"They Know" | Chapter 5

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I always told everybody, I said, if you could bet on crimes in Vegas, by gambling, I said, I'd put $100,000 down if the girls would do it. But they witnessed something and were threatened by that person who did it.

not to say anything that's what i would that's what i thought was happening and then i'll never forget the night she confessed running called me they did it what do you mean he said they didn't they stabbed her to death i'm like who what what were we talking about like yeah and i was like i was still thinking like okay who stabbed skylar like he goes

Rachel and Sheila. And I was like, I remember all the side of the road. Are you serious? He goes, yes. And he goes, I gotta go. We're heading out. Retreat the body. And I'll call you back. From Waveland, I'm Holly Malay. And I'm Justine Harmon. This is Three, Episode 5, They Know.

After Rachel's confession in her attorney's office to State Trooper Ronnie Gaskins and FBI agent Robert Ambrosini, the group gathered their things, put their coats on, and in two cars drove the 30 miles out past Blacksville. to brave Pennsylvania. Rachel, riding in the backseat of Gaskins Cruiser, was leading them to the scene of the crime. Unlike Sheila, who grew up in the area, her father lived just miles from the murder site.

Rachel had to go by memory, which was all the more difficult given a recent winter storm. The deeper they drove into the backwoods, the deeper the snow, every twist and turn looking just like the one before. until Rachel recognized a tall oak tree and said, that's the spot where Skyler's at. The snow, knee-deep and hardened by the freezing temperature, impeded a detailed search of the crime scene.

And so the cars turned around, leaving Skylar, entombed in the elements, still waiting to be found. That same evening, inside Rachel's house at 402 Arabella Court in Morgantown, She was anxious for Sheila to come by. Just next door, Kim Keener watched the action. Sheila's mom pulled up and dropped Sheila off and she like drove around the neighborhood while Sheila sat there and talked to Rachel for a...

a little while. Inside the 10 split-level home at the end of the scenic cul-de-sac, there are three bedrooms and two bathrooms, ample places for law enforcement to hide. And they were there. listening from the wings as a 16-year-old Broadway hopeful attempted to extract a confession from her best friend. Earlier in the evening, Kim Keener watched as law enforcement descended on the house.

My youngest was out playing basketball. I had to bring her in. I was like, Abigail, you need to come in because I was afraid they wouldn't be able to hear her. State Trooper Chris Berry, recently taken off the case, remembers sitting in his office watching a recording of what happened inside the Shof residence that night. I saw the video. They had cameras set up there too.

Because the whole house was polluted with officers hiding in closets and bathrooms and shit. But I have to give Rachel credit. She tried like hell. And Sheila would not budge. And I didn't think Rachel looked at her and she goes, they know. And she was like, what do you mean they know? And she said, they know what happened. And of course she was like, no, they don't. You know anything Sheila would say?

is keep your mouth shut. Nobody knows nothing. They'll never know. That's what she said. Keep your mouth shut. They'll never know. If Sheila was nervous, Let alone aware of the recording device under her friend's sweatshirt, she didn't show it. She kept changing the subject. She'd talk about a boy or several boys, you know, just...

This is what's happened school or drama school and Rachel like would try to keep going back and going back And And she just wouldn't budge I remember watching it. I was like damn she's pretty good Your Sheila's done her homework of watching a lot of crime movies. You couldn't get that verbal commitment of like, they don't know we killed Skylar. It was just, they don't know. Sheila did say one thing that alluded to her complicity.

And then she made a statement that she's been out there for six months. But once again, any defense attorney could be like, who's she? I could be a female cat or a female dog that they're talking about that they put out there. I think she knew at that point. I'm sure Sheila could pick up on something even if she didn't say anything directly. After seeing her best friend that evening, their relationship devolved.

The final act playing out, where else, on Twitter. Here's Sheila the very next day, January 4th. First time I've been completely speechless. Holy fuck. Three days later, she tweeted, walk straight through hell with a smile. On January 9th, Sheila was home when the doorbell rang. She opened the front door to find both the state police. and the FBI armed with warrants. Ronnie Gaskins confiscated all remaining electronics, a cell phone, a tablet, and a computer, and all the kitchen knives.

some 17, including steak knives, paring knives, and chef knives. The FBI sees the silver Toyota Camry parked in the driveway. Despite the ambush, Sheila was on the offensive. She soon acquired another phone. On January 15, she logged on and tweeted, You don't even know the amount of shit you have caused.

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During the case, it was hard because I had my own family to take care of. And he would come with me. in the evenings after shift because I still had to answer calls. Like Chris Berry, Star City Police Officer Jessica Colbank, booted after calling Sheila's mom Tara a tool, could not let this case go.

After working her case assignments, Colbanks stayed at the office after hours, turning her attention back to Skylar, reviewing her old notes and files, phone records, and the written statements from the girls. Even though I was kicked off the case, you know, I wasn't kicked off in my mind. So I was still trying to do what I could do from my side without the knowledge of where they were at.

And I'd bring my son with me and he would do his homework and you know I would help him with that and you know have snacks for him and he understood what I was doing was important. Chris and Ronnie both called me right after Rachel confessed. And they called and they said, Jess, you'll never believe, you'll never believe what happened. And they said that Rachel came in and she confessed that they killed her. And I was like, no shit.

You know, that was my initial response. Just because it was a relief to finally hear we had an answer. And it was... a frustration that I couldn't get that answer. They were always very anti-police, which I couldn't understand. Screw the police, F the police from the get-go. The friendship between Kim Keener and her neighbors had grown strained during the last few months.

She couldn't understand Rachel and Patricia's refusal to help authorities find Skylar. I mean, their thing was the police have no one and that they are trying to pin this on these girls. Like I would say to them, your friend is missing. The police are looking for her. I don't know why you're fighting with them. And I just I sat with Rachel and I said, don't you understand if they take your phone and they dump it?

And there's a picture in there. They might be able to find someone that has taken her. Kim recalls being in Patricia's kitchen watching her destroy what could have been crucial evidence. She took a hammer to a cell phone. And that made me think she knew, you know, and I kept saying, you are going to get in trouble. Like, I don't understand why, why you, you.

are taking a hammer to the cell phone when she had her breakdown and finally went to the attorney's office patricia came over and said to me we are cooperating now it was like she knew that i was mad about that

You know what I mean? Like she knew I was met and she was letting me know we are cooperating. When the U.S. Attorney's Office notified Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Perry Jo DeChristopher that Rachel had confessed. She immediately phoned her boss, prosecuting attorney Marsha Ashdown, who was out of town. I got that call. She was not, she was actually out of town.

And I called her and said, you need to wake up. It was an early morning hour, and she was in a different time zone. I was in New Orleans. And though they'd been following the stories in the papers, And noting the rumors around Morgantown, nothing prepared them for the details of Rachel's statement. Let me just say that I didn't go out of the room that day.

I was sick about it. Sick, yeah. So it was shocking. Perry, Joe, and Marcia knew. They had to keep a tight lid on the information. Leaks to Dave and Mary could easily jeopardize the case. At best, the physical evidence was sketchy. And the truthfulness of Rachel's confession was still arguable, since she'd been lying to authorities for months. What they needed was proof of Sheila's involvement.

it would not have been good for us to call Mary and Dave because first you don't know if it's true. And second, like you don't want to, um, Deliver that kind of noise. By a phone call. News over the phone. And finally, like, you know. If someone had called Mary and Dave that very minute, their reaction would have been to call Aunt Carol and to call this person and to call that person. And as you can imagine, there would have been a mushroom cloud.

of information flowing to everyone that the police still needed to interview. I mean, they hadn't gone out to the scene at that moment. They hadn't recovered any body. They hadn't done anything, and so truly at that very minute there was nothing to do but kind of close our law enforcement circle and figure out what to do next. You know, we have to continually remind ourselves that...

It's for a reason and for a good reason so that things don't get out and get out of control. When Skyler first disappeared... Crime reporter Alex Lang was still a general assignment editor. He remembers the small story of a missing teen ballooning into a major mystery with Dominion Post readers wanting to know more.

remember when the case started it wasn't the world's biggest deal it was just a missing person case and it was over a holiday weekend um but then she remained missing every detail we found was almost always reported um littlest update the littlest interviews the littlest detail all became stories because the community just wanted to know so much about this case in morgantown it's a college town it's home to wvu

The biggest story in that town in any particular year is how the football team does. This was a close-up for especially the town people. It became we're not this safe little community that's just known for a college football team. Eight days after Rachel's confession, her boyfriend Mackenzie Boggs tweeted, Shout out to at Rach for being the best girl in the world.

Three days later, the Dominion Post published a story with the headline, Search for Niece Goes On. Police believe they know who Skyler left with, juveniles who she knew. But that hasn't helped find her. Skyler was initially considered to be a runaway because the surveillance video showed her leaving on her own accord. No one is sure what happened to her. Police have said they are not sure if she's alive or dead.

Anyone following the case, which was everyone, knew the names of the unnamed juveniles Schuyler trusted. Two days after that story ran, on January 16, 2013,

The cold snap broke, and a light rain was falling, melting the snow. Over 30 law enforcement officers, including Ronnie Gaskins and Morgan Spurlock, journeyed back out to where Rachel had said Skylar would be found. The canine dog circled the area, smelling the earth, pawing at the wet ground here, then there. With the recent rain and snow melt, there was a fear that the creek was so high.

It might have carried potential evidence downstream, where officers were also searching. Finally, the dog stopped. Looking up at the towering oak tree, the GPS collar around his neck. snapped and fell. And there, beneath a mound of snow and forest debris, was Skylar. Quickly, a tent was erected to protect her from the rain. One member of the small army of law enforcement combed the area with a metal detector and made a key discovery.

The sky was cement gray, the creek was flowing, and though the trees were bare, it was just as the psychic had described it to Mary and her sister Carol. We would find her by water. We'd have to go over a bridge. You turn across the seamount bridge, go across the railroad tracks, and about another, what, mile on the left-hand side, there's a little stream running down, and that's where we found Skylar.

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That's how good leads the way. Just how was it that Skylar came to be alone in such a remote area of the woods through summer and autumn and winter? The story would be unbelievable had it not been told by one of the last two people to see Skylar alive. One of the two people who watched her die.

Rachel brought a shovel from her father's garage. Sheila brought two kitchen knives from home. They put the shovel, cleaning supplies, and a change of clothes in the trunk of Sheila's car and drove to Skylar's apartment building. On the way, Rachel called Skyler and the two had a seven-minute conversation. Although the temperature that day was in the 90s, Sheila and Rachel wore hoodies, under which the knives were wrapped in rags so they wouldn't cut themselves.

Once they got to Skyler's, they took the knives out of the cloths and put them back under their hoodies in the armpit area to have them ready. They called Skyler again, and she came out, hurried across the parking lot. and got into the back seat of the car, the footage caught by the surveillance cameras. They were taking a joyride out to Brave, just across the Pennsylvania state line, where they'd gone before and gotten high.

Skylar brought her bong and Rachel had her pipe. The drive is some 30 miles, giving Rachel or Sheila plenty of time to back out of the plan. Along the way, they passed... Two Sheets gas stations with CCTV cameras, Clay Battelle Middle School, Sheila and Shania's alma mater, and past the shack daycare and camp where Skylar and Sheila first met and bonded as girls.

After parking, the trio began walking into the woods when Skylar turned back to retrieve a lighter from her purse in the car. Rachel said, On three. That was the agreed-upon signal. a count of one, two, three, and they began stabbing Skylar from behind. At one point, Skylar got away, but Rachel tackled her. In the struggle,

Skylar managed to get the knife from Rachel and cut her right below the knee. But then Sheila was upon her, and fighting them both, Skylar was overpowered. According to Rachel, after killing Skylar in the road, They took the shovel from the trunk of the car and tried digging a grave. But even in July, the dense earth was too hard to break. So they dragged Skylar's body to the large oak tree and hid her.

Ronnie Gaskins recalls Rachel's emotional state as she recounted the horror of what happened in the woods. He wasn't Mike. on three for them to start stabbing Scott. So she did not minimize her role. Rachel was there. She did the countdown. With Skylar dead, the two girls, adrenaline coursing, stripped off their bloody clothes and either washed in the creek or cleaned themselves with the Clorox wipes.

hidden in the trunk of the car, along with a fresh change of clothing. After getting dressed, they headed back to Morgantown, but not before pulling off the road, popping the trunk. and getting rid of their blood-stained clothes and Skylar's purse. Exactly where? Rachel couldn't recall. As for the knives, they'd been in the trunk too.

But Rachel said she didn't know what Sheila had done with them. It wasn't until Rachel was home that she realized something was missing. Yeah, Rachel lost her phone during the fight when they were attacking Skylar. That's how we were able to prove to Sheila's back out there. Because we had a four o'clock in the morning ping on Sheila and Rachel's phone. And then...

Rachel's phone stayed paying the whole time, but Sheila's didn't. And then all of a sudden, it was like 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning, Sheila's phone was on that tower again. And that's what time she was out there looking for the phone. She drove all the way back out there to look for the phone. That's why Rachel was freaking out, because she was getting her girl on the boat with her mom and aunt and stuff.

That's why we had the pictures of them out on the boat partying the next day. And if you notice on the pictures of the boat, she's got cut marks on her legs. Because we saw those. I'm like, what were those? We got... Something about one night at a party, and we ran into the woods and hit a briar bush. Well, there were actually knife marks and scratches from Skyler fighting back. Skyler was able to get the knife off of Rachel at one point.

Hearing that her body was found, Jessica Colbank was both relieved and reminded of her own futile efforts searching for Schuyler. We rented four-wheelers. We didn't rent them. We borrowed from the people of Blacksville four-wheelers to go just look. And we were one ridge away from where she was found. We were close. We had no idea we were that close. You were in the car behind Morgan's car when Rachel was taking them out.

Where the body was? No, I wasn't a part of that. I had heard that they were going out there, but I wasn't part of it. I've never been to the scene. Why? I don't know. It's not my case. I have to say I'm both moved and surprised that you haven't been out there. No. Sorry. It's okay. I couldn't solve that case. That eats me. Skyler's remains were sent to the FBI's lab in Quantico for DNA testing, but Rachel, Sheila, and others seemed to know what was coming.

On January 16th, at Josie Snyder wrote... Sky is so gloomy today. Then on January 22nd, Sheila tweeted what could be considered another taunt or wishful thinking. Wonder if there's a Law & Order SVU where they don't figure it out. Next time on 3. I'll never forget these words. They haunt me every damn day.

Rachel confessed and everybody went, holy crap, it actually happened. And then I was going to find Sheila, take her somewhere and start blowing fingers and toes off until she confessed. Yes. patricia and rachel standing on the steps and i'm outside yelling tell me you didn't do this and you know that's that's not a typical reaction of someone that's just been picked up for murder

Three is an original production of Wavelength. The series is created and written by Holly Millay and me, Justine Harmon. The executive producer is Jason Hoke, who produced and edited the series. Associate producers are Lydia Horn and Leo Culp. Fact-checking by Lydia Horn. Sound engineering by Shane Freeman. Music by Robert Ellis.

Studio recording at CDM Studios in New York and Wildwood's Picture and Sound in Los Angeles. Special thanks to Dave and Mary Neese in the city of Morgantown, West Virginia. If you love this series, leave a review and please tell your friends. Follow Waveland on Instagram at Waveland Media for more on this series and upcoming new shows. Thanks for listening.

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and started talking about me, and I was like, what is going on here? My wife eat cancer, too, and I wanted to celebrate his special moment. That's Bill, a real United pilot. We brought him drinks and donuts. We all signed a card. I was smiling ear to ear. Best flight ever, for sure. That's how good leads the way.