Pretty Little Killers (6 page)

Skylar didn't believe it for a second. Shelia and Rachel would
never
do that.

“I'm just telling you,” Nick said the next time he saw Skylar, “I heard them ask how to dispose of a body. Then they said how much you get on their nerves, and they didn't like you.”

Unconvinced, Skylar flashed Nick a sweet smile. “They were probably just playing a game. We always play that game, you know, ‘Would You Rather.' We play with weird stuff, like, which way would you rather die.”

Nick shrugged. “Whatever. Might wanna ask them about it anyway.”

She, Shelia, and Rachel had every class together but biology, where students later told police they heard the exchange. According to students who heard it, Skylar did question Shelia and Rachel.

“Hey, Nick said you two were making jokes in biology class about wanting to kill me. What's up with that?” Her voice was even, but her eyes were steely.

Shelia gave Skylar a blank stare as Rachel's eyes darted around.

“Why would we do that?” Rachel asked, laughing.

“That kid has been smoking too much weed,” Shelia said. “See? Now there's a lesson for all of us. Don't smoke so much weed you think people are out to kill you.”

“Yeah, you know you can't trust a stoner anyway,” Rachel said, laughing.

two

Early Years

As a result of
the unconditional love she received, Skylar had a deep and unbreakable bond with her doting parents. Although it seems she was a “daddy's girl,” Skylar's world revolved around her mother.

“My mom, of course is the most important person in my life,” Skylar wrote in her English journal.
³
“She not only cares for me, but she also listens to me and I know I can talk to her. I think it's important for parents to not only take care of their children, but to also make sure their kids can talk to them.”

It mattered little to Skylar that she didn't have as many toys and clothes as other kids, or take as many trips as other children did with their families. In fact, having fewer possessions seemed to ground Skylar, making her care more than many of her peers about social problems like bigotry, global warming, and racial discrimination.

Skylar also hated injustice and was blessed with an abundance of empathy. At an early age she became a champion of the underdogs she met in her short life. When Dave used to make fun of gays, Skylar would reprimand him and tell him to knock it off. Sometimes
she would even punch him in the shoulder and say, “Stop it, Dad. They're people too, you know.”

Her capacity for empathy and compassion could also be seen in her schoolwork. In her Honors English class, the big-hearted teen wrote a poem for Ryan Diviney, the former West Virginia University student who was beaten so badly in November 2009 he remains in a vegetative state today.

Skylar at age 11.

Skylar's earliest friend, Morgan Lawrence, also knew about unconditional love, a feature in her home from the day she was born. Long before Skylar met Shelia or Rachel, she and Morgan, also an only child, were best friends. The two blonde toddlers first met at preschool and then reunited as kindergarteners at Cheat Lake Elementary. The first day of school the two towheads passed each other in the hall, made eye contact, and sensed they knew each other from somewhere.

“We just never stopped being friends after that,” Morgan said.

Unlike Skylar, Morgan's father was a white-collar professional: a physician, the chief of the Monongalia General Hospital Emergency Department. Having money meant that, unlike Skylar's parents, Morgan's mother was usually available to pick up the kids after school.

Cheryl Lawrence became like Skylar's second mother. All through kindergarten, she brought Skylar home with Morgan and kept her until Mary picked her up. Inside the Lawrence home, the two little girls played together—until one of them wanted a toy the other child had. Then a fight ensued. Cheryl would separate them, sending Morgan to her room. Skylar was left behind with all the toys and the TV, and Morgan soon learned Skylar really enjoyed having everything to herself. Such is a trait of many only children, Morgan later said, “including me.”

For all their advantages, David and Cheryl Lawrence were about as grounded as it gets. That's one reason they felt so comfortable with Skylar and her parents. They recognized the Neeses shared the same family values. They also viewed Skylar as a good influence for their daughter.

In fifth grade Morgan believed she and Skylar would be best friends forever. A poll they later read in Honors Science class said by age eighteen, only 5 percent of people would still have contact with their first friend.

“We were like, ‘Boo! Boo! That's not going to be us. We're lab partners, and we have classes together,'” Morgan said. “I remember looking back and being, like, ‘Suck it, world, 'cause that's not us! We're still in contact.'”

What Morgan was most looking forward to with Skylar, and Skylar with her, was when they would be bridesmaids at each other's weddings. It was a promise they made to each other as little girls—and they intended to see it through.

The year after kindergarten, Skylar and Daniel Hovatter were in first grade together at Cheat Lake Elementary School. Daniel later became
Skylar's closest friend and confidant—when she confided in anyone at all. Even as a child, Skylar showed signs of being a private person. She didn't share much with anyone, not even her parents.

Skylar and Daniel's friendship grew stronger because Dave did handyman work for Daniel's mom while his dad worked overseas as a military contractor. When Dave came by he'd bring Skylar along, and the two children would entertain themselves playing Life or Battleship for hours on end. When they suspected Dave was about finished, they'd take their game inside a closet, furtively hiding so they could keep playing.

Shelia Eddy entered Skylar's life when they were second graders. During summer, the two girls spent weekdays at the pool together at The Shack Neighborhood House, a community center outside Morgantown. Their play dates continued almost every weekend during the colder seasons. Usually Shelia's mother, Tara, would take Skylar home with her after work on Friday, to save Mary and Dave from making the twenty-mile trip to Blacksville. During the school year, Skylar spent her afterschool hours at Morgan's home, but during summertime she was often a visitor in Shelia's home.

It wasn't a surprise the two little girls ended up becoming fast friends at such an early age, because their mothers, Mary Neese and Tara Eddy-Clendenen, were close to the same age and had known each other when they were teens.

Like Skylar, Shelia was an only child. Also like Skylar, her parents came from small West Virginia towns and didn't have much money. When Shelia was about two years old, her father was in a severe car accident. Greg Eddy sustained brain damage and was left partially crippled. A family friend said Greg “has made mistakes as we all have but he has a good heart.” As a single parent, Shelia's mom struggled. She worked in Morgantown, but wanted a better life for her daughter, so she took college classes to become an accountant.

When Shelia rode in her parents' car as a little girl, she often passed Kent's Chapel, a church across the state line in Brave, Pennsylvania. A few miles north of Blacksville, West Virginia, where the Eddys lived, Brave is tiny—with its 201 residents—and is part of Wayne Township in Greene County. Before Skylar's murder, it was an idyllic town where people left their doors unlocked and lived without fear of what would become of their children. One resident said, “The community of Brave was a picture-perfect place.”

Kent's Chapel is a little white church on the same road where Skylar was murdered. Although the Eddys didn't often attend, Greg sometimes helped out with the youth in the church; congregants recall many mornings when he fixed breakfast for the young people there. His Sunday breakfasts became a thing of the past after Skylar's body was discovered.

Back in 2002, Shelia and Tara took part in a religious service at Kent's Chapel. Tara read from Scripture while Shelia held up a chrismon
⁴
before the eyes of everyone gathered in the small chapel. As Shelia hung her chrismon on the church's Christmas tree, Tara explained it meant “new birth.” Shelia was just seven and her chrismon was a butterfly.
⁵

That's about the time Shelia showed signs of having a personality trait the public would later witness during her court appearances: she craved attention. Crissy's mother babysat Shelia when she was an infant. Tara and Greg were separated and Tara didn't have much money, so Crissy's mother “bought her diapers . . . formula . . . everything,” Crissy said.

When Shelia was seven or eight they began to notice her eccentric behavior. As Crissy described, “One time we were out [at a restaurant] eating . . . and everything was fine and Shelia just stood up and she was eating, and my mom's like ‘Shelia, what are you doing? Sit down.'

“‘I like to stand up when I eat,'” Crissy said Shelia replied.