Transcripts For KNTV Dateline NBC 20140905

You just see things. Ridiculously out of control. Tonight we take you into a secret world thats going to stun you, teenagers, social media and murder. Well, shell blackmail me. A clique of mean girls. Were they mean enough to kill . It was such a shocking and scandalous kind of case. This was diabolical. Evil comes in all shapes and sizes. Im lester holt, and this is date lionel line. In the gentle Rolling Hills of northern west virginia, in a sweet college town in the heart of coal country lived three teenage girls. Their photos capture a moment in time. They were smart, talented, lovely. Everything a parent could hope for in a daughter. And so who could have guessed just by looking that some of them carried a dark secret about a friend. 911. Do you have an emergency . I have a 16yearold daughter. She hasnt been home, hasnt went to work. Im scared to death. These teens played a straij and haunting game. Would you rather suffocate or get shot . Get shot. A game of betrayal that went way beyond typical teenage drama. Shes calling out help me. Why. Why. Why. At the center of it all was a girl named skyler. David and mary meese welcomed their only daughter skyler in 9 1996. Tell me about the day she was born. Was that the greatest moment of your life . I wouldnt go that far. First time you saw her. First time i saw her, yes, i can say that was the greatest moment of my life. Yeah. It was instant love. They live nd star city, a small suburb ever morgantown, west virginia, where dave works at walmart and mary at a medical office. Skyler was a whirlwind, a rambunctious, precocious toddler who owned her parents hearts. Hey, gorgeous. Hi, daddy. She was reading way before she was supposed to, doing math and stuff way before she was supposed to. She was a very intelligent little girl. Dance for me. When skyler started nursery school, she made her first friend, Morgan Lawrence. Morgan was drawn right away to skyler. Did she kind of light up a room . Yeah. The giggle and the laugh. The girls families game good friends. Dave and sheryl say morgan and skyler are more like sisters. What are your memories of skyler when she was this high. She giggled all the time. She had the biggest eyes. Youd just want to hug her. They were good girls, got good grades. Morgan dreamed of becoming a meteorologist. Skyler a criminal lawyer. They also had a pact, that they would always be there for one another. And you would both be in each others wed parties. Everyone has a sister to put in their wedding, and we had each other. As freshman at morgantowns University High school, the two girls drifted apart a little. With a new school came new friends. Classmate daniel said the bubbly skyler fit in right away. Friends came first. Soon sighler had two new bffs, sheila eddie who the meeses had known for years and rachel strove, a striking redhead with broadway aspirations. It wasnt long before they were calling themselves the three musketeers. They were literally together every second of every day, it seemed like. They hung out all the time. And like all teenage girls they shared videos and photos with each other and online. Giving us a glimpse into their world. Skyler and sheila just having fun. Let me try to go on your back. And of course they occasionally got into trouble, but even then it was for typical teenage things. Dave and mary werent too concerned. She is a straighta student who loves her parents. Did you sort of chock it up to, were not thrilled but shes a teenager . Exactly. When summer rolled around after her sophomore year, skyler seemed happy. She had a job at wendys which she loved. On thursday july 25, 2012, she came home after work and got ready for bed. She put her arm around her mom, gave her a kiss and hug and said, i love you, mom, turned to me and said, i love you, dad, and went to the room. The next day, dave planned to meet skyler in their apartment at lunchtime. He was surprised she wasnt there. A little worried he coffeled mary. I thought she was out with another friend. I figured they went swimming and shopping. Dave called her friends including sheila. No one had seen her. Next he went outside and found more cause for worry. A smaufl bench was tucked near exilelers window and the window screen was missing. At this time i called skylers cell phone. I said, hey, youre in trouble. You better be calling me right away. I coffeled about ten times. I called mary again. Again mary told him to calm down. She said skyler was expected at work at 4 00. I said, were not going to worry. Ill call them about 10 after 4 00, give her time to clock in, everything, see if shes there. But mary didnt get a chan to call wendys. They called us first wanting to know if she was coming to work. Was that a big moment for you . Yeah. A few minutes later, there was another big surprise. A call from sheila. She said she had to tell me the truth. I said, well, what truth . She said, we snuck out last night. Marys heart fell. Skyler had done that once before, gone on a latenight joyride with rachel and sheila. That time they were caught for being out after the town curfew. Now here was a worried sheila saying they had done it again. I said, where du go . Where is skyler . She said skyler insisted they drop her off at the end of the street so we wouldnt hear her sneaking back in. Now that missing screen and bench outside skylers window made sense. Skyler had put it there to boost herself up so she could get back in. But it left them with a terrifying possibility. My first instinct was, someone abducted her from the end of the street to our house. Dave called the police. I have a daughter thats 16 years old. Apparently she snuck out last night and she hasnt been seen since. Nobody of her friends have gotten ahold of her. I cant find her. Whats her name . Skyler niece. Their world had fall apart. Their only daughter had been gone for almost 24 hours. Where was skyler . When we come back, the investigation begins and concern for skyler begins to grow. Just had this horrible feeling in my heart that something terrible had happened. A grainy piece of videotape is about to give police one giant clue. What can they glean from this . Giant clue. What can they glean from this . Safeway understands you got to make every dollar count these days. Thats why they have lots of ways for you to save. Real big club card deals, the safeway app and gas rewards. School is in and so are the savings. Pretty lady green grapes are just 1. 99 a pound. Kids love kraft mac cheese. Youll love that its 79¢ a box. And grab capri sun for just 1. 88. Theres more savings to love. At safeway. Ingredients for life. Star city, west virginia, has just 1800 residents, ohm one stop light. Skyler going missing was a tough pill to swallow for the entire community. Jessica coalbank got the case. First impression was it could be a runaway. There are kids that run away all the time. It wasnt long before officer coalbank got the video from the security cameras at the neeses building. Skylers friend sheila eddie said skyler was home around midnight. So what was this car doing pulling up around 12 30 a. M. . Who was in it . Dave neese watched horrified as there on the tape out walked skyler. She slowly walked to a car that was sitting there waiting on her. She got in the back seat. I could tell that. And she drove away. Police couldnt quite make out a license plate or tell the make or model. Skylers mom mary had a theory. She made it home, snuck back in the window, then a second person or persons had parked behind the building and she snuck out a second time. But why . Who was in the car . And where did they go . The police did issue an ambe. M didnt issue an amber alert because it looked like skyler left voluntarily. Once the video came out that she willingly got in the car, theyre not going to look for someone driving in a car. Skylers friend sheila came over. She spent a lot of time telling us, it will be okay. Shell be home. I really miss her. I love her. I want her back. The next day, sheila sat with mary on skylers bed, both of them crying. Did it bring you comfort when sheila would come by, being skylers best friend . It did me a little bit, yeah. Knowing, how could skyler leave her behind . Mary and sheila took to the streets together, posting flyers for skyler. They would knock on doors and ask, have you seen this girl . We kept showing the picture to people. No one had seen her. Sheila was very, very worried about what had happened to skyler. Chrissy swanson is a close family friend of sheilas and saw sheilas distress firsthand. She was trying so hard to help them find anything, so hard to help them figure out what had happened. The Star City Police are still looking for a missing 16yearold. Dave made a plea for help on local news station wboy. We love her. We want her home. By sunday night, skyler had been gone the whole weekend. Her family, including her aunt carol, was heartsick. I just had this horrible feeling in my heart that, you know, something terrible had happened and it wasnt like her to run away or disappear like she did. Mary told me that night, she said, somethings wrong, babe. Somethings bad wrong. So your mind had kind of gone to that place already that she may never come home. The Community Held a candlelight vigil. Skylers School Friends came, including rachel and sheila. They were crying, came up and hugged me and mary, just crying their eyes out. The only thing mary could say was, what can we do to help these girls . How can we help these girls . Skylers family friend morgue en lawrence was upset, too. She was at camp when she read that skyler was missing. Did it scare you when you saw the posts . Definitely. How worried were you . Sick to my stomach worried. So was officer coalbank. She was at it nonstop. Id come back to the officer in the evenings, watching video, getting facebook posts. She got swamped with tips saying theyd seen skyler. Each sighting was a dead end. At the same time, coalbank pulled skylers records. What she found was ominous. Skyler wasnt using her cell phone or atm card. Coalbank now had serious doubts skyler had run away. Usually runaways take items with them they want. If she had contacts or glasses. She didnt take that stuff with her. Then police got an important new lead in the case. There had been two Bank Robberies in the nearby town of blangsville. Both of them had gone down around the type skyler vanished. I was working with investigators on the Bank Robberies. While looking into the robberies, Ronnie Gaskin of the state police was called into skylers case. There had been a tip that skyler had been at a party with the suspected bank robbers when something bad happened. What was the theory . They were just rumors, gossip going around there was this teenage party, that there was a possible overdose, and people there were scared so they hid the body. It seemed unlikely. Skyler didnt use heavy drugs. It was just a lot of tracking down rumors. Tons and tons of rumors. All leading nowhere. By dmou, skylar had been gone for more than a month. Gaskins found s vowed he would. The only promise i made was we would never give up in trying to find out what happened to skylar. Their search for skylar had taken them across the united states. What they didnt know then was that the truth was right there in morgantown at University High. Coming up twitter, instagram, facebook start to get ridiculously out of control. Whispers in the hallways. Was someone hiding something . Police are about to get a break. That was an. The first day of school the fall of 2012 was heartbreaking. One of University High schools top students, skylar neese, had disappeared during the summer. Classmate shania ammon. Starting School Without her, that was probably one of the hardest days through the whole thing. Skyler was just gone. Skylers friend Morgan Lawrence was dreading roll call. I didnt have any classes with her, thank god. You didnt want to hear her name called. Its not the same. We dont know if shes coming back. In some ways, life seemed normal. Skylers good friend sheila eddie seen in this video taken in the classroom is back in school. I dont want my baby to look like him. So is bff rachel shoef singing for friends in this video. The world around me changes rachel got the lead in the fall play. But everyone was worried about skylar. In the School Hallways and on social media, rumors flew. Between twitter and instagram and facebook, you just see things, start to get ridiculously out of control. Kids saying things from skylar had overdosed and things that skylar is in a different country. Daniel hoe vatter was in drama with rachel and knew how close the three girls were. He wondered if rachel and sheila might be helping cover something up for skyler. There had been rumors going around, rachel and sheila know where shes hiding. Danielle knew rachel and sheila were the last ones to see skyler. He wondered if they were protecting her or maybe protecting someone else. Either way, they had to know something. There were probably a good three, four, five times where i told rachel, if you know anything, you need to say what happened or where shes at. Daniel wasnt alonely. Two have written a book about skylars case and spent hours combing through what kids were 68ing on social media. The one thing that stood out to me is that people, teens, were tweeting sheila and rachel had to know something. Why dont you guys just talk, just Say Something . Tell us what you know. Rachel and sheila, seen here in a photo taken around that time, were now at the center of a storm. But they had supporters like shania. I had completely 100 supported and defended sheila. And fantasia liller. Whenever i stood up for rachel, of course i got a lot of bad comments from people. The heat got turned up on the girls when the fbi showed up and started interviewing students. I was only interviewed once. I guess i was nervous because i was like, its the fbi. Like theyre serious. They asked me about sheila and rachel, if they seemed any different. I was telling them they didnt seem different, but they were e secluded to themselves more. The normal fall rituals like football and homecoming were punctuated with police visits to rachel and sheila. Kids say rachel left play rehearsal to meet with the fbi. I mean, they would just talk about, oh, i had a Lie Detector Test today or something. Mary and dave neese, desperate to find their daughter, thought the police were wasting their time investigating the girls they knew so well. I went to the police and said, will you leave sheila alone, please . You guys are harassing her 24 7. The kid is going through enough right now. Leave her alone. So you defended her. Oh, god, yeah. She was like our daughter. But investigators were convinced the two girls knew more than they were saying. Was it sort of the belief that, look, nobody is in trouble. We just want to know where she is. Yeah. We just need to know what happened. That fall, Ronnie Gaskins interviewed each girl repeatedly. How was sheilas demeanor in these meets youd have with her . Calm. Collect. Would look at you right in your face, in your eyes. Rachel seemed distracted he says. She would draw on the desk, play with the pencil. Just nonverbal cues voe s vocal. Their story never varied. They picked skyler up, drove around morgmorgantown, smoked a little pot, and dropped her off a few blocks from home. It was like a recording with these two. In the meantime, the officers had begun to collect physical evidence, and it didnt match up with the story the girls had been telling. Surveillance video from a Convenience Store put the girls car not heading east as they had said but heading west towards blacksville. And the girls phone records from that night showed rachels phone pinging off a cell tower in blacksville. That was an aha moment. Finally, we have something to go on thats different from their story. Now even skylers parents joinled the chorus of people trying to get the girls to talk. I started posting on facebook things about karma, karma will get you, you cant hide. We were pushing. We were pushing the girls to get them to say what happened. By late november, the pressure seemed to be taking its toll on rachel. In an interview, she surprised police by changing her story. Admitting for the first time that they did drive to blacksville that night and thats where skyler told them to let her out of the car. Blacksville, where those Bank Robberies had happened. The next day, sheila changed her story to say the same thing. That must have been a big red flag for you. Absolutely. At school, kids say rachel was increasingly rattled. Rachel seemed distressed. She seemed like she was very upset over something. I mean, this was eating at her heart. Rachel shofe was about to crack. Coming up please hurry. An emergency at home. And an interview with police. What exactly was rachel shofe about to reveal . We were speechless. Its been a long running mystery at University High. What happened to skylar neese . She seemed to have slipped out of her bedroom and vapishnished the night. Now her two best friends are under scrutiny, sheila eddy and rachel shoaf. One of them is about to come forward with a deadly secret. Here again, andrea canning. Christmas 2012 came and went for skylar neeses parents. The holidays must have been very hard that year, christmastime. We didnt celebrate. Nah. We didnt put up any tree. We didnt do anything. Just another day. Yep. Around that time, rachel shoaf and sheila eddy stopped attending University High. Their few remaining friends told the authors that rachel seemed agitated. She was acting out, getting into more family alter cases at home. So the walls were closing in on rachel. Uhhuh. 911, we have an emergency. I have an issue with a 16yearold daughter of mine. I cant control her anymore. Then on december 28th, rachel apparently snapped. Her upset mother called the police. Shes screaming. Shes running through the neighborhood. Give me the phone. This is over this is over. Please hurry. We cant contain her. And rachel was taken to a Mental Health facility. A few days later, corporal Ronnie Gaskins got a big surprise. Rachel wanted to meet at her lawyers office. She had something she wanted to say. Take us inside that Attorneys Office with rachel. What was her demeanor . I remember her pulling up the waist basket next to her. Chef was afraid she was going to throw up. We started asking her the questions that we thought she would answer. Did she overdose at a party . I remember her face got really red. She glanced at us and said, we stabbed her. Was there just a hush in the room . How did everyone react . Everyone was silent for a couple of minutes. We were speechless. It wasnt an accident. It was a murder. And not only had rachel and sheila killed skylar, they had planned it for months. All the while looking and acting like best friends. As part of the plan, rachel and sheila settled on the night of july 5th as the ideal time to kill skylar. Earlier that day, rachel had obtained the shovel from her fathers residence, put it in sheilas trunk, brought the clean clothes, cleaning supplies and according to Rachel Sheila had provided the kitchen knives. They called skylar to say they were on their way over. Pulled up to the residence. And there is skylar, sneaking out in that grainy surveillance video. The car is sheilas and inside are skylars two best friends. Skylar gets in the car and they go driving. And they drove for nearly an hour, for miles and miles, dark winding roads out past blacksville. They get to the scene. They parked the car. And they found an area where they could sit and talk. Skylar leaves to go back to the car and then rachel said, on three. According to gaskins, rachel said she counted, one, two, three. And on three the two girls began. Thats when her and sheila started stabbing skylar from behind. Gaskins said skylar fought hard to defend herself. Did rachel indicate what skylars last words were, her final moments in that meeting . She said skylar just said why . Thats all she said. Rachel said the girls covered the body with dirt and branches, threw their bloody clothes in the trunk and left skylar there. Did rachel express how she felt when the crime was over . I just remember her saying that this is something she wanted to get done before she went to church camp. How did you feel when she said, i had to get this done before church camp . What are we dealing with . Did you ask rachel why . Why did you two do this . She would not give us any specific details other than they just didnt like her. Then when i asked her, what do you mean you didnt like her . Clarify that. She said, oh, nothing. We just didnt like her. After telling police the story, rachel led authorities down that lonely road, past blacksville to a spot just across the pennsylvania border. There they eventually found a few scattered human remains and sent them to a lab for testing. I just couldnt imagine the pain and suffering and the fear she went through, being alone in that place with her two best friends. And she knew what was happening when they started stabbing her. Authorities kept rachels confession secret even from the neeses while the investigation continued. The fbi told mary and dave only that remains believed to be skylars had been found. I broke down pretty bad, yeah. We both did. That was a bad day. So lonely and so deserted. And it was a horrible thing to know that she had been there and no one knew. One, two, three, go happy birthday, skylar in february of 2013, just as they had since she was a little girl im ready. The neeses gathered with friends on skylars birthday. This time without her. Quietly told the lawrences their awful news. Did your heart just break for mary and dave . My heart was slowly breaking the entire time. I remember the first thing i felt it was just like a surreal of, i know shes not out there in the cold. Ronnie gaskins had a confession from rachel and she had led him to a body. But it wasnt enough. Why wouldnt you arrest somebody who confessed to killing somebody . She lied to us before. Whos to say she isnt lying before . We had to corroborate her statement. Once more, gaskins needed rachel so he didnt arrest her. Instead, he was about to use rachel to get sheila. Coming up grieving or pretending . Sheila seemed like she was so upset to have lost her best friend. She even asked me how could someone do this to engineers build, farmers grow, artists create, but teachers, they do it all. They build minds, they help children grow and they create leaders. Make an impact on a childs life. Get into teaching. The more you know. Corporal Ronnie Gaskins was on a mission to put two girls behind bars. It was one of those where you couldnt get there fast enough. Rachel shoaf had just confessed to teaming up with sheila eddy to kill their friend skylar neese. Now she was cooperating with police. Gaskins and his fellow investigators hatched a plan. Rachel would invite sheila to her house. As hidden cameras rolled, she would try to get sheila to inkraim nate herself. We were closeby in case something happened. Sheila came over. She tweeted this picture of herself and an uncomfortably looking rachel with the caption, finally got to see rach. The girls did not disclose anything specific. They were just very casual. A few days later, the police went to sheilas house with a warrant. We seized every kitchen knife we could find. The fbi seized sheilas car and they were able to find presence of dna in the trunk. Dna in sheilas trunk. If it proved to be skylars, it would be critical to gaskins case. A direct link. They shipped the sample off to the lab and waited. Meanwhile, gaskins got a positive i. D. On the Human Remains Found out past blacksville. It was skylar. The search for skylar neese is over. At University High school, confirmation that skylar had been found dead was heartbreaking. I wish ed it was crazy. Shania called her friend sheila as soon as she heard the awful news. I was crying and she was crying. There was the suspected murderer crying tears for sheila. She was like, who could have done this . Why would somebody do this with skylar . Shania cried with chrissy swans swanson. Once the body was found, sheila seemed like she was so upset she had lost her best friend. She couldnt believe Something Like this could happen. She even asked me, how could someone do this to skylar . And sheila let everybody know how sad she was. She tweeted things like, worst day of my whole life. The pain is real. And rest easy skylar. Youll always be my best friend. I miss you more than you could ever know. But social media revealed two sides to sheila. She could mourn skylar but on twitter and facebook, she and rachel also seemed carefree. As the police continued their investigation, sheila posed in photos at the prom. Rachel tweeted, i need a mimosa. Or ten. They were going about their lives even while the police believed the girls were stonecold killers. Locals would whisper in each others ears and say, how are they still free . Coal bart aroma runs a blog calls news ball. Com. Early on he started following this case and was struck by sheilas tweets. Things like aint no rest for the wicked. And incredibly this reference to the countdown to skylars murder. We really did go on three. Itsunbelievable she feels shes so invincible to tweet this publicly. Sheila eddy seemed to be daring police to just put her in handcuffs. So she would come to be interviewed and then then leave. And then finally, by midapril 2013, Ronnie Gaskins got the one critical piece of evidence he needed. Confirmation that skylars blood had been found in sheilas trunk. The top of the video surveillance, the foep records, rachels statements at that point we felt we had confidence to have probable cause to make the arrest. Now authorities told skylars parents the whole story. Their daughters two best friends had killed her. I think about it every day. I think about the misery my child must have been through. And im helpless. I cant help her. Shes calling out help me, why, why, why. Animals got her. They didnt even care. No. They just threw her out like a bag of trash. On may 1, 2013, in exchange for her cooperation with police, rachel shoaf pleaded guilty to seconddegree murder. Within minutes, gaskins raced across morgantown, his heart pounding. Obviously we were going lights and sirens because we had a murder warrant to serve. Sheila was arrested and charged with firstdegree murder in the parking lot of the local Cracker Barrel restaurant where she and her mom were having lunch. Sheila was crying. She kept asking her mother, is everything going to be okay . And her mother said, i dont know, sheila. Gaskins had promised skylars parents he wouldnt quit until the case was solved. It felt good for once that she was coming with us. The question of who had been answered. But people were haunted by an unanswered question, skylars last word. Why . Coming up i became caught up in something that i did not want to do. The accused killers head to court and the motive for murder . They slammed that crime for days, weeks, months sheila eddy was not about to give in without a fight. There she was in september 2013, a lone blonde teen in a crowd of accused men pleading not guilty to the kidnapping and murder of skylar neese. Terrible news for skylars parents. I dont want to go through a trial and hear the grisly, gruesome details of all this. That would tear me apart. With a trial looming, the question on everyones mind was why. Investigators wanted to know, too. And in the halls of University High, they got glimpses of a motive, saw snapshots of a troubled threeway friendship. Morgan lawrence saw a disturbing dynamic firsthand. I was not a huge fan of rachel and sheila. As far back as freshman year, morgan had worried that her friend skylar was heading into a place she might not belong when she became Close Friends with rachel and sheila. Morgan especially didnt like sheila. She hung out with the wrong crowd. She had lots of friends that were 20some years old. Thats a little strange. Morgan had watched uneasy as the three became inseparable. Skylars cousin kyle said he adored skylar and felt uneasy, too. You never saw the three of them apart. By sophomore year, he saw changes in skylar. It seemed like about that time she didnt have that same nice quality to her. She was more sour, i think, toward people. She started almost acting the way sheila acted. Must have been hard to see her changing. Its hard to see anyone in general. Especially someone as close as someone you called your family. Friends told the authors that by midsophomore years the threes relationship had begun to deteriorate. Theyve written that in their book. Sheila and rachel were dissing skylar when she wasnt around and putting her down, that kind of thing. So it was kind of a twofaced situation. I could definitely tell they were kind of pushing skylar away. Or at least trying to. Its clear from these photos whatever was happening three was a crowd. Students say that around this time they started hearing rachel and sheila discuss the best way to kill someone. And rachels friend fantasia liller recalls a chilling conversation. Rachel was rapting to me how much she didnt like skylar one day. She said word for word, im pretty sure, i wouldnt mind if she died at this point. Which makes this cell phone video all the more haunting because it was captured by skylar six months before she was killed. You said it two times. Sheila asked skylar and rachel the best way to die. Would you rather suffocate or get shot . Shot. Get shot. Depends on where . In the head. Shot. Shot. There would be no suffering. Drowning or suffocating . Suffocating. Its almost the same thing. I know. An incredibly disturbing scene. Friends say in the months before skylars death, she and sheila fought constantly. Late on july 5th, skylar tweeted this. You doing blank like that is why i will never completely trust you. Later that night, skylar is seen here on that surveillance tape driving away from home for the last time. What were they fighting about . Theres a possible answer. Hallway whispers that rachel and sheila had developed a sexual relationship and that skylar knew and threatened to out them. Did they kill her to keep their secret . Its as close to a motive as anyone can come up with. Do you think well ever know why this happened . I think thats for rachel and sheila to say. They know the answers to that. In january 2014, dave and mary finally got the news they had been hoping for, a plea deal. Sheila eddy, how do you plead to the offense of murder in the first degree, the felony charge in count three of the indictment in this case . Guilty. Sheilas attorney Michael Benninger read a statement from sheila and her family. My client and her family recognize that the neese family is in a constant state of despair, loneliness and sadness as a result of skylars death. Sheila was sentenced to life in prison and is eligible for parole in 15 years. A month later, dave and mary went back to court, this time for rachel shoafs sentencing. Rachel had a profound sadness at this loss and a profound sadness for mr. And mrs. Neese. Therapist Patricia Bailey was hired by rachels family. From the day i met rachel, she has said to me, i deserve to be in here, i did something terribly wrong, i hurt somebody. Rachel does miss skylar very much so and she also weeps for her because she knows she cannot undo the past and she will never see her again. In court, rachel apologized directly to dave and mary. I dont know if theres a proper way to make this apology because there are not even words to describe the guilt and remorse that i feel each day for what ive done. I became scared and caught up in something i did not want to do and never realized the gravity of my actions and how many people ive hurt. Skylars dad who had once defended the girls didnt mince words. Yes, rachel shoaf did cooperate. Rachel shoaf also murdered my daughter in cold blood. She can take her apologies and all of them and sit on them because thats what theyre worth to me and my wife. She has done nothing but make our lives a living hell since day one. Dave and mary wished they had known more about what was going on in skylars life in the months before she died. What is your biggest regret, if you have one . Not knowing the girls better. And i dont know if anyone could have known them that well. There had to be a sign somewhere. There had to be a clue. Rachel shoaf, would you please standard. Rachel was sentenced to 30 years in prison. She will be eligible for parole in ten years. Prosecutor Marsha Ashdown says dont be fooled by the girls appearance. Are they cold, calculated killers despite the baby faces . They certainly were on july 5th and 6th of 2012. They planned that crime, not just for hours, but for days, weeks, months. The horror of that really is what strikes us in the end. Not how those girls look in shackles. Young, attractive, unattractive, male, female, it zpt matter. Evil comes in all shapes and sizes. These days around morgantown theres lingering damage. Teenagers who feel theyll Never Trust Anyone again. After i heard all that, i didnt really want to become friends with anybody else. Its like finding out your little sister was a murderer. I still to this day have trust issues. Skylars friend Morgan Lawrence says she thinks about all the milestones she and skylar had planned to mark together. You two should be doing everything alongside each other. Yeah. We didnt just take away a bride. They took away a bridesmaid. Skylars second parents say theyll miss out, too. When morgan walks down the aisle, skylar wont be there. She will be. Shell be watching over her . She will. In june 2013, dave and mary had a Memorial Service at the site where skylar was killed and theyre proud to have helped pass skylar law, which requires amber alerts even when Police Suspect a teen has run away. Its peaceful here now. They come here often, even in the winter, to tend the small garden theyve built for skylar. Mary, how do you want skylar to be remembered . The happy, loving little girl that she was. And the smile. That smile could light up a room. Next at 11, the county paid for the travel, but the boss got the perks. We investigate public expenses being used for personal gain. And remembering joan rivers. Well hear from two local men who shared the stage with the comedy legend. Nbc bay area news starts now. I dont believe people should be personally benefitting from travel. Right now at 11 00, he works for the public. So why is he getting personal travel perks off public money . Good evening. Thanks for being with us. Im raj mathai. And im jessica aguirre. You paid for it, but he got the perks. Tonight the Investigative Unit exposes a public official wracking up rewards, perks