We take you inside a secret world thats going to stun you. Teenagers, social media and murder. She was like, well, shell blackmail me. A click of mean girls. Were they mean enough to kill . It was such a shocking and scandalous kind of case. This was diabolical. Evil comes in all shapes and sizes. Im lester holt and this is dateline, Andrea Canning with something wicked. In the gentle Rolling Hills of northern West Virginia in a sweet college town in the heart of coal country lived three teenage girls. Their photos capture a moment in time. They were smart, talented, lovely. Everything a parent could hope for in a daughter. And so who could have guessed just by looking that some of them carried a dark secret about a friend. 911, do you have an emergency . I have a 16yearold daughter and hasnt been home, hasnt went to work. Im scared to death. These teens played a strange and haunting game. Would you rather sufficient indicate or get shot . Went beyond teenage drama. Why, why, why . At the center of it all was a girl named skylar. Dave and mary neese welcome their only daughter skylar to the world back in 1996. Tell me about the day she was born, was that the greatest moment of your life . I wouldnt go that far. First time you saw her. First time i saw her, yes, i could say that was the greatest moment of my life. It was instant love. They live in star city, a small suburb of morgantown, West Virginia, where dave works at walmart and mary at a medical office. Skylar was a whirlwind, rambunctious toddler who owned her parents heart. Hey gorgeous, youre a beautiful baby. She was reading before she was supposed to, doing math and stuff before she was supposed to, very intelligent little girl. When skylar started Nursery School she made her first friend, Morgan Lawrence, drawn right away too skylar. Did she light up a room . Yeah, the giggle and the laugh. The girls families became good friends too. Morg morgans parents say they were like sisters. What are your memories of skylar when she was this high . She giggled all the time, filled our house. She had the biggest eyes, you wanted to hug her. She was good girls and got good grades. Morgan dreamed of becoming a meteorologist and skylar a criminal lawyer. They also had a pact, that they would always be there for one another. And you would be in each others wedding parties. Everyone has a sister to put in their wedding and we had each other. As freshman at morgantown high school, they drifted apart. With the new school came new friends, this classmate says bubbly skylar fit in right away. Friends came first with her. She was always about hanging out with friends if she didnt have work or school. Skylar had two new bffs, sheila eddie, who the nees had known for year and shoef, it wasnt long before they were calling themselves the three musketeers. They were together every second of every day it seemed like. They hung out all the time. Like all teenage girls they shared videos and photos with each other and online. We get a glimpse into their world. Skylar and sheila having friend. Of course they occasionally got into trouble but even then it was for typical teenage things. Dave and mary werent too concerned. Shes a straight a student, loves her parents. Did you sort of chalk it up to were not thrilled but shes a teenager . Exactly. When summer rolled around after her sophomore year, skylar seemed happy. She had a job at wendys which she loved. On thursday, july 5th, 2012, she came home after work and got ready for bed. She put her arm around her mom and gave her a kiss and gave her a hug and said, i love you mom. Turned to me and said i love you dad and went to the room. The next day, dave planned to meet skylar in their apartment at lunchtime. He was surprised she wasnt there. A little worried he called mary. I thought she was out with one of her other friends. I figured they went swimming or shopping. Dave called her friends, including sheila. No one had seen her. Next he went outside and found more cause for worry. A small bench was tucked near skylars window and the window screen was missing. At this time i called skylars cell phone, youre in trouble. You better be calling me right away. I called her cell phone about ten times. I called mary again. Again mary told him to calm down. She said skylar was expected at work at 4 00. I said were not going to worry. Ill call them about ten after 4 00, give her time to clock in and everything, see if shes there. But mary didnt get a chance to call wendys. They called us first wanting to know if she was coming to work. Was that a big moment for you . Yeah. A few minutes later there was another big surprise, a call from sheila. She said she had to tell me the truth. I said, what truth . She said, well, we snuck out last night. Marys heart fell. Skylar had done that once before, went on a joyride with rachel and sheila. That time they got caught for being out after curfew. Heres theyd done it again. Wheres skylar . She said skylar insisted they drop her off at the end of the street so we wouldnt hear her sneaking back in. Now that missing screen and bench outside skylars window made sense. Skylar had put it there to boost herself up to get back in. But it left them with a terrifying possibility. My first instinct was someone abducted her from the end of the street to our house. Dave called the police. I have a daughter thats 16 years old, apparently snuck out of her room last night and she hasnt been seen since. None of her friends can get a hold of her. Whats her name. Skylar neese. Their only daughter had disappeared into the night and now she had been gone for nearly 24 hours. Where was skylar . When we come back, the investigation begins and concern for skylar begins to grow. Had this horrible feeling in my heart that something terrible had happened. A grainy piece of videotape is about to give police one giant clue. What can they glean from this . She slowly walked down to a car and got in the back seat. It takes two to make a thing go right it takes two to make it outta sight it takes two to make a thing go right it takes two to make it outta sight [ female announcer ] only yoplait light and yoplait greek 100 are endorsed by weight watchers. So many delicious flavors that taste outta sight. Where youll save 90 on this 60inch vizio smart led tv, plus pick up doritos and Ruffles Party size chips for 2. 98 each. Find over 15,000 rollbacks like that throughout the store during rollback madness at walmart. Find over 15,000 rollbacks like that throughout the store honestly . I wanted a smartphone that shoots great video. So i got the new nokia lumia icon. Its got 1080p video, three times zoom, and a twentymegapixel sensor. 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Over the course of the next decade, more than a million of our best teachers are gonna retire. And for our nation to remain a worldclass leader with worldclass talent, we need the next generation of worldclass teachers. You may want to become a teacher. The more you know. Just 1800 residents, only one stop light. Skylar going missing was a tough pill to swallow for the entire community. Police officer jess colbank sheila eddie had said skylar was home around midnight. So what was this car doing pulling up around 12 30 a. M. Who was in it . Dave neese watched horrified as there on the tape out walked skylar. She slowly walked down to a car sitting there waiting on her and got in the back seat. I could tell that. And she drove away. Police couldnt quite make out a license plate or tell the make or model. Skylars mom mary had a theory. She made it home, snuck back in the window then a second person or persons had parked behind the building and she snuck out a second time. But why . Who was in the car . And where did they go . The police didnt issue an amber alert since it looked like skylar left voluntarily. Once the video came out that she willingly got in this car, they are not going to come out and look for somebody driving around in a car. Skylars friend sheila came right over. She spent a lot of time here telling us that it will be okay, shell be home and i really miss her. I love her. I want her back. The next day sheila sat with mary on skylars bed, both of them crying. Did it bring you comfort when sheila would come by being skylars best friend . It did me a little bit, yeah, knowing how could skylar leave her behind . Mary and sheila took to the streets together posting flyers for skylar. They would knock on doors and asked have you seen this girl . We kept showing pictures to people and nobody had seen her. Sheila was very, very worried about what had happened to skylar. Chriscy swan son is a close family friend of sheilas and saw her distress firsthand. She was trying so hard to help them figure out what had happened. The Star City Police are still looking for a missing 16yearold. Dave made a plea for help on local news station, wboy. We love her. We want her home. By sunday night skylar had been gone the whole weekend. The family, including her aunt carol was heart sick. I just had this horrible feeling in my heart that, you know, something terrible had happened and it wasnt like her to run away or disappear like she did. Mary told me that night, something is wrong, dave, something is bad wrong. Your mind had gone to that place, already, that she may never come home . The Community Held a candlelight vigil. Skylars School Friends came, including rachel and sheila. They were crying and came up and hugged me and mary, crying their eyes out. The only thing mary could say, how can we help these girls . The family friend Morgan Lawrence was upset too. She read on facebook that skylar was missing. Did it scare you when you started to see the posts . Definitely. How worried were you . Sick to my stomach. So was officer colbank at it nonstop. I would come back to the office in the evening, getting facebook records, watching video. She was swamped with tips from people saying they had seen her, even california, each sighting was a dead end. At the same time colbank pulled skylars record and what she found was ominous. Skylar wasnt using her cell phone or a. T. M. Card. Colbank had serious doubts that she had run away. Runaways usually take items that they need, contacts glasses, didnt take that with her. Police got an important new lead in the case. There were two Bank Robberies in the nearby town of blacksville, both had gone down around the time skylar vanished. I was working with other investigators on the bank robbery. Ronnie gaskins was called in to skylars case. There had been a tip that somehow skylar had been at a party with suspected bank robbers when something bad happened. What was the theory . Just rumors, gossip going around that there was a teenage party. There was a possible overdose. And people there were scared so they hid the body. It seemed unlikely skylar didnt use heavy drugs. It was just a lot of tracking down rumors and tons and tons and tons of rumors. All leading nowhere. By now skylar had been gone more than a month. Gaskins vowed he would find her. I dont like to make promises in my line of work. But the only promise i made today, we would never stop, never give up in trying to find out what happened to skylar. Their search for skylar had taken them across the united states. What they didnt know then was that the truth was right there in morgantown at University High. Coming up twitter, instagram, facebook, things got out of control. Whispers in the hallways, was someone hiding something . Police are about to get a break. That was an aha moment, finally we have something to go on. When dateline continues. The more you know,the better you can plan for whats ahead. Talk to farmers and get smarter about your insurance. We are farmers bum pa dum, bum bum bum bum its on. In this corner, the newcomer citrus lime sirloin and in this corner, chicken shrimp tequila tango 2 of the best, now on applebees famous 2 for 20 menu. Applebees. See you tomorrow. Now on applebees famous 2 for 20 menu. See whats new at projectluna. Com now on applebees famous 2 for 20 menu. It takes two to make it outta sight it takes two to make a thing go right it takes two to make it outta sight [ female announcer ] only yoplait light and yoplait greek 100 are endorsed by weight watchers. So many delicious flavors that taste outta sight. Skylars friend was dreading roll call. Didnt have any you cant tell the future. We dont know if shes coming back. In some ways skylars good friend sheila eddie seen in this video in the classroom is back in school. So is bff rachel shoff the world around me changes rachel got the lead in the fall play but everyone was worried about skylar. In the School Hallways and social media, rumors flew. Between twitter and instagram and facebook, you just see things start to get ridiculously out of control. Kept saying things from skylar had overdosed and things that skylar is in a different country. Daniel was in drama with rachel and knew how close the girls were. She wondered if sheila and rachel may be covering something up for skylar. There were rumors going around, rachel and sheila know where shes hiding. Daniel knew they were the last ones to see skylar and wondered if they were protecting her or maybe protecting someone else. Either way, they had to know something. There were probably a good three or four or five times where i told rachel, if you know something, you need to say what happened or where shes at. Daniel wasnt alone. Writers live in the area and written a book about skylars case. They spent hours combing through what kids were saying on social media. The one thing that stood out to me is that people, teens were tweeting sheila and rachel had to know something. Why dont you guys just talk, Say Something . Tell us what you know. Rachel and sheila seen here in a photo taken around that time were now at the center of a storm. They had supporters like shaniya. I completely 100 supported and defended sheila. And fantasia littler. When i would stand up for sheila, i would get snide comments from people. The heat got turned up on the girls when the fbi showed up and started interviewing students. I was only interviewed once. I guess i was nervous, the fbi were serious, asked me about rachel and sheila, if they seemed any different. I was telling them they didnt seem different but they were secluded to themselves more. The normal fall rituals like football and homecoming were punk waited with police visits, rachel left play rehearsal to meet with the fbi. Talk about i have a Lie Detector Test today or something. Mary and dave neese, desperate to find their daughter, thought the police were wasting their time investigating the girls they knew so well. Went to the police, will you leave sheila alone, please, you guys are harassing her 24 7. The kid is going through enough right now. Leave her alone. You defended her . Oh, god yeah. She was like our daughter. Investigators were convinced that the two girls knew more than they were saying. Was it sort of the police, look nobody is in trouble we want to know where she is. We need to know what happened. That fall, Ronnie Gaskins interviewed each girl repeatedly. How was sheilas demeanor in the meetings with her . Calm. Collect. Look at you right in the face, right in your eyes. He said rachel seemed distracted. She would draw on the desk, play with the pencil, nonverbal cues spoke a lot. Their story never varied. They picked skylar up and drove around morgantown and smoked a little sppot and dropped her ofa few blocks from home. It was like a record with these two. The officers begun to collect physical evidence and it didnt match with the story the girls were telling. Surveillance video had the car heading west towards blacksville. And the girls phone records from that night showed rachels phone pinging off a cell tower in blacksville. That was an aha moment, finally we have something to go on thats different from their story. Now even skylars parents joined the chorus of people trying to get the girls to talk. I started posting on facebook things about karma, karma will get you. You cant hide. We were pushing. We were pushing the girls to get them to say what happened. By late november, the pressure seemed to be taking its toll on rachel. In an interview, she surprised police by changing her story. Admitting for first time that they did drive to blacksville that night. And thats where skylar told them to let her out of the car. Blacksville, where those Bank Robberies had happened. The next day, sheila changed her story to say the same thing. That must have been a big red flag for you. Absolutely. At school, kids say rachel was increasingly rattled. Rachel seemed distressed, like she was very upset over something. I mean this was eating at her heart. Rachel shoff was about to crack. Coming up this is over. Please hurry. An emergency at home, an interview with police, what exactly was rachel shoff about to reveal. We were speechless. And you said no phones. The vacation youve been looking for is here. Come and take it, universal orlando. To prove that its still fresh on day 30. [ byron ] what do you guys think of the smell . Fresh. 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