Two voices, shared by a cellphone and a time bridge to murder, told the tale on a rainy Tuesday morning in a community room at Mylan Park.
Rachel Shoaf’s voice was both tearful and matter-of-fact.
Dave Neese’s voice grew increasingly louder, as the more he talked – the angrier he got.
There was no emotion in the voice of the official who told Shoaf, at the end of the proceedings, that her request for parole was being denied.
Now 26 and an inmate at the Lakin Correctional Center in Mason County, Shoaf was convicted nearly 11 years ago for her part in the killing of her one-time University High School best friend, Skylar Neese, the only daughter of Dave Neese and his wife, Mary.
Shoaf, she testified then, stabbed Skylar to death with Shelia Eddy, another UHS classmate, after driving to a desolate road in rural Greene County, Pa.
All three were 16 at the time of the slaying.
Tuesday, while Shoaf addressed the parole board in person in Mason County, Dave and Mary Neese listened in by way of Dave’s cellphone in Mylan Park, before it was their turn to testify.
“I loved her,” said Shoaf, whose second-degree murder conviction carries 30 years with a chance of parole.
Eddy, in turn, was handed life in prison – also with a chance for parole – after pleading guilty to first-degree murder.
“I know what we did was terrible,” Shoaf continued.
“There are no words to describe pain that we caused and I know there is nothing I can say or do. I just pray for them all the time and pray for peace in their heart.”
Peace, Dave Neese said, is ever-elusive for him and Mary, since their daughter snuck out of her bedroom July 6, 2012, to get in a car for what she thought was going to an aimless cruise with the pair.
Instead, she was stabbed close to 50 times and left to die along that road, partially covered by twigs and other debris in a failed attempt to dig a grave.
The kitchen knives were smuggled from home, Shoaf told the parole board.
‘Why did you do it?’
Dave Neese’s voice thundered as he lamented the loss of his daughter, forever young.
“Because of that malicious monster, my child never got a limo for her prom – instead, she got a ride in a coroner’s vehicle,” he said.
“There was no sparkling gown for Skylar, just a body bag,” he said.
“She will never have a certificate of graduation,” the grieving father concluded.
“Only a death certificate.”
The voice of the woman asking questions from the parole board was direct.
“Why did you did it?” she asked.
Shoaf’s answer also confirmed a rumor concerning a possible motive.
She and Eddy had embarked on an intimate relationship – which Skylar knew about.
By then, the trio’s friendship was unraveling.
Skylar, Shoaf said, had threatened to out the pair and Shoaf was worried about being shunned by her family and her church.
“In our teenaged minds,” she said, “we didn’t know how to handle the conflict.”
‘She’s still dancing’
If parole had been granted, Shoaf, who has earned a communications degree and cosmetology certificate while behind bars, would have moved to Maryland to live with her mother while launching a career in the latter.
At UHS, she was known for her singing, dancing and acting abilities with the theater troupe and show choir.
The voice of Christopher Berry, a former West Virginia State Police detective who worked the investigation, carried a rueful chuckle, as he alluded to the above.
He drove up from the South Carolina, where he is now a school resource officer, for the proceedings.
Shoaf’s first inclination during the hearing, he said, was to not answer questions – until the board doubled down.
“She’s still dancing,” he said.
Dave and Mary Neese, meanwhile, weren’t dancing Tuesday after he disconnected his phone – but their collective step did appear lighter, as they got in their car under purple rain clouds to go home.
Tuesday was Mary’s birthday.
TWEET @DominionPostWV
