A Disappearance in the Night
Neese was described by friends and family as bright, witty and fiercely loyal. She had just finished her sophomore year at University High School and worked part-time at a local fast food restaurant. Neese had known Eddy since childhood, with Neese’s father, Dave, recalling after his daughter’s murder that Eddy spent so much time with the Neeses that, “she was like part of our family,” almost a second child of sorts. Neese and Eddy befriended Shoaf a few years later, after she transferred to their high school.
On the night Neese disappeared, she told her parents she was going to bed. Instead, she climbed out her window to meet Eddy and Shoaf, something she had done several times before.
Security footage from the apartment complex showed Reese entering Eddy’s four-door Toyota Camry at 12:30 a.m. It would be the last confirmed sighting of her alive.
When Neese did not return home, her parents, Dave and Mary, reported her missing later that day. At first, investigators treated the case as a possible runaway. But Neese had left without her phone charger, and those who knew her insisted that she would not have cut off contact for long.
Meanwhile, Eddy and Shoaf told police they had picked Neese up that night and dropped her off near her home soon afterward. They said she didn’t want to wake up her parents and asked to be let out near the apartment complex. Their account would unravel over time.
A Growing Web of Lies
In the weeks after Neese’s disappearance, Eddy and Shoaf appeared publicly upset. They pleaded for her safe return and handed out missing person flyers. Behind the scenes, however, investigators were growing suspicious. Phone records contradicted parts of the girls’ story. Surveillance footage showed the car picking Neese up much later than Eddy and Shoaf had claimed, and a cell phone ping located the trio in rural Pennsylvania around 4:00 a.m., hours after Eddy and Shoaf claimed they’d dropped Neese off and had returned home.
Detectives closely examined the group’s social media history. The teens had originally seemed incredibly close, but in the aftermath of Neese’s death, those in the girls’ inner circles said they’d noticed strains in the relationships. Just days before her disappearance, Neese had posted cryptic messages that many later believed were directed at Eddy and Shoaf. Investigators also discovered a video of the trio playing the game “Would You Rather,” with Eddy asking Neese questions about how they’d like to die.
‘We Just Didn’t Like Her’
In December 2012, Shoaf and Eddy agreed to take lie detector tests, even though results wouldn’t be admissible in court. Eddy failed hers, and Shoaf suffered a series of mental breakdowns that led to hospitalization. In early January 2013, after her release, Shoaf confessed to authorities. She told investigators that she and Eddy had planned Neese’s death while in science class. They planned to lure Neese under the pretense of going for a late-night drive and smoking marijuana.
The two girls had brought kitchen knives from their homes and parked along a remote wooded road. When Neese began walking towards Eddy’s car to retrieve a lighter, Shoaf and Eddy counted to three and then attacked.
Shoaf told police that she and Eddy stabbed Neese approximately 50 times. Neese attempted to flee, but the assault continued. The girls covered her body with leaves and left it in the woods before driving back to Morgantown. When asked about the motive, Shoaf’s explanation stunned investigators. “We just didn’t like her,” she said.
Using Shoaf’s directions, authorities located Neese’s remains in a wooded area in Wayne County. The discovery confirmed what her family had feared for months.
Pleas, Sentencing and Lingering Questions
Shoaf pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in May 2013. Charged as a minor, she was sentenced to 30 years in prison, with eligibility for parole after 10 years. Her request for parole was denied in 2023 and 2024. Eddy initially denied involvement but later pleaded guilty in January 2014 to first-degree murder. Charged as an adult, she was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years.
The brutality of the attack shocked the community. There was no evidence of robbery, no history of violence, no clear trigger beyond simmering teenage conflict. Investigators later said the killing appeared premeditated, albeit rooted in what they described as immature grievances.
While Shoaf’s confession answered the central mystery, questions lingered about how resentment escalated into murder. Friends later described tension within the trio. Some speculated that jealousy and shifting loyalties fueled the breakdown. Prosecutors said the girls had talked about killing Neese for months, though they offered no evidence of a single explosive incident. During an unsuccessful 2023 parole hearing, Shoaf reportedly claimed that she and Eddy had killed Neese because they feared Neese would reveal that Eddy and Shoaf were romantically involved.
Skylar’s Law
For Neese’s family, however, such analysis offered little comfort. They focused instead on preserving her memory and advocating for missing children. In the years since her death, they have spoken publicly about the early assumption that Neese ran away and the importance of taking missing teen cases seriously from the outset.
Under West Virginia law at the time, authorities were unable to issue an AMBER Alert because they initially believed Neese had left voluntarily and had not been abducted, therefore not fitting the criteria for an AMBER Alert.
After Neese’s death, her parents advocated for legislative reform, arguing that missing-child cases should trigger alerts more quickly, even if abduction had not yet been proven.
In 2013, West Virginia lawmakers unanimously passed what became known as “Skylar’s Law.” The measure expanded the state’s missing-child alert system, eliminating the strict abduction requirement and allowing alerts to be issued more rapidly when a child is reported missing and believed to be in danger.
The case reverberated beyond West Virginia. It became a subject of documentaries, including Hulu docuseries Friends Like These: The Murder of Skylar Neese, podcasts and cautionary conversations about teenage social dynamics amplified by social media.
