Featured Image Credit: The Murder of Skylar Neese
Topics: US News, Crime, True crime
Anish Vij
The murder of Skylar Neese at the hands of her two best friends remains to be one of the most shocking cases in the last 10 years.
Best friends Shelia Eddy and Rachel Shoaf, of Morgantown, West Virginia, were like sisters to Skylar and were supposedly inseparable.
However, on July 6, 2012, Skylar's parents noticed that she wasn't in her room and had gone missing.
Watch how the horrifying case unfolded below:
Advert
As the search began, it soon became national news. At the time, police thought the most likely scenario was that Skylar had overdosed at a house party, which we now know wasn't the case.
Eddy and Shoaf both gave the same exact story to the police and Jessica Colebank, who was working on the case, thought that something was off.
After Colebank spoke to Eddy, she told ABC that her body language was suspicious.
The police officer said: "Just complete blank on emotions and there was absolutely nothing. It was like iced over."
But it was when she interviewed Skylar's other friend, Shoaf, that she knew something wasn't quite adding up.
"Their stories were verbatim, the same. No one’s story is exactly the same, unless it’s rehearsed," Colebank said. "Everything in my gut was, ‘Sheila is acting wrong. Rachel is scared to death'."
A few months later, Shoaf had a mental breakdown and was sent to a local psychiatric hospital on December 28, 2012.
After she was released on January 3, 2013, she confessed to the police that she and Eddy stabbed Neese to death.
It was only then when Shoaf showed police the site where the body had been left.
Shoaf even attempted to take Eddy down with her by trying to incriminate her by talking to her under electronic surveillance. But Eddy didn't admit to anything.
Police then decided to search Eddy's car for evidence, which had been identified in the CCTV footage, and found Skylar's blood in her vehicle.
Shoaf was transferred to criminal court and was charged as an adult. After pleading guilty to second-degree murder, she faced 30 years in prison as a result.
Eddy also plead guilty and was sentenced as an adult to life in prison, with the possibility of parole in 15 years at the time of the sentencing.
Skylar's heartbroken father, Dave Neese, said: "They’re both sickos, and they’re both exactly where they need to be: away from civilization, locked up like animals. Because that’s what they are, they’re animals."
The official reason that her friends gave to stabbing her was that they apparently no longer like her. Although some people believe there was an ulterior motive, which we will probably never know.
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact Cruse Bereavement Care via their national helpline on 0808 808 1677