neese to dying just after counting to a few.

On May well 1, 2013, law enforcement at last arrested Shelia Eddy. That same day, Shoaf experienced pleaded guilty to 2nd-degree murder. She was sentenced to 30 decades in jail, and was suitable for parole after 10 decades.

Shelia Eddy was charged as an grownup and sentenced to lifetime. In advance of her demo, she pleaded guilty to 1st-diploma murder with mercy, which usually means she will be suitable for parole following 15 a long time.

“​​She arrived and acted as if she realized nothing,” Skylar Neese’s aunt Carol Michaud mentioned at Eddy’s sentencing, according to Every day Mail. “She pretended and stayed with us and comforted us and swore she experienced no notion what was heading on. To arrive to this day and confess she did just demonstrates how evil she can be.”

Feasible Motives For The Murder

Whilst Rachel Shoaf initially explained the motive for killing Neese was just that they “just did not like her,” some have speculated that Eddy and Shoaf were being obtaining a sexual connection that they didn’t want leaked. But Neese’s household insists that Skylar would never have outed them because she had other homosexual and lesbian close friends and experienced no issue with it.

Law enforcement Main Jessica Colebank, who was a detective on the situation, has stated she thinks the girls did it for the thrill of it.

Shelia Eddy has publicly shown no regret and remained mum about why she killed Neese. At her sentencing, her legal professional, Michael Benninger, gave a assertion on behalf of Eddy and her household.

“Shelia Eddy and her spouse and children figure out the Neese family members is in a frequent state of despair, loneliness and unhappiness,” Benninger explained, according to MetroNews. “For that, Shelia Eddy and her relatives are, and will be eternally sorry. … We hope all family members … tragically impacted can transfer ahead in a much more tranquil and hopeful way.”

Rachel Shoaf Faces The Parole Board

In May 2023, Rachel Shoaf was eligible for her very first parole board hearing. At the listening to, she claimed that she and Shelia Eddy had been in a romance, and that they’d killed Skylar Neese to continue to keep it a magic formula.

“After issues turned known with the connection, there was tension among us,” she said, according to WBOY News. “It was hostile and violent, in our teenage minds we didn’t know how to deal with the conflict and we just required it to end.”

David Neese browse a assertion to the parole board giving no mercy for Shoaf.

“This narcissistic, very first diploma, cold-blooded killer is not sorry for the brutal murder of my only little one. It’s my perception that she is very pleased she murdered my daughter in chilly blood… I wasn’t there to defend my infant girl from this diabolical killer on July 6, 2012, but I’m right here right now to do almost everything within just my electricity to make certain she stays at the rear of bars.”

He got his wish: Shoaf was denied parole. She and Eddy are now housed in the Lakin Correctional Center in Mason County, West Virginia and will be eligible for parole in 2028. It will be Eddy’s initial possibility at parole.

The Aftermath Of Skylar Neese’s Murder

Because Skylar Neese’s death, her mother and father David and Mary Neese served go “Skylar’s Legislation,” which requires Amber Alerts to be unveiled for all lacking small children in West Virginia, even if they aren’t considered to have been kidnapped. The bill passed unanimously in the West Virginia Dwelling of Delegates and the state’s Senate.

The Neeses also produced a memorial in the wooded region where Shelia Eddy and Rachel Shoaf hid Skylar Neese’s entire body.

“Something terrible took place listed here,” David Neese explained to 20/20. “But I needed to choose the terrible issue that occurred below and try to transform it into some thing superior — a location that people today can appear and bear in mind Skylar and try to remember the fantastic small lady that she was, and not the small beast that they treated her like.”

Right after reading about Shelia Eddy, go through about Alyssa Bustamante, the 15-year-previous who murdered her 9-calendar year-old neighbor for the thrill of it. Then, master about teenage finest mates Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme, who brutally murdered Parker’s mother due to the fact they feared she’d continue to keep them apart.