In July 2012, the small community of Star City, West Virginia, was shaken to its core when 16-year-old Skylar Neese vanished after sneaking out for a late-night drive with her two closest friends. What began as a routine summer evening soon spiraled into a months-long mystery that would end in heartbreak, legal reform, and a new chapter in true-crime storytelling. Now, nearly fourteen years later, Hulu’s new docuseries Friends Like These: The Murder of Skylar Neese revisits the harrowing case, offering a fresh perspective on the tragedy and its lasting impact on the people and places it touched.
Skylar Neese was, by all accounts, a bright and ambitious teenager. Born on February 10, 1996, she excelled at University High School, maintaining a 4.0 GPA and juggling a part-time job at Wendy’s. Her father, Dave Neese, described her as “very loyal to her friends, the people she thought was her friends,” while her aunt, Carol Michaud, remembered Skylar’s dream of becoming a lawyer. “She was a good debater, so you know, I really think she would’ve been a good lawyer,” Michaud recalled, according to Biography.
Skylar’s close-knit circle included Shelia Eddy, her friend since childhood, and Rachel Shoaf, whom she met in high school. But as sophomore year unfolded, cracks began to appear in their friendship. Social media posts from Skylar hinted at growing tension: “Sick of being at f—ing home. Thanks ‘friends’ love hanging out with you all too,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter), followed by, “you doing s—t like that is why I can NEVER completely trust you.”
On the night of July 5, 2012, Skylar returned home from work and later slipped out of her apartment window to meet Eddy and Shoaf. She never came home. The next morning, her parents awoke to an empty bed and a growing sense of dread. As the search for Skylar intensified, investigators and her family were left grasping for answers. But behind the scenes, her two friends were hiding a chilling secret.
According to testimony presented in court, Shoaf and Eddy had begun a romantic relationship and feared Skylar would reveal it. “After things became known with the relationship, there was tension between us,” Shoaf said in 2023, as reported by WBOY. “It was hostile and violent, in our teenage minds we didn’t know how to handle the conflict and we just wanted it to stop.”
On July 6, 2012, the trio drove across the state border to Wayne, Pennsylvania, ostensibly for a casual outing. But Shoaf and Eddy had brought kitchen knives, and after counting to three, they attacked Skylar, stabbing her more than fifty times. They hid her body and returned home, concocting a story that Skylar had simply been dropped off at the end of her street.
For months, Shoaf and Eddy maintained their lies, even posting on social media as if nothing had happened. But as the investigation progressed, inconsistencies in their accounts surfaced. Surveillance footage and forensic evidence began to unravel their story. The pressure proved too much for Shoaf, who, after a mental health crisis in December 2012, confessed to the murder on January 3, 2013. She led authorities to Skylar’s remains and wore a wire in an attempt to elicit a confession from Eddy.
The motive, as described by State Police Corp. Ronnie Gaskin to ABC10, was shockingly blunt: “We asked Rachel, ‘Why did you guys kill Skylar?’ And her only answer to that was, ‘We just didn’t like her.’”
Justice moved swiftly. On May 1, 2013, Shoaf pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, receiving a 30-year sentence with the possibility of parole after ten years. Despite her cooperation, parole was denied in both 2023 and 2024. Eddy, meanwhile, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in January 2014 and was sentenced to life imprisonment with mercy, making her eligible for parole after fifteen years. Skylar’s father, Dave Neese, has been vocal about his belief that neither girl should be released. “This inmate is just the rat that narced and got a deal. Yes, she showed us where she murdered Skylar, yet she is also the narcissist liar that put my daughter in that place. This monster is a danger to society. If released, no parent can close their eyes at night without fear that their own child could possibly be the next victim,” he said following Shoaf’s 2023 parole hearing.
The aftermath of Skylar’s murder rippled beyond the courtroom. In 2013, West Virginia lawmakers enacted “Skylar’s Law,” expanding Amber Alert criteria to include children proven to be in danger, not just those abducted. At the time of her disappearance, Skylar was considered a runaway, disqualifying her from an Amber Alert. Her parents, Dave and Mary Neese, also transformed the site where her body was found into a public memorial, complete with a wooden bench and decorated trees and rocks. They’ve since become advocates, speaking at schools and prisons about “Skylar’s Promise”—a pledge urging students to report potential violent crimes to a responsible adult.
“It’s so important to me that this never happens again to anyone,” Dave told MetroNews in 2023. “It’s the most horrible thing I’ve ever been through, obviously, and I don’t want anyone else to go through it, I wouldn’t wish it on the two people that put me through it.”
Now, Hulu’s Friends Like These: The Murder of Skylar Neese brings the story to a new generation. Directed by Clair Titley, the three-part docuseries takes an “inside-out” approach, focusing on those directly involved. Titley told The Dominion Post, “We spent a lot of time in Morgantown, and I’ve kind of left part of my heart in Morgantown as a result of that. We really wanted Morgantown to become a character in itself. We filmed it in every single season imaginable, so that you get a real sense of this beautiful, beautiful town, and what it’s like.”
The series is distinctive for its use of Skylar’s own digital footprint—her tweets, social media posts, and diary entries—to give her a voice. “We wanted Skylar to have a voice, and this was one of the key things early on. She’d left behind this incredible digital archive of tweets and social media posts, but also bits of writing that her parents would allow us some access to. We wanted to incorporate all of that. And we literally did give her a voice so that she can narrate part of her story. And you feel, I hope, that you are really getting to know her as a person. She’s not just a plot device, not just a faceless victim. You really get to know who she was and some of the events that kind of led up to this tragedy,” Titley explained.
Skylar’s parents were deeply involved in the documentary’s creation, and Titley described building trust with them as both a privilege and a responsibility. “It’s a really unusual job as a documentary filmmaker. You’re inserting yourself in people’s lives, and it’s very intense, but there’s always a connection there. I will always have a connection with Dave and Mary. I feel there is something very special there,” she said. Titley also noted the importance of spending time face-to-face, saying, “We spent the time to go and meet people face to face, and give people space and time. And I think this project, more than anything, has reinforced how important that is.”
Streaming now on Hulu, Friends Like These doesn’t just recount a crime—it strives to restore Skylar’s humanity, honor her memory, and remind viewers of the enduring consequences of violence among friends. The legacy of Skylar Neese lives on, not only in the laws that bear her name, but in the hearts of those determined to ensure her story is never forgotten.