On three
What Rachel told investigators that day was nothing like anything they had imagined.
There had been no party and no overdose. She and Shelia had planned it, she said, sitting together in science class. Other students overheard them talking about it and thought they were joking.
The plan was simple. They would pick Skylar up in Shelia’s car. In the trunk were cleaning supplies, a shovel and a change of clothes. They had knives wrapped in towels. They would drive across the state line to a quiet spot in Pennsylvania they all knew, a place where they went to smoke.
Skylar climbed into the back seat. She had no idea.
When they got there they all got out. The two girls said they had forgotten a lighter. Skylar turned around to go back to the car. Behind her, the girls counted to three.
Rachel said Skylar tried to run, and that she fought back. Then the two girls covered her with branches and leaves, because the ground was too hard to dig. They changed their clothes, wiped down the car and drove home.
The day after, Shelia’s first tweet wished a friend a happy birthday.
Corporal Ronnie Gaskin of the state police had one question left for Rachel. Why did you guys kill Skylar?
“We just didn’t like her,” she said.
That was the entire answer. Sixteen years old, eight years of friendship, and five words.
“We never encountered anything that led us to believe that these two girls conspired with one another to commit premeditated murder,” Gaskin later said. It was simply not something anyone had thought to look for.
“We really did go on three”
A prosecutor’s first instinct with a confession like that is caution. Rachel’s story needed to be proved. She led investigators to the woods, and on January 16, a body was found just over the line in Wayne Township, Greene County. Skylar was 20 miles or so from her home. It took until March 13 to confirm who she was.
Rachel agreed to wear a wire and talk to Shelia. It didn’t work. Shelia gave nothing away.
She went on tweeting. She watched Law & Order. On the morning the U.S. Attorney announced that the remains were Skylar’s, she posted a montage of photos of the two of them.
“Rest easy Skylar, you’ll ALWAYS be my best friend,” she wrote.
Seventeen days later, on March 30, 2013, she posted a line that meant nothing to nearly everyone who read it.
“we really did go on three.”
Investigators searched her home and took her computer, phone and tablet, kitchen knives and a Toyota Camry. The FBI went through the car. In the trunk they found Skylar’s blood.
On May 1, 2013, Shelia Eddy was arrested in a restaurant parking lot. Rachel Shoaf turned herself in the same day. Both were charged as adults.
Life
Rachel pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years. She apologized to Skylar’s parents.
Shelia held out until the eve of her trial. On January 24, 2014, facing the possibility of more charges in Pennsylvania, she pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. She got life in prison with mercy, which means a chance at parole after 15 years. She showed no remorse in court.
“She’s not sorry,” Dave Neese told 20/20. “You don’t apologize for murdering somebody in cold blood because she meant to do it.”
Skylar’s parents turned to the one thing they could still change. They had waited in vain for an Amber Alert, because a teenager who had climbed out of her own window did not meet the criteria. In May 2013, West Virginia’s governor signed Skylar’s Law, which requires an alert for any missing child in danger, not only those believed to have been kidnapped.
They also went back to the place in the woods. They turned it into a memorial. “Something horrible happened here,” Dave Neese said. “But I wanted to take the horrible thing that happened here and try to turn it into something good.”
Rachel Shoaf has now been denied parole three times, most recently in June 2026. Her next chance comes in 2027. Shelia Eddy, now 31, will see her first parole board in 2028.
Nobody has ever given a better reason than the one Rachel gave in January 2013. They didn’t like her.
