What Crissy remembers most is how Tara seemed to be helping the girls coordinate their stories whenever they had a police interview. “Rachel would call Shelia,” Crissy said, “and tell her the new story or they would get together and then they would go and tell Tara the new story.”
Crissy said it was weird, and overhearing Tara help the girls this way made her really uncomfortable.
By late September law enforcement was widening their net in the search for Skylar. On September 24, Colebank applied to the phone company for Rachel’s cell records and the records of the cell towers. When that material arrived, the investigators would learn for certain the girls were lying: the records showed that at the time they’d said they were with Skylar, they were actually calling and texting each other.
Shelia and Rachel weren’t even in the same place.
twenty-eight
Facebook Follies
As October approached and the leaves began turning vibrant autumn colors, everyone following Skylar’s story on Facebook wanted to weigh in on the role Mary and Dave had played in their daughter’s disappearance. While the real-world drama was moving from a slow simmer to a fast boil at UHS, the virtual world was being whipped into a firestorm. Tension, innuendo, and outright accusations only increased on Facebook and Twitter. As if Skylar’s parents hadn’t already endured enough, Mary and Dave felt like some people were determined to see them suffer even more.
What began as a small schism in a public Facebook group grew into a big and very ugly family battle. In numerous private emails and public postings during August and September, Jennifer Hunt insinuated her cousin Dave and his wife were hiding something. She said their story had changed several times and implied that, as a result, the police were no longer sharing any information with the Neeses. In fact, Jennifer said, police had begun investigating Mary and Dave. One August 30 she wrote, When her parents became suspicious early on, info wasn’t being shared with them anymore. They are part of the investigation now.
Even though Dave tried to keep from looking in on TeamSkylar<3, sometimes he just couldn’t help himself. Other times he didn’t need to, since many members were very loyal to the Neeses and would alert them to such nonsense. So Dave could do nothing but watch as some of the 3,000 people from TeamSkylar<3 took the rumors at face value and ran with them.
Other people weren’t as rash; they just accused Mary and Dave of being evasive. They claimed the couple was withholding information from TeamSkylar<3 members in preference to their own, closed group, TEAMSKYLAR 2012. Some said Mary and Dave weren’t open with law enforcement. While their countless questions went mostly unanswered, the group seemed to believe it had a right to know anything and everything. After all, hadn’t members been posting, sharing, and praying for this missing girl for months? Hadn’t Skylar become their child, too? Didn’t that mean they owned a stake in the story, and that her parents owed them an explanation?
Mary and Dave somehow found the strength to respond to as many Facebook messages as they could, in an attempt to control the damage. But inside the privacy of their own home, they both teetered near the edge of collapse. The Facebook drama piled on the trauma of Skylar’s disappearance was almost more than they could bear.
One night Dave grew so angry when he saw another post from Hunt that he wanted to hurl the computer through the living room window. Mary urged him to calm down, have a smoke, or take Lilu for a walk. She told him to do anything to get his mind off the cousin he’d never even met, as well as all the people on Facebook they’d once considered their friends.
In truth, Mary realized she didn’t even know most of the TeamSkylar<3 members. They were just as much strangers as Hunt and her son. Mary knew only one thing: those “friends” were making it harder and harder for her to get through another day at work.
Joanne Nagy knew what Dave and Mary were facing and felt compelled to intervene. On September 23, Dave’s aunt Joanne told TeamSkylar<3 members she wanted to clear up a few things. She wrote:
Just because Dave and Mary do not report their every move on FB doesn’t mean they are not doing anything. People really need to accept this fact. Dave and Mary are not holding up good at all right now. But they get up every morning and somehow keep going. God knows how. . . . They cry every day. Their health is suffering. . . . They barely have the strength in them to eat.
She reminded the Facebook group that the Neeses’ lives had become a public spectacle. Neither Mary nor Dave had the energy to answer the hundreds of questions posed to them, especially the really far-fetched ones.
Anyone reading her poignant note had to sense the pain Nagy felt for her family. When she begged every one of the 3,000 TeamSkylar<3 members to please stop the bickering and fussing [and] to refocus [on] the reason we are here, you could see Joanne, a very religious woman, down on both knees praying that her words would help convince people to back off.
Aunt Joanne’s words did seem to provide a respite of sorts. For a while, at least, the level of drama in the Facebook sphere dissipated. Until Hunt’s story changed: in the blink of an eye, she claimed in a private email that Skylar was safe and sound. Hunt promised to share the truth with the public very soon. But Hunt’s promise was as empty as Rachel telling Colebank she would stop by the police station after camp.
Mary and Dave were furious. Who was this woman? What right did she think she had?
About the same time the adults on Facebook began backing off, Twitter, at the time a more popular venue for teens, exploded. Tweets from real people and from those who were hiding their identities tumbled headfirst into the Skylar drama.
The constant stream of tweets intensified public pressure as Rachel and Shelia tried to get through each school day. At first most of the tweets were relatively harmless. Some made light of the growing suspicions that were beginning to surface. There were days when Shelia and Rachel would be walking down the hallway between classes and someone would blurt out, “Uh-oh! Better step back! Murderer alert!”
Twitter wasn’t the only problem. The pressure was two parts Twitter, one part Daniel Hovatter. He kept haranguing Rachel, demanding information. He wasn’t alone. Students throughout UHS wanted Shelia and Rachel to come clean, too. Very quickly, a relentless Twitter campaign came from the direction of two new anonymous Twitter accounts: @Snyder28Josie and @MiaBarr8. The newcomers seemed to have one goal: to harass Shelia and Rachel until they buckled.
To onlookers, it seemed like a game, the only players being @Snyder28Josie and @MiaBarr8. For example, @Snyder28Josie subtweeted besties dont like having to answer questions of their guilt!! to @MiaBarr8. Shelia and Rachel were clearly the targets of this “shame game”—and there was no way they could win.
The jokes and accusations against the two girls morphed into something uglier, as some tweets and comments could be classified as threats. Two factors seemed to trigger the onslaught of negative tweets: investigators concluded Skylar was dead, and rumors started circulating that Shelia and Rachel were culpable. The result was tweet after harsh tweet, aimed directly at the two teens.
Shelia’s friend Shania Ammons was fed up with the accusations. Shania was also disgusted that people she didn’t know were directing their rage at her simply because she was Shelia’s friend. So on September 30, Ammons came to Shelia’s defense, tweeting, no matter what I will always have @_sheliiaa back. that girl is my bestfriend #loveyou #staystrong.
Indeed, Shania’s battle cry did fortify her friend. Two days later, Shelia lashed out in typical fashion by tweeting @MiaBarr8: and a fake twitter account. . . you don’t know shit so do us a favor and shut your fuckin mouth.
Shelia’s cousin Crissy had also seen enough. Not only was she being harassed at work, but everyone seemed to believe she had something to do with Skylar’s disappearance. That could be due to her family connection; Crissy was distantly related to Shelia through marriage. Crissy believed people’s accusations were ridiculous and amounted to nothing more than guilt by association. She was angry
.
The petite blonde took to Facebook rather than Twitter. There, on the TeamSkylar<3 page, Crissy posted her heartfelt defense: Pardon me for being so blunt & know that I feel SO much for Mary&Dave & their situation, she typed. I can’t imagine the things they’re going through at the moment.
Then Crissy got to the point, with as much tact as Joanne Nagy had employed two weeks earlier. Crissy spoke eloquently, encouraging people to think before they typed words that could ruin more lives—namely Shelia’s and Rachel’s:
BUT for those of you trying to place blame on any of Skylar’s friends . . . all you are doing is taking away the innocence and life of another’s child. Placing blame on someone DOES NOT automatically bring Skylar home. . . . We are all here to help Mary&Dave through their struggle & bring back their beautiful little girl NOT ruin someone else’s life . . . .
Gradually, battle lines were being drawn. Three alliances had formed, but at the heart of their skirmishes there was only one big question they all wanted answered: What were Rachel and Shelia hiding?
Beyond that, they also kept trying to figure out whose car the surveillance tape showed Skylar getting into. It was a question for which there seemed no answer.
The first group, which included the girls’ UHS classmates, believed that Shelia and Rachel were, at best, not sharing information they had known from the beginning. Some people, including law enforcement, felt certain that the car in the video was Shelia’s. Few of these people still believed Shelia and Rachel’s story about dropping Skylar off at the end of her street.
Another faction, filled with the friends of both girls, took their word as gospel. This group believed in Shelia and Rachel’s innocence. Its members stood up for the girls in a show of solidarity and support and often directly asked—or even told—anyone who disagreed to back off.
A third camp, represented by Hunt and her TeamSkylar<3 followers, also believed Shelia and Rachel had been telling the truth since the day Skylar disappeared. They believed Skylar had been dropped off before midnight, just like the two girls said. They thought the surveillance video showed Skylar getting into a different car. This third group, however, was growing defensive and its members were openly ugly when publicly expressing their staunch beliefs.
But the importance of those beliefs to the search for Skylar was, by then, irrelevant. Regardless of whose car she’d gotten into, Skylar still had not been found—which meant the search was, by then, not for a missing girl but for her remains.
twenty-nine
Opening Night Approaches
Rachel whined into the phone: “Mom! Make them stop!”
She was complaining to Patricia about the harassment coming from Gaskins and Berry and Spurlock and everyone at school. Several students overheard conversations like this more than once.
Rachel huffily pushed away the plate full of lettuce she’d been picking at. She was sitting at the cafeteria table she and Shelia shared. Shelia sat across from her, looking down. She was texting.
“Mother!” Rachel held the phone away from her ear as Patricia’s voice burst from it. She looked at Shelia. “I don’t believe this shit,” she said, rolling her eyes. Shelia still didn’t look up from her phone. When the phone grew quiet Rachel put it back to her ear.
“They won’t leave me alone.” Rachel waited a second for her mother to finish, then shouted, “I want you to do something!” into the cell. Heads around the cafeteria turned as more people took notice. Rachel gripped the phone tightly, her eyes widening. Then her eyes got watery. She burst into sobs.
“I don’t know how much longer I can take this!” Rachel’s voice collapsed under the weight of her sobs. Shelia glanced up with a disgusted expression; Rachel kept right on crying.
The more Daniel pressured Rachel, the more she stonewalled. Most often the teen claimed she had been so wasted she couldn’t remember that night very well. All she could remember was dropping Skylar off at the end of the road.
“You know how she gets,” Rachel had said. Daniel did know how Skylar “got.” Skylar could be pigheaded when she’d made up her mind, and there was no talking her out of her position. Sometimes she’d get angry if people kept pushing.
But the story made no sense to Daniel. Skylar had snuck out with Shelia and Rachel dozens of times and he’d never, ever heard of Skylar insisting on being dropped off like that.
By then he’d been hounding Rachel for almost six weeks. That fall UHS was staging A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Shakespearean comedy. She and Daniel were at play rehearsal for several hours each night, since both teens had big roles in the production.
One day in October, Rachel finally cracked.
The argument took place in the auditorium during studio acting, one of the classes taught by Mr. Kyer. Small groups were scattered around the auditorium, performing various exercises. Kyer circulated, checking each group’s progress.
As usual, Daniel had been picking on Rachel the whole class, and as they fought their voices grew louder.
“You need to quit telling everyone I know stuff,” Rachel said, her voice quivering.
“You do!” Daniel answered. “You need to tell what it is.”
“You don’t know anything.” Rachel tried to walk away but Dan kept at her.
“I know you’re hiding something!”
“I don’t know shit about Skylar!” she yelled. “I don’t know anything!”
“Rachel, just go freaking confess. Go tell them what you know.”
Rachel burst into tears and ran out of the room with Kyer following close behind.
When he returned a few minutes later, the drama teacher drew Daniel aside.
“You need to give her a break, Daniel. False accusations can lead to serious problems.”
“They’re not false. I’m only trying to get her to talk.”
“It’s hard for her,” Mr. Kyer said. “She’s going through a lot since Skylar disappeared. People keep asking her what she—”
“That’s because she’s lying! She knows something and the police need to know what it is so they can find Skylar.”
“She’s not lying. I’ve talked to her. She doesn’t know anything more than she’s told the police.”
“That’s bullshit.”
“That’s enough, Daniel. Leave Rachel alone.”
Daniel knew better than to argue with him. Kyer couldn’t see that Rachel was lying, but pissing his drama teacher off wouldn’t help. Daniel shrugged.
“I did upbraid her and fall out with her,” Daniel said.
Mr. Kyer smiled. He recognized one of Daniel’s lines from the play. “That’s it. Focus on the play. We only have two weeks.”
With all the tension in the air, all over school—not to mention in drama class and during rehearsals—Daniel wasn’t so sure they could pull it off. Opening night was two weeks away, and he didn’t have a lot of confidence in Rachel. She was acting pretty weird.
Meanwhile, “Josie Snyder” and “Mia Barr” kept tweeting to Shelia and Rachel. By then their tweets were also for the public’s benefit. Josie Snyder’s tweets were often taunting and judgmental. Her October 26 tweet tied Shelia and Rachel to one of their favorite TV shows: bring pretty little liars down together . . . #promisetoneverleaveyoucold.
Pretty Little Liars was a mystery-thriller, as much soap opera as mystery. The premiere shows five teenage girls at a slumber party. They get drunk and the next morning one of them is missing. By the end of the episode, the other girls discover she was murdered and one of her pretty, popular friends had killed her—but which one?
Josie Snyder’s reference to Shelia and Rachel as “pretty little liars” was the first time the two teens were linked to the TV show publicly, but law enforcement had privately been referring to the pair that way since Skylar disappeared.
The next day, Josie Snyder’s tweet incorporated lyrics from a Merle Haggard song entitled “Mama Tried”: Turned 21 in prison doing life w/o parole #loveoldiesmusic.
A few days
later, she tweeted again. This time it was a lyric from the theme song of the TV show Cops: Whatcha gonna doo whatcha gonna doo when they come for you.
Whoever Josie Snyder was, her unceasing pressure on Shelia and Rachel was taking its toll—especially on Rachel. Numerous people said Rachel was having a difficult time with the play. Daniel’s relentless push for answers hadn’t stopped after Mr. Kyer called him out; it only became more subtle. Daniel began texting Rachel more and speaking to her less. And Rachel’s on-stage behavior in the run-up to the play was outrageous: As opening night approached, her tears, outbursts, and tantrums threatened to turn the comedy into a tragedy.
thirty
Becky’s Rant
On the opening night of UHS’ production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a cast and crew of about forty teens rushed around taking care of last-minute preparations. A few parents, school personnel, and other adults drifted through the chaos. Thirty minutes before show time, most of the actors were in costume. A few were still sitting for their stage makeup. In the auditorium, people had begun to arrive and select their seats for the show.
Daniel paced back and forth reciting his lines in the hallway behind the auditorium. With glitter on his face and his hair teased large, he couldn’t wait to play the role of Oberon, the Fairy King. Down the hall, Daniel spotted Rachel in costume for her role as Helena, speaking to her mother. Rachel appeared to have been crying. Daniel heard Rachel’s and Patricia’s voices rising. He gestured to one of the girls who had applied Rachel’s makeup to go rescue her. Mother and daughter were obviously in the middle of another fight. Great timing, Daniel thought.
Just then Daniel thought he saw Patricia’s hand smack Rachel across the cheek. The smack was followed by, “Get your shit together, Rachel!”
Pretty Little Killers Page 17
