Pretty Little Killers (48 page)

Judge Clawges asked Rachel several questions to determine if she understood the severity of her situation. He inquired if she understood her rights, her waiver of indictment by a grand jury, her waiver to appeal the court's ruling, and her possible sentence. Rachel was composed and subdued, but said she understood everything.

Rachel Shoaf, now technically an adult for the purpose of criminal prosecution, would be held at the Northern Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Wheeling, West Virginia, until she was sentenced.

It was one secret Rachel couldn't keep: on May 1, the entire Morgantown community and everyone beyond its borders seemed to have heard the news. Star City Police Chief Vic Propst was driving his cruiser when he heard the newscaster say Rachel had pled guilty. Propst was so shocked he had to pull off the road. The veteran officer couldn't stop the tears that began streaming down his cheeks.

Propst wasn't the only officer to learn of Rachel's arrest on the radio. Chris Berry was headed home in his Jeep when the announcement came over the airwaves. He went to the fridge and popped the top off a cold beer. As he took a long, slow swig, he thought,
By God, we did it. We caught 'em. It's done
.

Naturally, the UHS student body also heard the news. Shock, disbelief, glee, and a host of other emotions passed across students' faces that day. When the news broke that their two fellow classmates—or even childhood friends—had killed Skylar, many students struggled with the realization that Rachel and Shelia had been lying all along. Rachel's singing talent was one reason that her confession of murder so devastated UHS students and faculty. Everyone had expected her talent to take her far, far from West Virginia—not keep her locked up there.

Students waiting in the hallway outside of Mrs. Farley's classroom heard about Rachel's confession after one student began reading the May 1 news on his cell phone. No one remembers who that student was because once the words “Rachel,” “confessed,” and “Skylar's murder” began to be repeated in the narrow corridor, the news spread like wildfire.

“Everybody knew that Rachel had pled guilty,” Jordan Carter said. She had been standing on one side of the hallway, and remembered the first thought she had: “I knew it.”

She couldn't help but notice the girl directly across from her: pretty, popular Grace Bonner,
³⁰
one of Rachel's closest friends and a fellow Young Life member. “Grace's hand flew up to her mouth,” Jordan said. “She just stood there with a blank look on her face, and then ran out.”

Grace wasn't the only stunned student. Jordan remembers that everyone in that hallway had a reaction. Comments like “I knew it,”
“I can't believe it,” and “We went to school with murderers!” tumbled down the corridor.

Just then, Mrs. Farley appeared. “I know what you all just found out, but put it aside, we've got to get to work,” Jordan recalled her saying. The teacher unlocked the door to her classroom and the students filed in quietly. But throughout the class, students continued murmuring about how Rachel Shoaf had confessed to the most disturbing crime that had ever taken place in their small town.

Learning that Rachel really was a murderer was especially painful for one of her closest friends. Wendy Evans heard about it when her mother texted her:
Did you hear that Rachel Shoaf pled guilty to killing that girl?

Wendy paused in the hallway, leaning back against a locker. After composing herself, she somehow managed to compose her reply.

No I didn't but it's good to know
.

Shocked, she hadn't known what else to say.

Wendy realized that Rachel had been a liar all along. She felt many of the same feelings that Rachel's friends and teachers had expressed—surprise, sadness, denial—but when she suddenly remembered what happened near the end of their sophomore year, a couple of months before Shelia and Rachel killed Skylar, she felt sick to her stomach.

She hadn't thought about it much then, because kids say stupid things all the time, but Skylar's murder cast the statement in a whole new light.

“At this point,” Wendy recalled Rachel saying, “I wouldn't mind if she died.”

Wendy was a step or two away from the conspiracy and murder, but close enough to see the dynamics among Rachel, Skylar, and Shelia,
so she had a unique perspective. “I just think they were all bad for each other. Rachel was bad for them both, Skylar was bad for them both, and Shelia was bad for them both.”

Wendy felt like someone had knocked all the wind out of her. She leaned against her locker, hoping it would keep her from falling.
Wow! Rachel had been lying all along
. Wendy didn't remember walking to her next class or sitting through another lecture. All she could think about was Rachel and that night in her bedroom. At the time she had hoped Rachel's invitation signaled a desire to renew their friendship, but afterward, when she didn't hear from Rachel again, she didn't know what to think.

She wondered if Rachel was spreading rumors about her; she knew Rachel could be a backstabber. She recalled all the times she herself had heard Rachel talk about people when they weren't around—only to become sugary sweet when they were. Still, Wendy never thought Rachel would literally stab someone in the back.

After Mrs. Farley's class, Jordan went to her computer class. One student had pulled up on screen the actual written plea released by the media. “We all crowded around to look. It was surreal to see her actual signature,” Jordan said.

Seeing Rachel's own handwriting on the legal document acknowledging her part in Skylar's death “made it real,” Jordan said. But she still texted her mom, “to see for sure.” Jordan's mom, Erin Carter, Googled the news and confirmed that Rachel had indeed confessed to the murder of Skylar Neese.

Throughout the next week, students discussed the news. Some students weren't surprised at all. Then there were the others—students like Grace Bonner and the rest of Rachel's crowd—who were totally caught off guard. They felt betrayed by Rachel, who was one of their own.

It didn't take long for students to begin worrying about other deaths: the fatal car crash that killed one girl, the suicide of another,
the murder of two other students. Those connections caused them to wonder what was going on at UHS.

“Kids thought, ‘Holy crap, there's something wrong with our school,'” Jordan said.

Students have been saying the new high school is cursed for a while now, and Skylar's murder didn't help diminish that belief. Since opening in 2008, UHS has been plagued with problems. Over the brief Thanksgiving break that year, shortly after everyone moved in, the sprinkler system went off, showering the inside of the new school. No one discovered the standing water for a couple of days. Students were told to stay home for another week while the pipes were fixed and the mess cleaned up. A few weeks later a gas leak developed, and classes were again canceled while repairs were made.

While infrastructure problems might be expected at a brand-new facility, UHS has also been troubled by student deaths, including auto accidents and at least two documented suicides. More troubling are the homicides: Skylar was the fourth student to die from homicide in four years, which helps explain why UHS teens would have been even more traumatized than usual, when they learned her killers were two fellow students.

Eventually the murmurs about Skylar's murder lost steam, and students stopped saying, “I told you so.” They started accepting facts. But life wasn't the same; their youthful idealism was forever shattered. The realization that they had been lied to for almost a year, along with the accompanying feelings of betrayal, was traumatic—and it would remain that way. Even eight months after Rachel's plea, many of those students still were unable to talk about Skylar's murder or Rachel's role in it.

Grace's experience seemed to exemplify their pain. Finally, after all of the jokes, rumors, and innuendos, UHS students knew for sure that a murderer had walked among them. Students like Grace haven't really moved past their feelings of betrayal and loss.

That first day in May, Grace returned to class just as last period ended. Several people asked her if she was okay. Jordan said Grace's head bobbed up and down, but she couldn't say a word.