MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Monongalia County teenager Shelia Eddy pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and murder charges involving the 2012 death of Skylar Neese.
Eddy, 17, dressed in a jail-issued orange jumpsuit, appeared briefly before Monongalia County Circuit Judge Russell Clawges during Tuesday’s arraignment. Eddy was indicted Sept. 6 in connection with Neese’s slaying.
Neese disappeared July 6, 2012, when Monongalia County prosecutor Marcia Ashdown said the girl sneaked out of her bedroom window to meet up with Eddy and Rachel Shoaf.
Prosecutors believe Shoaf and Eddy drove Neese to Greene County, Pa., where they stabbed her to death and tried to bury her body.
The victim’s father, Dave Neese, told reporters after Tuesday’s arraignment that he wasn’t convinced by Eddy’s not guilty plea.
“You liar, you liar, you liar—that’s the only thing that kept going through my mind,” he said. “She looked over at me at smiled a couple of times trying to get a reaction from me, but I just got up and left the courtroom.”
Six months passed before Shoaf came forward and talked to police about her involvement in Neese’s murder. The girl’s decomposed body was found in a ditch about 20 miles west of Morgantown.
Shoaf, 17, pleaded guilty earlier this year to second-degree murder. According to court documents, she admitted to stabbing Neese to death the night she disappeared.
While Shoaf awaits sentencing, Eddy remains in the jail without bail. Her trial date has been tentatively set for the week of Oct. 22.
Dave Neese said he expected Eddy’s case to go to trial.
“If they think they can beat the prosecutors let them go for it, but something tells me they won’t be able to,” he said. “She (Eddy) is a liar through and through. She’ll keep lying until she dies. She’ll say she didn’t do it. She’ll have every reason in the world, but once a liar always a liar, and that’s what she is—a liar.”