Are Shelia Eddy and Rachel Shoaf friends?
Introduction
Let’s face it: Humans can be cruel. And strange.
Look at Pauline Yvonne Parker and Juliet Marion Hulme, the two 16-year-old girls who beat Pauline’s mother to death in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1954, over her telling the girls they should spend less time together.
Or the ten—yes, ten—wannabe gangsters who murdered an 18-year-old and then cried peer pressure.
They were all between 14 and 17 at the time.
Or 19-year-old Alan Hruby, who murdered his parents and younger sister because his parents refused to give him $3,000 to fund his shopping addiction and fake lavish lifestyle.
And then there’s the case of Shelia Eddy and Rachel Shoaf, the killer teens from West Virginia who brutally murdered a girl they called their “best friend” simply because they “just didn’t like her.”
But where are Shelia Eddy and Rachel Shoaf now?
And are they still friends?
Let’s find out.
What did Shelia Eddy and Rachel Shoaf do?
The Backstory
Skylar Neese, a 16-year-old Star City, West Virginia, student, had been “inseparable” from her two BFFs—Shelia Eddy and Rachel Shoaf—throughout their high school sophomore year.
But things took a turn, and Skylar’s parents and friends noticed she’d been posting cryptic messages on social media.
The first, on July 4, 2012, said: “Sick of being at [expletive] home. Thanks ‘friends’ love hanging out with you all too.”
She also talked about being “[expletive] off.”
A day later, she took to Twitter again, this time to warn someone that she could “NEVER completely trust” them.
The following night, she retweeted a post that said: “All I do is hope.”
Then she snuck out her bedroom window at 12:30 am to meet up with Shelia and Rachel.
According to what Eddy told Neese’s mother later, the trio had driven around town smoking marijuana and then dropped Neese down the road from her apartment building so she could sneak back in.
Skylar Neese never returned home.
The Investigation
Police quickly began investigating the disappearance of the young student.
Initially, Eddy volunteered to help search for her missing “friend” and spent time with Skylar’s family.
She posted regularly on social media about her mundane life, giving the appearance of being a typical teenage girl.
Shoaf, on the other hand, had a mental breakdown several months later.
On January 3, 2013, she confessed to police and an attorney that she and Eddy had killed Neese on July 6 of the previous year.
She led authorities to Skylar’s body, which was 20 miles from Star City and covered with sticks and debris as the two killers had been unable to dig up the hard ground.
Shelia Eddy, clueless that she had been implicated in the gruesome murder, posted that night that “staying home on a Tuesday is the best […].”
During Rachel Shoaf’s extensive interview with State police at the time, she was asked, “Why did you guys kill Skylar?” Shoaf replied, “We just didn’t like her.”
During Shoaf and Eddy’s trials, Skylar’s journal provided some confirmation that she knew her two former friends were sexually involved.
This was put forward as a motive for her killing.
The Crime
Shoaf got chatty with authorities once she’d made her confession, detailing how she and her sidekick Shelia had planned the murder of Skylar while in science class.
They had planned it for months, agreeing to pick Neese up from her apartment and drive her somewhere remote to get high.
Once they were in the woods, they would count to three and then stab their friend to death.
In a move of spectacular stupidity and narcissism, Eddy tweeted “Rest easy Skylar” on the day her victim’s body was found by Shoaf and, “we really did go on three” in March of 2013.
This referenced the pair counting to three before stabbing their victim.
Sentencing
Eddy’s vehicle was seized and searched, and traces of Neese’s blood was found.
Eddy was arrested in a fast food chain parking lot on May 1, 2013, and both she and Shoaf were charged with murder.
Eddy pleaded guilty to first-degree murder a week before her trial, naively convinced that she would get away with her crimes until the bitter end.
She received a life sentence on January 24, 2014.
Shoaf, who sold out her accomplice following her own breakdown, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received 30 years in prison.
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Are Shelia Eddy and Rachel Shoaf still friends?
So, Are Shelia Eddy and Rachel Shoaf still friends? The answer to this question is no. While the pair are both still incarcerated at the Lakin Correctional Center in West Virginia, they are not permitted to have contact due to the nature of their crimes.
Rumors were rife that Rachel Shoaf and Shelia Eddy had a sexual relationship in high school and that Shoaf is now in an intimate relationship with a fellow female inmate in prison.
Neither rumor has been confirmed, and the former friends do not associate with each other.
Eddy will be eligible for parole in 2028, while Shoaf will be eligible for parole in 2023.
Update – in May 2023, Shoaf has been denied parole for the 2012 murder of Skylar Neese.
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