On July 5, 2012, 16-year old Skylar Neese returned to her family's West Virginia apartment after working an evening shift at Wendy's. Her apartment complex's surveillance video showed that Skylar snuck out of the apartment through her bedroom window at 12:30 A.M. on July 6 and got into an unknown vehicle. Her father said that she did not take her cell phone charger and that her bedroom window was left open as if she planned on coming home before the morning. But she was never seen again.
Skylar was an only child who her parents would describe as a good kid. But in the months leading up to her disappearance, Skylar had been hanging out with some rebellious and troubled friends, smoking pot, drinking, and joy riding around town. In the investigation that followed, Facebook posts and messages would reveal a strained relationship between Skylar and two of her best friends. Police believed this social media trail could help them find Skylar, but the truth was something that would shock everyone and break her parents’ hearts. Join us at the quiet end today for Cruel and Unusual, a discussion of a young life callously cut short by those who no one, even Skylar, would have ever suspected.