"Why? Why? Why?" | Chapter 8

34m
Rachel and Shelia adjust to life behind bars. Ten years after her sentencing, Rachel comes up for parole. Will one of Skylar's killers go free?

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Runtime: 34m

Transcript

Speaker 1 Hi, I'm Kylie Lowe, host of Dark Down East, a true crime podcast unlike any other. Why? Because every case I cover comes from the heart of my home, New England.

Speaker 1 From the rocky main coast to the historic streets of Boston to the quiet corners of Vermont and beyond, I investigate stories filled with untold twists, enduring questions, and voices that deserve to be heard.

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Speaker 5 The Monangalia Courthouse in Morgantown, West Virginia, is just an eight-minute drive from the Star City apartment where the Neese family lived.

Speaker 5 In February 2014, hours after Rachel Schoff was sentenced to prison for murdering her best friend, Mary and Dave Neese welcomed me into their home.

Speaker 5 Schuyler had helped pick out the apartment, which was open and spacious, with hardwood floors and sliding glass doors leading out to a deck.

Speaker 6 And this is the famous window, of course.

Speaker 6 So she just jumped down there and ran across and they were waiting for her behind that building.

Speaker 5 In the living room, Skylar was smiling from pictures, drawings, collages, and a photo blanket draped across a chair.

Speaker 5 Her large framed portrait hanging on the wall was actually an urn, her ashes stored in a back compartment of the frame.

Speaker 5 Dave wore some of Schuyler's ashes in the cross around his neck, and Mary too, in her heart-shaped locket.

Speaker 5 Outside, a butterfly wind chime sounded in the breeze. Mary takes me back to Schuyler's purple and green bedroom, which is just as she left it.

Speaker 5 Over Schuyler's iron bedframe is a picture of a white dandelion puff, waiting for someone to close their eyes eyes and make a wish.

Speaker 5 A big sign on Schuyler's bedroom wall reads, it's all about me.

Speaker 5 And of course it is. That's the funny emotional truth of every teenager when everything feels intense and fun and devastating and exciting.

Speaker 5 They have a long time, Mary, to think about what they do.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 See, I started to clean out her stuff, and I got that far and couldn't do it. I haven't touched her bed.
Rachel told the police.

Speaker 6 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?

Speaker 5 I didn't even know.

Speaker 7 And they never, those are her track shoes.

Speaker 6 That's her Wendy's shoes.

Speaker 7 Oh.

Speaker 6 Yeah, I tried to send her shirt and her hat back to Wendy's and they said, no, keep it.

Speaker 6 So I got her hat and her shirt still.

Speaker 5 Schuyler, dying so young at 16, made anything, everything she had touched, a life-preserving memory, including the evidence items analyzed by the FBI.

Speaker 6 They asked us if we wanted her possessions and stuff.

Speaker 6 I said, yeah, I want everything I can get. And I gotta admit, I was so, so hoping just by some small inkling, maybe this isn't her stuff.

Speaker 7 But it was her stuff.

Speaker 6 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 babies.

Speaker 6 But I'm telling you, it's caked with mud and leaves.

Speaker 2 from Waveland, I'm Justine Harmon.

Speaker 5 And I'm Holly Millay.

Speaker 5 This is three,

Speaker 5 episode eight.

Speaker 7 Why, why, why.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 Five months later, Rachel Schoff turned 18 and joined her there, arriving from the Northern Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Wheeling.

Speaker 2 The once best friends, who had not seen or spoken to each other since taking their last selfie together on January 3rd, 2013, 16 months earlier, were now living under the same roof.

Speaker 2 Home to 543 inmates, Laken 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.

Speaker 2 Page through the inmate handbook, and you'll see just how restricted their lives are.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 Inmates are permitted to take one drink, one book, six pieces of hard candy, one deck of playing cards, and a walkman with headphones.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 Inmates are not permitted to have hairstyles or haircuts that are faddish in nature or gang related.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 5 Stormy Wilson was an inmate with Sheila and Rachel from when they first arrived in 2014 until she made parole in 2017.

Speaker 5 A former heroin addict who did time in a North Carolina prison 24 years ago for robbery, Stormy was in Lincoln for credit card fraud.

Speaker 5 At 46, she's been clean for eight years now and recalls the first time she encountered Sheila.

Speaker 8 Everybody's like gossiping and like, you know, oh my gosh, she's here, she's here, you know, whatever.

Speaker 8 I went out to the baseball field to take score that day and Sheila was sitting on the bench beside of me.

Speaker 8 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 a, I don't know.

Speaker 8 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?

Speaker 5 Meeting Rachel was a different story. No one was expecting the redhead.

Speaker 5 When inmates first arrive at Laken, they're segregated for 30 days.

Speaker 5 By chance, Stormy got caught smoking and was in segregation too.

Speaker 8 They brought her in and she looked like such a drowned rat. Like she didn't have any makeup on.
She just turned 18 years old. And I look out the window and she's on the courtyard.

Speaker 8 And she's by herself because she's in her intake and she's by herself. And she's she's singing and she comes in and i'm like can you sing and she said yeah

Speaker 8 and i said um

Speaker 8 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 girl locked up like She can sing like an angel.

Speaker 5 Then she found out the new intake was Rachel Shof,

Speaker 5 Sheila Eddie's co-conspirator.

Speaker 8 And then you find out like how much evilness is in her and it depletes anything you hear come out of her voice. Like any, any song that would come out of her, if you know what she did, it's like

Speaker 8 forget the song. Like it just clearly, you just don't even care what she sings.

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 8 I kind of like, I don't know, I related that my daughter with Skylar. Like they, it just felt like the same kid.

Speaker 8 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, what do they get away with? What are they allowed to have?

Speaker 8 What are they, you know, what do they do on a daily basis? Are they, you know, how do they live?

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 8 And if you have any questions whatsoever, you can ask me.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 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 C D player.

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 2 Why is it so cushy?

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 8 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

Speaker 8 it was a bunk and then a locker and then a bunk and then a locker. We didn't even have cells.
Wow.

Speaker 8 I walked over dead bodies in the bathroom on the regular there.

Speaker 8 So

Speaker 8 it was, this is like a cupcake camp, and that's what every single person calls it.

Speaker 8 If you ask them about Lakeland, they call it cupcake camp.

Speaker 2 Those seeking a higher education can earn degrees in a variety of fields.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 Those jobs are strictly for lifers who have no chance at parole.

Speaker 2 Working in the kitchen will get you 50 cents a day. The best gig you can get would be in the dog training program.

Speaker 8 But you cannot have a life sentence to go down there. You cannot have a violent crime to go down there.
So

Speaker 8 that knocks you and Rachel out of it.

Speaker 2 For all that prison life allows, what you can't get in Laken is any physical contact.

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 8 Yeah, like you cannot,

Speaker 8 nothing,

Speaker 8 no, no touch.

Speaker 2 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 wrecky yard.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 8 So they weren't allowed to get married while Amy was incarcerated. They got married when Amy got out of prison.

Speaker 8 Amy 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.

Speaker 8 When Amy got home from prison, she filed to marry Rachel.

Speaker 8 They had to find a preacher to marry them. 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.

Speaker 8 things that Rachel had sent her from prison, flowers that Rachel loved.

Speaker 8 She was obsessed with rachel

Speaker 2 the two were divorced on july 25th 2022 and rachel requested her last name be reverted to shof

Speaker 8 as for sheila well she's still sheila if she wants someone she'll have them sheila's very popular in prison sheila um 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 here out here on Sheila on social media.

Speaker 8 She has in prison in real life.

Speaker 8 Like she has those flockers in real life.

Speaker 2 Flockers, followers, fans. Stormy says both Sheila and Rachel receive stacks and stacks of fan mail.

Speaker 2 Adding to the piles of correspondence were the letters we send with a variety of questions ranging from their favorite subjects in school to more pointed queries, including to Sheila.

Speaker 2 Did you have any disagreements with Schuyler during your trip to Myrtle Beach in June 2012?

Speaker 2 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?

Speaker 2 These queries were not answered by the time of this podcast's original air date.

Speaker 8 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

Speaker 8 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

Speaker 2 do you think they would probably be better off just staying at cupcake camp forever

Speaker 8 um she thrives in there she thrives and it's sad it's sad that she has her own little like colony she's like the queen ant you know

Speaker 8 but um

Speaker 8 i don't think rachel's going to survive anywhere

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Speaker 2 On May 9th, 2023,

Speaker 2 10 years after her sentencing, Rachel Schof, now 26 years old, was eligible for parole, just as Marsha Ashdown had said.

Speaker 10 Under the law for second-degree she would be eligible at 10 years.

Speaker 10 And that is true regardless of the number of years that the judge might have imposed.

Speaker 5 Here's the thing. Once you've gotten to know Mary and Dave and Schuyler and those who love them, you can't let go.

Speaker 5 You stay connected through Facebook and the Team Schuyler page and texts and phone calls.

Speaker 5 When I called Lincoln 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 9th, 2023.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 5 Dave assured me they'd be there. and began writing a statement with the help of his friends, Jackie Morgan and Tom Bloom.

Speaker 11 It's been almost 11 years now since Nice was murdered, and now Shof is up for her first parole hearing next week.

Speaker 12 More than 32,000 people signed an online petition advocating for the parole board to keep Shof in prison.

Speaker 5 Due to the COVID pandemic, The hearing was set up through a phone call with the prison.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 5 Bloom was there with the family and friends in attendance.

Speaker 8 I'm surprised they didn't have to get ascended by smoke signals.

Speaker 5 As they waited to be patched in with the West Virginia Parole Board, The family chatted with Tom and Schuyler's aunt Carol.

Speaker 5 The tone in the room was jovial and warm, despite the fact that they were determined to see Rachel Shof not go free.

Speaker 8 Yeah, they are going to do a decision.

Speaker 7 It's the government. Everything's approximate.
I got to stand up and pace.

Speaker 8 I'm going to pace. I'm leaving the phone here.

Speaker 2 The nieces were given the opportunity to speak before Rachel, which they declined.

Speaker 13 Today's date is May 9th, 2023, and the time is 10.39 a.m. And we're coming to you through Google Meets through video to the Lake and Correctional Center.
Ma'am, are you

Speaker 13 Rachel Schoff with the DOC number 357-3506 and a

Speaker 13 date of birth of June 10th, 1996?

Speaker 7 Yes, sir.

Speaker 13 And ma'am, my records indicate this is your first time up in front of the parole board on these charges. On this charge, is that correct?

Speaker 7 Yes, sir.

Speaker 2 Harold Hughes from the West Virginia Parole Board summarized the details of the crime. And then Rachel made her bid for freedom.

Speaker 13 If you would please

Speaker 13 tell the board why you and your co-defendants committed this crime, please.

Speaker 7 Well, honestly, sir, I don't think there's anything that I can say that's going to

Speaker 7 make any sense or make anybody feel any better, but I want to answer this as honestly as I can. But even as I say it, I feel like it sounds

Speaker 7 absurd and ridiculous.

Speaker 7 I realized that I was gay as an early teenager, and

Speaker 7 that scared me, because I didn't know if I would get

Speaker 7 how the reaction would be from

Speaker 7 my family or church, things like that.

Speaker 7 And when I met Sheila and Skyler in high school,

Speaker 7 the relationship between Sheila and I

Speaker 7 was immediately very unhealthy and intense and

Speaker 7 obsessive. And there was like just this overwhelming infatuation.
And

Speaker 7 there's no other way to explain it, but like it felt like

Speaker 7 life or death to me.

Speaker 7 And my 16-year-old teenage

Speaker 7 monstrous mind, it just felt like nothing could come between us.

Speaker 2 At this point, Rachel began to cry.

Speaker 8 I'm sorry.

Speaker 8 Um.

Speaker 2 I'm sorry. She took a few moments to collect herself before continuing.

Speaker 7 Whenever uh

Speaker 7 our relationship became more

Speaker 7 exposed, um

Speaker 7 we feared what

Speaker 7 would jeopardize our relationship or jeopardize things like that and I know this sounds absolutely ridiculous

Speaker 7 but um

Speaker 7 I just in my mind the only way I can explain it is in my mind at the time

Speaker 7 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 separate, and I actually wanted to kill myself over it.

Speaker 7 So, in my mind, that's all that mattered.

Speaker 7 I think it just scared us, and the thought of us having to be separated or not being together felt detrimental. And, um,

Speaker 7 I just know that there's nothing that I can say

Speaker 7 that's gonna give anybody any closure or answers

Speaker 7 and

Speaker 7 I'm just

Speaker 13 incredibly sorry for what I've done and Scallie didn't deserve for that to happen there's never a good reason for something like this to happen so there's never gonna be anything I can say that's gonna 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 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?

Speaker 13 Is that what you're trying to? I don't want to put words in your mouth, Michelle.

Speaker 13 Is it 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 Miss Nice,

Speaker 13 she knew about the relationship?

Speaker 13 Yes, sir.

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Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 The murder, she says, did not bring them any relief.

Speaker 7 I want to kind of correct this narrative that

Speaker 7 there was like

Speaker 7 this quick calculated thing that was done and then we just went about our lives like everything was normal like

Speaker 7 we were terrified and we were 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

Speaker 7 as soon as everything happened so fast, and as soon as it happened, us both

Speaker 7 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

Speaker 7 pain and sorrow and remorse for what we did.

Speaker 13 So, whose idea was this to get

Speaker 13 Miss Nice

Speaker 13 to do what you did to Miss Nice? Whose idea was that?

Speaker 13 You say a lot that it was you and

Speaker 13 Sheila. You just mentioned you and her a lot.
You don't mention the three of you. So,

Speaker 13 who

Speaker 13 brought this plan up? Excuse me, who brought this plan up to commit this crime?

Speaker 7 Sheila and I both it was both of our conversations. We both played an equal part in this entirely.

Speaker 7 I know

Speaker 7 I can't express enough how sorry I am

Speaker 7 for what I've done and the pain that I've caused.

Speaker 7 Skylar's family and friends and those who loved her, I know

Speaker 7 what we did was terrible and

Speaker 7 horrendous and there's no words to describe the pain that we've caused. And

Speaker 7 I'm just,

Speaker 7 I know that

Speaker 7 I would give anything to Trey Scalar place it

Speaker 7 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

Speaker 7 I just,

Speaker 7 I just hope they know how deeply and truly and genuinely sorry I am.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 13 Do you feel like you deserve a chance at parole?

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 and not necessarily even my accomplishments because

Speaker 7 even naming my accomplishments makes me feel guilty because I know that Skylar never even got to graduate high school.

Speaker 7 But

Speaker 7 just

Speaker 7 more so for the fact that I was so young and I was a teenager and I don't even recognize

Speaker 7 the person that I was then.

Speaker 7 I was just so

Speaker 7 impulsive and immature, and

Speaker 7 I have grown mentally and spiritually, and

Speaker 7 made more mistakes and learned from them, and truly become a woman since I've been here.

Speaker 2 Once Harold Hughes concluded his interview, Edward Wooten, vice chair of the West Virginia Parole Board, was summoned to question the inmate.

Speaker 2 Members of the parole board are only provided high-level details of a criminal's history behind bars.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 14 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?

Speaker 7 Yes, sir.

Speaker 14 And

Speaker 14 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?

Speaker 7 Yes, sir.

Speaker 14 And what type of weapons did you have? Knives?

Speaker 7 Yes, sir.

Speaker 14 Where did you obtain those weapons?

Speaker 7 Um,

Speaker 7 from our parents' kitchen.

Speaker 2 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?

Speaker 7 Yes, sir.

Speaker 14 What happened after this crime occurred?

Speaker 14 Did you clean up or you changed clothes or what did you do?

Speaker 14 I just

Speaker 7 remember

Speaker 7 I remember

Speaker 7 both of us being very

Speaker 7 scared and

Speaker 7 vomiting. We were crying, but we

Speaker 7 did change clothes. and

Speaker 7 made an attempt to try to clean up. Yes, sir.

Speaker 14 And what about the victim's body? What'd you do with that?

Speaker 7 Um

Speaker 7 we weren't able to uh

Speaker 7 dig anything, so we just um

Speaker 7 tried to put her somewhere and cover her up, sir. Okay.

Speaker 14 Thank you, ma'am. That's all I have, Mr.
Hughes.

Speaker 13 Thank you, sir. Ms.
Murphy, have any questions, ma'am?

Speaker 2 Then board chairperson Bonita Murphy asked something we'd been wondering. How exactly did Schuyler threaten to out Rachel and Sheila?

Speaker 7 The victim, did she ever, okay, she threatened to tell.

Speaker 7 So what would be the result of her telling on you what could have happened to you, even if she had telephoned you?

Speaker 7 I had to kind of

Speaker 7 unlearn all of those sort of archaic notions around being gay.

Speaker 7 But at the time, I was terrified of

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 I was scared that my family or peers or whoever would try to keep Sheila and I separated. We were both scared of that.

Speaker 7 Because like I said at the time it felt like

Speaker 7 in my

Speaker 7 young mind like that crazy first love that would just you know make you do things you don't you wouldn't do

Speaker 7 But how long was it for you you the one that came through with and and confessed how long was it after you killed the victim until you confessed

Speaker 7 It was about six months ma'am. Okay, so if you were so hysterical and I've said how in the world did you not tell somebody within that six-month period and had everybody looking for this child.

Speaker 7 Why did it take you that long? That's my question.

Speaker 7 Um

Speaker 7 I mean you're right.

Speaker 7 You're absolutely right. Um

Speaker 7 I think that uh

Speaker 7 um

Speaker 8 I think we were just scared.

Speaker 7 Um

Speaker 7 but also I

Speaker 7 there is this narrative that I was perfectly fine afterwards, but my family um

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 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

Speaker 7 in-school suspensions, I was getting picked out costs or school because I was skipping class. I was getting in trouble.
I was falling apart. I was self-harming

Speaker 7 and threatening to commit suicide. I jumped out of a moving vehicle.
You know, I was

Speaker 7 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,

Speaker 7 When I went to the psych board,

Speaker 7 I went to my lawyer's office and confessed because I just knew that I couldn't do this anymore to

Speaker 7 Scotland's family. When I went to the psych board, it was one of the first times I was away from my codefendant and away from all of the attention around it.

Speaker 7 And I finally sat with myself and was like, I can't keep doing this to this poor family. It's what I've heard.

Speaker 7 And I just knew what needed to be done at that point.

Speaker 7 Okay.

Speaker 7 And so you did admit during this hearing that

Speaker 7 you

Speaker 7 your co-defender got first-degree life with mercy and that you both are equally, equally responsible for the crime. Yes, ma'am.
All right.

Speaker 14 That's all I have.

Speaker 2 Next time, on the season finale of three.

Speaker 8 My life was just wiped out from under me. I mean, just completely wiped out from under me.

Speaker 4 And to find that the Eddie girl took it off her neck after she murdered her.

Speaker 4 That's, I'm telling you, that's serial killer stuff right there. Had social media, cell phones, and the internet and cellular coverage not have been in existence in 2012,

Speaker 4 Skylar Nice would be alive today.

Speaker 2 They're such pretty girls is what we kept hearing.

Speaker 15 You could be the most facially beautiful person with the most destructive demonic soul.

Speaker 2 And to me, that's how these girls were.

Speaker 15 It's, it's not,

Speaker 15 everything isn't always as it seems.

Speaker 2 3 is an original production of Wavelamp. The series is created and written by Holly Millay and me, Justine Harmon.
The executive producer is Jason Hoke, who produced and edited the series.

Speaker 2 Associate producers are Lydia Horne and Leo Culp. Fact-checking by Lydia Horn.
Sound engineering by Shane Freeman. Music by Robert Ellis.

Speaker 2 Studio recording at CDM Studios in New York and Wild Woods Picture and Sound in Los Angeles. Special thanks to Dave and Mary Neese in the city of Morgantown, West Virginia.

Speaker 2 If you love the 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.

Speaker 3 Did you know 39% of teen drivers admit to texting while driving? Even scarier, those who text are more likely to speed and run red lights. Shockingly, 94% know it's dangerous, but do it anyway.

Speaker 3 As a parent, you can't always be in the car, but you can stay connected to their safety with Greenlight Infinity's driving reports.

Speaker 3 Monitor their driving habits, see if they're using their phone, speeding, and more. These reports provide real data for meaningful conversations about safety.

Speaker 3 Plus, with weekly updates, you can track their progress over time. Help keep your teens safe.
Sign up for Greenlight Infinity at greenlight.com/slash podcast.

Speaker 4 Hey guys, it's Brian Baumgartner here from We Need a Forth here to tell you that we are joined this week by Sebastian Manascalco. You don't want to miss it.

Speaker 4 Listen to the latest episode of We Need a Forth, wherever you get your podcasts.