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Friends Like These: The Murder of Skylar Neese - Season 1 - Episode 02: The Betrayal
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00:15Well, I heard at the fair that, uh, she overdosed on heroin.
00:21Sheila just was like, well, I had sex with Dylan Conaway.
00:25I was like, why would you do that?
00:27Why?
00:31Sheila said, Skylar was mad at me.
00:34Do you think maybe Skylar would have hung out with Dylan to make me jealous, to spite me?
00:43We thought we'd start interviewing these people that are being brought up in these rumors.
00:48We kept getting the name Derek Conaway, and we decided, well, let's go talk to him.
00:55Derek Conaway's criminal background, he had a very large rap sheet.
01:00Drug use, and, um, one domestic battery charge.
01:06This guy's dangerous.
01:09He saw us pull up.
01:11We got out of the car.
01:11He was, uh, out in the backyard shoveling something.
01:15And we told him, you know, hey, we're state police looking in, you know, to the bank robbery.
01:22And, uh, this kid was eyes wide open, breathing hard, like, scared to death.
01:30Ronnie, he goes, why are you so sweaty and breathing so hard?
01:33Are you trying to bury a body?
01:36And he stopped, and the way his reaction was, you would have thought he saw a ghost.
01:42Ronnie said, do you have any weapons in the house?
01:45And he goes, what type of weapon?
01:47We got a revolver.
01:50It looked similar to the one that we saw in the video of the bank robbery.
01:55We got a search warrant, and we found a lot of drugs, heroin.
02:01There was videos in there of parties revealing pictures of girls on the couch.
02:07It looked like they were under the influence, obviously, of a drug or alcohol, but to the point of passing
02:13out.
02:14And it was just kind of weird, um, creepy in a way.
02:19With the girls already, um, tied in with the Conaways,
02:24Ronnie and I were thinking, what are you doing?
02:27You're in danger, and you don't know what he could do to you.
03:02We didn't know what was happening with Scholar or the investigation.
03:08You have that sense of loneliness, but you can't, you can't grieve.
03:15You can't hope for the best, because then you might be delaying the inevitable.
03:20So you're just kind of stuck.
03:22You're in limbo of, there's no way to react yet.
03:29It was rough going back to school without Scholar.
03:32And, um, you couldn't turn around a corner without feeling it,
03:37because there was a missing poster in your face.
03:47Skylar was a good student, and she cared about her grades.
03:50And so the hope was that she would show up for the first day of school.
03:55And when she wasn't there, everyone kind of was like, that's not good.
04:05Rachel and Sheila stopped talking to a lot of people.
04:08They had their schedules changed so that they could be in the same classes with each other.
04:15It literally felt like they did not leave each other's side, like, the entire school day.
04:20Before my dining heart
04:27Before my dining heart
04:33Before my dining heart
04:48I was in a class with Rachel.
04:51We were in our English class.
04:54It was probably, like, sixth or seventh period.
04:57It was a very quiet class.
04:59We were just sitting around.
05:01Everybody was sitting around, hanging out, not saying much.
05:04And we saw cops come into school.
05:08They pulled Rachel and Sheila out of class.
05:12I just heard, like, in the hallway,
05:14Sheila and Rachel are getting annoyed by the FBI.
05:17Are they going to ask everyone?
05:21It was scary.
05:24I did feel for Rachel and Sheila.
05:28We thought they know something happened, and they're scared to tell law enforcement.
05:34And we served the search warrant on them, and we collected their phones.
05:39We needed to get them at the same time, so they wouldn't be able to erase anything.
05:46Our next step is to go through the text messages, pictures, and videos to see, were they holding back on
05:54anything?
05:55They would message each other about anything and everything.
05:58It was nonstop, constant text messages.
06:02But it was a surprise.
06:04When we found images and videos, you know, close off, and you could see instances of sexual relations between Rachel
06:16and Sheila.
06:18They were obviously intoxicated.
06:20There was one of them on the couch.
06:22Nothing bad about it, but they're on the couch banking out and feeling each other.
06:26There was definitely, like, sexual acts being done.
06:30And then that made me think, is there more there?
06:33Is it more than just friendship?
06:36Or was it just 16-year-old girls that were experimenting with each other?
06:42You know, so it was kind of hard to tell.
06:45And it could have been an incident of embarrassment for them because they both had boyfriends.
06:53Ultimately, we thought maybe that's just not something that, like, we bring up.
06:58It's none of our business.
06:59It doesn't matter.
07:01That's not what we were looking for.
07:03And it has nothing to do with Skylar.
07:09But then we started getting somewhere.
07:14We found a private message.
07:17And it was on July 6th at 12.30, 12.15 in the morning, the day Skylar went missing.
07:27Sheila direct message to one of the brothers that we were looking after the bank robbery, asking if we can
07:34buy drugs from you tonight.
07:40It really kind of felt we were headed in the right direction, just because everything was kind of starting to
07:48make sense when nothing was making sense before that.
07:52There was another message, private social media message, from another user to Sheila Eddy.
08:04And then put initials, which matched one of the brothers.
08:09But we could not verify who the user was, but that individual definitely had an idea on what the countaways
08:16were into and what happened at the party.
08:21We said, we know you had these teenage parties.
08:24We're not saying you're in trouble.
08:25We just need to know where Skylar's at.
08:26That's the main focus.
08:28And Rachel goes, why are you guys keeping looking into this?
08:32She told me nothing's changed since Skylar's been missing, and that Sheila and her has told me the same story.
08:41We needed more.
08:45So Star City Police obtained additional search warrants.
08:49And that same day, we went to the Rachel Schoaf residence.
08:55The scope of our search warrant covered only the electronics.
09:00But as we went through Rachel's bedroom, I came across her journal.
09:04And she had made an entry the day that Skylar was missing.
09:11Lord, I want to tell you how terribly sorry I am for doing wrong towards you lately.
09:18I need to ask for your forgiveness once again, Lord.
09:22I love you so much.
09:25I know that you can't do whatever you want and think it's okay to just come running back.
09:30But I'm sorry.
09:32Amen.
09:35Regis knew something happened.
09:40And she was a witness to something.
09:55Every morning, me and Skylar, we rode the school bus together.
10:03It was nice because we would just share headphones and listen to music on the way to school.
10:08Tonight, I'm going to give you my all.
10:11It's all the ball.
10:12We listened to anything that was popular at the time, probably.
10:17I'll give you everything.
10:19So we bonded over music and things.
10:26The bus would get to school and everyone would just kind of like hang out in the cafeteria
10:32until the first bell would ring and it was time to go to class.
10:36There was one morning.
10:38Skylar was not there.
10:39Rachel was on the phone with Sheila.
10:41And they had contacted Skylar without Skylar knowing that it was a three-way conversation,
10:46trying to get her to say something to, you know, kind of like incriminate the friendship.
10:52It was just like a very mean girl situation.
10:58It felt kind of like bullying.
11:01So the next day when we were on our way to school on the bus,
11:04I told Skylar that, hey, you know, they were both on that conversation with you and you didn't know it.
11:10And, you know, she was upset and said that she was going to talk to them and confront them.
11:15That's just who Skylar was.
11:17Because she wasn't scared to stand up for herself.
11:19So she really went for it.
11:21And you guys wonder why I don't trust the shit you say.
11:26I'm not trying to replace you.
11:29You guys have the most unbreakable friendship.
11:32I envy your relationship and I would never try to do that to you.
11:36I love you both equally.
11:38And I hope this doesn't ruin our friendship because I would never do anything to risk it.
11:44From then, I really started to see them arguing a lot.
11:47You could definitely see the progression of Skylar slowly being, like, pushed out of the friend group.
11:54It would upset her.
11:56You would see, like, tweets or a Facebook post about it.
12:07But it felt like they were very keen to put their feelings into social media and let it be known
12:14there rather than in public.
12:16I just don't understand what the fuck I ever did to deserve shit like this.
12:32The Conaway brothers, they were into, like, harder drugs.
12:41And most of us, we just smoked weed and drank and stuff.
12:45So, there was a select crowd that would do partying at his house that were more into doing pills and
12:53things like that.
12:57The rumor was that there was, you know, this party at Dylan Conaway's house.
13:03And, I don't know, they all did too many drugs.
13:07And Skylar did something, and she OD'd, and they, like, just disposed of the body somewhere.
13:24They did pills a couple of times, and that she went through a bad stage with them at one point.
13:29I don't know that for a fact.
13:31It's just what Sheila and them told me.
13:36So, I'm thinking that they were starting to move over to the harder drug side.
13:41Sheila said they would mix drugs and alcohol together, or they would drive drunk or drive high.
13:48Stuff like that.
13:50The rumor was they apparently had heard something about that Conaways had ditched her in a mine.
13:57She ran off with somebody.
13:59I mean, they told me all these different kinds of things.
14:04Derek Conaway became a person of interest for us.
14:08So, law enforcement developed this theory that the bank robbery money was used to purchase drugs.
14:16There was a teenage party.
14:19Skylar was present at the party.
14:21Drugs were supplied to her.
14:23She overdosed on that.
14:26I suspect the bank robbery guys, they got scared.
14:29They dumped her body in the mine shaft.
14:35So, there's a lot of mine shafts in the Blacksville area with the coal mines.
14:39We checked six different mine shafts.
14:42We couldn't find anything.
14:44We would try to locate the source of those rumors.
14:47So, we'd get a name.
14:49They heard it from another person.
14:50So, we never knew who was the primary source of the rumors.
14:54We felt there wasn't enough evidence to formally charge Derek Conaway.
14:59But all in all, the case was just circumstantial.
15:04My mind was like spinning a hundred miles an hour.
15:07It's like, is there anything we didn't cover?
15:08Is there something we need to go back on?
15:11What can we do next?
15:27Oh my God, you know what?
15:29I need to tell you a secret.
15:30I just forgot.
15:31You have a secret from me?
15:33Well, I mean, I've never told anyone.
15:35Not even Spala?
15:36No.
15:37Okay.
15:40So, I woke up, and Sheila hadn't called.
15:45Turns out her and Rachel went to the mall.
15:49They couldn't get a hold of me.
15:53I find that so hard to believe.
15:56It killed me.
15:59I feel left out and unwanted.
16:08One night, she came home after she was working, and she was just boo-hooing, very loud.
16:16So, I went in, and I said, good Lord, what's wrong?
16:19I didn't know if something had happened or what.
16:22And she wouldn't talk to me.
16:24She'd just get out, leave me alone, and whatever was going on, it definitely devastated her.
16:34Twitter, it was like an online diary for her.
16:38Scott started posting more open, like, things towards Rachel, Sheila, the friendship, the dynamic.
16:46Fucking liar!
16:47You'll regret it.
16:47Trust me.
16:48There's no way in hell I will ever let someone...
16:50Why does Sheila do this?
16:52You would see more and more, like, tweets about each other.
16:55Last time, Sheila.
16:57Hate you.
16:57Hate you.
16:58Hate you.
17:00Sheila and I have been arguing.
17:03This hurts so much.
17:06It sucks her not caring when I care so much about her.
17:11I'm done with that being a one-way street, so I've been crying for the past while.
17:20Why aren't you fucking replying?
17:27I tell the whole school all the shit I have on everyone, which is a lot.
17:45There was one day, it was a couple months after she had went missing, we were in a rehearsal
17:53for A Midsummer Night's Dream, me and Rachel, we did all the plays and musicals together and stuff.
18:01We had a lot of lines together, and we were in the auditorium.
18:07Rachel was having kind of like a breakdown, and she freaked out.
18:10My fucking God, what is going on?
18:12And her mom was there.
18:14She got really angry and told her to get her shit together.
18:18In front of the whole theater, there was at least like, I think there was like 20 of us in
18:22the play.
18:25Your kids having a breakdown, your first instinct would be to console them, not yelling and screaming.
18:32That's what made her mom so intimidating.
18:36It was just shocking.
18:38Rachel had told me stories to where things would get a little physical during fights with her mother.
18:44She would come to school all the time telling me, oh, we got in a fight, you know, stuff like
18:50that.
18:50So I felt bad for her.
18:53I remember Rachel freaking out and crying.
18:56She was really wild.
18:59I really don't know how to explain it.
19:02It felt like she had a darker energy to her.
19:08At that point, I knew something was really, really wrong.
19:12You really started to wonder if Rachel and Sheila knew more than what they were leading on.
19:21It was really good and crazy.
19:24There was so much posting online, like Instagram, Facebook.
19:28There were Twitter posts with gossip about Rachel and Sheila.
19:34I started to like, kind of put my own thoughts or feelings or theory together.
19:40Um, that those brothers could have had something to do with everything.
19:47And that Rachel and Sheila knew something.
19:52Oh, my God, I have to go to singing.
19:556.30.
19:56That's why I'm, I have to go to singing and do a dance and do a song.
20:01Two songs.
20:02So then why?
20:03I can't sing when I'm lying.
20:06You've heard me.
20:08So Sheila could get you to do things that you normally wouldn't want to do.
20:13She was pretty good at it.
20:15I thought maybe something bad had happened that night, and Rachel and Sheila were just scared
20:22to get in trouble because they knew that it happened and everything, but they didn't do
20:27anything about it.
20:30So one night at play practice, I mean, I confronted her.
20:40I remember that exact day because Rachel and I planned matching outfits.
20:45And we were wearing white pants and blue shirts.
20:50I was standing right with Rachel.
20:53I remember Daniel standing up, and he decided to make an uprising in class.
20:58I told Rachel that, um, maybe she should go talk to the cops and just tell them what
21:04they know because obviously they're still questioning her.
21:08But she freaked out.
21:11Rachel had, like, a meltdown.
21:14Like, just, like, started freaking out, like, screaming at people and just, like, losing it.
21:23It got really crazy.
21:26She was, like, sitting over there crying and stuff, and I was like, Rachel, why don't you
21:29just go talk to the police?
21:31Like, go end everything.
21:35There's a huge fight in half the class is, like, on his side, half the class is on Rachel's
21:40side, and it becomes this huge controversy, and the teacher's not even in the room.
21:44And finally, the teacher shows up, and he's like, stop.
21:50He yelled at me, saying that they're already going through enough.
21:54Maybe you shouldn't lay more on them right now.
21:57It was very controversial in school.
22:00It really, really was.
22:02It was definitely on Rachel's side.
22:05And, uh, Rachel's crying, you know, you know, why would he think that I'm, you know, I'm a
22:11victim here.
22:15It was very bizarre.
22:19People were getting suspicious.
22:23They knew more than they were saying.
22:30I felt like I was trying to do the right thing.
22:34Oh, man.
22:35I, though it had to be a brutal few months for her.
22:39Like, her best friend's gone.
22:43The school was basically at war.
22:46You had the people that were team Rachel and Sheila, then you had team Skylar.
22:53People were arguing, like, in the hallways at the cafeteria.
22:57It was like, why aren't you saying anything?
23:01So, it was, like, clashing all the time.
23:08I felt bad for Rachel.
23:10I wanted to be there for her and comfort her and do whatever I could to make her feel better
23:15about the situation.
23:16She was really seemed upset.
23:18Yeah.
23:46It was like,
23:47when we asked,
23:47sheila and rachel or questions about skylar's disappearance the information we were getting
23:52was fragmented not true completely changing you know so like obviously that was one of the achilles
23:59heels of the investigation so like how could we mitigate that from continuing to happen
24:05if the girls had nothing to hide surely they would not object to a polygraph examination
24:11sheila's her best friend and we talked to the police and they told them to leave sheila alone
24:17i said sheila is hurting as bad as we are will you please leave that kid alone she's told you
24:24everything she knows
24:50in 2012 i was assigned to the pittsburgh division of the fbi
24:55as their polygraph examiner i like talking to people and i really like helping uh move cases
25:03forward my niche really was people seem like they like talking to me and i really enjoy talking with
25:09them ronnie is there and we just have a discussion when she was asked was that your car in the
25:18video
25:19picking up scholar she finally said yes it confirmed what we believed that was sheila's car in the video
25:29they were the ones that picked her up at 12 32 a.m on july 6th there isn't a second
25:34person
25:36so then it's like okay what happened when she was asked are you withholding information from police
25:46she said no of course i see her physiology on my polygraph on my laptop i go out of the
25:55room
25:56and i'll talk to the uh state police and the agents that are in another room listening and i say
26:03yeah
26:03you know she she failed that test so i go back in and i i say hey sheila you're you
26:09didn't pass this
26:10test and we have to figure out what happened the best person for her right now might be her mom
26:16so i remember going out and having a conversation with uh sheila's mom and saying there's something
26:23she's not telling us and we're really at that point where we have to get to the bottom of this
26:27can you go
26:27just talk with her the mom was stoic and they had a conversation privately sheila comes back and then
26:39that's when she tells the story of oh we both didn't go home we both went out to blacksville
26:49sheila said when we were out there skylar wanted to go to the boy's house to party
26:56and then she left the car and ran away from the car
27:01we looked for her for 30 to 45 minutes
27:06we couldn't find her so then we had to drive home that's when rachel lost her phone and then sheila
27:14went back and grabbed the phone the next day so it would explain what is bringing them out to
27:20blacksville that morning on july 6th and that's why the phones were pinging at 4am when sheila went to go
27:27get her phone back it would put your head through the cycle of being like what's true what's not
27:34towards the end of her statement she made kind of a big deal about how skylar became belligerent
27:41with them and got really upset and demanded to get out of the car and they were really shocked and
27:45surprised at her acting this way and there's a principle in detection of deception where are people
27:51trying to convince you of something or are they trying to convey information to you so when you're
27:56reading this you're like this just seems off a little bit and i remember shaking my head and i'm
28:03saying sheila i'm really sorry i go i do not believe you and i remember her distinctly taking her fingernails
28:11putting them into the top of the mahogany table and scraping them down out of frustration that we're not
28:18believing her but that's when you really see this personality of her this very defiant young girl
28:25coming out sheila is not telling us the truth and we have to get to the bottom of this and
28:32now we're
28:33gonna have to go talk to rachel after reading rachel's journal we were confident that she was you could
28:57say the weakest link we felt that she was more likely to talk and break so we decide to get
29:06rachel
29:06back in for another interview do you tell she was visibly nervous unlike sheila who's always calm
29:17this is when rachel told us sheila doesn't know i'm telling you this
29:22oh we were out in blacksville and we were smoking weed
29:30and skylar was adamant that she wanted to go to the brother's house
29:37so they actually went to the brother's house and they drove there and skylar got out of the car
29:45went up to the front door one of the vehicles was in the driveway
29:49and the door opened and there was a silhouette of like maybe a tall guy or whatever and let skylar
29:54in
29:57and then sheila and rachel drove home
30:02and never heard from their friend again
30:07we were kept on going down these rabbit holes so it felt like they were covering for someone
30:13so it was like a reset every single time that we talked to them um because we would get new
30:20information
30:36and we would get new information
30:36rachel would tell me kind of a lot about what went on in their little trio they fought a lot
30:45i was kind of an outlet of a third person that she could tell somebody that wouldn't tell anybody else
30:54i don't know exactly when it could have started but rachel's obsessed with sheila and she was
31:00obsessed with rachel back they were very close it was like a different level of something else
31:07you could tell in little ways of the way they talked to each other and uh it made skylar very
31:12uncomfortable in a lot of situations
31:16there was one situation i guess where they all were just hanging out drinking one night
31:23and i think that rachel and sheila had skylar videotaped them sleeping together
31:35tuesday was the back to school bash and after sheila and i went to rachel's we snuck some vodka and
31:42got
31:42pretty drunk and crazy sheila and rachel ended up doing all girls can do with each other
31:52it's her first time having cameras in her phones they just started to do their own thing and they
31:56wanted to get it videotaped but skylar on the other hand had hardly ever kissed somebody in her life
32:05and it really made her upset i can't imagine how she felt holding that camera
32:11the night ended with me and sheila fighting she always favors the other person when we're with people
32:18and it was the second time she made me cry that night we started screaming at each other and rachel's
32:25psycho mom came down after that night there seemed to be a lot of issues to be honest it was
32:34a big deal
32:35they were frustrated with skylar i tell the whole school all the i have on everyone which is a lot
32:48i do remember rachel coming up to me at my locker just telling me how annoyed she was with skylar
32:54and
32:54how she wished that she wasn't there she really didn't want me to tell anybody
33:04lord forgive me for i am lustful and i am a sinner
33:11i consciously turn away from you lord and i do not mean to
33:18i know that i am a sinner and i am sorry
33:26i knew that she was hanging out you know sexually with sheila i just thought it was exploring having
33:34fun you know that's really what i thought i said hey do your own thing it's fine
33:45i never heard of a video of you know rachel and sheila in any sexual manner
33:54frankly i feel like that would have been something that would have spread like wildfire
34:02i never saw anything that would have like made me think that they were having some kind
34:11of secret relationship rachel she usually always had a relationship with a boy and uh if she did
34:21identify as gay she never told anybody i feel like um at our high school it wasn't like abnormal to
34:30be
34:30in a same-sex relationship but depending on your family um it could be
34:38especially because of her family like her parents were very strict
34:43her family was really religious she was catholic and um i'm not sure what they would have accepted her
35:14the longer it goes and as it gets closer to like holidays and stuff you're like it's something's not
35:21right as it got closer to christmas you know it just felt more like surreal that skylar was gone
35:33mary and i both were feeling helpless
35:38that six months was hell and i i didn't have any more ideas they had all exhausted
35:46i mean everything i had hoped for fell through it's tough to think about dave and mary
35:56not having their daughter there with them
36:00mommy go hide your eyes skylar where'd you go to she under the tree
36:05she under the tree it's kind of love christmas
36:10i wanna see
36:14we would
36:16well it all stops
36:18is that a sleeping bag
36:21it's a barbie sleeping bag
36:24it's a barbie sleeping bag
36:27cool
36:29barbies
36:30oh she loved barbies
36:32no but it's beautiful
36:34that's barbie horse
36:36yes it is
36:36wow
36:37flying horse
36:38wow
36:40wow
36:41what do you think
36:44christmas came and went no skylar
36:48i went to the state police barracks and the poor girl behind the counter knew me because i was up
36:53there all the time and i was crying i was pissed off
36:57dave came to our office very upset that we didn't have answers and you know i definitely
37:04wanted to give them answers i just didn't have any
37:07patience was running thin you know for their daughter being missing and i was right there with
37:13them the biggest fear i had was never learning the truth it really took a toll on all the investigators
37:22it's been months now and we didn't know what was the truth someone's protecting someone
37:30and sheila's lying so we asked rachel would you be willing to take a polygraph
37:37and she said yes
37:43the next day rachel was on her way to the morgantown state police detachment to participate in the polygraph
37:55i was extremely confident um excited a little bit of anxious but like i thought today was the day
38:03because she was actually going to say what happened we might not find skylar today but we're going to
38:11find out today what happened to her so as we're getting to the time where she's supposed to arrive
38:19at the state police detachment she's late she's not there and 20 minutes goes by and i get a phone
38:27call
38:29it was her defense attorney called me and said rachel's missing
38:37what are you talking about rachel's missing and he's like we can't find rachel
38:41so we were just kind of looking at other like
38:46where'd she go
38:49what is going on here
38:52he said to me that rachel jumped out of the car and i couldn't believe it i asked him
38:57you know what do you mean you know he goes we got to a stop and rachel jumped out of
39:02the car
39:03and we're trying to find her she's missing
39:09okay long county 9-1-1 do you have an emergency i have an issue with a 16-year-old
39:13daughter of mine
39:14she can't control her anymore she's screaming she's running for the neighborhood give me the phone
39:20okay
39:21oh my
39:26hurry up
39:38rachel had a mental breakdown and was committed to a hospital for evaluation
39:45then rachel's attorney calls we were told rachel's ready to talk
40:17so
40:25so
40:26so
40:55Transcription by CastingWords
40:57Transcription by CastingWords
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