What happened to Skylar Neese? Friday’s episode of ‘20/20′

Friday’s episode of “20/20” covers the 2012 murder of 16-year-old Skylar Neese.

The episode “How’d You Rather Die?” will feature interviews from local authorities who investigated the case, per a teaser posted to Facebook, as well as the hosts of the “Three” podcast who spoke on the subject in a 10-part series, reported People.

“This obviously rocked a small town to its core,” Justine Harman, a journalist and one of the podcast hosts, told People previously this year.

Who was Skylar Neese?

Neese, according to ABC News, was living in Morgantown, West Virginia, and was a sophomore in high school. She “had a 4.0 grade point average, a part-time job at a fast food restaurant and an active social life” — all while being “inseparable” from her friends Shelia Eddy and Rachel Shoaf.

ABC News reported that Neese first met and became friends with Eddy when they were both 8. Later on, in September 2010, Eddy met Shoaf during their freshman year of high school. The following month, Eddy transferred to Neese’s high school, and Shoaf eventually became friends with Neese.

However, arguments shortly ensued within the group, as Neese’s father claimed there were alleged tensions among the trio — for weeks before the incident, reported Metro News, a West Virginia news station.

The disappearance

On Jul. 5, 2012, Skylar Neese snuck out from her family’s apartment and got into a car with Eddy and Shoaf, per Investigation Discovery.

The next morning, Neese’s dad discovered his daughter wasn’t in her bedroom. And after learning she didn’t make it to work later that day, authorities were contacted and they started investigating, according to ABC News.

Also in the same day, Eddy contacted Neese’s parents claiming that Neese was picked up from the apartment at 11:00, and dropped off in an adjacent area at midnight. However, surveillance footage later revealed the car allegedly pulled up to the complex at 12:30 a.m., with Neese getting in five minutes later, said ABC News.

Six months later, Shoaf was committed to a psychiatric hospital from a nervous breakdown. And after her discharge, on Jan. 3, 2013, she told police what had happened that night, reported 12NewsNow, an ABC and NBC affiliate based in Texas.

The incident

Shoaf claimed her and Eddy planned out the attack against Neese, said ABC News.

According to ID, the two drove Neese “to a wooded area” across the Pennsylvania state border, “under the guise of smoking marijuana together.” Armed with knives hidden in their hoodies, when Neese turned back to grab a lighter from the car, Eddy and Shoaf stabbed her multiple times until she seemed dead.

The perpetrators tried to bury her, but the ground “was too hard and rocky,” per ID. So they instead placed Neese’s body “a few steps from the road,” covering her with dirt, branches and rocks.

The girls’ arrests and convictions

Eventually, a search warrant was made to Eddy’s house, and an FBI analysis of a Toyota Camry on her residence found blood DNA matching Neese’s in the trunk, reported ABC News. Both Eddy and Shoaf were later charged and tried as adults for the murder of Neese.

In March 2013, Neese’s body was found, wrote CBS News. She was allegedly found with at least 50 stab wounds, claimed Oxygen.

On Jan. 24, 2014, Eddy pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison, per ABC News. The following month, Shoaf pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years.

How to watch ‘20/20′

In a post to X (formerly Twitter), “How’d You Rather Die?” will premiere on ABC on Friday, Apr. 12, at 7 p.m. MST. It will be available for streaming on Hulu the following day.