The Savage Murder of Skylar Neese: The Truth Behind the Headlines (9 page)

If Morgantown residents thought they had heard all possible rumors surrounding Skylar’s disappearance, they were wrong. A brand-new cycle started when school resumed in Monongalia County.

The story of what happened to Skylar wasn’t just hallway fodder at the two largest and most competitive high schools in town, UHS and MHS. It was also water fountain discussion at Clay-Battelle High School, where the Cee Bees were buzzing like crazy about where Skylar was. The teens wondered whether she could be hiding out in their end of the county.

All through the first full week of class, rumors flew at warp speed through the county’s three high schools through talk, text, and tweet. The students had begun to talk about other possibilities. Someone had floated a rumor that Skylar had been to a big drug party in Blacksville, and something bad had happened. A boy had called her the night she snuck out to tell her about the party, and Shelia and Rachel had driven her there. Some variations of that story had the two teens abandoning Skylar after she got drunk. Other versions placed them at the party when Skylar overdosed, left with a boy, or got raped and murdered. Some teens said Skylar had hooked up with one boy in particular: Dylan Conaway.

A third theory was starting to make the rounds, but only a few teens talked about it. Dylan had an older brother, Darek, the young man Gaskins and Berry had questioned after the Blacksville bank robbery. Theirs was the house that had been raided by a SWAT team. Police were rumored to be looking at him for the bank robberies in the region. Darek had also been indicted on five counts of third-degree sexual assault in September. That made law enforcement more suspicious of him.
⁷

Not only had Darek been at some of the parties with Dylan and his friends, at times Darek had even given Shelia, Shania, and Skylar a ride to them. Maybe that close association meant Skylar had discovered a solid connection between Darek and the bank robberies. Maybe Darek and Dylan had killed the teen, to keep her quiet. The Conaway boys were under an umbrella of suspicion—and they knew it.

***

While the rumor mills were churning, Colebank and Spurlock were working day and night to discover what really happened to Skylar Neese. But Mary and Dave didn’t know that. As far as they knew, nothing was happening. So, eight days after Mary missed work in case Skylar came home, she exploded.

Dave had never seen Mary as angry as she was on August 24—with good reason, he thought. Skylar’s parents were convinced from the beginning that Chief Vic Propst viewed Skylar as a runaway. That was her classification in the AMBER Alert system, after all. But Propst says he never thought Skylar was a runaway.

After serving two tours in Vietnam, Propst held a number of jobs before settling on law enforcement. He started with the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department in 1986. When he retired, he was working on the narcotics task force. Propst became Star City’s police chief in April 2006. The veteran law enforcement officer gave Officer Colebank his blessing to pursue all leads and follow up her hunches. Still, after six weeks of hearing nothing, Mary and Dave were so frustrated they decided to pay the chief a visit.

All the grieving parents had to go on were the terrifying rumors. Colebank assured them that all leads were being explored, but she could offer them little of substance. The case was incredibly frustrating; no solid information had yet been uncovered. The Star City Police Department—primarily Officer Colebank, but other officers as well—had logged more than 800 hours on the case in the previous six weeks. Still, for all their efforts, the cops had learned little.

Colebank couldn’t discuss case details with Mary and Dave because it was an ongoing investigation. She had her own suspicions, but didn’t feel she could share them with the public. That included Skylar’s parents.

Colebank didn’t want anyone doing anything rash, either. She and Dave had had a few long Saturday-morning talks and she was concerned about him. The dedicated officer still had no idea what had happened to Skylar, but she was certain Shelia and Rachel were key to the puzzle. The last thing Colebank wanted was for Dave to go off on a vigilante hunt—especially when there was no evidence to support her hunches.

Being kept in the dark wasn’t even Mary and Dave’s primary gripe. The bigger problem was Jennifer Woodall Hunt—and the things she had been saying on Facebook. She seemed to know details she shouldn’t have known.

As they prepared to visit the chief, Dave could tell by the fire in his wife’s eyes that Mary was furious. For a minute, he thought of Skylar and how wound up she could get when discussing a topic she was passionate about. More than anything else, Dave just wanted one more chance to debate with his daughter. It could be WVU football or greenhouse gases or even (God forbid) gay rights. The topic didn’t matter. He just wanted to see Skylar’s eyes flash like her mother’s again. One more time.

That thought got Dave back on track. Got him thinking about the thumb drive he had been given by someone at work and had later passed on to Skylar for school. When he found the drive in Skylar’s room, he turned it over to Colebank. At the time he thought it might have information that would help the police locate his daughter. But Dave had forgotten the drive had survivalist literature, or some kind of crap, on it, with advice about how to disappear if one wanted to.

Somehow, Jennifer Hunt knew about that information—and she had been posting it on Facebook. Her posts insinuated Skylar had used the information on the thumb drive to run away. Skylar was in hiding because she was afraid to come home. Or Skylar was off partying with friends.

Mary and Dave couldn’t understand how Hunt would have known about the specific material on the drive—unless there was an informant. They just needed answers.

Once inside the tiny police station they were determined to learn the truth, and the confrontation rapidly escalated. In response to their questions about what other police agencies were involved, Propst told Mary and Dave that he had called the state police at the outset of the investigation.

“What about Jennifer posting on Facebook that the authorities think we’re hiding something?” Mary demanded, her voice getting louder.

“Yeah, why would you tell anyone that? We’ve even agreed to take a lie detector test if you want us to,” Dave said.

“Look, Dave, Mary, I understand why you’re upset,” Chief Propst began. But Mary cut him off.

“You don’t know anything! It’s not your daughter who’s missing!” she said.

“No, ma’am, it isn’t. But I know how hard these cases are on the parents, and how stressful they are for everyone involved. Including the police.”

Suddenly, the emotional strain of the previous six weeks became too much, and the dam that contained all Mary’s emotions burst. All of her grief, frustration, and anger came flooding out. Accounts differ as to who started shouting first, but before long Mary and Propst had both raised their voices. Dave could only stand by helplessly and watch. Propst told Mary that if she didn’t calm down, he would have to ask her to leave.

Mary didn’t calm down, and Chief Propst asked her to leave. By then, with the pressure from the previous six weeks suddenly unleashed, Mary couldn’t have stopped even if she wanted to.

One important accomplishment came from the confrontation, though. The minute Mary and Dave marched out of the police station, Mary reached a decision. Her next action was fueled by anger, adrenaline, and fear for her daughter. Back at their apartment, a sobbing Mary began punching numbers on the home phone.

“West Virginia State Police,” came the dispatcher’s voice.

“Hello, I’d like to know if you’re investigating my daughter’s disappearance,” Mary said. “This is Mary Neese, and I want to know if you know anything about my daughter, Skylar.”

The dispatcher put Mary on hold, and a Sergeant Kennedy got on the line. “I couldn’t say for sure if Chief Propst called us,” Kennedy told Mary. But then he did something that may have saved Mary’s sanity. Kennedy assured the distraught mother that his troopers would immediately take up the case.

On Saturday, Mary and Dave told the world they had been kicked out of the police station by Chief Propst. And Jennifer Hunt insisted they were lying, that they were not kicked out. That wasn’t even the worst of it. Hunt also posted,
It seems as though [Skylar] may have left for good reasons…. Many are questioning Dave and Mary’s intentions at this point (for good cause)…. For me this triggered suspicion immediately
and
The police are positive she is not dead and partying with friends.

People were abuzz over the news and its meaning the minute they saw it on the TeamSkylar<3 group page. Once again, Mary and Dave felt like their private life was being turned into a public spectacle.

No one seemed to know where Jennifer Hunt got her information. Hunt declined to discuss the case or her part in it. Ultimately, though, the negative public comments created discord among Mary and Dave’s supporters. Intentional or not, that discord caused lies, innuendo, and misinformation to spread.

***

That same Monday morning, West Virginia State Police Corporal Ronnie Gaskins and Senior Trooper Chris Berry were chatting in the office they shared at the Morgantown Detachment. They were discussing various theories about the bank robberies they’d been working. The search of the Conaway house had turned up nothing. They were thinking another trip to Blacksville was in order, but Gaskins had a new idea.

“You remember how Darek acted when I said that thing about burying bodies?” Gaskins said.

“He got all worked up,” Berry said, nodding.

“We didn’t know this at the time, but you know that girl who went missing? Star City girl. Been thinking about her.” He began shuffling through a pile of papers, intent on finding something.

“Neese, I think.” Berry had kept half an eye on the case for the last month. “Skylar maybe?”

Gaskins found what he was looking for. “Here’s her picture.” He watched Berry study the picture. “Maybe Darek
was
burying a body.”

Awareness grew on Berry’s face. “You think they had to shut her up?”

“I talked to Colebank over at Star City. She’s been going at it pretty hard. She’s got nothing. Now get this—Spurlock’s working that case, too.”

Berry cocked his head. “Really?”

Bank robbery is a federal crime, so naturally Spurlock had been working the robberies. Berry wasn’t surprised to learn about the FBI’s interest in Skylar. He knew that, officially, the FBI didn’t investigate missing juveniles unless they had evidence of a sexual assault or kidnapping. But he also knew the FBI believed Skylar’s disappearance might be connected to the disappearance of Aliayah Lunsford a year before Skylar vanished. Or maybe Spurlock was thinking the same thing as Gaskins.

“Are you thinking this girl’s in on the robberies?” Berry asked.

“No idea. Maybe Skylar helped, but she’s tied in somehow.” Gaskin’s mouth tightened into a line. “You want to ride over and have a talk with Skylar’s parents?”

The two troopers arrived at the Neeses’ address a little before 10:00 a.m. The vinyl-sided, two-story apartment building had a small parking lot that wrapped around three sides. The Neeses weren’t home.

“Guess it’s gonna be Blacksville after all,” Berry said as they headed back toward their cruiser.

When Mary pulled into the apartment parking lot after dropping Dave off before his shift, the first thing she saw was the patrol car. Then she saw the two troopers. Her heart clenched. All of a sudden, Mary could barely breathe. She knew they were there for one of two reasons: either Skylar’s body had been found or they were finally getting off their ass. Mary thought maybe her phone call had done the trick. She parked her car and got out to meet the troopers.

“Mary Neese?” Gaskins asked.

“That’s me,” Mary said. “You’re here about Skylar.”

“Yes, ma’am. Can we talk with you inside?”

She gave them a long, even look, her eyes wary. “You’re not bringing me bad news, are you?”

“No, ma’am. Nothing like that. I’m Ronnie Gaskins, and this is Chris Berry. We just need a few minutes of your time.”

“Come on in,” Mary said, leading the way to the apartment. To Mary, their presence could only mean one thing: the state police had stopped believing that man’s lies about Skylar running away. “That man” was Chief Propst. Neither Mary nor Dave had spoken his name since they’d left the police station.

***

By the time Gaskins and Berry left the Neese home two hours later, both troopers were convinced they would do whatever it took to bring Skylar home. Mary had shown them Skylar’s room and even though Star City officers had searched it, they looked around for any clues that might help them.

What they found was Skylar’s diary. “Do you mind if we take this with us? It might tell us something important,” Gaskins said.

Mary said they could, so the two troopers left with it. Berry began reading as soon as they were inside the cruiser. He couldn’t stop, and reading Skylar’s words made her come alive in his mind. Both men still thought it likely that Skylar was somehow mixed up with the Conaway boys. Dylan was only a couple of years older than Skylar so he could have known her.

But Gaskins and Berry were equally certain Skylar Neese was no armed bank robber. Berry, in particular, was struck by the contents of Skylar’s diary. He could tell “how much she cared about people.”

The troopers eventually made their way to the Star City Police Station to learn more about the case. During the next hour, Colebank brought them up to speed on the information she and Spurlock had gathered. Gaskins and Berry turned and gave each other a long, hard look at Colebank’s next words: Shelia Eddy had been linked romantically to Dylan Conaway.

Next came the rumors. Skylar disappeared because of a boy. That’s what everyone was saying. What no one seemed to know, though, was whether it was a teen boy or a chance adult pedophile.

Rumors like these are easy to believe when romance is at the heart of so many teenage upheavals, and most crime is committed by males. In addition, people still believe the biggest threat to children comes from a strange man lurking in a trench coat, so-called stranger danger. The truth is, most missing children who aren’t runaways are snatched by people they know—including their own family members. If Skylar’s disappearance had to do with a boy, it was likely someone she knew.

However, Skylar couldn’t be linked to very many boys, and none of the anecdotal reports about boys in her life had romantic overtones. So while rumor had it that a boy was involved, the facts show otherwise.

The only known story about Skylar with any boy showed how inexperienced Skylar was, when it came to the opposite sex. For instance, Amorette remembered Tommy
⁸
, the “really cute” boy in dance class that all the girls fawned over.

“He was kinda, like, skaterish,” Amorette said, referring to a look modeled after skateboarder subculture. “He wore T-shirts, and liked skinny jeans. We would never talk to him. We were scared.”

When Skylar did talk to Tommy, she became so nervous she stammered. The most she could do was watch him from afar, and giggle with Amorette.

Not so one of Skylar’s friends, though. That girl chatted easily to Skater Boy.

“Shelia,” Amorette said. “I think they might have gone out on a couple of dates. I remember Skylar telling me about it. I know Shelia said Tommy was awkward.”

Skylar couldn’t have been happier for her friend. “She was like, ‘I’m living my life vicariously through Shelia! I’m not there, but it feels like I am!’” Amorette said.

Accounts that connected Skylar to romance with boys were nonexistent, suggesting only that she wasn’t ready for dating. In fact, Skylar’s lack of interest in boys may have been part of what drove some teenagers to spread rumors that Skylar was a lesbian. (
I heard she doesn’t like boys … and those other two girls she always hung around with, weren’t they seen kissing at some party?
)

Gaskins and Berry had also heard rumors that Skylar’s disappearance was connected to a boy, although in those versions it wasn’t necessarily a romantic relationship. One name they kept coming across was Eric Finch, a sophomore at Clay-Battelle. Eric, who looks like he could pass for a teenage Dave Neese, then lived on a farm in Fairview, behind Blacksville.

Because Skylar was a daddy’s girl, and because of Eric’s dark hair and stocky looks, people might have thought he was Skylar’s type. But that wasn’t true, either. Eric and Skylar met through Shelia years earlier. They were at some of the same parties and also attended a Snoop Dogg concert at the WVU Coliseum with Shelia and Shania. Skylar had even been to one of Eric’s birthday parties. Since becoming teens, though, their friendship existed primarily through text messages. In fact, they had been texting right before Skylar snuck out for the final time.

Police learned this. They also found out he was the last person who received a text message from Skylar. Eric texted Skylar at 12:11 a.m., and she replied one minute later. At 12:12 Skylar simply texted,
Goodnight.

While he denies having had a crush on Skylar, other people say he did. His tweets on March 13, 2013, when Skylar’s remains were conclusively identified, seem to suggest sincere feelings:
Easy, the hardest day of my life. Its something that only few understand. Pure brightness turned into darkness. Rest in peace, love you babe
and
Lord, I ask for strength! You, above all, know I need it.
Of course, it’s also possible Eric was another in a long line of teens who saw in Skylar the perfect confidante—and nothing more. In any event, the police apparently never considered him a likely suspect.

Shelia was Eric’s first girlfriend, something he said came about largely because their last names, Eddy and Finch, meant they stood next to each other in the hot-lunch line. Eric was also a friend of—or at least acquainted with—Dylan Conaway.

The parties at the Conaway house were rumored to get a little wild; some people claim alcohol and drugs flowed freely. Gaskins and Berry learned that Shelia had taken Rachel to these parties.

It was common knowledge around Blacksville that Dylan Conaway had had a sexual relationship with Shelia. The more closely Skylar was connected to the Conaway brothers, state police thought, the more likely her disappearance was linked to the bank robberies. They were equally convinced Darek Conaway was somehow connected to those felonies.

Before they made any more moves on Darek, the two troopers decided to ride out to the western end of the county. They wanted to have a little chat with Eric Finch. Then it would be time to pay yet another visit to the Conaway house.

***

Just talk. It’s easy.

After typing the text into his phone, Daniel hit send. Then he leaned back in his chair and tried to listen to Mr. Snyder. It wasn’t easy. Math came easily to Daniel, and this year he had two math classes: pre-calculus and trigonometry. Yet the way Mr. Snyder went over and over points in trig class made it almost impossible for Daniel to tune in. The fact that Daniel thought the teacher was cocky didn’t help. The only way Daniel could handle his boredom was to go to class stoned.

Daniel imagined Rachel receiving his text. He’d sent her texts regularly in the two weeks they’d been back and he knew he was annoying her. He thought Rachel was beautiful, had an incredible voice, and was a great person—even if she was a little over the top. After all, Daniel knew he was, too. They’d spent hours and hours together, in and out of class. Working under Mr. Kyer’s direction or driving around town getting high with Skylar and Shelia.

School wasn’t turning out to be as much fun as Daniel thought it would be. Of course, after Skylar disappeared, everything had changed. Daniel was having trouble remembering the things he liked about Rachel. He kept thinking it wasn’t fair, the way Rachel and Shelia were being all quiet and sneaky. They seemed to be keeping to themselves a lot more than they used to.

As if that wasn’t enough, Rachel’s attitude was really beginning to annoy him. Daniel had seen the pair several times—in the cafeteria, at Shelia’s locker, even just walking down the hallway. Their heads were always close, they were always whispering. There was something so secretive about them now.

If he could get Rachel to talk about it—whatever it was, she could tell him and it wouldn’t go any farther. He was going to keep pressuring her until she did. He didn’t even try bugging Shelia; once that girl decided something, she didn’t change her mind. Instead, Daniel completely ignored her.

He keyed his phone again:

Hey Rachel. We really need to talk in 4th period. You know what about too.

Daniel hit send.