Murder of Skylar Neese

Skylar Annette Neese (February 10, 1996 – July 6, 2012) was an honor student at University High School in Monongalia County, West Virginia, who worked evenings at Wendy's and hoped to become a criminal defense attorney. She was the only child of Mary and Dave Neese. On the night of July 5–6, 2012, surveillance video from her family's Star City apartment complex showed Neese climbing out of her bedroom window around 12:30 a.m. and entering a light-colored sedan. Her father later said she had not taken her cell phone charger, contact lenses, or solution, and that she had planned on coming home.

Neese was initially treated by law enforcement as a runaway, and an Amber Alert was not issued because a 48-hour waiting period was then required and the case did not meet all four criteria for an alert. Investigators eventually traced the sedan to Shelia Eddy, one of Neese's closest friends since childhood, who admitted to picking Neese up but falsely claimed she had dropped her off an hour later. The FBI and West Virginia State Police joined the search in September 2012.

Approximately six months after the killing, Rachel Shoaf, another close friend of Neese, suffered a breakdown; her mother called 911, and Shoaf was hospitalized for five days. After her release, she asked to be taken to a lawyer's office, where she confessed. According to Shoaf's account, she and Eddy had planned the attack in advance, hiding cleaning supplies, a shovel, a change of clothes, and knives in the car. They drove Neese to a location in Brave, Pennsylvania, where the three had previously socialized. Under the pretense of forgetting a lighter, Shoaf and Eddy attacked Neese from behind, stabbing her repeatedly; Neese managed to wound Shoaf's ankle with a knife during the struggle before she was killed. The two then attempted to bury her body but, unable to dig through the rocky ground, covered it with branches, dirt, and leaves before cleaning the crime scene and themselves. Shoaf later led investigators to the body, which had been found on January 16, 2013, in Wayne Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania, and was formally identified as Neese's in March 2013.

Shoaf pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on May 1, 2013, and was sentenced on February 26, 2014, to 30 years in prison with parole eligibility after 10 years. Eddy was indicted in September 2013 on charges of kidnapping, first-degree murder, and conspiracy to commit murder, and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder on January 24, 2014, facing the prospect of additional charges from Pennsylvania authorities. She was sentenced to life in prison with mercy, with parole eligibility after 15 years; Pennsylvania did not file separate charges under the plea agreement.

The case prompted West Virginia to pass "Skylar's Law" in 2013, amending the state's Amber Alert system to allow immediate public announcements for missing children believed to be in danger, regardless of whether an abduction is confirmed.