GUILTY WV - Skylar Neese, 16, Star City, 6 July 2012

[Dixie811]

I'm going to search my dvr and see if I can find it to record it. I meant to do it Sunday and totally forgot.

Slightly O/T and JMO
I'm bummed about the book being updated re-released. I really think it's pretty crappy to rush something out and promote it to people you know would want to buy it and then announce it's going to be updated and re-released again almost immediately. It's a lot like a rip off. I didn't want to comment on the book here because I think the writer is a member, but I just had to say something. It's only 8 bucks, but AFAIK that $ doesn't go to the Neese family. MOO

Yeah, I would have waited to buy the book if I had known it would be re-released.

 

[yupikgirl]

Where can I see the full episode of Dr. Phil? Cold ending to the first case I started following on WS... I hope Shelia's and Skylar's Twitter accounts will be eventually closed, because it's chilling to see Shelia was Skylar's first follower on there. And Shelia's tweets after the murder... oh my.

I found the entire episode on YouTube searched "skylar neese dr phil" .


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[thisiseku]

I found the entire episode on YouTube searched "skylar neese dr phil" .

Thank you!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWyxY1bTqm0

 

[greenpalm]

I have been a WS lurker for some time but this case finally made me register on the site. I despise Dr. Phil but watched yesterday for the updates on the case. I was happy to see some REAL therapeutic moments with Dr. Phil and Dave. Dave is so full of rage, I just feel for them both. To have it confirmed Skylar wrote about the sexual encounter/relationship between the other two girls in her journal was news to me, I thought it had sort of been speculation until that point. That was FASCINATING to me that they sort of had a "real time" back-up for that rumor. And I don't think I will EVER not feel sick to my stomach when the "We went on three" tweet is mentioned. Every time. Ugh.

:welcome6:

Welcome to Websleuths Otterpops. I joined for the Kyron Hormon case, which, as I said in m post just up thread, if it's ever solved will probably prove to be equally cold and premeditated and calculating as this murder. It's chilling to imagine.

Sorry for the circumstances, but very glad you're here!

ETA: I don't like Dr. Phil either, but he did okay with this episode. He didn't need to invent drama for this. It was dished up on a silver platter.

 

[greenpalm]

I keep thinking about the oft quoted cliche used about best friends. We say, in our culture, when a best friend betrays us, we say that we've been "stabbed in the back."

The reference comes from how Brutus betrayed Julius Caesar and literally stabbed him in the back. The historic story has, of course, been immortalized in the play by William Shakespeare.

I wonder if Rachel and Shelia had romantic notions about dramatizing their crime in the form of life imitating art. Did they literally stab Skylar in the back because they had been accused of doing so figuratively, or perhaps to prevent her from figuratively stabbing them in the back (share the sex tapes)

I just can't help but wonder if they chose the method deliberately because of romanticized notions. Wanting their lives to look and feel like movies and TV.

We know it was a Shakespeare play in which Rachel was cast as the lead in the fall following the murders, but alas, it was Midsummer Night's Dream, not Julius Caesar.


ETA: she was stabbed in July which is the month named for Julius Caesar, as it was the month of his birth.

 

[Martha Morris]

I've been a follower of this case for many months - it has absolutely haunted me and most mornings I wake up and check out the internet for any updates. Although I'm on the other side of the world I feel I amost know those involved personally, if that makes any sense. I often run over in my mind that final car journey - Skylar sitting in the back of the car chatting with her friends as they drove her to her death, all the time knowing what they were going to do to her ... then doing it. The actual process of what they did to her - the two of them together (no need for me to go into graphic detail - those who have followed the case know how Skylar's life was ended) never fails to give me shudders and I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like for Dave and Mary Neese. My heart goes out to them.

I've read everything there is to read and watched everything there is to watch and have been shocked and horrified time and time again. But one thing stands out for me from that Dr. Phil show and that is the image of a bikini clad Rachel Shoaf in the sunshine on a boat, grinning from ear to ear and posing for photographs - just hours after she had carried out the most senseless, brutal and bloody murder of an innocent girl.

There are some out there who seem willing to cut Rachel Shoaf some slack for being the one who finally cracked, the one who confessed, the one who perhaps has a conscience, the one who perhaps does have some genuine remorse. But for me, all that goes completely out of the window when I look at that photograph. We are talking hours later here. Just hours. She's stood on that boat, smiling in the sunshine, knowing that Skylar's mutilated body is lying out there in the woods and knowing that she is the one who did it.

I just cannot get my head around that at all. The day Shelia Eddy met Rachel Shoaf was a match made in hell. For me there's no leader, or one was worse than the other, or slightly better than the other - they are both rotten to the core.

 

[hoshizora]

In all honesty I don't give the "lesbian" and "sex" tape much. I think it contributed to Skylar's demise, but I don't think it was entirely the reason and only a small part in it.

I was impressed with Dr. Phil. Usually I don't like to watch it, but he spoke really well to Dave and Mary and I agree with his assessment of SE being a textbook sociopath with her behaviour.

Newsball doesn't impress me much. I appreciate their extra content, but I don't like the way they treat people (Just look at the video of them talking to SE's cousin's parents, calling them "***** *advertiser censored* parents" and things) and how he's pretty much called out everyone who has talked to SE as a suspect. I tried to watch the vlog but I felt it was too rambly. I'm glad his sections on the shows were only one minute too and they didn't go back to him. Even Dave said he was someone who was out of place there (IIRC)

For the record, the funds of the book DO go towards the Neese family. That's been the only reason why I haven't asked for a refund, actually.

Dixie - As far as the weapons, clean-up, clothes, etc, that's never been explained. All the prosecutor said at their sentencing was that they "cleaned up and went back to their lives". They must have discarded some stuff though, as she said they discarded Skylar's purse that she took with her (as far as I know that's never been found, along with her iPod. Her phone was found on her body along with her clothes). There was a rumour that RS had discarded the weapons and clothes in Cheat Lake the next day with her mother, but I am pretty sure Dr. Phil put that rumour to rest. On Dateline it was mentioned that the police issued a search warrant for kitchen knives at SE's house, so I assume RS said they brought the knives home. Skylar's blood/DNA was found in the trunk of the car, which I think was there because of the transporting of knives and possibly their bloody clothes. To this day the cleanup has never been explained. I think the clothes were possibly burned but I think the knives were brought back to the Eddy house.

 

[greenpalm]

In all honesty I don't give the "lesbian" and "sex" tape much. I think it contributed to Skylar's demise, but I don't think it was entirely the reason and only a small part in it.

I was impressed with Dr. Phil. Usually I don't like to watch it, but he spoke really well to Dave and Mary and I agree with his assessment of SE being a textbook sociopath with her behaviour.

Newsball doesn't impress me much. I appreciate their extra content, but I don't like the way they treat people (Just look at the video of them talking to SE's cousin's parents, calling them "***** *advertiser censored* parents" and things) and how he's pretty much called out everyone who has talked to SE as a suspect. I tried to watch the vlog but I felt it was too rambly. I'm glad his sections on the shows were only one minute too and they didn't go back to him. Even Dave said he was someone who was out of place there (IIRC)

For the record, the funds of the book DO go towards the Neese family. That's been the only reason why I haven't asked for a refund, actually.

Dixie - As far as the weapons, clean-up, clothes, etc, that's never been explained. All the prosecutor said at their sentencing was that they "cleaned up and went back to their lives". They must have discarded some stuff though, as she said they discarded Skylar's purse that she took with her (as far as I know that's never been found, along with her iPod. Her phone was found on her body along with her clothes). There was a rumour that RS had discarded the weapons and clothes in Cheat Lake the next day with her mother, but I am pretty sure Dr. Phil put that rumour to rest. On Dateline it was mentioned that the police issued a search warrant for kitchen knives at SE's house, so I assume RS said they brought the knives home. Skylar's blood/DNA was found in the trunk of the car, which I think was there because of the transporting of knives and possibly their bloody clothes. To this day the cleanup has never been explained. I think the clothes were possibly burned but I think the knives were brought back to the Eddy house.

BBM

That makes sense to me too. They have been described as "kitchen knives" which means that they probably literally were from Shelia's [parent's] kitchen. I would notice if one or more of my knives went missing. We dont have that many. Shelia must have cleaned them up and put them back in the knife block or the drawer or wherever they were at home in the kitchen so her mom and stepdad could go back to chopping onions with them. :notgood:

Since Shelia & Rachel clearly planned this and thought it through carefully, they had to know that buying knives would show up on store surveillance and credit card receipts and would be traceable. Using knives from home was infinitely less suspicious.

I would imagine they careful chose the clothes they wore that night too so that they wouldn't be missed or needed again as well.

The whole thing is all kinds of sick. And yes, I agree with everything else you said too. Dr. Phil is right, Shelia is a antisocial personality disorder, Cole Newsball has good info, but he has some polishing to do. As far as the book, I would love to know that the money is going to the Neeses, but had not heard that. I pre-ordered the Kindle edition, and was surprised by it's incompleteness now to know another is coming well… I'm irked.

 

[hoshizora]

BBM

That makes sense to me too. They have been described as "kitchen knives" which means that they probably literally were from Shelia's [parent's] kitchen. I would notice if one or more of my knives went missing. We dont have that many. Shelia must have cleaned them up and put them back in the knife block or the drawer or wherever they were at home in the kitchen so her mom and stepdad could go back to chopping onions with them. :notgood:

Since Shelia & Rachel clearly planned this and thought it through carefully, they had to know that buying knives would show up on store surveillance and credit card receipts and would be traceable. Using knives from home was infinitely less suspicious.

I would imagine they careful chose the clothes they wore that night too so that they wouldn't be missed or needed again as well.

The whole thing is all kinds of sick. And yes, I agree with everything else you said too. Dr. Phil is right, Shelia is a antisocial personality disorder, Cole Newsball has good info, but he has some polishing to do. As far as the book, I would love to know that the money is going to the Neeses, but had not heard that. I pre-ordered the Kindle edition, and was surprised by it's incompleteness now to know another is coming well… I'm irked.

I'm glad that makes sense. It just doesn't make sense to me that they would search SE's house/kitchen for knives if RS told police that they had disposed of them. Plus SE's parents surely would've noticed the amount of knives missing from the kitchen. They might've not missed 1 or 2 (depending on how many they had, I'm just comparing to my collection, especially duplicates), but I'm guessing that each girl had concealed at least 2 each, so at the very least 4 would be missing. 4 knives (especially not butter knives) missing would be very noticeable imo. And it's sick that the same knife used to kill Skylar is probably the same knife they used to chop up vegetables for a while.

I'm still very interested in the cleanup and the organisation of it all, but it seems to have been brushed to the side. These girls were very careful and calculating about it. They planned it well. They knew people would recognise them buying knives so they borrowed them. They knew their parents would notice them missing so they cleaned them up and put them back. The clothes question is still unanswered, but I'm guessing you're right about that. I'm guessing they probably went out in some loungewear that they didn't care a lot about and didn't mind losing. As I said previously, I assume everything was burned because they did go smoking that night and it would be easy to do that. I am not sure how they cleaned things. Perhaps a nearby river? This is what I'd like to know, and I would like for it to come out in the new book if possible.

I can't seem to find anything definite saying that half the book proceeds go to the Neese family, but it was said in the Topix thread a lot. Please don't take my word for it. I will try to find something that talks about the proceeds going to the Neese family.

 

[hoshizora]

Second Book in the Works from Authors of 'The Savage Murder of Skylar Neese'

http://www.wboy.com/story/24947673/...-authors-of-the-savage-murder-of-skylar-neese

They're going with the angle of "second book", not a re-release which it basically is.

If any of you are interested in purchasing the current e-book, I personally would hold off and wait until June when this one is released. This one is a 600 page version and after all the sentencing, as opposed to the 160 page version that was before RS's sentencing.

 

[SMK]

Second Book in the Works from Authors of 'The Savage Murder of Skylar Neese'

http://www.wboy.com/story/24947673/...-authors-of-the-savage-murder-of-skylar-neese

They're going with the angle of "second book", not a re-release which it basically is.

If any of you are interested in purchasing the current e-book, I personally would hold off and wait until June when this one is released. This one is a 600 page version and after all the sentencing, as opposed to the 160 page version that was before RS's sentencing.

Wow, 600 pp - that's quite a difference. Did they essentially add all the court material?

 

[greenpalm]

I wonder if there's any chance that publishing the first one would motivate folks who refused to be interviewed the first time to go ahead and cooperate with the writers and be interviewed for the second book. I'm purely speculating, but I could imagine someone refusing to speak to the authors, but then, upon reading the book, feeling it wasn't right, wanting to set the record straight.

It's just a thought I had.

 

[OtterPops]

I'm pretty confused about this book. It's credited to Daleen Berry and Geoffrey C. Fuller but on FB, Mary Neese says it is NOT their book, that it's a collaboration between herself, Dave Neese, the authors and many others which she claims makes it NOT Daleen's book. If it's a collab, one can assume the Neese's do get a share of profits, but that hasn't been confirmed anywhere but speculation on WS (I can't locate any corroboration of that anywhere). On Dr. Phil, with all parties present, it was said the current book was an abbreviated ebook with the full book due in June. Okay, so that indicates it's the same book, just expanded upon. I'll happily dish out money for that edition, too, if the Neeses see some of the profits. But right now, I'm just irritated I bought a book thinking the family would benefit and it's unclear if they do, will, or EVER will.

 

[hoshizora]

My mistake - it's not 600 pages, it's almost 400 pages... But that's still a significant improvement on 160.

I am assuming it will have RS's sentencing and I also read somewhere (I think it was the Amazon page for the new book) that there was going to be more background on SN and her friendships.

I am confused by that. Are you able to link to Mary's post or just copy and paste it here? I've never seen it posted anywhere, that's why I'm asking. It is written with the Neeses permission and I am pretty sure they are getting half of the proceeds (This seems to be truth on the Topix forum, but I have not been able to find it anywhere so I don't know where this came from. As I said though please don't take this as proof that they are receiving some proceeds), but Daleen Berry and Geoffrey C. Fuller were the authors. It was a collaboration, so to speak, but I think what Mary means is that a lot of people contributed to it (including her and her family) in ways of interviews, research and time to the authors, that it is not ENTIRELY their work and time that went into it, which I understand. But DB and GF ARE the copyright owners and legally it's their book..

I appreciate that she's made it clear now that it is an abbreviated ebook, but I wish she had made it clearer before I had purchased it and it seems like many people were like me. I thought this was the final copy. I will see how I feel. I might purchase it because I'm interested in the case, but I'm not happy. If the Neeses get half, it will up my chances of purchasing it.

I think I might email the author and put the speculation to end about whether or not the proceeds from the book go to the Neeses.

Also, the author clearly reads Websleuths... I wonder what she thinks of it and how were talking about her book :scared:

 

[hoshizora]

Daleen Berry answered me on Twitter and confirmed that some of the proceeds do indeed go towards the Neese family from the book sales. She also clarified that it will be proceeds from the first book sales and the second book sales, so I will probably buy the second book now.

Hope that clears that up for some people and helps make up people's minds about buying the book.

Still, I believe that if you are only planning on buying one (which is perfectly fine and I judge nobody on that, they are essentially going to be the same book), buy the one that is coming out in June and at the moment, I would wait for that one now. Unless, of course, there is a final copy after that with even more details, but I don't think there is.

Although it is your choice to buy both if you please.

 

[OtterPops]

Awesome, thank you for following up!

 

[calli bear]

I kind of like having a short version of the book to read, to tide me over until the long version comes out. I hope the long version will be released on Kindle as well as paperback. Hoshizora, could you relay that to the author?

 

[calli bear]

I have been on Spring Break and I started reading everything about this case online and in the short e-book.

In the long book, I hope they address the planning the girls did for this, and more of what they said to the other students. It was really not presented much in the short book. Where and why did they get the idea that killing Skylar would be the thing to do? SMH.

I also hope they go into more detail on what was found in the search warrants, and the search of Shelia's car, which was really not mentioned in the short version. I would also like to read more about the motive, which now seems to involve a romance between Shelia and Rachel.

I was appalled that it took LE 2 months to figure out that the car Skylar got into on the video was Shelia's. It seems like they should have figured that out much sooner.

This case totally fascinates me because the girls put on such a façade for such a long time. I don't think either one will ever be safe in society, because they have proven a capability to lie and pretend so thoroughly that they can never be trusted, ever.
Shoaf and Eddy are truly sociopathic, scary individuals.

I don't believe Shoaf's confession was made out of guilt for what she did to Skylar, but out of self-preservation because she believed that they were going to get caught.

I have been left gobsmacked by this case. Unbelievable. Just SMH.

 

[Sin]

Well the way that it all played out wasn't described as well as it could of been. The timeline is correct, but there's other factors. The worst part being the murder's didn't bother with the facade with as long as they were free. They tried to hide it and pretend at first, but then they were talking about it, joking about it on social media, ect. It's almost like they wanted to be caught. There was a very very long period where everyone, including LE, knew exactly who had killed her but couldn't prove it through lack of evidence.

All of the questions you brought up were very good valid ones, and a lot of them would be answered in full by watching Rachels sentencing hearing. There are a lot more details reveled there.

The motive is the one thing that still remains in question. Romantic or not it did come down to jealousy in one way or another, but other than that it's all very unclear.

 

[Indy Anna]

Well the way that it all played out wasn't described as well as it could of been. The timeline is correct, but there's other factors. The worst part being the murder's didn't bother with the facade with as long as they were free. They tried to hide it and pretend at first, but then they were talking about it, joking about it on social media, etc. It's almost like they wanted to be caught. There was a very very long period where everyone, including LE, knew exactly who had killed her but couldn't prove it through lack of evidence.

All of the questions you brought up were very good valid ones, and a lot of them would be answered in full by watching Rachels sentencing hearing. There are a lot more details reveled there.

The motive is the one thing that still remains in question. Romantic or not it did come down to jealousy in one way or another, but other than that it's all very unclear.

BBM
Sociopaths often taunt LE because they become convinced of their intellectual superiority. R & S would have been cautious at first and then became overconfident in their ability to escape detection when they remained free. Dennis Rader (the BTK killer) was silent for many years after murdering 10 people, but was caught when he began sending taunting messages to LE. It seems sociopaths feel compelled to boast about their ability to outsmart LE; they crave credit for their deeds while avoiding incriminating themselves directly. But, sometimes (thankfully) their taunts backfire.