Pretty Little Killers (28 page)

Colebank couldn't discuss case details with Mary and Dave because it was an ongoing investigation. She had her own suspicions but didn't feel she could share what she knew with the public. That included Skylar's parents.

Colebank didn't want anyone doing anything rash, either. She and Dave had had a few long Saturday morning talks and she was concerned about him. The dedicated officer still had no idea what had happened to Skylar, but she was certain Shelia and Rachel were key to the puzzle. The last thing Colebank wanted was for Dave to go off on a vigilante hunt—especially when there was no evidence to support her hunches.

Being kept in the dark wasn't even Mary and Dave's primary gripe. The bigger problem was Jennifer Woodall Hunt—and the things she had been saying on Facebook. She seemed to know details about the investigation she should not have known.

As they prepared to visit the chief, Dave could tell by the fire in his wife's eyes that Mary was furious. For a minute, he thought
of Skylar and how wound up she could get when discussing a topic she was passionate about. She inherited that from Mary. More than anything else, Dave wanted one more chance to debate with his daughter. It could be about WVU football or greenhouse gases or even (God forbid) gay rights. The topic didn't matter. He just wanted to see Skylar's eyes flash like her mother's again. One more time.

That thought got Dave back on track, got him thinking about the thumb drive he had been given by someone at work, which he had later passed on to Skylar for school. When he found the drive in Skylar's room, he turned it over to Colebank. At the time he thought it might have information to help the police locate his daughter. Dave had forgotten the drive contained survivalist literature, with advice about how to disappear if one wanted to.

Somehow, Jennifer Hunt knew this and she had been posting it on Facebook. Her posts insinuated Skylar had used the information on the thumb drive to run away. She implied Skylar was in hiding because she was afraid to come home. Or maybe Skylar was off partying with friends.

Mary and Dave couldn't understand how Hunt would have known about the specific material on the drive, unless there was an informant. They just needed answers.

Once inside the tiny police station they were determined to learn the truth, and the confrontation rapidly escalated. In response to their questions about which police agencies were involved, Propst told Mary and Dave he had called the State Police at the outset of the investigation.

“What about Jennifer posting on Facebook the authorities think we're hiding something?” Mary demanded, her voice getting louder.

“Yeah, why would you tell anyone that?” Dave said. “We've even agreed to take a lie detector test if you want us to.”

“Look, Dave, Mary, I understand why you're upset,” Chief Propst began. But Mary cut him off.

“You don't know anything! It's not your daughter who's missing!”

“No, ma'am, it isn't. But I know how hard these cases are on the parents, and how stressful they are for everyone involved, including the police.”

Suddenly the emotional strain of the previous six weeks became too much, and the dam that contained all Mary's emotions burst. All of her grief, frustration, and anger came flooding out. Accounts differ as to who started shouting first, but before long Mary and Propst had both raised their voices. Dave could only stand by helplessly and watch. Propst told Mary if she didn't calm down, he would have to ask her to leave.

Mary didn't calm down, so Chief Propst did ask her to leave. By then, with the pressure from the previous six weeks suddenly unleashed, Mary couldn't have stopped even if she wanted to.

One important accomplishment came from the confrontation, though. The minute Mary and Dave marched out of the police station, Mary reached a decision. Her next action was fueled by anger, adrenaline, and fear for her daughter. Back at their apartment, a sobbing Mary began punching numbers on the home phone.

“West Virginia State Police,” came the dispatcher's voice.

“Hello, I'd like to know if you're investigating my daughter's disappearance,” Mary said. “This is Mary Neese. Do you know anything about my daughter, Skylar?”

The dispatcher put Mary on hold, then a Sergeant Kennedy got on the line. “I can't say for sure if Chief Propst called us,” Kennedy told Mary. He then did something that may have saved Mary's sanity. Kennedy assured the distraught mother his troopers would immediately look into it.

On Saturday Mary and Dave told the world they had been kicked out of the police station by Chief Propst. Jennifer Hunt insisted they were lying and had not been kicked out. Hunt also posted,
It seems as though
[Skylar]
may have left for good reasons. . . . Many are questioning Dave and Mary's intentions at this point (for good cause). . . . For me this triggered suspicion immediately
and
The police are positive she is not dead and partying with friends
.

The minute Hunt's comments appeared on the TeamSkylar<3 group page, people were abuzz over the news and its meaning. Once again, Mary and Dave felt like their private life was being turned into a public spectacle.

No one seemed to know where Hunt got her information.
²⁴
In addition, the negative public comments created discord among Mary and Dave's supporters. Intentional or not, they led to more lies, innuendo, and misinformation.

A mile away, WVSP Corporal Ronnie Gaskins and Senior Trooper Chris Berry were chatting in their office at the Morgantown Detachment. They discussed various theories about the recent bank robberies.

“You remember how Darek acted when I said that thing about burying bodies?” Gaskins said.

Berry nodded. “He got all worked up.”

“We didn't know this at the time, but you know that girl who went missing? Star City girl. Been thinking about her.” He began shuffling through a pile of papers, searching.

“Neese, I think.” Berry had kept an eye on the case for the last month. “Skylar maybe?”

Gaskins held up a photo. “Here's her picture,” he said, handing it to Berry. “Maybe Darek
was
burying a body.”

Awareness grew on Berry's face. He remembered how scared and, well, a little crazy Darek had suddenly appeared after Gaskins teased him. “You think they had to shut her up?”

“I talked to Colebank. She's been going at it pretty hard but she's got nothing. Now get this—Spurlock's working her case.”

Berry cocked his head. “Really?”

Bank robbery is a federal crime, so naturally Spurlock was working the robberies. Berry wasn't surprised to learn about the FBI's
interest in Skylar. He knew the FBI doesn't officially investigate missing juveniles unless they have evidence of a sexual assault or kidnapping. He wondered if the FBI believed Skylar's disappearance might be connected to that of Aliayah Lunsford's a year earlier. Or maybe Spurlock was thinking the same thing as Gaskins.

“Are you thinking this girl's in on the robberies?” Berry asked.

“No idea. Maybe Skylar helped, but she's tied in somehow. You want to ride over and have a talk with Skylar's parents?”

The two troopers arrived at the Neeses' address a little before 10:00
A.M
. The vinyl-sided, two-story apartment building had a small parking lot on three sides. Inside they found the Neeses weren't home.

“Guess it's gonna be Blacksville after all,” Berry said as they headed back toward their cruiser.

When Mary pulled into the apartment parking lot after dropping Dave off for his shift, the first thing she noticed was the patrol car. Then she saw the two troopers. Her heart clenched. All of a sudden Mary could barely breathe. She knew they were there for one of two reasons: either Skylar's body had been found or they were finally getting off their asses. Mary thought maybe her phone call had done the trick. She parked her car and got out to meet the troopers.

“Mary Neese?” Gaskins asked.

“That's me,” Mary said. “You're here about Skylar.”

“Yes, ma'am. Can we talk with you inside?”

She gave them a long, even look, her eyes wary. “You're not bringing me bad news, are you?”

“No, ma'am. Nothing like that. I'm Corporal Gaskins, and this is Trooper Berry. We just need a few minutes of your time. Could we look through her room, some of her things?”

“Come on in,” Mary said, leading the way to the apartment. “If it's going to find my daughter, you can go through and take whatever you want.”

By the time Gaskins and Berry left the Neese home two hours later, both troopers were determined to do whatever it took to bring Skylar home. Mary had shown them Skylar's room, and even though Star City officers had already searched it, the troopers looked around again, hoping for any clue at all.

What they found was Skylar's diary. “Do you mind if we take this with us?” Gaskins said. “It might tell us something important.”

Mary said they could, so the two troopers left with it. Berry began reading as soon as they were inside the cruiser. He couldn't stop. Seeing Skylar's own words made her come alive in his mind. He could tell how much she cared about people.

But would a girl like that get mixed up with the Conaway boys? Dylan was only a couple of years older than Skylar so he could have known her. Even so, Gaskins and Berry were equally certain Skylar Neese was no armed bank robber.

The troopers eventually made their way to the Star City police station to learn more about the case. During that visit, Colebank brought them up to speed on the information she and Spurlock had gathered. Gaskins and Berry turned and gave each other a long, hard look at Colebank's next words: Shelia Eddy had been linked romantically to Dylan Conaway.

Back at the detachment, Gaskins and Berry looked at the bare bones of the case.

“Skylar never comes home,” Gaskins said. “She was last with Shelia and Rachel.” The teens said they picked her up at 11:00 and had dropped her off at about 11:45. The security video showed Skylar getting in a car, but the video was too blurry to identify it. The timestamp was 12:31.

One possibility was Shelia and Rachel had picked her up at 12:31, and that was Shelia's car in the video. That would mean the teens were lying. Maybe they had taken Skylar to a party, something
had happened, and they were scared to tell. Maybe Skylar actually
had
run away, and they were trying to cover it up.

Another possibility was they were telling the truth and the car was someone else's. Perhaps she went with a boy—or an adult male. Possibly Dylan or Darek Conaway. Or maybe that was just the car that took her to a party.

Either way, they needed to get more information. Colebank told them she had called Sheetz about video surveillance but learned it was of Sheetz property only. But maybe a visit would prove more fruitful. It had been a long day, but Gaskins said to Berry, “Let's just go to Sheetz and check for ourselves.”

At Sheetz, the manager took the two troopers into the back room and showed them how to access the videotape archives of the store. Gaskins and Berry cued up the video and took it back to the late evening of July 5. Gaskins progressed the video in short spurts, tapping on a key for each jump.