Jessica Colebank knew Rachel was lying long before the Shoafs’ front door closed behind her. She and Spurlock had talked with the teen for an hour and a half but they knew little more than when they arrived. The interview told her Rachel was stonewalling as much as Shelia.
Colebank couldn’t figure out why or what they had to lie about. Nonetheless, their behavior and attitudes turned her initial frustration into anger. She was mad Skylar was still missing, angry she wasn’t getting answers, and pissed Rachel’s and Shelia’s parents seemed more concerned about their precious daughters than about finding Skylar. They were clueless.
She was also sure they knew more than they were saying. After Colebank had combed through the Twitter feeds of all three girls, she was more convinced than ever Skylar was angry with both girls on June 9, when she tweeted: just know I know. The only problem was, she had no proof.
Then there was Skylar’s next-to-last tweet, you doing shit like that is why I will NEVER completely trust you. From everything Skylar’s friends—Daniel, Hayden, Shania, among others—said, it looked like Skylar was upset because Shelia and Rachel had been leaving her behind lately. So maybe the night she snuck out, Skylar realized her two best friends were going to a party without her. She could have called another friend and asked for a ride so she could join in the fun, too. If so, they needed to find that car.
Colebank realized the teens’ cell phone records would help clear up the mystery. She would need warrants, and she was going to start by searching Shelia’s and Rachel’s cell phone records. If she needed to, she could branch out from there, getting warrants for other teens’ phones. Maybe if she could piece together the tweets with the texts, as well as see who called whom that night, she would be able to come up with answers.
The process was time intensive. There was no telling how long it would take the phone companies to respond—but it needed to be done. Colebank could not escape the feeling those girls were hiding something.
It also bothered her that Shelia seemed to be asking more questions than anyone in her situation should be. “Anytime I talked to Shelia,” Colebank later recalled, “she’d say, ‘What have you figured out? What do you know?’”
Shelia didn’t call Colebank or seek her out, but whenever the officer called to set up an interview, Shelia immediately wanted to know how the investigation was going. She didn’t seem intimidated by the constant questioning. In fact, Colebank thought the teen brash for even asking, and she didn’t like it that Shelia seemed amused.
Colebank’s concern over Shelia’s behavior turned to alarm when she learned Shelia was asking Mary and Dave the same questions. She urged them to stop telling Shelia or Rachel anything. At all.
“They’re wanting to know where we’re at in the case,” Colebank warned.
Mary and Dave waved her concern away, defending the teens as good friends who were simply worried about Skylar. The Neeses had known Shelia for many years and were confident if the teen knew anything useful, she would say so. They didn’t know Rachel well, but they automatically felt protective toward her, as they did with all of Skylar’s friends. They were afraid cutting off communication with Shelia was the worst approach. After the tragedy of Skylar’s disappearance, the Neeses also felt like they needed the teens as much as the teens needed them.
Colebank disagreed. She was certain Shelia’s “concern” was nothing of the kind, and suspected Shelia was doing something she’d seen other people do—trying to insert herself into the investigation. Shelia could be doing it for the thrill of being on the “inside,” but Colebank was afraid that wasn’t it at all. Whatever Shelia’s real reason, the young investigator was determined to find out.
At the same time, Colebank also wondered what Rachel was hiding. Whereas Shelia probed for information, Rachel was wide-eyed and solicitous. Plus, the teen actress kept claiming she had been too drunk and stoned to remember anything.
Looking back, Colebank realized how different the two teens’ demeanors were. Shelia was crafty, but Rachel came across as wanting to say the right thing. “It was a little more sincere, I guess you could say. You could sense shame or . . . a lot of it was fear. We got fear.”