"Why? Why? Why?" | Chapter 8

Hi everyone, I'm Delia D'Ambra, and on my podcast Counterclock, I don't just revisit cold cases, I reinvestigate them. Each season, I turn back the clock on cases that have gone quiet over time and work to uncover what may have been missed. That means re-examining evidence, tracking down new leads, and speaking directly with the people closest to the case.

This podcast is intended for mature audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

The Montingalia Courthouse in Morgantown, West Virginia, is just an eight-minute drive from the Star City apartment where the Nice family lived. In February 2014, hours after Rachel Schoaf was sentenced to prison for murder. Murdering her best friend. Mary and Dave Nice welcomed me into their home. Skyler had helped pick out the apartment, which was open and spacious, with hardwood floors, and sliding glass doors leading out to a deck.

And this is the famous window, of course. So she just jumped down there and ran across and they were waiting for her behind that building.

In the living room, Skyler was smiling from pictures, drawings, collages, and a photo blanket draped across a chair. Her large framed portrait hanging on the wall was actually an urn, her ashes stored in a back compartment of the frame.

Mm-hmm.

Dave wore some of Skyler's ashes in the cross around his neck, and Mary too, in her heart shaped locket. Outside a butterfly wind chime sounded in the breeze. Mary takes me back to Skylar's purple and green bedroom, which is just as she left it. Over Skylar's iron bed frame is a picture of a white dandelion puff, waiting for someone to close their eyes. and make a wish. A big sign on Schuyler's bedroom wall reads. It's all about me.

Boom.

And of course it is. That's the funny emotional truth of every teenager. When everything feels intense and fun and devastating and exciting.

They have a long time.

Thank you.

I hope they hear her screaming why, why, why for the rest of their lives.

See us.

started to clean out her stuff. I don't got that far and couldn't do it. I haven't touched under her bed. Rachel told the police. They said they asked her, they said, well, what was Skylar doing when you were stabbing her? What was she saying or thinking? And Rachel told him while she just kept screaming, Why, why, why?

They never

Those are her track shoes. Yeah.

Yeah, I I tried to send her shirt and her hat back to Wendy's and they said no, keep it. So I got her hat and her shirt still.

Amen.

Skylar, dying so young at 16, made anything, everything she had touched, a life-preserving memory. including the evidence items analyzed by the FBI.

They asked us if we wanted her possessions and stuff and I said, Yeah, I want everything I can get. And I I gotta admit I was so scared.

So hoping.

Just by some small inkplay. Maybe this isn't her stuff. But it was her stuff. Got her bra back. Still haven't got her shorts and her shirt back, but yeah, when I even saw the bra, I'm like, oh yep, that's my baby's But I'm telling you it's caked with mud and leaves and

From Waveland, I'm Justine Harmon.

And I'm Holly Millet. This is 3. Episode 8. Why, Why, Why?

A week after Sheila Eddie was sentenced, she was transferred from the Lori Yeager Jr. Juvenile Center in Parkersburg to the only women's prison in West Virginia, Lakin Correctional Center. Five months later, Rachel Schoaf turned 18 and joined her there, arriving from the Northern Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Wheelie.

Stormy Wilson was an inmate with Sheila and Rachel from when they first arrived in 2014 until she made parole in 2017. A former heroin addict, who did time in a North Carolina prison twenty four years ago for robbery, Stormy was in Lakin for credit card fraud. At forty six, she's been clean for eight years now, and recalls the first time she encountered Sheila.

Everybody's like gossiping and like, you know, oh my gosh, she's here, she's here, you know, whatever. I went out to the baseball field to take score that day and Sheila was sitting on the bench beside of me. And that was the first time like I got like close up eye to eye contacts with Sheila. I don't know, it's like um you get cold chills looking at Sheila. Like it's like a

Meeting Rachel was a different story. No one was expecting the redhead. When inmates first arrive at Lakin, they're segregated for 30 days. By chance, Stormy got caught smoking, and was in segregation too.

They brought her in and she looked like such a

Yeah.

Drown rat. Like she didn't have no makeup on. She'd just turned 18 years old and I look out the window and she's on the courtyard and she's by herself because she's in her um intake and she's by herself and she's singing and she comes in and I'm like Can you sing? And she said, Yeah. And I said, um Will you sing a song? And she said, Yeah. And she saying traveling soldier and in segregation your voice carries.

Then she found out the new intake was Rachel's show. Sheila Eddy's co conspirator.

And then you find out like how much evilness is in her and it depletes anything you hear come out of her voice. Like any any song that would come out of her, if you know what she did, it's like forget the song. Like it just Every day we see each other. All day. They're on the yard together all the time. When Rachel first got there, she looked her out for Telenor.

Stormy felt intense empathy for the niece family. Her daughter is the exact same age as Skyler, and like Skyler, had two best friends who were closer in their triangle than she was to either of them.

I kinda like I don't know, I related that my daughter was Skylar, like they it just felt like the same kid. I initially got a hold of Dave because I was like, God, you know, he's probably sitting out here just wondering, you know, what What do they get away with? What are they allowed to have? What are they, you know, what do they do on a daily basis? Are they, you know, how do they live?

Stormy filled Dave and Mary in on everything, from the mundane. Sheila's favorite food is pepperoni and cheese on a bagel. She eats them all day long. To Rachel starting a prayer group, leading the choir, and being in charge of holiday plays. To the electronics they're allowed to have in their rooms, an Xbox, a TV, and a CD player.

They have a tablet. They can sit in their room and talk on their tablet to their f family or friends or whatever. They can listen to music on their tablet. They can play games on their tablet.

Why is it so cushy?

Because if too many criminals are in one place and all they have to do is twirl their thumbs, somebody's gonna get fighting and somebody's gonna get hurt. But I did five years in North Carolina and it was not like it is here. We had no air conditioner, no heat. We had um it was a bunk and then a locker and then a bunk and then a locker. We didn't even have cells. Wow. Um I walked over dead bodies in the bathroom on the regular there.

Those seeking a higher education can earn degrees in a variety of fields. Sheila and Rachel both earned culinary arts apprenticeships, and Rachel a cosmetology license. But there's work to be done too. The prison is like its own city, so there are plenty of jobs for inmates if they want them. The most you can earn is a dollar an hour, making prison uniforms and furniture. Those jobs are strictly for lifers who have no chance at parole.

But i you cannot have a life sentence to go down there, you cannot have a violent crime to go down there. So um that knocks Sheila and Rachel out of it.

For all that prison life allows, what you can't get in Lakin is any physical contact.

You are not allowed to touch each other at all. So when you have a good cellmate and you have a good cry, you go in there and cry and your cellmate'll hug you, you know, where you can't be seen. Yeah, like you cannot Nothing.

But that did not keep Rachel from getting close with her cellmate Amy Cobb, who was serving time for credit card fraud. The two were caught and separated, but would see each other in the wreckyard. Rachel was able to keep Amy firmly in her thrall. So much so that when Amy was released, she and Rachel were married on april twenty third, twenty nineteen, Rachel even took Amy's last name.

So they weren't allowed to get married while Amy was incarcerated.

Boom.

They got married when Amy got out of prison. Amy walked her sentence out, which means that you do every day of your sentence instead of making roll. She walked her sentence out to stay with Rachel every day. When Amy got home from prison, she filed to marry Rachel. Um, they had to find a preacher to marry'em. Amy used my car to go up and marry Rachel. Her whole bedroom. was nothing but pictures of Rachel, letters that Rachel had

Right.

Um things that Rachel had sent her from prison, flowers that Rachel loved. Um, she was obsessed with Rachel.

The two were divorced on July twenty fifth, twenty twenty two, and Rachel requested her last name be reverted to Shoff. As for Sheila, well, she's still Sheila. If she wants someone, she'll have them.

Sheila's very popular in prison. Sheila um has a ton of friends. Sheila has like, I don't know, she's very outgoing. She's very manipulative. Like that life that Sheila had here out here on Sheila on social media. She has in prison in real life. Like she has those swalkers and

Flockers, followers, fans. Stormy says both Sheila and Rachel receive stacks and stacks of fan mail. Adding to the piles of correspondence were the letters we sent with a variety of questions, ranging from their favorite subjects in school to more pointed queries, including to Sheila. Did you have any disagreements with Skylar during your trip to Myrtle Beach in june twenty twelve?

But here's the thing with Sheila and Rachel, they have so many outfl outside influences that if everybody in their family died, they have fans. that will send them fucking n sorry, I don't mean to cuss. They'll never be without which makes me sick to my stomach because they don't really know what prison's like because they have it's so bougie.

Do you think they would probably be better off just staying at cupcake camp forever?

Um, she thrives in there. She thrives. And it's sad. It's sad that she has her own little like colony. She's like the queen ant, you know. But um I don't think Rachel's gonna survive anywhere.

On May 9, 2023. Ten years after her sentencing, Rachel Schoff, now twenty six years old, was eligible for parole, just as Marcia Ashdown had said.

under the law for secondary merge she would be eligible. At ten years. And that is true regardless of the number of years that the judge might have imposed.

Here's the thing. Once you've gotten to know Mary and Dave and Skylar and those who love them, you can't let go. You stay connected through Facebook and the Team Skylar page, and texts and phone calls. When I called Lakin to verify Rachel's day and time before the board, the next call I made was to Mary and Dave to make sure they were aware that she would appear on May 9, 2023.

Спинмост 11 years now since niece was murdered, and now Schauf is up for her first parole hearing next week.

More than thirty-two thousand people signed an online petition advocating for the parole board to keep Schof in prison.

Due to the COVID pandemic, the hearing was set up through a phone call with the prison. Though my producer Jason and I were miles away, we felt like we had a front row seat listening to the proceedings on County Commissioner Tom Bloom's speakerphone. Bloom was there with the family and friends in attendance.

I'm surprised he didn't have to be able to send it by smoke signals.

As they waited to be patched in with the West Virginia Parole Board, the family chatted with Tom and Skyler's aunt Carol. The tone in the room was jovial and warm. despite the fact that they were determined to see Rachel Schauf not go free.

It's the government.

I gotta stand up and paste. I'm I'm gonna paste, I'm leaving the phone here.

The nieces were given the opportunity to speak before Rachel, which they declined.

Today's date is May ninth, two thousand twenty three, and the time is ten thirty nine AM and we are coming through through Google Meets uh through video to the Lake and Correctional Center. Uh ma'am, are you uh uh Rachel Schof with the DOC number three five seven three five zero six and a date of birth of uh date of birth of june tenth, nineteen ninety six? Yes sir. And may my records indicate this is your first time up in front of the pro board on discharge on discharge, is that correct?

Harold Hughes from the West Virginia Parole Board summarized the details of the crime. And then Rachel made her bid for freedom.

If you would please uh Tell the board uh why you and the your co defendant uh committed this crime, please.

Um

Amen.

Well honestly, sir, um, I don't think there's anything that I can say that's going to um make any sense or make anybody feel any better. But um I want to answer this as honestly as I can, but even as I say it, I feel like it sounds Absurd and ridiculous. I realized that I was gay as an early teenager and um that scared me'cause I didn't know if I would get Well how the reaction would be from

What?

was immediately very um unhealthy and intense and um obsessive and there was like just this overwhelming infatuation and um

Amen.

There's no other way to explain it, but like it felt like life or death to me. And my sixteen year old teenage monstrous mind. It just felt like we nothing could come between us.

At this point, Rachel began to cry.

I'm sorry.

Um

Sorry.

She took a few moments to collect herself, before continuing.

whenever uh our relationship became more exposed We feared what Would jeopardize our relationship or jeopardize things like that. And I know this sounds absolutely ridiculous.

I just in my mind the only way I can explain it is in my mind at the time it felt like so detrimental and so real in my teenage mind. And um like I was in fact admitted into a psychiatric ward at one point because I felt there was an attempt to keep Sheila and I separated and I actually wanted to kill myself over it. So in my mind that's all that mattered.

So the board can be clear. You and and uh your co defendant, Miss Eddie, was was in a relationship. Is that what you're trying to tell the is that what you're trying to tell the board? And you and Miss Eddie felt that that if your relationship was exposed then you would be separated or you wouldn't be able to to be with each other? Is that what you're trying to I don't want to put words in your mouth, Miss Shoff, is is that is that what you're trying to t to get out to the board?

As Rachel continued to speak in front of the parole board, she explained that the dynamic between the three girls became volatile and hostile, that they didn't know how to handle that sort of conflict. The murder, she says, did not bring them any relief.

I wanna kind of correct this narrative that there was like this quick calculated thing that was done and then we just went about our lives like everything was normal. Like We were terrified and we were screaming and crying and vomiting and losing our minds over this whole situation, freaking out as soon as it happened and I vividly remember us both. As soon everything happened so fast and as soon as it happened us both

Okay?

Pain and sorrow and remorse for what we did.

It so whose idea was this to to get Miss uh uh Miss Niece to to to to you know do what you did to Miss Nice, whose idea was that? I s you say a lot that it was you and and and uh Sheila. You you just mentioned her you and her a lot. You don't mention the three of you, so who can sp who who uh brought this plan up excuse me, who brought this plan up to commit this crime?

Sheila and I both. both of our conversations. We both played an equal part in this entirely. I know. I can't Express enough how sorry I am, said

I don't know.

H horrendous and there's no words to describe. the pain that we've caused. I know that I would give anything to trade scholar places. so that she could be with her family and her loved ones and I would give anything to undo what we did and take it back. And I know that I deserve to be here and I deserve all of this and I just I just hope they know how deeply and truly and genuinely sorry I am.

Rachel, who says she has received a high school degree and a bachelor's degree in culinary arts and cosmetology while incarcerated, says she hopes to move in with her mom, Patricia, in Maryland, should she be granted parole.

And do you feel like you deserve a chance at parole?

Um I wouldn't necessarily say that I think I deserve parole after what I've done. Um, I would like to think that maybe I've earned it just because of what I've done. Um And not as certainly even my accomplishments because even naming my accomplishments makes me feel guilty because I know that Scholar never even got to graduate high school. so for the fact that I was so young and I was a teenager and I don't even recognize um

Once Harold Hughes concluded his interview, Edward Wooten, vice chair of the West Virginia Parole Board, was summoned to question the inmate. Members of the Parole Board are only provided high-level details of a criminal's history behind bars. A number of factors inform an inmate's suitability for parole, including signs of remorse, a defendant's age at the time of incarceration, and motivation for the crime.

Ma'am, uh when you plan this you and your co defendant planned this crime together, for you told Mr. Hughes it was a joint decision, right? And what was the what was the objective of the plan? Was it to take this young lady's life?

Спасибо.

So you plan to to kill her.

Yes sir.

And what type of weapons did you have? Knives? Where did you obtain those weapons?

Um from Arch Kitchen.

Wooten says, You said you didn't think this would actually happen, but you prepared like it was going to happen. This was premeditated. Would you agree?

What happened after this crime occurred? Did you did you clean up or you change clothes or what did you do?

I just... Remember um I remember Both of us being very uh And I'm vomiting. We were crying, but we uh we did change clothes. You made an attempt to try to clean up. Yes, sir.

And what about the victim's body? What did you do with that?

we weren't able to dig anything. So we just um try to put her somewhere and cover her up. Sorry.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you, sir. Miss Murphy have any questions, ma'am?

Then board chairperson Bonita Murphy asked something we'd been wondering. How exactly did Skylar threaten to out Rachel and Sheila?

victim, did she ever okay, she threatened to tell. So what what would be the uh result of her telling on you? What could have happened to you even if she had told you?

I had to kind of um unlearn all of those sort of archaic notions around being gay. But um at the time I was terrified of um maybe getting kicked out of my house or maybe getting kicked out of my church or being shunned by the people that I love, my family and friends.

What was it?

For you

You're the one that came.

Throw

Yeah. was it after you killed the victim until you confessed.

It was about six months, ma'am.

Okay, so if you were so hysterical and upset, how in the world did you not tell somebody within that six month period and had everybody looking for this child? Why did it take you that long?

It's not questionable.

Um I mean you're right. You're absolutely right. Um I think that uh Um, I think we were just scared. Um But also I there is this narrative that I was perfectly fine afterwards, but my family um witnessed sort of my deterioration. I think publicly we tried to make it seem like everything was okay, but my family will tell you that as soon as this happened I began acting out and I was losing weight and I was getting in trouble using more marijuana or drugs and things. I was trying to numb.

You did admit during this hearing that you're going to do. The uh your co defending got first degree life with mercy in that you both are equally equally responsible for the crime. That's all.

Продолжение следует...

Next time, on the season finale of three.

Life is just wiped out from under me. I mean just completely wiped out from under me.

And to find that the Eddy girl took it off her neck after she murdered.

Yeah.

Uh that's

I'm telling you that's serial killer stuff right there.

Had social media, cell phones and the internet and cellular coverage not have been in existence in 2012. Skylar Nice would be alive today.

They're such pretty girls is what we kept hearing. you could be the most facially beautiful person with the most destructive demonic soul. to me that's how these girls were. It's it's not Everything isn't always as it seems.

Three is an original production of Waveland. The series is created and written by Holly Millet and me, Justine Harmon. The executive producer is Jason Hoke, who produced and edited the series. Associate producers are Lydia Horn and Leo Cult. Fact checking by Lydia Horn. Sound Engineering by Shane Freeman. Music by Robert Ellis. Studio recording at CDM Studios in New York and Wildwoods Picture and Sound in Los Angeles.