Dateline: Secrets Uncovered on Oxygen- What happened to 16-year-old Skylar Neese?

Episode 38 of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered's Season 9, titled Something Wicked, tells the tale of two friends brutally stabbing 16-year-old Skylar Neese to death and leaving her body by the state lines.

A resident of West Virginia and employee at Wendy's, Skylar Neese, sneaked out of her bedroom window around midnight on July 6, 2012, to join her friends Shelia Eddy and Rachel Shoaf. Skylar was missing for six months before her body was discovered on January 16, 2013, in Wayne Township, Pennsylvania, due to a premeditated execution of the murder. The synopsis of the episode provides a glimpse at the suspenseful turn the story takes.

"Skylar Neese,16, vanishes without a trace, turning her parents' world upside down; police think she ran away, but clues on social media point to a more sinister reason for her disappearance."

The episode will be re-aired on November 8, 2023, on Oxygen at 10:00 PM EST.

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Who was Skylar Neese and what happened to her?

Skylar Annette Neese was born to parents Mary and David “Dave” Neese on February 10, 1996, in Morgantown, Monongalia County, West Virginia. Skylar was the only child in the family and was pursuing an honors degree from University High School at the time of her passing. She worked part-time at a Wendy's outlet and had a lively social life that revolved around her two friends from school, Shelia Eddy and Rachel Shoaf.

Skylar Neese (Image via the Neese Family)

On the night of July 5, 2023, Skylar Neese returned to her home from her shift and left her room again through the window in the late hours to join her friends Shelia and Rachel in a sedan. Dave Neese discovered the bedroom window left open while Skylar's belongings, such as her cellphone charger and toothbrush, lay in the room. This indicated that Skylar had intended to return home the same night.

However, as hours passed and dawn broke, Skylar did not return home and was not to be found anywhere close by. The Neeses reported their daughter missing, after which officers from the Star City Police Department retrieved the surveillance footage to see that Skylar had consensually gotten into the sedan at around 12:30 am.

Shelia Eddy, Rachel Shoaf, Skylar Neese (Image via Youtube)

The case was momentarily dismissed as a runaway instead of a missing person, and there were no Amber Alerts issued, despite a tip about Skylar being spotted in North Carolina. The family checked her bank accounts and social media profiles to detect any activity since that night but it was to no avail. As a result, the Neeses collectively printed missing person flyers and put them up in their neighborhood.

Six months later, Skylar Neese's body was recovered in an unidentifiable state from Wayne Township across the West Virginia-Pennsylvania line in Greene County on January 16, 2013. The body had stab wounds on it and was hidden under branches, twigs, and dirt. The confirmation of the body belonging to Skylar came in on March 13, 2013.

A tweet by Shelia (Image via X)

While Shelia Eddy and Rachel Shoaf narrated a story saying that the duo dropped Neese off at her place later in the night, the surveillance footage showed otherwise. After months of investigation and a lack of evidence, Neese's body was recovered in Wayne Township.

The duo took Skylar Neese to their usual socializing spot to smoke cannabis, after which the two attacked the victim using kitchen knives from Eddy's mother's kitchen. Unable to bury the body in the soil, Eddy and Shoaf left Neese's body covered with dirt and twigs.

Rachel Shoaf has been charged with second-degree murder and received a 30-year sentence, with parole possible after 10 years. Shelia Eddy initially pleaded not guilty but ended up being charged with first-degree murder and received a life sentence with the possibility of parole 15 years later.