Skylar Neese's story has come to its final and tragic conclusion. In Friends Like These: The Murder of Skylar Neese, episode 3, titled "The Truth," the police, FBI, and Skylar's parents learn the horrible truth that Skylar was murdered by her two best friends, Sheila and Rachel.
This takes everyone completely by surprise, as who would expect something so horrid to happen? Why would her best friends kill her?
Rachel, unable to stay quiet any longer and taking a plea deal, decides to confess. She explains to the police that she and Sheila picked Skylar up under the pretense of hanging out. Sheila then drove them to Wayne Township, Pennsylvania, into a wooded area. After parking the car, Skylar walked in front of her best friends, only to then be attacked from behind.
Using knives, they stabbed her to death. Because the ground was too hard to bury her, they decided to cover her body with foliage. Rachel is able to direct the police to the location, but because it is now January 2013, with snow covering the ground, they had to wait until the snow melted to search for Skylar's body. The other issue is that they need actual concrete evidence that Sheila murdered Skylar.
They decide to set up a hidden camera and have Rachel invite Sheila over. Unfortunately Sheila doesn't specifically mention the murder of Skylar, so more evidence is still needed.
In the meantime, Rachel's attitude seemed to have improved at school as if her confession lifted all the weight off her shoulders. She does confess to what happened to one of her other friends, Fantasia, who is also one of the several interviewed in the docuseries.
From what is understood, Rachel felt pressured to agree with Sheila. It was already established that she was the ringleader of the trio. Add to it a very toxic and unhealthy sexual relationship between Sheila and Rachel, and we have a recipe for the unthinkable. After finding Skylar's body and searching Sheila's car, an arrest is made.
It doesn't take long for the news to sweep the high school, literally turning everyone's lives upside down. But the biggest question remained: why?
Was it, as Rachel said, that Sheila was sick of Skylar and didn't want to be her friend anymore? Or was it because Rachel didn't want everyone to know that she was in a secret relationship with Sheila?
While some debate who was really the mastermind behind Skylar's death, as well as the reason for the murder in the first place, it doesn't change the fact that two girls killed their best friend. Rachel pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
She did apologize to everyone, including Skylar's parents, in a moving and emotional speech. She was consumed by deep regret, hoping that all and God would one day forgive her. Sheila, on the other hand, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison. She did not apologize; she hardly spoke.
According to Skylar's parents, she seemed far from remorseful and, with a smile, tried to get a rise out of them. When leaving the courtroom, Sheila asked if she could say goodbye to Skylar's parents but was denied. Rachel was denied parole in 2023 and 2024. Sheila will not be eligible for parole until 2028.
In the end, what could we learn from this? A comment or observation was made about how the youth don't process things the same way as adults do.
The logic of deciding to kill your friend because you don't want to be their friend anymore or don't want a secret relationship to be revealed isn't very logical. Just as believing they'd never get caught is far from logical.
To try to prevent something like this from happening again, in 2013, West Virginia passed "Skylar's Law." It essentially allows police enforcement to report a missing or abducted person immediately.
Stream Friends Like These: The Murder of Skylar Neese docuseries on Hulu/Disney+.