Transcripts For MSNBCW Dateline 20190609

Twisted metal, was there a clue to a crime . The last thing i wanted was to have to take a double fatality and now treat it as a homicide. Murder. An accusation no one saw coming. I couldnt deal with it. Two families in torment. We were both just, ugh. A smalltown trial with big emotions. You took him. You did it. And a verdict we the jury that would shake them all. Keith morrison with crossing the line. Good evening and welcome to dateline. Im lester holt. Big sky country, a small town and a famously dangerous highway. That was the setting for a deadly crash that would seem to unite two families in shock and heartbreak. Except they were about to find out that this tragedy was also a mystery and the truth about what happened on that late winter night might be darker than anyone knew. Heres keith morrison. March 19, 2009. Night fell heavy in montanas Flathead Valley. Something off that night. Something wrong. At mary and randy winters house, anxiety spiked. Where was she . It just felt like something was not right. Its hard to explain that theres something not normal. You could set your clock by their daughter justine. That reliable. But a new driver, too, just 16, due home at 8 00 from her boyfriends house. And even though she wasnt very late, the feelings seeped in like a poison. Something wrong. I called her starting about 5 after 8 00 and no answer. Called the house where she was at, and they said she had left 15 minutes before that. I was thinking she went off the road between their house and us. Not far away, another family, the other half of our story, was on the road, too. Erin thompson was driving her son caden home from a school concert. He played the drums. I had always attended all of cadens concerts, and this is the first one i didnt attend because i had car trouble. This is cadens stepfather, jason thompson. My car was in the shop and finally fixed so erin dropped me off and thats why i wasnt with them. And soon the poison, the anxiety seeped under jasons door, through his windows, onto his nerve endings. Just all of a sudden i realized, whats going on . Why are they late . It just struck me that something definitely was wrong. At justine winters house, the fear was deep now. Justines dad randy was a National Guardsman, firefighter. He was trained to keep his head, knew what he had to do. Randy got in his truck, drove out of town to the road he knew shed take coming home from her boyfriends house. And then he saw it. In a Construction Zone on a highway 93 overpass. What did you find . Something i dont want to see again. You could say a firemans worst nightmare. Someone tried to hold him back. He kept on. And then i saw her over at the side. His perfect daughter, his justine, obscenely broken but amazingly still alive. How did she look . I didnt really see a lot of her on the gurney there, but i got to see her at the hospital. She was pretty bad. You know, you dont want to ever see your kid in the hospital. Every bit of her was damaged, horribly, broken bones, brain damage, ruptured organs. The chance shed survive slim, said the doctors. Oh, but the winters news could have been worse. And a few miles away when the phone rang at jason thompsons house, the news was worse. Much worse. The call was from the county coroner. He said, jason, your family was in an accident. He said, im sorry to have to tell you this on the phone, but they were just killed. And my whole world just dropped out from underneath me. Jasons wife, 35yearold erin thompson, was four months pregnant. Her son caden, the boy who just played the drums at his school concert, was just 13. And just like that they were gone. The crash was headon. And in School Counselor jason thompsons life, the lights went out. That night, that realization ill never forget, that news. Nor, of course, will erins mother diana. We were both just bonkers, just ugh. Or his sister amber who with her husband david missed erin so much they planned to move to montana to be close. Not possible now. That was the hardest piece of news we could fathom. And to lose both of them and the baby, it just didnt even seem like it could be real. And here in the little house he shared with the love of his life, where he had been waiting with such excitement for their baby to arrive, jason like job of old was overcome by the heaviest sorrow of a whole life of sorrows. It was like im 9 years old, you know, in 79 when my sister dies and then im 19 years old in 89 when my mother dies with cancer. Now im 39 in 09 and i lose my family. By missing that concert, you lived. How has that been to wrap your head around . Ive always been embracing of life, right . But i definitely didnt fear death anymore. Theres times when i would have welcomed it. But the dreadful truth of it is that accidents just like the one here happen all around america every day, every night. Still, just as the permanence of loss began to sink in, before anyone had given a thought to a nowdiminished future, there was another piece of news. This time on this road. The fatal accident might not have been an accident at all. The last thing i wanted was to have to treat it as a homicide. A prosecutors stunning decision when crossing the line continues. Humira patients, you inspire us. The way you triumph over adversity. And live your lives. Thats why we redesigned humira. We wanted to make the experience better for you. Now theres less pain immediately following injection. Weve reduced the size of the needle and removed the citrate buffers. And it has the same effectiveness you know and trust. Humira citratefree is here. A little change can make a big difference. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections. 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A revelation which, in jason thompsons devastated mind, would register later. Just now his whole life was a bomb crater, a ruin. Erin was like my heart. She was my soul mate, you know. Id waited all these years looking, but i had the ideal. I was searching and searching for her. And she, as she told everybody, had been looking for him. Erin was a single mom when jason met her brilliant smile. She was a hairdresser who loved to dance. And she was a seeker in all matters spiritual. Her mother diana. When she was single and a young mother and she was wondering what she was going to do with her life, she answered her own question and just said, well, as long as im about the business of spreading love, it doesnt matter. Erin married jason in the summer of 2006 in the glorious montana sunshine. And young caden seemed as pleased as she was. Caden, who shared his mother and new stepfathers craving for outdoor adventures. Backpacking on the coast and the mountains, river rafting, how we started kind of an annual adventure days in the summertime. It was all about just sharing that time together. Yes, and there was that plan erin hatched with her sister amber. We always had a dream of growing up and living right next door to each other and, you know, raising up our families. And soon the plan expanded beautifully when erin and jason announced they were expecting a child of their own. Every day i would praise my life, praise my wife and my little baby that i was finally going to have, and it all made sense. And then came march 19, 2009. But, as the news and the grief spread, there was still hope, remember, for one of the victims in the crash. Justine winter was alive, though barely with a broken neck and broken leg and major internal injuries. Doctors told the family they didnt think shed live through the airlift to a hospital in seattle. What did they tell you . They said they didnt think she would live. I said, well, shes flying in that airplane, and dont even give me any grief. And she did survive the flight to seattle and the Emergency Operations to stitch together the broken pieces of her body. She was unconscious when she arrived. The doctors kept her that way, induced a coma so she could avoid the pain or recognition of her desperate condition while her body slowly, slowly began to knit itself back together. Until, more than a month later and her eyes just went, poof that was just like the most incredible feeling of, shes there, shes in there, and your hearts just beating. It was days later before justine could understand what was going on around her, but the news had to be faced eventually. And so, when she seemed ready, they told her. When you told her what happened in the accident and how those other people had died, how did she react to that . It was very emotional for her. It was very devastating. And then what was discovered was, well, quite frankly unimaginable. For, in the middle of that river of tears, grief on the one side, abject grief on the other, there was an undertow, a twist nobody saw coming. For, while justine spent 45 days in the hospital recuperating and months more here at home in montana healing, it didnt take investigators very long at all, matter of hours really, to solve the mystery of who and what caused this crash. In fact, the Highway Patrol officers who raced to this scene in the Construction Zone believed that justine winters car was the one that crossed the center line and smashed into erin thompsons car. But the worst of it, the inconceivable part was, at least as investigators told Flathead County attorney ed corrigan, this was not an accident at all. What was your first reaction . What did you think . Nuts. This is the last thing i wanted, was to have to take a double fatality and have to now treat it as a homicide. Homicide . Yes. Right there in justines car officers found what amounted to a minutebyminute narrative of the events leading up to the collision in Text Messages. And in those messages the prosecutor said was the evidence he believed required him to press criminal charges against that girl doctors had quite miraculously saved, justine winter. Charges of murder. She did not swerve. She drove headon into that other vehicle. The prosecutor lays out his case while jason gets yet another shock. Hes suing you. For her pain and suffering. When dateline continues. [ giggling ] lets play dressup. Im a slick chick [ doorbell ] [ slap ] your nails xfinity home. Cameras. Xfinity home. Disarm the system. Doors open. Morning. Welcome to the neighborhood. Do you like my work . Secure your home with x1 voice control. And have professional monitoring backing you up with xfinity home. Demo at an xfinity store, call or go online today. It[ screaming ]by. Mmm, mmm, mmm. The sorrow ran deep in the sorrow ran deep in montana Flathead Valley that awful spring and summer of 2009. Deep and wide, the whole valley, in fact, the country, heard about the crash that killed caden and erin and her unborn child and heard a strange and disturbing story that 16yearold justine winter took deadly aim at erins oncoming car, crossed the center line, and plowed right into them. On purpose. Shocking . Oh, yes. As was the alleged reason. Justine, said the police, was trying to commit suicide. How did they know . They found the evidence on justines phone, they said, Text Messages which she wrote herself and which once county attorney ed corrigan saw them gave him no choice, he said. He charged her with deliberate homicide, montanas equivalent of murder. Justine purposely went into the wrong lane of traffic and smashed headon into another car. By doing so, she should have known her actions could have killed someone. And under those circumstances i think deliberate homicide was the only charge we could make. You decide to charge her as an adult. Why . She was 16. She was. The taking of two lives is not, in my opinion, a delinquent act. It is a crime, needs to be prosecuted as a crime, and if convicted needs to be on her record for the rest of her life. Perhaps because of her own massive injuries, her continuing operations, her age, justine after pleading not guilty was released to house arrest, fitted with an ankle bracelet, allowed to attend school. At home, her parents fumed. Whatever the Text Messages said, the idea justine would cause that crash on purpose, just crazy. Are you angry at all of this . It builds up inside, and it gets to a point where you cant take it anymore. Turned out and it was frankly hardly surprising in a town the size of kalispell the two families actually knew each other. Justines mother and erins mother had worked at the same school. Erins family let it known what they wanted from justine is a heartfelt apology and that she took responsibility for the act with which she was charged. They saw that as a way to work forgiveness. Most people around town thought that was a fine idea. But from justine and her family . Just an awkward silence. And then early one morning in the fall of 2010, an entirely unexpected knock at the door took emotions to a whole new level. This private investigator just hands me these papers like hes serving me papers. You know, it says theyre suing erins estate. Suing you. Suing me. For her pain and suffering. It was true. In a legal preemptive strike, justine winters attorneys had filed a lawsuit on her behalf against erins estate as well as three companies in charge of the Construction Zone where the crash occurred. The lawsuit claimed erin had negligently operated her car resulting in the collision and also that the companies had failed to adequately construct and maintain the vicinity causing hazardous and confusing conditions for the traveling public. I cant even begin to guess what they were thinking about when they decided to file that lawsuit. It inflamed the whole town. The whole town. This wasnt justines decision. That was a decision made by her attorneys. Ah, yes, the attorneys. Their names . Maxwell battle and david stoft. According to the winters, the two assured the lawsuit, if she was found not guilty, would give them a better shot at an insurance reimbursement later. There was no intent of going for the estate, making that family endure more than theyve already endured. But the optics were awful. Oh, the timing could have been who knows better. You pick up the newspaper, you look at the blogs, you hear the radio and what you got was, those awful people, those disgusting, terrible people. What are they thinking, trying to sue the victims of this crime . Thats what was portrayed. But the actual intent was not that. At all. All rise. District court is now in session. Misunderstood or not, by the time justine winters trial for deliberate homicide started in january 2011, the tide of Public Opinion had turned as bitter as a montana winter. The hearts of erin thompsons family, too, had toughened. And justine, who showed up in an almost childlike polka dot hair band certainly didnt look like an accused killer facing 200 years behind bars. But there she was. With the two families just a few feet away, they heard detectives testify to a certainty that it was justines pontiac grand am that crossed the center line. Here you can see all the debris from the initial impact of the crash. Slamming into erins subaru so hard it was driven backward into the highway barrier. And crash reconstructionists agreed. Justine winters car encroached into the northbound lane striking mrs. Thompsons vehicle. But what evidence was there that justine had done it, as the law says, purposefully . Investigators pulled the socalled black box out of justines pontiac, analyzed the data, and found another sign that pointed to suicide. She had taken off her seat belt. The black box also recorded speed, acceleration, and braking and found that justine was accelerating, flooring it so to speak, in the five seconds before the crash, speeding up from 81 to 86 miles an hour before hitting the brakes at the last second. She did not swerve. And she drove headon into that other vehicle. To back it up, prosecutors pulled the speedometer from justines car, there right above the mark indicating 85 miles an hour found an orange mark. Its known as a slap mark, made, the experts testified, when the needle smashes against the console at high speed. And, finally, prosecutors revealed the reason, they said, behind it all. Justine, like many 16yearold girls, had a boyfriend. Hers was named ryan. It was quite hot, this relationship. He was her world. But that day in march there had been a tiff. It had words. And so that night she drove ryan home, asked him to get out of the car, he said they were through. Then justine drove north to clear her head. She was on her way home when, detectives testified, she began texting ryan. Apparently while behind the wheel. The first text, half an hour before the crash. Goodbye, ryan. Just live your life knowing you did change me. My last words. I love you, ryan. Then her texts became somewhat threatening. If i won, i would have you and i wouldnt crash my car. And ryan answered. You kill yourself, i kill myself. So come on, dont be selfish. Thats the only thing i want to live for, you ryan. You keep me living. Stop. You hurt yourself, and i know and ill do the same. Thats why im going to wreck my car, because all i can do is [ bleep ] up. So you would rather me die because i want to kill myself. Goodbye, ryan. I love you. Then the final message from ryan. You killing yourself is just another way for you to run away. Just five or six minutes later, prosecutors say, justine winter drove her car into erin thompsons lane of traffic to commit suicide but instead killed mother, child, unborn baby. The prosecution had made its case for murder. Now the question was, what could justine winters attorneys possibly say to make a jury believe otherwise . It was a way of exercising power and control in the relationship. The defense takes on the heart of the case. Those texts, when crossing the line continues. I had a heart problem. I was told to begin my aspirin regimen, and i just didnt listen. Until i almost lost my life. My doctors again ordered me to take aspirin, and i do. Be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. Listen to the doctor. Take it seriously. Every day in this montana courtroom the family of now 17yearold justine winter dutifully shuffled to the seats directly behind the defense table. Their faces, by their attorneys decree, an intentional blank, emotionless. Their apparent demeanor a spur in the hide of an already angry town. But almost no one knew what was really going on. Justines mother mary who had been struggling with alcohol caved in to the stress. Tell me how its changed your life. I ran away for a while. I couldnt deal with it. I just left the house. I didnt come back. Justines brother kyle dropped out of college to help keep things together at home and get justine to her medical appointments. And randy, her father, the strong and tall as a montana spruce firefighter and National Guardsman turned angry and bitter at the continuing prosecution of his little girl. I could be sitting in the living room watching tv and all of a sudden i hear something, i just completely lose it, start crying. The whole world, said justines dad, seemed intent on misunderstanding, demonizing his little girl. Yet, he said, she had always been so good, kind, thoughtful and responsible, was getting almost straight as in high school, but mostly wouldnt harm a bug, literally, and cared about people. Would never, never want to hurt that sweet woman or her son or her baby. Always that smile, always wanted to help. Its who she was. What kind of little girl was this . She was just a good girl. But it might interest you to know that, as the winters spoke to us here, they were doing so against the expressed advice of their attorneys. And, when it was time for justines defense team to make its case in court, attorneys maxwell battle and david stoft told the jury that everything the prosecution told them, everything they knew about the case so far was wrong. What happened out there was an accident. Including where the crash occurred. Remember the prosecutions experts testified there was no doubt justine crossed the center line and veered into erin thompsons lane, causing the crash. But a forensic engineer hired by the defense said his research turned that finding its head. He claimed it was erin who drove out of her lane in that construction lane and struck justine. And the defense went further, claiming the slap mark on the 85mileanhour mark on justines car was planted there by investigators, that the black box that measured speed and braking was plain wrong, that justine always wore her seat belt. And, finally, a psychologist said what actually a lot of experts said, that a spat with a boy wasnt enough to lead to a suicide attempt. And those texts . They should not be considered a suicide note at all. It was a way of exercising power and control in the relationship, to make that kind of threat, that it was always clear that it was never meant. What would justine winter say about what happened here that night . About those texts . The jury would never know. She did not testify on the advice of attorneys, said her family. And of course that was her perfect right. But there was another reason, too. Justine suffered a brain injury in that crash so her recollection of the last few days leading up to the crash and that night itself here she doesnt remember. She is charged with a crime about which her memory is a complete blank. So, then, how could the jury know that justine knowingly crossed the center line, having decided to commit suicide by hitting the other car . A question we put to the prosecutor. In order to draw that conclusion, you have to read her mind essentially. Youve been a prosecutor for years. You know that Car Accidents happen in the most bizarre ways, that people do crazy things on the road. But you clearly said this was a situation in which i know what somebody was thinking when they drove across that lane of traffic and into that other car. No. I just dont know how you can know what shes thinking. I cant know what she was thinking. Nobody knows what she was thinking at the time. She doesnt know what she was thinking at the time. Precisely. All i can do is base my decision on what the evidence shows. Did the evidence clearly show that justine winter had made up her mind to commit suicide by driving into an oncoming car . Up to the jury now. Everyone just cried about it. A verdict comes quickly, but the pain and one final question remained, when dateline continues. So, jardiance asks. 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That is, until they were served with that lawsuit, blaming the crash on erin, and then watched Defense Attorneys battle and stoft twist what they believed were the facts of the case. These are unusual victims because of this willingness to forgive justine. Its the adults in her life who are steering her in this direction. Its not her decisions. You know, its these adults. So ive had plenty of anger towards them. But for justines family, too, there was considerable strain. So much that justines father randy buckled under the pressure and was rushed to the hospital and not present in the courtroom i will ask the clerk to file the verdict and to read it. When, just after four hours of deliberation, the jury came back. We the jury enter the following unanimous verdict to the charge of deliberate homicide for the death of erin thompson, guilty. For the death of caden odell, guilty. It was a horrible experience, my head fell to my knees. It was like the whole courtroom i felt like everyone just cried about it. How did she look, mary, when she was led off to jail . Your little girl. She looked very stunned. She didnt look back. Just a week after that verdict, justine winter marked her 18th birthday in a jail cell. And then came sentencing day. And everyone wondered, would justine finally tell erins husband, her family, what they desperately wanted to hear . In your ideal world, what would you like to hear from justine . To be sorry for what she took from us because it was huge. Just before sentencing, the family received this, a statement written by justine. And it wasnt even close to what they were looking for. In it she called herself a miracle who was wrongly convicted of a horrific crime. She wrote that she would never, ever in a million years take her own life or anyone elses, that this was an accident that had been blown out of proportion, that she didnt need time behind bars, just a chance to turn a horrific situation into a positive one. And so, with this statement in mind, the family of erin and caden took the stand to have their own say. I want for you to make something positive of your life through this, but you still have yet to grasp the truth. Cadens father, the same message. More anger. You took him. You did it. And you need to own it. You killed my boy. You need to own it. And finally cadens stepfather jason, the elementary School Counselor first displaying compassion, then a rare stream of venom aimed at justines defense team, attorneys battle and stoft. I chose to believe that you in crashing your car didnt want to harm or would ever think about harming them, but it has been very, very, very difficult to hold on to that thought given that youve been led by these two men and influenced by them to not do what is most important in all of this to show and demonstrate to us that you are sorry for having taken them. Then, finally, the moment, as justine winter herself took the stand to speak for the first time. Ive wanted to speak with you for two years now. Ive wanted to let you guys know that my heart goes out to you. And as every single one of you came up here today, my heart was breaking. But i just hope that you guys will be able to forgive that i will never be able to say that i intentionally crossed the center line wanting to take three lives from all of you. But before the judge allowed justine to leave the witness stand, the prosecutor stepped to the podium and asked a question on behalf of the victims family, a question that froze the courtroom. What they wanted to hear from you for a long, long time also is im sorry. Can you tell them that . Im sorry for your loss, but i cannot i dont know what youre meaning by you want me to say that im sorry. And so the hammer came down. By order of the court the defendant is committed for a period of 30 years with 15 years suspended. 15 years in prison. Justine will have to serve 7 1 2 before she has any chance of parole at all. And her father back on his feet and in court for sentencing day began his own prison term, the one deep inside his own soul. The system betrayed me. You serve your country and then feel betrayed by it . You feel betrayed by the country you fought for. Uhhuh. By the judicial part of the system. They took her, this once promising honorbound college student, to a cell in the womens prison where she instantly became the youngest inmate in the place. And two months later those attorneys stoft and battle who declined our requests for interviews were off the case. That civil lawsuit was dropped. And thats when justine winter finally now on her own decided to tell us her side of the whole sad story. An exclusive interview with justine. You say you probably caused that accident. Are you able to say, i take responsibility for that . Im just a normal person who got an awful skin condition. With uncontrolled moderatetosevere eczema, or atopic dermatitis, you feel like youre itching all the time. And you never know how your skin will look. Because deep within your skin an overly sensitive immune system could be the cause. So help heal your skin from within, with dupixent. Dupixent is not a steroid, and it continuously treats your eczema even when you cant see it. 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And, just weeks into a 15year prison sentence for deliberate homicide, she sat down with us, quite well aware of how all this time shed been the target of so much curiosity and anger. Im curious to know what your thought process was as you went about deciding, yeah, i think ill talk now. I dont know. I guess it was probably that i was being shown in a different light than what i wanted to be shown in. When you read accounts of your case and when you see the comments people write, whats that like . They are really hard to read. I heard one that said that i need to hang from a noose on a tree. What does it feel like inside, when you saw that comment, for example . Im really weird. With my brain injury i feel it in the second, but its hard to, like, recall it afterwards. That brain injury is the reason she says she sometimes smiles when she doesnt mean to, why everything came out wrong she says when she took the stand and spoke at sentencing, and why she says and even the Prosecutor Says he believes this that she recalls nothing about the crash. I dont remember the night of the accident, but i remember events that i know had to have happened right before the accident happened. What events would those be . I remember doing stuff to get ready for prom because prom was supposed to be two days after when the accident happened. But, other than that, i dont really remember a whole lot about march. What do you remember was the last time you saw your boyfriend . I have no idea. I remember we spent oodles of time together. You were inseparable basically. Yeah. In love . Kid love. Well, its pretty strong love, that kid love, isnt it . Yeah. I remember if i wasnt with him i was texting him all the time. But, as for those texts following the argument with ryan before the crash, justine says, despite what any believe, she would never, ever have tried to commit suicide, knowing as she does that her grandmother, randys mother, killed herself when her dad was just a boy. In fact, she says, the most likely explanation is she was just playing a game of sorts with ryan. He liked controlling everything having to do with like my life, and hed threatened suicide twice. Thats what i think was happening, that i was playing his own card back at him. Oh, im going to kill myself then. Yeah. I dont think that they were Text Messages that were to be taken seriously. Well, if you look at them through justines eyes they dont look like serious texts, but the jury didnt look at it through your eyes. No. Despite her conviction and all that evidence and the fact she has no memory of that night, justine still claims she must have been wearing her seat belt and cannot imagine driving her car at 85 miles an hour. Just not the sort of thing she ever did, she says. Something happened. You swerved across and hit that other car. Does that sound about right . Yeah. It was probably you that caused the accident. Is that fair to say . Uhhuh. And if you say its probably you who caused that accident, are you able to say, yeah, you know, if i did it and i probably did cause it i just feel horrible about that . Uhhuh. And i take responsibility for that . Yeah. Is it possible for you to say that . Yeah. I mean, if i knew, then i would take responsibility for it. You know, if it was me, i take complete, utter responsibility for it. And i do. And now, finally, having said the words almost that erin and cadens family longed to hear, justine says she is finally through with what she called a pity party she held for herself. All i would change about the accident is that they lived. And if it had to so be that they lived and i didnt, id be okay with that. Because i dont i dont like seeing anyone else in pain. I know my family was put in a lot of pain because of the accident, but theyve got to see me grow up. And the other family cant see that. Yep. And i dont want to put them in any more pain than theyve already had to be put through. And i want to make everything okay for them. But, oh, that will take a long time. That sadness as big as the sky. For erins widower jason, the dream is gone. Only an empty chair, an empty ache remain as he and so many in the family, as if climbing those montana mountains, try to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Its a dance between the grief of their loss to the joy and the blessing of having experienced them. Its like seeing a meteor. You wouldnt curse your luck that you saw this meteor, youd just be thankful that you were blessed to see it. So we just have to cling to that, that wow, how amazing that we got to spend a good part of our life with two of the most precious people on the planet. Thats all for this edition of dateline. We want to remind you to tune in. Im craig melvin. And im natalie morales. And this is dateline. She was beautiful. Her eyes were remarkable. I was going to be there for her and she was going to be there for me. It didnt matter what it was. I thought maybe she had been kidnapped. No one knew what was happening. There was nothing i or anyone could have done. Skylar, rachel, sheila. Total bffs. They hung out all the time. You thought of them as a team. The three of them became inseparable. One ended up missing