By Alex Balog
Star City resident Skylar Neese was 16 years old when she disappeared in 2012. Neese was brought to the woods by her high school friends, Rachel Shoaf, and Shelia Eddy, and brutally murdered. Neese’s body was not found until Shoaf admitted planning and carrying out the murder with Eddy.
Eddy was tried as an adult and indicted on September 6th, 2013 for one count of kidnapping, one count of first-degree murder, and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. She originally pleaded not guilty but later pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. Eddy was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years.
Shoaf pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison with the parole eligibility after 10 years.
At the time of Neese’s disappearance, an Amber Alert was not issued because it did not meet all four criteria for an alert to be issued in the state of West Virginia. These criteria are a child is believed to be abducted, the child is under 18, the child may be in danger of death or serious injury, and that there is sufficient information to indicated the Amber Alert would be helpful. On top of this, a waiting period of 48 hours had to elapse before a teenager could be considered missing.
After the discovery of what happened to Neese, her family and a West Virginia state legislator introduced a bill. This bill would require an immediate issue of the Amber Alert if any child is missing whether they are believed to be kidnapped or not. On April 12th, 2013 both the West Virginia Delegates and the West Virginia Senate unanimously passed the bill. The next month, May 2013, then West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin signed it into law.
According to the official West Virginia State Police website, 74% of children who are kidnapped are murdered within the first three hours of being taken. Amber Alert reports can be found here, on the Amber Alert website. In 2014, the year following the introduction of Skylar’s Law, only 1 Amber Alert was issued which stands 32 behind Texas, who had a total of 33. Could this be because of Skylar’s Law? Possibly, but there was also only one Amber alert issued the year of Skylar’s murder. It is unsure if Skylar’s Law has prevented kidnappings or not, but the fact that there have not been more than 2 alerts issued since 2012 can serve as a positive statistic if viewed from a prevention standpoint.
Wild and Weird 
I vividly remember when the Skylar Neese tragedy occurred. It absolutely rocked this town. No one could believe that such a horrific kidnapping or murder could take place in little old Morgantown. Rumors were rampant in the months that elapsed between the disappearance of Skylar and the trials of Rachel and Shelia. It was absolutely horrific, and it’s really hard to believe that it’s already been six years since Skylar’s disappearance.
LikeLike
I actually just found out about this story last year and I was so mesmerized by it. I couldn’t believe that two girls murdered their friends, and I was even more shocked whenever I discovered it happened in Morgantown. I spent a full day researching the story once I discovered it happened here.
I think that it’s very unfortunate that an Amber alert was not able to be issued because it didn’t meet all four criteria because it could of potentially helped find Skylar sooner. Waiting 48 hours seems ridiculously long. No parent is going to want to wait 48 hours for an Amber alert to go out for their own child. As unfortunate as this was, I am glad that Skyler’s family and a West Virginia state legislator introduced the bill that would require an immediate issue of the Amber Alert if any child is missing whether they are believed to be kidnapped or not because this could help many other families.
LikeLike
I remember hearing about this case years ago before I came to school here and thinking how crazy it was. I feel like you always hear about things like this happening, but it is crazy think it can happen so close to you, like in Morgantown. I like how you included aftermath of the story. I can’t believe that her parents weren’t able to issue an Amber Alert, but I’m glad they have worked together since to try to prevent something like this from happening again.
LikeLike