MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A Monongalia County grand jury has indicted a Morgantown teenager on kidnapping and murder charges in connection with the death of fellow teenager Skylar Neese.
Shelia Eddy, 17, was named in the two count indictment that was handed up Friday evening. Eddy was transferred to adult status earlier this week.
Earlier this year, Rachel Shoaf, 17, pleaded guilty to second degree murder in Neese’s death. According to court documents, she admitted to stabbing Neese to death the night she disappeared.
Neese, Shoaf and Eddy were all classmates at University High School in Morgantown. They also hung out together. Neese’s father, Dave, has said he thought the two suspects were Skylar’s best friends. Prosecutors have not publicly discussed a possible motive in the slaying.
The prosecution will recommend a 20-year sentence for Shoaf, while the defense will request that she be sentenced as a juvenile, which would likely mean a lighter penalty. Her plea agreement requires her to “offer truthful and forthright testimony in any subsequent proceeding deemed necessary.”
Skylar Neese disappeared July 6, 2012 when, according to Monongalia County Prosecutor Marcia Ashdown, she snuck out of her bedroom window to meet up with Shoaf and Eddy.
Prosecutors believe Shoaf and Eddy drove Neese to Greene County, Pa where they stabbed her to death and tried to bury her body.
Six months passed before Shoaf finally came forward and talked to police about her involvement in Neese’s murder. Her badly decomposed body was found in a ditch about 20 miles west of Morgantown earlier this year.