Ashley Flowers (0:00)

Hi, everyone. I'm Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And every Monday we bring you a new episode of our number one true crime podcast, Crime Junkie, where we dive into all the gripping cases, from mysterious deaths to missing person cases to the headlines. Solved, unsolved, you name it. And this year, we're bringing you Crime Junkie in a whole new way. Live on tour. That's right. We're hitting the road for a nationwide tour, traveling all over the country to bring you a seriously wild case for an in person investigative experience like you've never seen before. We truly cannot wait to see you there. But tickets are selling fast, so don't wait. Yeah, a couple of venues are already close to being sold out, so head to crimejunkiepodcast.com to grab your tickets before they're gone. That is crimejunkiepodcast.com we'll see you soon. Netcredit is here to say yes to a personal loan or line of credit. When other lenders say no, apply in minutes and get a decision as soon as the same day. If approved, applications are typically funded the next business day or sooner. Loans offered by Netcredit or lending partner banks and serviced by Netcredit. Applications subject to review and approval. Learn more@netcredit.com partners. NetCredit credit to the people Will talk to me ABC Tuesdays. They took his daughter. She's coming home alive. Will Trent, the series critics are calling powerful Must see TV continues to thrill. Shouldn't we strategize before we go in there? If we screw up this case, a cop killer walks free with its most dramatic and heart racing season yet. Tbi. Opie Get Down. Will tread. All new Tuesdays on ABC and stream on Hulu. If anyone can hear what I'm saying, please help us. We were attacked by some kind of animal. From the director of the Invisible man and Blumhouse, producers of the Black Phone. My husband was infected. What is happening to me? Daddy, is that you? Run. Hurry. Mommy, he's coming. Don't you lay a hand on her. Directed by Leigh Whannell under 17 out of middle, without parent. Only in theaters January 17th. This podcast is intended for mature audiences. Listener discretion is advised. Would you mind telling me how you met? Want to take that, honey? Come on. We met at a bar I was working at. Yeah, what was the name? The name was The Blue Room 2. The Blue Room 2. I got jumped by four guys. They broken jaw here, here, here and here. Plus they broke my nose. Plus they had a bunch of st. And anyway, I was choking to death on my own blood. And if it hadn't been for Mary, I'd have died. She came over and got the hell beat out of me. I mean, bad, really. Because you looked kind of tough. I was. He was. More than one jumped in. I walked out, and he's laying there on the ground and blood's gurgling out his mouth. I'm like, roll him over, roll him over. So she pretty much saved my life. So the next day I said, hey, will you give me a ride home? There was some girl that would not leave me alone. And, I mean, she kept bugging me and bugging me and bugging me. Go home with me. Go home with me. I said, mary, come right home. She said, sure. We've been together just about ever since. From Waveland, I'm Justine Harmon. And I'm Holly millay. This is three episode six silent snow secret snow still together after 28 years, Dave and Mary niece's marriage is like the moon. It began with an act of violence, goes through many phases, yet remains constant and true. Both born and raised in West Virginia, they embody the history of this dark, beautiful country, the only state entirely embraced by the Appalachian woods, where the past feels somehow present. It was on this ground that the Civil war began in 1861. Two years later, Western Virginians formed their own state and joined the Union, one of five border states to fight against the Confederacy in some of the bloodiest battles along the Mason Dixon county line. Not far from where Skylar was finally found on January 16th. Once the FBI lab confirmed through DNA testing that the remains were indeed Skylar's, Tessa Cooper, an advocate for the FBI, contacted Dave. She said, dave, go get Mary from work and bring her and we'll meet you at your apartment. And I said, why? I can't tell you. And I said, it got so frustrating. And she said, you need to go get Mary and I'll meet you at your apartment. And I said, okay. So when we got. When I picked Mary up, we didn't say a word to each other the whole way home. It was. I'll never forget the silence. It was almost deafening. We both knew what was coming. Tess Cooper, she told us. She said, through investigation. I'll never forget these words. They haunt me every damn day. Through investigation, we think we found Skylar. And the first thing out of our mouths was, is she alive? No, she's not. It's something we both knew was gonna happen, but you can't be prepared for that. Did somebody tell you you just died? That's what it's like. And I said, what happened? We can't tell you. And I said, oh, Jesus, you can't be prepared for that kind of news. And you can't. There's no way. No one can tell you how to live that. I mean, no one can tell you the emptiness you feel. Twelve days after Skylar's remains were found, Rachel tweeted on January 28, 2013, there's so much I regret, but I'm on a new path, and I seriously couldn't be happier. The following day, she tweeted to her boyfriend, shout out to Mackenzie for being the best boyfriend ever and sticking with me through all this shit. Love you. Kissy face emoji on February 2nd. This bitch is not gonna ruin my life all over again. February 10, 2013, the day Skylar would have turned 17, Sheila tweeted about how much she just loves to eat curly fries and wings. Rachel, who'd confessed a month earlier to killing her best friend, tweeted, happy birthday, Skylar. They had the birthday party, and they had plainclothes policemen all through the party because rumor was that Rachel and Sheila were going to show up. And to imagine this and just play along like, we're still out there trying to help you, and we're still going to look for you knowing that your daughter was murdered by these two individuals. And they couldn't do anything yet because they were still building the evidence up. Skylar's 17th birthday was somber, more of a vigil held in the apartment parking lot with family, friends, and scores of strangers who had read about the upcoming event in the Dominion Post. Holding lit Chinese lanterns, everyone mingled, smiling sad smiles, encouraging Mary and Dave to stay positive and hold out hope, not knowing what they already knew. And you threw that party, birthday party for Skylar, knowing what had happened to her, but you had to put on this false front. Is that accurate? Yes, it is. And you know what? God love Tom Bloom. He was our saving grace through a lot of that. He would tell us things that we probably weren't. Well, we definitely weren't supposed to know. But he had an in with the state police, and he would find out information and pass it along to us. And I gotta say, I don't know if we would have made it not knowing a lot of that info that we weren't supposed to know. It was only that evening that Dave found out exactly how Skylar had died. Always desperate for information, Dave asked County Commissioner Tom Bloom, who'd actually been his former high school counselor, if he knew anything more. Father to father, Tom revealed what he'd heard on good authority. While Dave always thought Sheila and Rachel knew more than they were letting on, he was both numb and shocked by the facts. And he couldn't bring himself to tell Mary what he'd learned until days later. On March 6, Rachel tweeted in what seemed like a feverish pace, imagine there's no heaven. It's easy if you try. No hell below us and above us, only sky. Imagine all the people living for today. Snow makes everything more quiet. Happy moments, praise God. Difficult moments seek God, Painful moments trust God, every moment thank God. And then, on March 8, my past is my past. Move the fuck on Netcredit is here to say yes to a personal loan or line of credit when other lenders say no, apply in minutes and get a decision as soon as the same day. Loans offered by NetCredit or lending partner banks and serviced by NetCredit application subject to review and approval. Learn more at netcredit.com partner NetCredit credit to the People if anyone can hear what I'm saying, please help us. We were attacked by some kind of animal. From the director of the Invisible man and Blumhouse, producers of the Black Phone My husband was infected. What is happening to me? Daddy, is that you? Run. Hurry. Mommy, he's coming. Don't you lay a hand on her. Will slam during Directed by leigh Whannell under 17 out of the middle without parent only. In theaters January 17th downtown, along High street, older women, some mothers, some grandmothers now raising their grandchildren, stand on corners near stop signs, tapping on car windows, distributing literature and free Narcan to any and everyone with the hope that a life might be saved. Morgantown has been hit hard by the opioid epidemic in the last 10 years. A little further down the street is the Monongalia County justice center, which back in 2014 was a defunct post office built in the 70s. The sun streams through the large windows of the renovated building where we meet Judge Perry Jo DeChristopher and retired prosecuting attorney Marcia Ashdown in a large third floor conference room. Perry Jo resembles actress Marisa Tomei, attractive, dressed in a black top with a tiny checked black and white Chanel esque jacket, while Marcia in Black Readers wears a crisp white button down blouse and black slacks. She's a ringer for Martha Stewart. The room is chilly, but the two friends and colleagues who worked together for so many years exude warmth like we're we're truly it's like it's been we spent lots of time days, nights, evenings, weekends, lots and lots and Lots of times, Lots of fun times, lots of tears, lots of hard times, lots of worry, lots of stress, quite a few laughs. Trauma, bonded. Absolutely. Absolutely. People don't realize that, like, it's a. Like, in our world, we know that secondary trauma. But like, out in the world, people don't realize that, like, you know, you do murder cases and murder cases are hard. You know, you deal with victims, families. But, you know, we did kid cases. Like, kid cases, you do get callous to seeing horrible things. I mean, things that would horrify the average person. You know, you see a body photographed all carved up and their head mostly cut off. And you have to, oh, it's a picture, right? You can't go through it alone, which is how we survived it. It's super surprising when you realize from this end, from our view of the world that we've done murders where people have been killed over snowballs, over leaning against someone's car, over a spilled drink. In a bar. In a bar. We had a veteran that did two tours of duty in Afghanistan and was killed on high street over a spilled drink. Girls hating each other or worrying about a rumor. But it's just as ridiculous as all those other motives for murder. In every one of those that I just said, it's intense. And those are teenage girls. And so you can just imagine how that was huge in their mind. And so while it's certainly not a justification for murder, motive for murder is usually ridiculous. Ten years ago, in the Morgantown courthouse, I was waiting for the elevator when Marcia Ashdown, who hadn't returned my phone calls, suddenly appeared. As we stood there waiting, I introduced myself, pulled out my recorder, and asked, why would Rachel and Sheila murder Skylar instead of just dropping the friendship? I've never forgotten her answer. It's shocking, she said, but then, some people kill their spouse rather than getting divorced, for example. And it's not always because of an insurance policy. It's because they want to kill them. Years ago, when Holly and I first started to talk about this story, we would spend hours on the phone sharing our own adolescent experiences. Holly would tell me all about the slam book her classmates circulated in Rapid City, South Dakota, a mean girl style burn book in which her peers would share their most unvarnished thoughts and then pass it on for others to add their anonymous vitriol. We had something like that at my school, too. A simple 3x5 note card the boys circulated about the girls in which they critiqued our bodies, our brains, our faces, our worth. An entire teenager's existence boiled down to a scathing chicken scratch review. University high school was no different. 1300 or so teenagers grappling with social issues, the precipice of adulthood, and whatever the hell was happening at home. They were ranked academically, pitted against one another on sports teams, and reminded of all the potential they were squandering. How do you not feel the urge to claim your stake, your place in line, your right to exist? I remember still the rush of rage when I heard what was written about me back then. The same rage I felt when one of my closest friends betrayed me by sharing a secret that wasn't theirs to tell or trash me to the boy whose name I would scrawl like a sacred talisman inside of my notebooks. A toxic cocktail of anger and hurt and insecurity that felt overwhelming and singularly mine. But the raw impulse to retaliate, to inflict fatal harm on a perceived enemy, is so taboo, so outside the realm of possibility, we don't even dare acknowledge it. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world it doesn't exist. On March 14, the headline on the Dominion Post read, Skylar's remains ID'd, and beneath it, Star City teenager missing eight months. Family devastated. Rachel stayed as silent as the snow. But Sheila immediately went into survival mode, sending out a series of tweets. The pain is real. Rest easy, Skylar. You'll always be my best friend. I miss you more than you could ever know. Mary, not wanting Skylar's close friend to read the news or hear it from someone else, told Daniel Hovater personally. Mary messaged me and was like, okay, bud, they found the body. She didn't tell me that Rachel had led them to the body, though. She just told me that the FBI had found the body and that it was more than likely Skylar's. And that's whenever shit got real. I was just like, great, one of my friends is dead. Then that's whenever it was on the news and the school found out because the news let it out, like right before school had ended. And everyone started talking about it and everyone was walking around the school crying and freaking out and saying this tower was dead. And it was just a sad day at school because I would have freaked out if Mary hadn't told me. I was driving and I was on a mile ground road passing the Subaru shop, and I heard on the radio, it's a breaking news, you know, skyler's body's been found. And I was like. When I heard that that day, I was like, wow, this is. She's home. We'll bring her home. What was fortunate about finding her when we did was we were able to locate a lot of the remains. You know, over time, however, animals and the environment could have scattered the remains. In fact, it would be nearly three more months until they discovered Skylar's skull. On March 29, Gaskins returned to the site, determined to reunite all of Skylar's remains. Walking the area, he found her skull on a small path some 80 yards away from where her body had been. Sheila, socially isolated and no longer the center of attention in a high school universe, filled her days homeschooling online, watching Law and Order SVU marathons, and hanging with her cousin Alexis Eddy and Shania Ammons, her childhood friend. A lot of people were angry with me because I was defending Sheila. Even the police were like, you need to get away from her when they would come to interview me. But nobody would give me any proof. And I was 16, and I was stubborn, and I was, you know, confused. And I was like, you know what? I've already lost one of my best friends. I'm not just gonna drop the other one when nobody's giving me an actual reason to. On March 31, 2013, Sheila, as if goading the authorities, was tweeting back and forth with a friend about something unrelated when she wrote, we really did go on three, right? There's a proven fact blatantly on Twitter, we went on three. You literally just confessed to the whole world. And did. For fun and a thrill to see if anybody catch on. Kim Keener knew something was seriously up, given the constant police presence outside the Shoaf home. In fact, the neighbor grew so anxious, she began self medicating. Oh, I was not. I was bananas. I ate chocolate all the time. I was smoking pot all the time. I mean, just trying to bring myself down. As scared as I was and as paranoid as I was, I was. I didn't want to. I didn't want to make things hard on them either, because they were going through their own sweet hell, you know what I mean? And I still loved them, you know, I did. And so it was just. It was. It was crazy. So I was afraid of a few things. I kept saying, okay, you know, I never voted for that dam office again because, you know, they let her walk after she admitted that she's killed this girl. She roamed around the county free like a free bird for months, okay? And she had nothing to lose. Okay, there are my cute little girls in their cute little beds next door. My dogs would have never barked as she walked in My house, it was like she lived there, you know what I mean? And then, you know, my husband worked night. I was. We were right. We put an alarm system in. We put cameras in. While the authorities built their case against Sheila and worked to move the girls from juvenile to adult status, they struck a deal with Rachel. In exchange for her cooperation and testimony against Sheila, she agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of second degree murder. They allowed a trip to Virginia beach in April for Rachel to see her grandmother. To those following her on social media, she appeared to be on a carefree vacation. I do remember that she and her mother wanted to go to Florida. Yeah, I forgot about that. And I think we weren't in a position to try to stop that, I guess, because we would have had to have her in custody, I suppose, and we weren't ready to do that. Did we let her go? Did she go? I believe so, because I think I remember photographs from her Instagram account. Yes, that's right. Drinking something. On April 21, she tweeted a picture of a mimosa and wrote, I need a mimosa or 10. NetCredit is here to say yes to a personal loan or line of credit when other lenders say no, apply in minutes and get a decision as soon as the same day. If approved, applications are typically. Typically funded the next business day or sooner. Loans offered by NetCredit or lending partner banks and serviced by Netcredit Applications subject to review and approval. Learn more@netcredit.com partners. NetCredit credit to the people At Capella University, we believe accessible education can make a difference. That's why we offer scholarship opportunities to all eligible students. Un futuro differente esta mas cerca de lo que cres con Capella University. Learn more at capella.edu throughout the month of April, Sheila was also very online, tweeting what read like other veiled references to the murder on April 23rd. If only you knew, you'd shit right down your leg. April 24th. I hate when people blame their own actions and choices on others. Deal with it. April 27th. Ain't no rest for the wicked. April 28th. I hate seeing or hearing things that remind me of you, because you're the last person I want to be reminded of. April 30th. I've closed enough windows to know you can never look back. Despite everything they'd heard secondhand, Dave and Mary still didn't feel like they had closure. They didn't give me much time to get to her. They did give me One night, I got in the car and I drove to. I was going to go to Sheila's house, and whoever answered the door, I was going to smoke them. I was going to shoot them right where they stood. And then I was going to find Sheila, take her somewhere and start blowing fingers and toes off until she confessed. And Tom Bloom called me first. He said, dave, where you at? And I was so pissed. I was mad. I said, tom, it ain't gonna do any good. By the time you get here, it's gonna be done. And I said, don't worry about it. Then Ronnie called me, and Ronnie was pissed. Oh, I'd never seen Ronnie mad up until that point. He goes, where are you? And I said, it doesn't matter where I'm at. It doesn't make any difference. He said, dave, I'm gonna tell you right now, don't make this hard on yourself. He said, what is Mary gonna do without you? And that hit a strong boom. That hit me hard. And I said, oh, my God. I never thought about that. Not one time did I think about that. I had both my guns with me, and they were gonna die that day. There is no doubt in my mind until Ronnie said that. That what is Mary gonna do without you? Shook me up. The next day, May 1, 2013. Shania Ammons was looking forward to her Clay Battelle High School prom, which was less than two weeks away. Sheila, always up to see and be seen, was prom hopping. She went with her cousin Alexis Eddy to the North Marion High Dance in nearby Farmington. And now Sheila was planning to go in a group with Shania to hers. So she was going to take. And ironically, she is a lesbian. But it wasn't like that when I say this, but she was going to take Sheila as her date. So Sheila could come to our prom. And I was taking one of our friends that was a freshman, you know, that was a female, so that she could come to the prom. And I was trying to figure out what hairstyle because, you know, I had went dry shopping. I found my dress up in Clarksburg is where I got it. I had gotten shoes and Morgantown that matched with perfect. So I wanted everything to be, like, perfect. So on that day, I was at the Fairmont Beauty College getting a trial done on my hair. And my lifelong best friend, her name's Maggie, she called me and she said, where the. Is Sheila? And I said. I said, I don't know. I talked to her a couple hours ago, and she was with her mom at the doctor waiting for her mom to get blood work done or something. Why? And she said, you haven't heard anything? And I said, what are you talking about? And she said, it's on the radio right now. That Rachel show pled guilty to murder and is in custody. Skyler's close friend, 16 year old Rachel Shelf, has admitted to plenty planning the murder and stabbing the victim in a remote part of Wayne Township, Pennsylvania. Rachel confessed that everybody went, holy crap. It actually happened. It just came out of complete left field. Everybody's working on something else. And then I think it was a phone call came in that she had beated and it was like, what kind of thing? And there is another juvenile in custody that they are not, you know, giving the name. I said, are you serious? And she said, yeah. I said, I'll call you right back. So I immediately hung up and I tried to call Sheila and there was no answer. And I texted Sheila. There was no answer. Earlier that morning, Rachel Shoaf, accompanied by her mother Patricia, had turned herself in and in accordance with her plea deal, pled guilty to second degree murder. She called me the day before it, like, you know, came out or what, you know, whatever. She said, I just wanted to let you know before, you know, everything went bananas. Rachel has confessed to second degree murder. Now, the girls had already come home from school though and told me, mom, they stabbed her. And I said, listen to me, they may have done something to her, but there is no way my Rachel stabbed anyone. Okay, now that's just stories. How about I'm telling my kid this, you believe that? Because I just couldn't believe. Kim immediately told Kelly Kearns and the neighbor said something about them stabbing her. And that's when I jumped in the car and raced to their house and knocked on the door. Kelly sent us pictures of Rachel over the years, several in which Kelly is holding or hugging her as a grinning toddler with flame red hair and a dimpled smile. At about 4, she's radiant in a pretty party dress, holding a wicker basket full of daisies. At five on a lake, posing in the middle of an inner tube, smiling and wearing a life vest. Then in a flash, she's around 12, a mouth full of braces and cheeks full of freckles. In an instant, the red haired baby Kelly held moments after she was born is now a head taller than her surrogate mom. And look, it's Rachel and Sheila and Skylar smiling, posing, laughing at Rachel's 15th birthday party. Even as Rachel wraps her arm around her, Kelly has a sense that the teen has become Someone else, a girl whose mind is somewhere else, knocked on the door, and there's Patricia and Rachel standing on the steps. And I'm outside yelling, tell me you didn't do this. And Patricia told Rachel to go on. And Patricia said, it's bad. And she didn't give me many details. And I left. I just left. With Rachel in custody, it was finally time to capture Sheila. Just before noon, Morgan Spurlock and Ronnie Gaskins pulled into the Cracker Barrel parking lot in Granville, West Virginia, just as Sheila and her mother were walking to their car. We were over at Sheila's house in the beginning, and then we realized that she was over at the Cracker Barrel. And state troopers responded in time to stop her. And then that's when Ronnie put handcuffs on her, told her what she was arrested for. And I talked to her mother to let her know what was happening. The rest of the day, we brought her to the county court, like the Monegilia County Sheriff's Department, that she was held there while arrangements were being made with the court. And then she had her appearance, and then we drove her, along with Jessica Colbank down to the detention center. They gave me the opportunity to ride with her on the way to jail in the car. So after they picked her up, because she was actually picked up at Cracker Barrel just up the road here with her mom, and we think she was trying to leave the state with her. So I think they knew she acted, like, confused that, you know, just could not understand why we were there. She kept asking her mom, you know, is everything going to be okay? Just kind of got the sense, like, you know, guys, I don't. I don't understand why you're here, what's going on, that kind of thing. Then I instructed her mom, Tara, to call Mike Vinegar, because they're going to have a hearing for her initial appearance later on that afternoon. For 10 months, Sheila had so often repeated and impressed upon others her version of events, to the authorities, to family, to friends, to Twitter followers that she'd convinced herself she'd gotten away with the crime. Slapped into her new reality. Sheila was finally scared. Well, sort of. That's what she was worried about. Was she going to be with, you know, bad people? You know, like, what you. What you. That's what she would say. Am I going to be with. With anybody? That's mean. Don't put me with any mean people. And, you know, me and Ronnie are kind of looking at each other like, you know, are you serious? You know, this is. This is kind of like she didn't want to be seen in the back of the squad car. I remember that too. And like, she would try to. I don't know if she tried to duck down, but she definitely, you know, raised those concerns that, you know, people can see me. Yeah, she was more worried about appearances. She wanted to make sure she looked good for her mug shot. Are they taking my picture? Is everyone going to see it? Everything like that. So she was solely worried about her image. She was more worried about getting her hair done for prom on the way to jail. It wasn't, oh, you know, what's happening to me next? It was, okay, am I going to miss my hair appointment? It's not a typical reaction of someone that's just been picked up for murder. Next time on three. Sheila Eddy, how do you plead to the offense of murder in the first degree of the felony charged in count three of the indictment in this case? The person sitting before you, Scott, her so called friend, took her away from us without any remorse. If she didn't kill Skylar, she would have killed somebody else in her life. I don't know if there's a proper way to make this apology because there are not even words to describe the guilt and remorse that I feel each day for what I've done. Sheila and Rachel first joked about killing Skylar during science class when one of them said, we should kill her. And they looked at each other with a sense of agreement on that statement. Three is an original production of Waveland. The series is created and written by Holly Millay and me, Justine Harmon. The executive producer is Jason Hoak who produced and edited the series. Associate producers are Lydia Horne and Leo Culp. Fact checking by Lydia Horne. Sound engineering by Shane Freeman. Music by Robert Ellis. Studio recording at CDM Studios in New York and Wildwood's Picture and Sound in Los Angeles. Special thanks to Dave and Mary Nese in the city of Morgantown, West Virginia. If you love the series, leave a review and please tell your friends. Follow Waveland on Instagram avelandmedia for more on this series and upcoming new shows. Thanks for Netcredit is here to say yes to a personal loan or line of credit. When other lenders say no, apply in minutes and get a decision as soon as the same day. If approved applications are typically funded the next business day or sooner. Loans offered by NetCredit or lending partner banks and serviced by Netcredit. Applications subject to review and approval. Learn more@netcredit.com partner netcredit credit to the people at Capella University. We believe accessible education can make a difference in people's lives. That's why we offer scholarship opportunities to all eligible students. Whether you're considering a bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree, our teams will walk you through the process and help you get the savings you are eligible for. Furthering your education is an investment in yourself. Entonces que estas un futuro diferente esta macerca de lo que cres con Capella University. Learn more at Capella Eduardo.