When 16-year-old Skylar Neese went missing in July 2012, her disappearance made national headlines as people wondered about her whereabouts. The case will be covered in Hulu’s Friends Like These: The Murder of Skylar Neese, which promises to shed light on the efforts of Neese’s family and police in an attempt to track down her killers.
In a teaser clip exclusively shared with Us Weekly, police recalled thinking they could make a major breakthrough in the case by having suspect Rachel Shoaf sit for a polygraph test. However, the situation didn’t go according to plan and Shoaf disappeared ahead of the appointment.
The clip began with Neese’s dad, Dave Neese, explaining that “Christmas came and went” without any word from his daughter. “I went to the state police barracks and the poor girl behind the counter knew me, cause I was up there all the time. And I was crying, I was pissed off,” he said.
Two investigators then expressed the pain they felt over not being able to locate Neese — though a potential breakthrough in the case eventually seemed to be on the horizon when Shoaf agreed to take a polygraph test about Neese’s disappearance.
“It’s been months now and we didn’t know what was the truth. Someone’s protecting someone,” one unidentified investigator said.
Once Shoaf agreed to the polygraph test, they scheduled for it to take place the next day.
“I was extremely confident, excited,” the investigator said. “A little bit anxious. But, like, I thought that today was the day because she was actually gonna say what happened. We might not find Skylar today. But we’re gonna find out today what happened to her.”
The investigator explained that Shoaf was late to the appointment, and her defense attorney eventually called investigators to say that she was missing.
“He said to me that Rachel jumped out of the car and I couldn’t believe it,” the investigator recalled. “I asked him, you know, ‘What do you mean?’ and he goes, ‘We got to a stop and Rachel jumped out of the car. And we’re trying to find her. She’s missing.’”
On the night Neese went missing, she snuck out of her family’s home to smoke marijuana with Shoaf and their friend Sheila Eddy. The three friends drove from West Virginia to Wayne County, Pennsylvania, where Eddy and Shoaf fatally stabbed Neese over 50 times.
Shoaf and Eddy initially denied having anything to do with Neese’s disappearance and they claimed they dropped her off at her home after their night together.
However, Shoaf ultimately confessed and took investigators to the crime scene. Meanwhile, Eddy was also linked to the murder when the FBI agents discovered Neese’s DNA in her car.
Shoaf was ultimately sentenced to serve 30 years in prison with the possibility of parole after 10 years. She attended a parole hearing in 2023, though her request for freedom was denied.
As for Eddy, she was sentenced to life in prison for her involvement in the murder.
The case will be further broken down in Friends Like These: The Murder of Skylar Neese, with all three episodes premiering on Hulu on Friday, March 6.
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