Pretty Little Killers: The Truth Behind the Savage Murder of Skylar Neese

by Daleen Berry, Geoffrey C. Fuller

Overview

In Pretty Little Killers, journalist Daleen Berry and investigator Geoffrey Fuller expand upon their New York Times bestselling ebook The Savage Murder of Skylar Neese to give you even more information behind one of the most horrific and shocking murders of our time. Including over 100 pages of new material, Pretty Little Killers shares the latest theories and answers the questions that have left many people baffled.

After killer Shelia Eddy pled guilty to first degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison and Rachel Shoaf was sentenced to thirty years for second-degree murder, family, friends, investigators, and other key sources reveal the facts you would have learned if the case had gone to trial.

Including specific details drawn from Rachel's confession, Pretty Little Killers looks at the crime through the eyes of the victim and killers, providing intimate testimony from the pages of Rachel's personal journal, Skylar's diary and school papers, and court records.

Berry and Fuller examine all this, including previously unreported details about Rachel and Shelia's rumored lesbian relationship and explain why more than one investigator believes Skylar's murder was a thrill kill.

Most important, Pretty Little Killers provides a satisfying answer to Skylar's final question: “Why?"

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781940363660
Publisher:	BenBella Books, Inc.
Publication date:	07/08/2014
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	133,714
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Daleen Berry is an enterprising writer whose national journalism career has seen her write about important social topics such as filicide-suicide, domestic violence murders, sexual crimes, and mental illness as a contributor to the Daily Beast, the Huffington Post, and xoJane. Berry's book, Sister of Silence, has received both critical and popular acclaim, while broadcast journalist and former NPR Morning Edition host Bob Edwards called Berry a "magnificent storyteller." Berry has become a national speaker at conferences, colleges, and schools around the country. Most recently, she was invited to give a TEDx talk at Connecticut College. In 2011, she founded Samantha's Sanctuary, a 501(c)3 charity to help educate and empower abused women and children. Berry has received awards for investigative journalism and for her weekly columns. In 2012, Berry's as-yet-unpublished book, Lethal Silence, took first place in the Pearl Buck Award in Writing for Social Change category, given jointly by West Virginia Writers and the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Foundation.

Geoffrey C. Fuller has made a living as a freelance writer-editor for 20 years, working with both fiction and nonfiction. He has edited literary and trade journals, as well as more than 75 books. Two titles he edited, The Devil's Son: Cap Hatfield and the End of the Hatfield and McCoy Feud and Monongah: The Tragic Story of the 1907 Monongah Mine Disaster, the Worst Industrial Accident in US History, were nominated by the Independent Book Publisher Association for Benjamin Franklin Awards. Monongah placed third nationally in 2008. His writing has appeared in newspapers and on radio, in literary and commercial magazines, and in anthologies, textbooks, and gift books. Fuller is the only writer to have been awarded prestigious West Virginia literary fellowships in all three categories: fiction, nonfiction, and memoir. In 2012, his crime fiction piece, "Figure-Ground," placed first in Writer's Digest's national contest. His novel, Full Bone Moon, was published in 2011 by Woodland Press.

Table of Contents

Relevant Individuals ix

Preface xix

1 Where the Children Play 1

2 Early Years 11

3 The Lesbian Connection 23

4 Big Girls Do Cry 31

5 The Game of Death 37

6 She'll Tell Our Secrets 45

7 Skylar Neese Must Die 55

8 Vanished 63

9 On the Verge 67

10 The Timeline 71

11 Long Weekend 77

12 Rumor and Silence 83

13 Nagging Doubts 87

14 A Wild Child Runaway 95

15 Gone 101

16 Digging a Hole 105

17 Business in Blacksville 113

18 The Wall Is Built 117

19 A Spy in the House? 121

20 Facebook Friction 127

21 Social Problems 133

22 Roll Call 137

23 Two's Company… 143

24 Behind the Scenes 149

25 About a Boy 159

26 You're Either With Us… 165

27 And Tara Makes Three 171

28 Facebook Follies 177

29 Opening Night Approaches 183

30 Becky's Rant 187

31 Hiding Out 195

32 About a Girl's Car 205

33 Contents under Pressure 211

34 Nervous Breakdown 221

35 "We Stabbed Her" 227

36 All That Remains 239

37 Skylar's Law 249

38 Finding Skylar 255

39 The Close of the Day 265

40 Rachel Cops a Deal 271

41 Looks Can Deceive 281

42 Skylar Comes Home 289

43 Her Day in Criminal Court 297

44 Judgment Days 301

45 On Three! 307

46 The Affair 313

47 Society Is Naïve 321

Timeline of Events 329

Red Flags for Parents to Watch for-and Prompt Actions to Take 337

Acknowledgments 341