"Why? Why? Why?" | Chapter 8

This podcast is intended for mature audiences. Listener discretion is advised.
The Monongalia Courthouse in Morgantown, West Virginia, is just an eight-minute drive from the Star City apartment where the Niece family lived.

In February 2014, hours after Rachel Schoaf was sentenced to prison for murdering her best friend, Mary and Dave Niece welcomed me into their home.

Skylar had helped pick out the apartment, which was open and spacious,

with hardwood floors and sliding glass doors leading out to a deck. And this is the famous window, of course.
So she just jumped down there and ran across, and they were waiting for her behind that building. In the living room, Skylar was smiling from pictures,

drawings, collages, and a photo blanket draped across a chair.

Her large framed portrait hanging on the wall was actually an urn,

her ashes stored in a back compartment of the frame.

Dave wore some of Skylar's ashes in the cross around his neck, and Mary too, in her heart-shaped locket. Outside, a butterfly wind chime sounded in the breeze.
Mary takes me back to Skylar's purple and green bedroom, which is just as she left it. Over Skylar's iron bed frame is a picture of a white dandelion puff waiting for someone to close their eyes and make a wish.
A big sign on Skyler's bedroom wall reads, And of course it is. That's the funny emotional truth of every teenager.
When everything feels intense and fun and devastating and exciting. They have a long time, Mary, to think about what they do.
Yeah, they sure do, and I hope they remember it and suffer. I hope they hear her screaming, why, why, why, for the rest of their lives.
See, I started to clean out her stuff, and I got that far and couldn't do it. I haven't touched under her bed.
Rachel told the police. They said, they asked her, they said, well, what was Skylar doing when you were stabbing her? What was she saying or thinking? And Rachel told them, well, she just kept screaming, why, why, why? I didn't even know.
Those are her track shoes. That's her Wendy's shoes.
Oh. Yeah, I tried to send her shirt and her hat back to Wendy's, and they said, no, keep it.
So I got her hat and her shirt still. Skylar, dying so young at 16, made anything, everything she had touched, a life-preserving memory, including the evidence items analyzed by the FBI.
They asked us if we wanted her possessions and stuff, and I said, yeah, I want everything I can get. And I got to admit, I was so, so hoping, just by some small e-plane, maybe this isn't her stuff, but it was her stuff.
Got her bra back. Still haven't got her shorts and her shirt back, but yeah, when I even saw the bra, I'm like, oh, yep, that's my baby's.
But I'm telling you, it's caked with mud and leaves.

From Waveland, I'm Justine Harmon.

And I'm Holly Millay.

This is Three.

Episode 8.

Why, why, why?

A week after Sheila Eddy was sentenced,

she was transferred from the Laurie Yeager Jr. Juvenile Center in Parkersburg

Thank you. A week after Sheila Eddy was sentenced, she was transferred from the Lori Yeager Jr.
Juvenile Center in Parkersburg to the only women's prison in West Virginia, Lakin Correctional Center. Five months later, Rachel Schoaf turned 18 and joined her there, arriving from the Northern Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Wheeling.
The once best friends, who had not seen or spoken to each other since taking their last selfie together on January 3, 2013, 16 months earlier, were now living under the same roof. Home to 543 inmates, Lakin is located in Mason County, West Virginia.
178 miles from Morgantown, it's designed to be a world away from the freedom its two most famous inmates once enjoyed. Page through the Inmate Handbook and you'll see just how restricted their lives are.
From the everyday inmate count at 6 a.m., with the specific directive that, quote, employees are required to count living, breathing flesh and are authorized to awaken an inmate to resolve any doubts during a count, to lights out at 9.45 p.m. In hallways, inmates must walk in single file lines as far to the right as possible.
When it comes to their daily allotted time outside in the recreation yard, there are limits there too. Inmates are permitted to take one drink, one book, six pieces of hard candy, one deck of playing cards, and a Walkman with headphones.
And if you're a woman concerned with your appearance, this is not the place for you. No perfume or lipstick allowed.
Fingernails can be no longer than fingertips. Inmates are not permitted to have hairstyles or haircuts that are faddish in nature or gang-related.
And then there's the prison issue uniform. Khaki prison shirt and pants, t-shirt socks and shoes, with the specific instruction that pants will be worn at the natural waistline.
Stormy Wilson was an inmate with Sheila and Rachel from when they first arrived in 2014 until she made parole in 2017. A former heroin addict who did time in a North Carolina prison 24 years ago for robbery, Stormy was in Laken for credit card fraud.
At 46, she's been clean for eight years now and recalls the first time she encountered Sheila. Everybody's like gossiping and like, you know, oh my gosh, she's here, she's here, you know,

whatever. I went out to the baseball field to take score that day and Sheila was sitting on the bench beside of me.
And that was the first time like I got like close up eye to eye contacts with Sheila. I don't know.
It's like you get cold chills looking at Sheila. Like it's like like a, I don't know.
It's like a different feeling.

Like, it's like, how did people even not realize that in the real world, that she had that evil?

Meeting Rachel was a different story.

No one was expecting the redhead.

When inmates first arrive at Lakin, they're segregated for 30 days.

By chance, Stormy got caught smoking and was in segregation too. They brought her in and she looked like such a drowned rat.
Like she didn't have no makeup on. She had just turned 18 years old.
And I look out the window and she's on the courtyard and she's by herself because she's in her intake and she's by herself and she's singing and she comes in and I'm like can you sing and she said yeah and I said

um will you sing a song and she said yeah and she's saying traveling soldier and in segregation

your voice carries so the song that came out of her was like this has got to be a joke why is this

Thank you. and in segregation, your voice carries.
So the song that came out of her was like, this has got to be a joke. Why is this girl locked up? Like, she can sing like an angel.
Then she found out the new intake was Rachel Schoef, Sheila Eddy's co-conspirator. And then you find out, like, how much evilness is in her and it it depletes anything you hear come out of her voice.
Like, any song that would come out of her, if you know what she did, it's like, forget the song. Like, it just, clearly, you just don't even care what she sings.
Every day, we see each other. All day.
They're on the yard together all the time. When Rachel first got there, Sheila cussed her out for telling on her.
It was a big on the yard. There was a huge argument because Sheila was cussing Rachel out for telling on her and saying they would never have gotten caught if she wouldn't have told.
Stormy felt intense empathy for the niece family. Her daughter is the exact same age as Skylar, and like Skylar, had two best friends who were closer in their triangle than she was to either of them.
I kind of like, I don't know, I related that my daughter was Skylar. Like, it just felt like the same kid.
I initially got a hold of Dave because I was like, God, you know, he's probably sitting out here just wondering, you know, what do they get away with?

What are they allowed to have?

What are they, you know, what do they do on a daily basis?

Are they, you know, how do they live?

I was like, hey, you know, I know that people probably get a hold of you and say they were in prison with, but you can look me up.

I definitely was in prison with them. And if you have any questions whatsoever, you can ask me.
Stormy filled Dave and Mary in on everything from the mundane. Sheila's favorite food is pepperoni and cheese on a bagel.
She eats them all day long. To Rachel starting a prayer group, leading the choir, and being in charge of holiday plays.
To the electronics they're allowed to have in their rooms, an Xbox, a TV, and a CD player. They have a tablet.
They can sit in their room and talk on their tablet to their family or friends or whatever. They can listen to music on their tablet.
They can play games on their tablet. Why is it so cushy? Because if too many criminals are in one place and all they have to do is twirl their thumbs, somebody's going to get fighting and somebody's going to get hurt.
But I did five years in North Carolina and it was not like it is here. We had no air conditioner, no heat.
We had, um, it was a bunk and then a locker and then a bunk and then a locker. We didn't even have cells.
Wow. I walked over dead bodies in the bathroom on the regular there.
So it was, this is like a cupcake camp. And that's what every single person calls it.
If you ask them about Lakeland, they call it cupcake camp. Those seeking a higher education can earn degrees in a variety of fields.
Sheila and Rachel both earned culinary arts apprenticeships, and Rachel a cosmetology license. But there's work to be done, too.
The prison is like its own city, so there are plenty of jobs for inmates if they want them. The most you can earn is a dollar an hour, making prison uniforms and furniture.
Those jobs are strictly for lifers who have no chance at parole.

Working in the kitchen will get you 50 cents a day.

The best gig you can get would be in the dog training program.

But you cannot have a life sentence to go down there.

You cannot have a violent crime to go down there.

So that knocks Sheila and Rachel out of it.

For all that prison life allows, what you can't get in Lakin is any physical contact. You are not allowed to touch each other at all.
So when you have a good cellmate and you have a good cry, you go in there and cry and your cellmate will hug you, you know, where you can't be seen. Yeah, like you cannot, nothing, no touch.
But that did not keep Rachel from getting close with her cellmate, Amy Cobb, who was serving time for credit card fraud. The two were caught and separated, but would see each other in the rec yard.
Rachel was able to keep Amy firmly in her thrall, so much so that when Amy was released, she and Rachel were married on April 23rd, 2019. Rachel even took Amy's last name.
So they weren't allowed to get married while Amy was incarcerated. They got married when Amy got out of prison.
Amy walked her sentence out, which means that you do every day of your sentence instead of making roll. She walked her sentence out which means that you do every day of your sentence

instead of making roll

she walked her sentence out

to stay with Rachel every day

when Amy got home from prison

she filed to marry Rachel

they had to find a preacher to marry him

Amy used my car

to go up and marry Rachel

her whole bedroom

was nothing but pictures of Rachel

letters that Rachel had

wrote her

Thank you. my car to go up and marry Rachel.
Her whole bedroom was nothing but pictures of Rachel, letters that Rachel had wrote her, things that Rachel had sent her from prison, flowers that Rachel loved. She was obsessed with Rachel.
The two were divorced on July 25, 2022, and Rachel requested her last name be reverted to Shof. As for Sheila, well, she's still Sheila.
If she wants someone, she'll have them. Sheila's very popular in prison.
Sheila has a ton of friends. Sheila has, like, I don't know, she's very outgoing.
She's very manipulative.

Like that life that Sheila had out here on social media, she has in prison in real life.

Like she has those flockers in real life.

Flockers, followers, fans.

Stormy says both Sheila and Rachel receive stacks and stacks of fan mail.

Adding to the piles of correspondence were the letters we sent with a variety of questions, ranging from their favorite subjects in school to more pointed queries, including to Sheila. Did you have any disagreements with Skylar during your trip to Myrtle Beach in June 2012? In science class, was it your idea or Rachel's idea to kill Skylar? Were you aware that Rachel was wearing a recording device when you saw her on January 3rd, 2013? These queries were not answered by the time of this podcast's original air date.
But here's the thing with Sheila and Rachel. They have so many outside influences that if everybody in their family died they have fans that will send them fucking sorry I don't mean to cuss they'll never be without which makes me sick to my stomach because they don't really know what prison's like because they have it's so bougie do you think they would probably be better off just staying at cupcake camp forever um she thrives in there she thrives and.
And it's sad. It's sad that she has her own little colony.
She's like the queen aunt, you know. But I don't think Rachel's going to survive anywhere.
On May 9th, 2023, 10 years after her sentencing, Rachel Shoff, now 26 years old, was eligible for parole, just as Marsha Ashdown had said. Under the law for second-degree murder, she would be eligible at 10 years.
And that is true regardless of the number of years that the judge might have imposed. Here's the thing.
Once you've gotten to know Mary and Dave and Skyler and those who love them, you can't let go. You stay connected through Facebook and the Team Skyler page and texts and phone calls.
When I called Lakin to verify Rachel's day and time before the board, the next call I made was to Mary and Dave to make sure they were aware that she would appear on May 9, 2023. No one had even contacted them.
Dave and Mary weren't alerted to the fact that in less than a month, one of their daughter's killers could be released. Dave assured me they'd be there and began writing a statement with the help of his friends, Jackie Morgan and Tom Bloom.
It's been almost 11 years now since niece was murdered and now Shof is up for her first parole hearing next week. More than 32,000 people signed an online petition advocating for the parole board to keep Shof in prison.
Due to the COVID pandemic, the hearing was set up through a phone call with the prison. Though my producer Jason and I were miles away, we felt like we had a front row seat listening to the proceedings on County Commissioner Tom Bloom's speakerphone.
Bloom was there with the family and friends in attendance. I'm surprised he didn't have to get a sender by smoke signals.

As they waited to be patched in with the West Virginia Parole Board,

the family chatted with Tom and Skylar's Aunt Carol.

The tone in the room was jovial and warm,

despite the fact that they were determined to see Rachel Schoaf not go free.

Yeah, they are going to do a decision.

It's the government. Everything's approximate.

I got to stand up and pace. I'm going to pace.
I'm leaving the phone here.

The nieces were given the opportunity to speak before Rachel, which they declined.

Today's date is May 9th, 2023, and the time is 10.39 a.m. And we are coming to you through Google Meets through video to the Lakin Correctional Center.
Ma'am, are you Rachel Schoaf with the DOC number 357-3506 and the date of birth of June 10th, 1996? Yes, sir. And my records indicate this is your first time up in front of the Pro Board on discharge.
Is that correct?

Yes. of June 10, 1996.
Yes, sir. And my records indicate this is your first time

up in front of the parole board

on this charge.

Is that correct?

Yes, sir.

Harold Hughes

from the West Virginia Parole Board

summarized the details of the crime

and then Rachel made her bid

for freedom.

If you would, please

tell the board

why you and your co-defendant committed this crime, please. Well, honestly, sir, I don't think there's anything that I can say that's going to make any sense or make anybody feel any better.
but um i want to answer as honestly as I can. But even as I say it, I feel like it sounds absurd and ridiculous.
I realized that I was gay as an early teenager. And that scared me because I didn't know if I would get, well, how the reaction would be from my family or church, things like that.
And when I met Sheila and Skylar in high school, the relationship between Sheila and I was immediately very unhealthy and intense and obsessive. And there was just this overwhelming infatuation.
And there's no other way to explain it, but it felt like life or death to me. And my 16-year-old teenage monstrous mind, it just felt like nothing could come between us.
At this point, Rachel began to cry. I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. She took a few moments to collect herself before continuing.
Whenever our relationship became more exposed, we feared what would jeopardize our relationship or jeopardize things like that. And I know this sounds absolutely ridiculous.
But, um, I just, in my mind, the only way I can explain it is in my mind at the time, it felt like so detrimental and so real in my teenage mind and um like I was in fact admitted into a psychiatric ward at one point because I felt there was an attempt to keep Sheila and I separated and I actually wanted to kill myself over it so in my mind that's all that mattered I think it just scared us and thought of us having to be separated or not being together felt detrimental. And I just know that there's nothing that I can say that's going to give anybody any closure or answers.
And I'm just incredibly sorry for what i've done and scylla didn't deserve for that to happen there's never a good reason for something like this to happen so there's never going to be anything i can say that's going to make sense so the board can be clear you and and your co-defendant miss eddie was was in a relationship is that what you're trying to tell the board? Yes, sir. And you and Miss Eddie felt that if your relationship was exposed, then you would be separated or you wouldn't be able to be with each other? Is that what you're trying to? I don't want to put words in your mouth, Michelle.
Is that what you're trying to get out to the board? I'm trying to find a reason why you would commit this kind of crime, okay?

That's why I'm asking these questions that I am.

So, and Ms. Neese, she knew about the relationship?

Yes, sir.

As Rachel continued to speak in front of the parole board,

she explained that the dynamic between the three girls became volatile and hostile, that they didn't know how to handle that sort of conflict. The murder, she says, did not bring them any relief.
I want to kind of correct this narrative that there was like this quick calculated thing that was done and then we just went about our lives like everything was normal like we were terrified and we were screaming and crying and vomiting and losing our minds over this whole situation freaking out as soon as it happened and I vividly remember us both as soon everything happened so fast and as soon as it happened us both saying aloud to each other crying like what did we just do what have we just done like it was an immediate sense of like just intense pain and sorrow and remorse for what we did so whose idea was this to to get miss uh miss niece to to to you know do what you did to miss niece whose was that, as you say a lot, that it was you and Sheila, you just mentioned you and her a lot.

You don't mention the three of you.

So who brought this plan up to commit this crime?

Sheila and I both, it was both of our conversations.

We both played an equal part in this entirely. I know.
I can't express enough how sorry I am for what I've done and the pain that I've caused. Skylar's family and friends and those who loved her, I know what we did was terrible and horrendous and there's no words to describe the pain that we've caused and I'm just, I know that I would give anything

to Trace Galler Places

so that she could be with her family

and her loved ones

and I would give anything to undo

what we did and take it back

and I know that I deserve to be here

and I deserve all of this

and

I just

I just hope they know how deeply and truly

and genuinely sorry I am

Thank you. deserve all of this.
I just, I just hope they know how deeply and truly and genuinely sorry I am. Rachel, who says she has received a high school degree and a bachelor's degree in culinary arts and cosmetology while incarcerated, says she hopes to move in with her mom, Patricia, in Maryland, should she be granted parole.
Do you feel like you deserve a chance at parole? I wouldn't necessarily say that I think I deserve parole after what I've done. I would like to think that maybe I've earned it just because of what I've done.
And not necessarily even my accomplishments, because even naming my accomplishments makes me feel guilty, because I know that Schuyler never even got to graduate high school. But just more so for the fact that I was so young, and I was a teenager, and I don't even recognize the person that I was then.
I was just so impulsive and immature

and the person that I was then.

I was just so impulsive and immature,

and I have grown mentally and spiritually and made more mistakes and learned from them

and truly become a woman since I've been here.

Once Harold Hughes concluded his interview, Edward Wooten, vice chair of the West Virginia Parole Board, was summoned to question the inmate.

Members of the parole board are only provided high-level details of a criminal's history behind bars. A number of factors inform an inmate's suitability for parole, including signs of remorse, a defendant's age at the time of incarceration, and motivation for the crime.
Ma'am, when you planned this, you and your co-defendant planned this crime together, you told Mr. Hughes it was a joint decision, right? Yes, sir.
And what was the objective of the plan? Was it to take this young lady's life?

Yes, sir.

So you planned to kill her, to murder her?

Yes, sir.

And what type of weapons did you have? Knives?

Yes, sir.

Where did you obtain those weapons?

Um, from our parents' kitchen.

Wooten says,

You said you didn't think this would actually happen,

but you prepared like it was going to happen.

This was premeditated.

Would you agree?

Yes, sir.

What happened after this crime occurred?

Did you clean up or you changed clothes

or what did you do?

Um, I just remember, I remember both of us being very scared and vomiting.

We were crying, but we did change clothes um made an attempt to try to clean up yes sir and what about the victim's body what'd you do with that um we weren't able to uh dig anything so we just um tried to put her somewhere and cover her up. Okay.
Thank you, ma'am. That's all I have, Mr.
Hughes. Thank you, sir.
Does Murphy have any questions, ma'am? Then board chairperson Bonita Murphy asked something we'd been wondering. How exactly did Skyler threaten to out Rachel and Sheila? The victim, did she ever, okay, she threatened to tell.
So what would be the result of her telling on you? What could have happened to you even if she had told on you? I had to kind of unlearn all of those sort of archaic notions around being gay. But at the time, I was terrified of maybe getting kicked out of my house or maybe getting kicked out of my church or being shunned by the people that I love, my family and friends.
I was scared that my family or peers or whoever would try to keep Sheila and I separated. We were both scared of that because, like I said at the time, it felt like in my young mind, like that crazy first love that would just, you know, make you do things you don't you wouldn't do.
But how long was it for you? You're the one that came through and confessed. How long was it after you killed the victim until you confessed? It was about six months, ma'am.
Okay. So if you were so hysterical and upset, how in the world did you not tell somebody within that six

month period and had everybody

looking for this child?

Why did it take you that long is my question.

Um,

I mean, you're right.

You're absolutely right.

Um,

I think that, um,

um, I think we were just scared. But also, there is this narrative that I was perfectly fine afterwards, but my family witnessed sort of my deterioration.
I think publicly we tried to make it seem like everything was okay, but my family will tell you that as soon as this happened, I began acting out and I was losing weight and I was getting in trouble using more marijuana or drugs and things. I was trying to numb what had happened.
I was getting in school suspensions. I was getting pick up costs or school because I was skipping class.
I was getting in-school suspensions. I was getting picked up past

or school because I was skipping class. I was getting in trouble.
I was falling apart.

I was self-harming and threatening to commit suicide. I jumped out of a moving vehicle.

You know, I got admitted into a psych ward also because of my suicidal thoughts because

of what happened. So there was a lot mentally that I struggled with and went through afterwards.
And finally, when I went to the psych ward, I went to my lawyer's office and confessed because I just knew that I couldn't do this anymore to the Scholar's family. When I went to the psych ward, was one of the first times I was away from it.

I could have been away from all of the attention around it.

And I finally sat with myself and was like, I can't keep doing this to this poor family that I've heard. And I just knew what needed to be done at that point.
okay and so you you did admit during this hearing that your co-defendant got first degree life with mercy and that you both are equally responsible for the crime. Yes.
All right. That's all I have.
Next time on the season finale of Three. My life was just wiped out from under me.
I mean, just completely wiped out from under me. And to find that the Eddie girl took it off her neck after she murdered her.
I'm telling you, that's serial killer stuff right there. Had social media, cell phones, the internet and cellular coverage not have been in existence in 2012, Skylar Niece would be alive today.
They're such pretty girls is what we kept hearing. You could be the most facially beautiful person with the most destructive demonic soul.
And to me, that's how these girls were. It's not, everything isn't always as it seems.
Three is an original production of Waveland. The series is created and written by Holly Malay and me, Justine Harmon.
The executive producer is Jason Hoke, who produced and edited the series. Associate producers are Lydia Horn and Leo Culp.
Fact-checking by Lydia Horn. Sound engineering by Shane Freeman.
Music by Robert Ellis. Studio recording at CDM Studios in New York and Wildwoods Picture and Sound in Los Angeles.

Special thanks to Dave and Mary Neese and the city of Morgantown, West Virginia.

If you love this series, leave a review and please tell your friends.

Follow Waveland on Instagram at Waveland Media for more on this series and upcoming new shows.

Thanks for listening.