The Savage Murder of Skylar Neese: The Truth Behind the Headlines (7 page)

Across town, someone else was growing suspicious, too. Daniel Hovatter wasn’t just Skylar’s coworker at Wendy’s. The boy with the blond curls was one of Skylar’s closest confidantes—and vice versa. Although it’s true that Skylar didn’t share much with anyone, if she did have something important to reveal, Daniel was one of the few people she would confide in.

Daniel knew he could trust Skylar with his deepest secrets, which is why he came out as gay to her before he told anyone else. All his fears about revealing such a charged secret in that small town vanished when Skylar responded with nothing but love and unconditional acceptance.

The two amigos had been tight since first grade, when they attended Cheat Lake Elementary together. Dave would do handyman work for Daniel’s mom, since Daniel’s dad worked overseas as a military contractor. Quite often, Dave would repair the damage inflicted by the family pet, a border collie named Duke, who would chew up the flooring in their home. When Dave came by he’d bring along Skylar, and the two children would entertain themselves playing Life or Battleship for hours on end. If they suspected that Dave was about finished, they’d move their game to the closet so they could keep playing.

In February of their sophomore year, Skylar had gotten Daniel a job at Wendy’s. He tended to goof off at work, snapping photos and clowning around, while Skylar was all business. She was definitely more committed in her academic life, too, but it never got in the way of their friendship. At that point Daniel wasn’t serious about much of anything.

That all changed though, after Skylar disappeared. Daniel suddenly became obsessed about one tremendously important matter—figuring out what had happened to his dear friend and confidante. Daniel began to reason that since Shelia and Rachel were the last two people to see Skylar, they had to know something. Skylar had said something, done something, texted someone, while she was joyriding with them. Daniel wasn’t sure what they knew, but he planned to find out.

Daniel was often with Skylar, Shelia, and Rachel on their weekend joyrides. And he’d hung out with the trio before classes or during lunchtime. He and Rachel had performed in high school theater productions together, too. When he looked back on all their time together, Daniel began to remember small details he had noticed in the months leading up to Skylar’s disappearance—tidbits about the three girls’ behavior that were strange enough to lodge in his mind. These details haunted him, and his proximity to Rachel meant that he had an easy target for his suspicions. Since they shared drama class, Daniel vowed to pressure her until she came clean.

For once in his life, Daniel was supremely focused and driven. He would not give up until Rachel Shoaf told him what she knew.

***

By the time Skylar had been gone a month, the rumors were out of control, both in real time and online. Some Morgantown teenagers believed Skylar was off partying and would be back soon. Many adults thought this, too. But the peers who knew her best were highly doubtful—such cavalier behavior wasn’t at all characteristic of the Skylar they knew. Another theory suggested Skylar had met up with a boy and run off. Again, her inner circle thought that unlikely. Other, darker rumors had begun to circulate as well. Some wondered if Skylar had hooked up with an Internet predator or had been taken by a pedophile. After all, teens heard about these kinds of scenarios in the news all too often.

Less malevolent but equally disturbing rumors were floated on Facebook and discussion sites: Skylar went to a party and got drunk, fell, hit her head and died. Skylar overdosed on drugs and died. On some boards the speculation turned lurid: Skylar was using hard drugs and running with the wrong people. Skylar was trading sex for drugs and was then killed when she fell in with a nasty crowd. Of course these rumors were incredibly wounding to Mary and Dave, who could only watch helplessly as the gossip grew. They knew these awful rumors were baseless, but they were powerless to stop them. Besides, they had no concrete leads, either.

However, the teenagers who knew Skylar best had begun to believe one particular rumor. As it turns out, Officer Colebank and Special Agent Spurlock believed it, too: Shelia and Rachel were lying about what had happened that night.

By this time, both Colebank and Spurlock had questioned Shelia and Rachel a number of times. They had their own opinions about each girl. Colebank believed from the very beginning the two teens knew something: “[Rachel] stuck with the story Shelia first gave. Their story was exactly—verbatim—the same. It was word for word.”

***

One month to the day after Skylar disappeared, Shelia finally posted on the “TeamSkylar<3” page. The picture showed her smiling, head turned slightly, eyes closed, wearing a red tank top with white print flowers. Skylar is next to her, her right hand on Shelia’s bare shoulder, her face pressed to Shelia’s hair as if she’s about to whisper something, her eyes peeking impishly toward the camera.

Shelia had been the photographer, taking a “selfie” of the pair. Underneath the picture Shelia posted were the words,
want my bestfriend back . Shelia’s words—and the symbol

Within minutes, eighty-two people signaled their approval by clicking Like. A little later Dave weighed in:
Love you Shelia, I want her back too.
In spite of his own pain, Dave still tried to be there for his daughter’s friend.

A small cascade of approval followed, as people’s comments ranged from
Skylar your family and friends miss you
to
So glad to see something like this!
That evening, Shelia reciprocated:
thanks guys. love you too Dave
.

Her post was a hit.

TeamSkylar<3 soon became
the
place to post about all things Skylar. Anyone who wanted to learn more about the missing girl, offer assistance, leave a warm thought, or even discuss the case could do so. All they had to do was join the group, which was designated as open. This meant the public could see who was in the group and what they posted. In short, everything the group did could be seen by the outside world—and it was. In a very big way.

Skylar’s distant cousin Hayden Hunt had started the group in July after he learned about her disappearance. Hayden lived with his mother, Jennifer, in Maryland and may have created the group because she asked him to. His mother had only met her distant cousin Dave once; Dave doesn’t remember ever meeting Hayden. Nonetheless, the Hunts seemed to want to help. They even added links to their Facebook page so people could click, download, and print early MISSING posters of Skylar.

Over the next few months, the TeamSkylar<3 group would prove to be a nasty source for gossip and innuendo—and a considerable source of stress for Mary and Dave. But when it first began, neither of Skylar’s parents knew much about social media or how to use it. TeamSkylar<3 soon became the easiest place for the Neeses to find an outpouring of support and sympathy. The page was also the first online group where their friends and the general public could show how much they cared about both Skylar and her distraught parents.

One teen after another joined the group to leave messages for Skylar, hoping she would see them. They tried to get her attention. They urged her to let them know she was safe. Some teens reminded her that school would resume in a week. Surely she would return to pick up where she’d left off, as a junior. School was what Skylar lived for. One teen’s simple hope was heartbreaking:
Skylar, please come home, we miss you and just want you home safely. Your parents … just want to know your alright. You can even call me…. I won’t tell anyone where your at or what your doing. 304-555-9157 come home Skylar we love you.

Four days after her first post, Shelia spoke up on the group page again. Her comment was equal parts longing for Skylar’s return and something else entirely, something that no other poster knew or particularly cared about:

With that post, Shelia revealed that she clearly knew law enforcement was watching. She also knew exactly who they had their eyes on: her.

When Dave read Shelia’s August 10 post, he swallowed the lump in his throat. Then he 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 that 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.

After a while, Shelia answered:
it’s hard but im trying, love you !

***

Skylar and Shelia had known each other more than half their lives. 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.

To understand this, one only needs to go back to when the two girls first met. They were second graders who spent long weekdays at the pool together at The Shack community center. Their play dates continued every weekend during the colder seasons. Usually Tara would take Skylar home with her after work on Friday, to save Mary and Dave from having to run all the way out to Blacksville. During summertime, Skylar was at Shelia’s home most weekends.

Later, when the two were adolescents and cell phone coverage improved, whenever they weren’t together, they were calling or texting each other. Then a wedding set in motion a chain of events that would bring them into almost constant contact—and alter the course of both girls’ lives forever.

Shelia’s mother, Tara, decided to remarry, which meant Shelia would no longer be near her father. Greg Eddy was by all accounts a great guy when he was younger, but he endured a series of difficult setbacks in his 20s that appeared to have broken him. When Shelia was about two years old, Greg was in a severe car accident in which he sustained brain damage and was left partially crippled. But still, he was her dad, and Shelia loved him. He and Tara were on reasonable terms, so Shelia visited Greg regularly when they still lived in Blacksville.
⁴

With Tara’s decision came more new things than Shelia had ever seen: she inherited a new stepfather, Jim Clendenen, and she found herself living in a nice new townhouse just outside Morgantown, no longer a thirty-mile trip from Skylar’s. Gaining a new husband who worked as a foreman for a union coal company meant Tara could say farewell to difficult financial times. So could Shelia.

Shelia’s home was only ten minutes from the Neeses’ Star City apartment. The move allowed Shelia to attend UHS, five minutes away. Shelia and Skylar were excited about being together all the time. That became a reality in October 2010, when Shelia transferred to UHS the beginning of her ninth-grade year.

“Jim was so gracious with his money, so gracious,” Shelia’s longtime friend Crissy Swanson said. “He just gave and gave and gave and gave, and if Shelia wanted the best, she got the best.”

Her new stepfather’s generous income added luxuries to the lives of both mother and daughter. Jim sent flowers to his new wife, Tara, every month on their anniversary date.
⁵
And Shelia could wear the expensive labels she’d always coveted. Now she could get her hair styled, go to the mall for mani-pedis. Even so, Shelia was still not quite occupying the same upper echelon as the daughters of the local business moguls or the sons of prominent lawyers.

Shelia had been popular at Clay-Battelle, but she had grown up with other students who came from the rural area. So they knew her well there. Not so at UHS, where she was an unknown. Shelia soon found her hometown popularity didn’t translate well with the much larger UHS student body. In fact, many students said Shelia appeared to be using her budding sexuality as a tool to become popular. As a result, she quickly gained a bad reputation and was not well liked. The only students who tended to speak well of her were a handful of boys who considered themselves modern-day hippies.

One of these boys, a UHS student named Frankie
⁶
, had known Shelia since third grade. “She was just like the sweetest girl,” he said.

Frankie said Shelia and he smoked weed, did coke, and took Roxicet—a form of oxycodone—many times.Frankie believed Shelia’s unpopular status had more to do with her arrest than people were willing to say. “She was cool. She was funny, and nice,” he said. “I’m probably the only one who would admit it.”

Many students liked Shelia before Skylar disappeared, Frankie said. But later he believed they were afraid to say they’d ever liked her, because she’d been labeled a murderer.

Whatever the truth about Shelia’s popularity, there was no doubt that once she arrived at UHS, she and Skylar became inseparable. Soon, nothing was the same.

***

Long before Shelia came on the scene, Morgan Lawrence and Skylar were best friends. The two blonde toddlers first met briefly at preschool and then reunited as kindergarteners at Cheat Lake Elementary. The first day of school the two towheads passed each other in the hall, made eye contact, and sensed they knew each other from somewhere.

“We just never stopped being friends after that,” Morgan said.

Unlike Skylar or Shelia, Morgan did come from that upper social echelon: she was the daughter of a physician, the chief of the Monongalia General Hospital Emergency Department. But for all their advantages, the Lawrences were about as down to earth as anyone else in that small community. They took the bus to ball games, drank beer with other rowdy fans, and taught Morgan that when it comes to having friends, money means nothing. Appreciation means everything. “You can have anything you want—until you stop appreciating it,” David Lawrence would tell his daughter. One day he stood by his word, confiscating all of Morgan’s toys when she was behaving badly.

Money had another outcome, too. Unlike Skylar’s parents, who both worked full-time, Morgan’s mother, Cheryl, was usually available to pick up the kids after school. All through kindergarten, she brought Skylar home with Morgan until Mary got off work.

It’s no secret that the Lawrences considered many of Morgan’s friends their “second daughters,” including Skylar. Mary recalled the time she worked in the Mon General ER, years before. “David [Lawrence] came to me one night and he said, ‘I need to show you my latest picture of my daughter,’” Mary said. “Then he pulled out his cell phone and pulled up a picture and there’s Skylar.”

The Lawrences and the Neeses shared the same family values, and Morgan’s parents even viewed Skylar as a good influence. As a result, they invited Skylar with them everywhere: she went on their beach vacations, to Pittsburgh Pirates baseball games, to family weddings, and even to one of Morgan’s dance auditions.

Morgan believed she and Skylar would be best friends forever. She knew that in fifth grade, when they were in honors science class. A poll they read about predicted that by age eighteen, only five percent of people would still have contact with their first friend. “We were like, ‘Boo! Boo! That’s not going to be us. We’re lab partners, and we have classes together,’” Morgan said. “I remember looking back and being, like, ‘Suck it, world, ’cause that’s not us! We’re still in contact.’”

Which was why Morgan wasn’t concerned when she first heard Skylar was missing. She thought Skylar was just mad at “Miss Mary.” Morgan knew Skylar would be back as soon as she cooled off.

When Skylar was still gone a week later, Morgan’s thoughts turned dark.

“She’s not coming back,” Morgan told her own mother.

***

Looking back, the Lawrences all agree: eighth grade was the turning point in Skylar’s life. They realized this when Cheryl took Morgan, Skylar, Daniel, and Shelia to a haunted amusement park, Fright Farm, before Halloween. It was the first—and only—time that Morgan and Shelia socialized together.

Morgan recalled that 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.”

At that point Morgan advised her friend against hanging out with this new crowd of kids, but Skylar wouldn’t be dissuaded.

“That crowd” was composed of girls who were experimenting with drugs, who were sexually active, and who ran around with older boys—even college-age ones. Boys Morgan didn’t know—and didn’t want to know.

And ever so slowly, Morgan’s relationship with Skylar slipped through her fingers. Even though the three girls—Morgan, Skylar, and Shelia—had freshman history together, Skylar was pulling away from Morgan. And vice versa.

“More and more, every time you had to pick a partner, it was them. Every time you had a conversation, it was just them,” Morgan recalled.

***

Skylar wasn’t just leaving longtime friends like Morgan Lawrence behind. As with most teenagers, Skylar had begun drawing away from her parents. She still loved Dave and Mary 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 that Skylar had built over the years began to shift. Many of Skylar’s other friends drew away because of how they felt about the new girl. They preferred not to be around her. A few even described Shelia as “bad news” long before the murder.

Skylar may or may not have been consciously aware that her friends were uneasy about Shelia, but it probably wouldn’t have mattered either way. When Skylar wanted something, she couldn’t be denied, and her obsession with Shelia was tenacious. By nature, Skylar was caring and responsible, but right then, more than anything, she wanted to have fun, and Shelia was fun. Shelia was
cool
.

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, Chris Boggs, 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 just 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 both Mary and Dave is that they didn’t pay more attention to the changes in Skylar’s behavior. Even more, they regret that they didn’t realize 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.

Like the time Mary and Skylar got into a screaming fight while Skylar was on the phone with Shelia. Skylar was using language her parents rarely heard from her, as she accused them of trying to control her. Looking back, Mary realized Skylar was talking like she was a clone of Shelia. She was calling Mary disrespectful names, just like the ones Shelia called her mother.

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

Mary wishes with all her heart that she had simply understood what was really going on back then.