Dave Neese took several deep breaths Wednesday afternoon when he spoke with MetroNews “Talkline” host Hoppy Kercheval about the day’s developments in connection with the murder of his daughter Skylar.
Neese said he considered 16-year-old Rachel Shoaf and a second teenage girl who was charged and taken custody among Skylar’s best friends. Shoaf pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Wednesday.
“They were around the house? You saw them?” Kercheval asked.
“All the time,” Neese answered. “The Shoaf girl not as much, but the other one all the time. Every day or every other day.”
Shoaf admitted she stabbed and killed Neese with a knife last summer not long after Neese got in a car with her. The other girl’s name hasn’t been released because she’s in juvenile custody.
Neese said the other girl came to his house in Star City and helped the family look for Skylar.
“She walked up and down the street knocking on every door on the street to see if anybody had seen her — it’s sick,” Neese said.
The grieving father wants more answers as to why his daughter was killed and her body left in nearby Greene County, Pa.
“I want to know why it happened. I don’t want to hear ‘because we were mad at her.’ There had to be another reason why. The police can’t find it. It hasn’t come out yet. Tell me why. This should have not have happened,” Neese said.
The Shoaf family issued a statement Wednesday saying they were shocked to learn of their daughter’s involvement.
“We are truly sorry for the pain she has caused the Neese family,” the statement said.
Dave Neese said he’s full of emotion.
“There’s mad. There’s hate. There’s anger,” he said. “Yes, I’m angry — angry at the fact it even happened. I’m angry at the fact that these parents that raise their children to be good kids, but now they’ve lost their kids out of no fault of their own. The parents didn’t do anything wrong.”