Rotten Mango - #75: The Mean Girls Killers (Case of Shanda Sharer)

Episode Date: June 23, 2021

The 4 teenage girls decided they wanted McDonald's for breakfast after their all-nighter. They carefully reverse parked into the lot so that all the bloody handprints on the back of their trunk would be hidden. They ordered a full breakfast - and one of the girls lifted up the sausage patty and giggled “doesn’t this look like Shanda?” The 12-year-old girl that they kidnapped? The one they tortured in unspeakable ways for the past 8 hours? The one that they just burned alive? Source: “Little Lost Angel” - by Michael Quinlan (I thought I knew this case but then I read this book. One of the best deep dives I’ve read in a while - you’ll be engaged the whole time)  Full Source Notes Here: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rambles. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are, whenever we need it. Download the free Peloton is for all of us. Wherever we are, whenever we need it. Download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier or pay to description starting at 12.99 per month. Better being better boom. Welcome back, this week's rotten mango.

Welcome to this week's main episode. I'm just going to drop you in the middle of this crime because it's a crazy one. This is the case of Shanda Shera. It's gonna get wild, it's gonna get gruesome, so here's trigger warnings. There's lots of kids involved, there's lots of abuse involved, it gets really dark really quick. So the middle of this crime, let's talk about it. We've got four teenage girls standing around an open trunk. We can see that it's bloody inside. There's even bloody handprints on top of that trunk. Two of them are 15 years old. One of them is 16. Another one is only 17 years old. These are how young these girls are. And they start freaking out. Oh my god, oh my god! Still alive! What do we do? What do we do?

And Melinda kept asking, where's the heart, guys? Do you know where the heart is? It's on the left side of the chest. Why? Well, how do I get a knife in there? You've got to jab it. You've got to jab it. So they're starting to fight. Who's going to do it? Well, how do I get a knife in there? You've got to jab it, you've got to jab it! So they're starting to fight. Who's going to do it? Suddenly, one of the girl's moms comes out of the house. And this was a very, almost like a movie situation. The mom walks out and she sees these four girls kind of like yelling.

But she sees that the trunk is open, but the car is placed in a way that she can't see into the trunk. She just knows that these four girls are yelling into the trunk. Why are they doing that? What's going on? Why at this hour? Lori's like, Mom, it's nothing. Get out of here.

And she's like, whatever, we're going to go to McDonald's. They get into the car and all four girls drive off. They make multiple stops. They go into a gas station. They get a two liter bottle of Pepsi. Okay, they pay for $7 of gas at a pump. They take turns drinking that Pepsi and then they throw the rest of that drink out and Fill this two-liter Pepsi bottle with gas and they start driving more. Do you guys know a place? What do we do? We need to do something?

Well, I know a place near it's called Lemon Road. It's really really just rural. There's nobody there. We can get rid of it there Okay, let's do it. So they drive out to Lemon Road. They park on the remote side. By this point, it's 10 in the morning. Okay, we'll grab the blanket. Help me. Come on, lift guys. I can't do it alone. This is too heavy. And one of the girls starts complaining. God, this is nasty. This is gross. What are you complaining about? You're the one that started this whole thing.

They start arguing. They place that blanket on the ground, pour that two-liter Pepsi of gasoline all over. They get a pack of matches and toss it onto the blanket. The fire erupts. It even fried some of the girl's hair before she stepped away. And two of the girls start laughing. Wait, there's something in the blanket. And two of the girls start laughing. They get back into the car and blanket. In the blanket, got it. And two of the girls start laughing. They get back into the car and as they're driving away, they see the fire, but the flames are already starting to die down.

They're like, oh sh**, what if it doesn't burn all the way? Okay, we gotta reverse back. They get out and they start pouring more gas all over the pile of blankets. And they toss that empty Pepsi bottle and the fire goes up and flames again. They get back into the car and they're laughing once more. You should have seen it! Oh my god, you should have seen it. I'm so glad it's over now. The blanket was on fire. Did you see that? Oh, it's so good. And they all sit there and they have this little pep talk. Everyone, keep your mouth shut.

We're all going to be okay if we just don't talk about tonight. We stick together, no one's gonna find out We're not gonna say anything, right? Okay, well let's go to McDonald's. I'm hungry. So they go to McDonald's They reverse into that parking spot, you know just in case someone happens to see the bloody handprints on the back of their trunk And they go inside and they order a full breakfast at McDonald's and One of the girls looks around and says, oh my god, look at this sausage patty. Doesn't it look like Shonda? Shonda, the 12-year-old girl that they had just tortured

for eight hours and was burned alive on a remote road. She held up a sausage patty at McDonald's and said, doesn't this look like Shonda? Oh my god, this is not what I was imagining. This is the case of Shonda's share. Now I know I know if you're in the true crime world, you're like dabbling in it, you like listening to it, you've probably heard of this case. And that's what I thought. I know this case, right? But I wanted a deep dive, I wanted all the ins and outs, I wanted more information.

So there's two books on this case that are fantastic. So the first one is Cruel Sacrifice by Aphrodite Jones. But the second one is called Little Lost Angel by Michael Quinlan, the amount of research that went into this book yet the full cooperation of the share of family. So you just get every detail of practically everybody involved. I have never read a book that was so in depth on each player and there's so many moving characters in this one. I'm obviously not going to go as in depth as he did because that's a whole book, but it's really good if you want to get the full picture of everything. I highly recommend giving it a read. So this crime takes place in Madison, Indiana. It's kind of a place where

your connection with crime is probably reading about it in big cities. People said at that time, a lot of people would look at all these murders in New York City and LA and they'd be like, see, when we go to Disneyland and LA, we're going to wear fan-i-packs and we're going to put it in front of us because there's just criminals all up over there, but not here in Madison and Indiana. To be fair, the police officers who actually found Shonda's body, they didn't have a murder case in the past three years.

So they had to bring in state troopers, they couldn't even handle it. So who is Shonda's share? And what led up to this? I mean, how do five teenage girls get involved in something like this? So she was born to her mom, Jackie. And Jackie had actually, this is a very interesting love story. So Shonda's mom was in high school, right? And she was this beautiful girl.

I mean, people loved her. They were like, Jackie, that's the new girl. So these two guys, Mike and his best friend, Steve, they wanted to ask her out. They both did. So they're like, okay, we do a coin toss. They toss that coin and Mike wins. So Mike starts asking out Jackie. She says yes, they start dating, Steve starts dating someone else.

They go on these double dates all the time. This is like the, the, I was going to say the duo, but that's no they're like the four Quadrio quadruple quadrio Say We're what they're all dating each other? No, no, they're just hanging out all the time So it's not a duo. It's not a trio and I am an idiot is what I'm trying to say So at 16 Jackie gets pregnant with Mike's baby and they get married and they have their first daughter by the name of page. But the marriage was just not working out. They got married too young, they weren't ready to handle this and by the time that Jackie was 19 she's a

single mom. That's when she goes to a local bar and she runs into none other than Steve. Yes, Steve. Mike's best friend from high school and they immediately hit it off. Now this is Shonda's biological father. This is her dad. Now the marriage again didn't work out, but they actually wanted to be really on good terms. They put Shonda first. They were really good at co-parenting, so Shonda would spend a lot of the weekends with her biological dad and her stepmom Sharon. And they all got along.

Even Sharon the stepmom, everyone, it was just like really a happy family. And Shonda should grow up to be a super independent girl. I mean, she had no trouble making friends. That's what everyone said about her. She's got this sense of humor, always had above average grades. I mean, she wanted to be in the girl's scout, soccer team, cheerleading team, volleyball, everything. It's almost like as a high school kid, like an elementary school kid even. She just never had enough time in the day. Like as a kid. And she was a really really good friend so one time she went a trick or treating on Halloween and one of her friends had this boy. This boy was just evil.

Through a water balloon, into her friend's bag of treats and erupted so all her candy is soaked. So Shandas like I'm not having this. March straight up to that boy's house knocked on the door and says are you that boy's mom? Will you owe a whole new bag of candy? Because this is what your son did. And just ratted him out. I mean, she just was fiercely loyal to her friends. But she also had a soft side. Like if something was wrong, if she hurt your feelings, she would just cry. Like, she would just be so emotional. She just wanted you to feel better. So by the time that she's 12, she is heading into a new school. She's full blown terrified. I mean, this is scary.

She's going through her entire closet. She's blasting Mariah Carey trying to find that perfect outfit. She needs to make a statement. I mean, she's the new girl. She had just turned 12, but she's a little bit annoyed. She wants to be 13. That's her dream. She looked a little bit older than her age.

She's athletic. She's got this long blonde hair. She had these cute little dim when she smouts. So she was like, I'm sure if I tell people I'm 13 They would believe it, but Jackie was like, nope. I'm not doing it I will never tell anyone you I will go to school and tell your friends that you're 12 So she's like mom you just don't understand my struggles You don't get it. I want to be a teen and Jackie was a a little bit worried for Shonda. I mean, this is scary going into a new school. It was a lot bigger than her last school too. But Shonda came home happy. Just so happy. No mom, you don't get it. It was amazing. She loved her teachers, she had immense, so many nice friends.

She was killing it. But this is what's surprising. Jackie gets a call about a week later. And the principal tells her that Shonda's been in a fist fight. Wait, what? Like literally a week ago, and the principal tells her that Shonda's been in a fist fight. Wait, what? Like literally a week ago, she was telling me she loves this school. She's never been in a physical altercation before, so she rushes to the school and she's like, what's going on? Shonda had a cut on her face and a bump on the back of her head. What happened? Okay, mom, so this girl in class, right? She wants to break up with her boyfriend boyfriend And she has to give back his ring but she was so scared and so I was thinking okay like this is my chance to like make a friend I want to do impressors. I told her I can give the ring back to your boyfriend and I can break up with him for you And she was like okay, thank you so much because you know they're 12 like this what you do when you're 12 list

And I never broke up with anyone when I was 12 I'm pretty sure there's Five people out there that think that we're still dating because I I was like, you go tell them that we're breaking up. You dated five people? By 12? Damn. You know it. So she's like, I'll do it. I'll do it. She gives the ring to the boy and the boy is like, why doesn't she give it to me? I don't even know you. Who are you? Are you the new girl? No, I don't want it. But out of it, mind your own business.

And she's like, listen, like, don't make a scene. Just take the ring and you can talk to her about it later. And that's when a girl steps from the crowd. Because the crowd had been forming at this point. And she says, what are you doing? It's none of your business. I'm just doing, I'm giving back his ring. Well, that's my freaking cousin you're talking to.

And she just slams her to the ground. Fist start flying. I mean, Shonda didn't even fight back much. Just trying to defend herself the whole time. People are shouting fight, fight, fight. Get her, Amanda! Finally, a teacher breaks it up and both girls were due to receive one week of detention. What's wrong with that?

Amanda Girl. So Amanda he ran. This is the girl that had just punched her. Just assaulted her for no reason. She was 14 years old and this was just not her first fight. By a long shot, she had been in multiple different fights. She lived in one of the poor neighborhoods with just her dad and her sister. Her mom had left a while earlier and she was just struggling a lot. She did not do well in school. She only wore baggy jeans, sweatshirts, baseball caps, which at that time period weren't cool. I know it's like really hot to do that now, but back then it was almost like, why aren't you dressed like a girl? People always say, why is your hair so short? Are you trying to be a boy? Yeah, this is the time period that we're talking about. They would tease her. A lot of boys

didn't even want to talk to her because they're like, she's weird. Why doesn't she have long curly hair? No, I feel bad. I just say it. What's wrong? It gets wild. Okay, there's too many twists in this one. Amanda's dad actually kept presying her to get a boyfriend because he was like, are you gay? What's going on? She'd be like, no, dad, I'm not gay now. It was clear that Amanda was bisexual But she was terrified of coming out. I mean her parents her family wasn't accepting neither was Indiana at the time Neither was this time period it was just difficult But there was a girl at school that did accept Amanda and wanted to date her That was a girl named Melinda. Loveless

Loveless what a last name. Yeahveless. Loveless. What are the last name? Yeah. So she had been held back a year. So she was 16, a little bit older than the rest of her grade. And honestly, she was beautiful. That's how everyone describes her. I mean, she just had this long curly hair, this delicate face, even the older boys at school who only wanted to date girls their age, wanted to date her.

This was rare. I mean, she was like a catch. So she had some relationships with some guys, but she realized they weren't shit. They weren't pleasant. She was like, what am I missing out on? Her tool or sister has happened to be lesbians. So she's like, maybe I'm gay too. She started trying to find a girlfriend and immediately fell for Amanda because Amanda looked like her dad. Now you're thinking, okay, this is a really, really weird reason to date someone. And Melinda has a very complex relationship with her dad. His name is Larry Lovelace, and this whole family situation is out of control. It's insane.

So Larry married a woman by the name of Margie, and this was immediately not a good marriage. Super abusive. He forced her to have sex every single day, all day, every day. Just at any god-given hour, he was like, drop a pants or having sex, and if she didn't want to, he would rape her. He would rape his own wife. I mean, he was obsessed with it. People in the neighborhood called him an absolute pervert. Like, that's the one word that they would use for Larry. He would even force his wife to have sex with random men all the time while he watched, so they had their first daughter who was molested by Larry since the time that she was an infant, then they had a second daughter that he continued to molest, and then Melinda

the third daughter was born, and he somehow convinced the eldest daughter that she was Melinda's mom. Why? So she was like, because you're her actual mom, like you're, this is your biological kid, you have to take care of her While him and his wife would just go on doing random stuff So now the girls are raising Melinda I mean Melinda would even call one of her older sister's mom Genuinely believed for the longest time that this was her biological mom and Larry was just a super cruel father to his three daughters

And his wife he had this huge fetish for guns, so he'd constantly threaten them by putting guns up to their head And they would put it up to the mom's head in front of the kids and say if you ever leave I will kill you and I'll kill all three of those kids right there He would choke the mom in front of the girls on some occasions He would even rape his own wife in front of the children. I mean, there was no privacy in this house And then at nighttime, what would Larry do? Well, he would come into the rooms of the daughters and just sleep on their beds.

Sometimes he would go into the bathroom while you're showering and watch you. He would just stare at you. And if you'd asked him to stop, like, can you please stop staring at me? He would say, why would I want to look at you? You're ugly. You have nothing I want to see.

Disgusting. Do we know what happened to him? Yeah, he got hit by a truck and died. Nice. ugly you have nothing I want to see. Discussing. Doing that will happen to him? Yeah he got hit by a truck and died. Nice. Nice. He said, nice. Sometimes he would make the girls pee

into a dixie cup in front of him which is a very bizarre, bizarrely sexual punishment. I mean just straight up abuse. He was also known for trying to wear the daughters underwear. Like he would go around sneak into their closets, grab their underwear, and wear it. Sometimes if you left your dirty laundry around, he would pick out your undies, and he would go around the house smelling it. Just straight up smelling it.

And if you caught him, he would just tell you, oh it's stinky, that's why. But he would continue to smell it. I mean, just bizarre. He would open why. But he would continue to smell it. I mean just bizarre. He would open up your underwear drawer and masturbate into it. And then all of a sudden Larry became a born again Christian. Now the reason that he does this is not because he is a true Christian, not because this is not even Christianity. He wanted to do this because he wanted everyone to be submissive to him, and he thought that religion was the best way to do it. So he told his wife and kids, Never walk next to me. You can only walk several feet behind me.

That's it. Because I'm the dad of this house. I'm the man of this house. You will dress conservatively. You will do everything I say, because I'm the man of this house. And he would have these moments where he just thought that everything was possessed. So he would grab all of the toys, all of the clothes that the girls owned, and which is burn it in front of them because they were possessed by the devil. When Melinda was six years old, he told the family that she was possessed by Satan and needed to get an exorcism for her. So what's an exorcism, you ask?

Well, instead of taking her to a church or to a priest, he took her to a motel room and dropped her off with some 50 year old dude for several hours. And she has no memory of this. So she doesn't know if she was assaulted by this 50 year old man or if he fake performed it at exorcism, she doesn't know. I mean, we can only assume the worst. And like the next year, Melinda and her sisters, they find their mom in the basement, passed

out, overdosed on sleeping pills with pictures of the daughters, just scattered around her. And this is really traumatizing. So they call 911, they were forced to walk her around the house to keep her awake until the ambulance could come and pump her stomach. So things are starting to get even worse. Now at this point, Margie, the mom,

she decided I'm gonna start cheating on my husband. Like I, I'm not happy with this relationship, I need to find some male satisfaction elsewhere. Now this is where it gets really sad. Larry is abusive and he's obviously the worst of the two parents, but the daughters will say that the mom put men in front of them.

She wanted to have all of these affairs. She cared more about that than trying to protect the kids or trying to raise the kids. So the full divorce happens when Melinda is just 13 years old. She went to the pool with her cousins and when they came home, they were just bawling their eyes out like crying. And so Margie, the mom is like, what's going on Melinda? Tell me what happened.

Well dad was peeking over the shower at us and poking our naked bodies with a cane. And this is when the mom decides, enough is enough. She explodes. She starts chasing Larry Lovelace around the house with a kitchen knife. I mean, the police are called. She slashed his hand and he left. He was like, I'm not doing this anymore.

We're getting a divorce. That night, she tries to overdose on sleeping pills. Thankfully, she was saved and she's alive. But it was just a lot on the kids. A lot. And after the divorce, Melinda stayed close with her dad. It seemed like Larry used Melinda to make his wife jealous, almost as if Melinda is like his girlfriend.

That was the vibe people were getting. And Melinda left her dad, and it's not uncommon to love your abuser. She was the favorite child, she wanted to be loved, she wanted to be accepted by him, and Melinda just believed Amanda looked like her dad and was just attracted to her for that. Like really attracted to her. Now, side note, Larry would deny all claims of abuse but he was arrested

for multiple counts of rape, sawdemy, and sexual battery against children. But before he could go to jail, he got hit by a bus and died. So all of the students at Hazelwood School knew that these two were dating Amanda and Melinda. I mean, they would always hug, kiss in the hallways, and other students would straight up harass them. Just yelling, they would call them the D-word, the dyk-s-s-s-l-r, you know. But Amanda and Melinda did not care. I mean, they were in love. They were obsessed with each other. This seemed to be the first time that both of them were in a same-sex relationship, and they were incredibly attached.

For example, a heterosexual first relationship would be the end all be all. Think about your first middle school high school relationship. You thought you were going to marry the person, right? But on top of that, this is even more intense because they live in a place where same sex love is just not accepted. So the fact that they found each other and it seems like they're the only two in this school, they're just, they've got this crazy attachment, an obsession. It means so much to them, this relationship. This is gonna sound really poetic, but when you write a bike, how do you like to write it?

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more power in the relationship. She would force Amanda into doing sexual things that Amanda did not want to do. And there was just a lot going on, you know, a lot going on. So when Melinda finds out about Amanda's detention for a week, she's not really surprised, she's not really worried. Amanda always gets detention. I mean, she's just annoyed that they can't spend time together between classes, but it's only a week. But when Amanda calls her after school to let her know guess what babe.

You know that girl that I fought with? Shonda? Well she's actually super nice and we're friends now. And this just sparks a little jealousy. A little what? I thought you guys hated each other. The new girl I heard she's pretty. Do you think she's pretty?

I mean, yeah she's pretty, but she's super nice. Like we're friends now. Hmm. Huh. So the next day, Melinda purposely comes to school late to get detention just to see what that relationship is turning into, and she did not like it. She did not like what she saw.

They were passing notes in the same room that Melinda herself was in. So this jealousy is bubbling, and she's fake smiling at them. You know, fake smiling at Shonda trying to be nice and she follows Amanda into the bathroom and tries to rip the note that Shonda wrote to her to see what it says. And Amanda is like, no, just, there's nothing in there. Leave me alone Melinda. Trust me.

What are you hiding from me? And she finally grabs it away from her and she reads it. Shonda had written to Amanda that she thought that she was cute. Waaah. Sonoma Linda's pissed. And she's just saying, stay away from her. This is disgusting. Like, don't you dare. Don't you dare talk to her. But it was too late.

Amanda was infatuated with Shanda. Amanda was obsessed with Shanda. Now, Melinda was not the only one that didn't like this new friendship. Shanda's mom hated it. Shanda's mom was like, what do you mean your friends with the girl that beat you up? Now Melinda was not the only one that didn't like this new friendship. Shonda's mom hated it. Shonda's mom was like, what do you mean your friends with the girl that beat you up? That doesn't sound like a good idea, first of all. And second of all, she seems like the type that's rough.

I mean, is she beat you up over that? I don't know, she's going to be a good friend. But Shonda would say, but mom, didn't you say we should always give people second chances? Besides, I don't have friends yet and she wants to be my best friend. So is Shanda into her in a deeper level or is just a friendship? So this is where it gets a little bit complex because I do want to be respectful to Shanda's parents who believe that Shanda was not gay. Now I don't know if this has to do with the time period.

They felt like, oh, we don't wanna, quote unquote, like drag her name. Maybe it was that, but I do know that at that age, her sexuality was, I mean, her knowledge even of sexuality was super limited. So for example, she didn't know anyone that was openly gay or even bisexual. Her parents also didn't have any openly gay

or anyone that belonged to the LGBTQ community, like friends or in their family, just nothing. The only time that Shonda heard the words gay, lesbian or bisexual, were either at church and with negative connotations or like with edgy jokes. So now that she's getting these letters from Amanda saying things like, I have to ask a question. I know this may sound dumb, but do you like girls? Would you like kind of in a way like girls?

I don't know, it's just, it's so cool because it's so different. Is that why you're nice to me? Please tell me the truth. I won't laugh because I think it's cool. Now, Shonda, I mean, she's exploring her sexuality. She is feeling feelings for Amanda. So she's a little bit, I would say maybe she's just

trying to learn about herself. And Amanda would keep pressing saying things like, Shonda, I little bit, I would say maybe she's just trying to learn about herself. And Amanda would keep pressing things like, Shonda, I was wondering, do you still like me? Like do you know what I mean? I'm just joking. Or do you not want me to joke? Love Amanda. PS, I'm starting to like someone.

You know her. You know these like, these, I feel like we've all written these. And then it starts getting more assertive. Like what's on your mind? Shonda do you want to fuck? Not just joking. Well, I don't know last night. I meant everything I said to you about making love to you Shonda, you're beautiful hot and sexy and I want you and I can't say it enough Well, these are what text messages or letters letters. Oh, on letters. Yeah

Yeah, so I really do think that Shonda was just exploring her sexuality what text messages or these letters. Full on letters, yeah. Wow. Yeah. So I really do think that Chanda was just exploring her sexuality. I don't think we can like definitively say what she was identifying as or how she felt. And I don't think it's important to the story, in my humble opinion. So within a few weeks, a sexual relationship does begin.

And Chanda asked her mom if she could sleep over at Amanda's. Now, the letters after this incident insinuate that some sexual stuff happened and that maybe Shonda was conflicted with it. Because the first letter that Amanda sent her after this was Deer Shonda. I had a really great time with you last night. I'm looking forward to more.

Please don't cry anymore. Okay, love Amanda. Oh shit. But then Shonda writes. It's so aggressive. It's really aggressive, but then Shonda writes back. And I mean, it seems like it's okay now because Shonda says Amanda. I then Shonda writes. It's so aggressive. It's really aggressive. But then Shonda writes back. And I mean, it seems like it's OK now, because Shonda says, Amanda, I loved last night too.

And I want more too, and always. I love what we have last night if you want it. Love Shonda. I think Amanda knew exactly what she wanted and knew who she was in her sexuality. But I think Shonda was still on the fence of like, wait, what's going on? Yeah, yeah.

So this has taken an emotional toll on her, because she's 12 years old. She sees that Amanda and Melinda are always bullied in school for their sexuality. They're not accepted. I mean, she's 12. All of her other really close girlfriends. They're not even at the same school, so she can't even consult with them. I mean, she's completely by herself in this. So she tells a neighbor by the name of Michelle, and she says, I have to tell you something.

I hope you don't feel differently about me. Like like I swear. I don't feel this way about you But me and Amanda did something she says that where it lies bands But I don't know I just don't feel that way. I might be bisexual because I feel like I like guys more than girls So she seemed to be torn meanwhile Melinda is getting more suspicious She starts writing letters to Amanda like really aggressive. Amanda is cheating on. Yeah, secretly. It's crazy. Amanda the whole time kind of plays both fields. Now it's hard to say if Amanda was just being a reckless 14 year old or, you know, Amanda was so terrified of Melinda to break it off with her. It's kind of up in the air.

So, you know, Melinda starts writing these letters to Amanda like, why did you write her name on your folder? Why did you write her ugly name on your folder? You must obviously like her. Just tell me that you like her once, because I already know the truth. An Amanda kept denying it, and she was scared, and both of these girls become really attached to Amanda. Shonda slowly becomes attached, because this is her only friend at her new school. She's experiencing new experiences with just her.

I mean, she's so young. And then Melinda was getting desperately attached, trying to hold on to this relationship with everything that she had. And she just got angrier and angrier. Every time that she was at Amanda's house, Shonda would call and just hang up. So she would look at her girlfriend and say, I swear to God Amanda, if you don't stay away, I will hurt you. But of course Amanda did not stay away.

And in fact, she actually got ballsier and ballsier. She knew that Melinda doesn't like school dances. She kind of turns her head to it, like they're so lame. So Melinda's probably not gonna go to the Hazelwood Dance. So why don't I go? And I'm gonna ask Shonda to go. And we're just gonna sneak up in there. So what if all the kids tell Melinda later

that we went to the dance together? That will be, when you're 14, you don't think of the consequences. You're just like, let me do this now because it feels right. So at the dance, Amanda and Shonda, they're having the time of their lives. Meanwhile, Melinda is with another good friend that goes to a completely different school. Her name is Carrie and she's 17 years old. She's also bisexual. It has had some sexual relations with Melinda before, but they were underage drinking that night, and Melinda's just

ranting. Like, oh my god, my girlfriend Amanda's cheating on me. Like, what do I do? What if they're at the dance together? You have to drive me there. You have to drive me there. We have to make sure. So they get into the car, they drive to the dance and they wait in the parking lot. And they see sure enough Amanda and Shondo walk out together. And she just goes, I mean, balls to the walls, honestly, Melinda, drums out of the car screaming at them, starts chasing Amanda through the parking lot, saying, I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you. The principal has to come and split them up So at this point Amanda's like okay, you're right. Maybe this grows a little bit too crazy like maybe this is too much

Melinda I can't do this anymore. We have to break up So they break up and in letters to Shonda Amanda seems to be super upset I mean she would constantly say things like Mel Melinda fucked up my life, like, I'm all yours. I knew that Melinda wasn't good for me, like, I'm starting to hate Melinda. Saying all these really aggressive things, but the minute that Melinda got a new girlfriend, Amanda went crawling back.

What? So it's just like a tumultuous love triangle, just really, really bad. And so Amanda goes crawling back to Melinda, but the minute that she does that, Shonda's like, you know what? I'm over it too, and she starts kind of talking to boys, which is pissing off Amanda. Like it's just like back and forth. It seems like Amanda just goes to whoever seems to be moving on, is the vibe that I'm getting.

But Melinda was still furious, even though it seemed like Amanda was back with her. She kept telling all of her friends that anyone that would listen, Shonda is going to pay for this. She's ruining my life. And her friends don't really agree. I mean, they told her, if anything, it's not Shonda's fault. Like, don't you think you should be mad at Amanda? If anything, you need to teach Amanda a lesson, not Shonda.

So her and her girlfriend, they decide to come up with a plan to kidnap Amanda and beat her up. They weren't even gonna wear masks. They were just gonna straight up. Kidnap. She said I'm gonna kidnap my girlfriend. Yeah, kidnap my girlfriend and beat her up and then act like the next day that we're gonna be fine and she's gonna love me again. Like she's gonna get the message that when I beat her up that she can't talk to Shonda anymore. I mean, this is a very messed up plan. So they're like, okay, let's do the plan, but first, let's do some cocaine. Now Melinda hates drugs.

So she doesn't do any, but her friend gets all coked up, and now Melinda's annoyed because they can't drive to Amanda's, and the plane follows apart. The plan is just moot now. So she thinks to herself, maybe this is a sign from the universe. Next time, I'm going to choose better accomplices. And I don't think the victim should be Amanda. It should be Shanda. She should pay for what she did. Now all of this is weighing down on little Shanda. I mean she's 12. This is a lot. Melinda is harassing her. Melinda's friends are harassing her.

She's going through a lot, exploring her sexuality, she starts changing, I mean she stopped caring about her hair, her clothes, she went from being bubbly to quitting all of her sports, I mean like I said she loved these sports teams, just doing nothing a completely different person, she seemed to never have any homework. So her mom's like what's going on, why don't you have homework and she would say oh this school's different mom, this is public school, they don't give homework. Well that doesn't sound right. So after a couple of weeks,

Shonda's mom drives to the school to investigate. And there was just a lengthy record of detention slips. She was failing every single class. She wasn't turning in assignments. And everything was signed off by Jackie. So it looked like Shonda had forged her mom's signature. She's like oh my god. This is look and then look at these detention slips Shonda Everything is you getting detention because of Amanda you guys skipped class you guys did this don't you see Shonda It's all because of Amanda you need to stop hanging out with her

So her parents forbade her from hanging out with Amanda and then a couple weeks later the tipping point happens when they find a note with Amanda and then a couple weeks later the tipping point happens when they find a note from Shonda addressed to Amanda and I said Amanda I miss you. I will always love you no matter what happens and I miss the touch of your soft body. The mom found that note. Yeah so the parents immediately freak out they confront her but Shonda is just denying everything. She's like no no no it's not what you think like it's just a joke and they knew that there was more to it. They didn't know what to do so they decided to pay the pricey tuition and she would transfer to a Catholic school So after she transfers, I mean, you know, this is this is a Romeo and Juliet moment I feel like a lot of us have had this when we're that young and Shonda and Amanda of course are still trying to see each other

They're like no this means we got to see each other more because the world is against us So Shonda tries to sneak into the next school dance, but she wasn't allowed in because she's not a public school student anymore. So she was rejected, but Melinda happened to be there. She was there with Amanda. So she grabs Amanda by the art, drags her outside and the whole class, the crowd is forming. They want to see what's gonna happen. And she says says, Amanda, tell Shonda you don't love her. And in front of everyone, Amanda tells Shonda, I don't love you and I don't want you anymore. I love Melinda, leave me alone. So in front of everyone, Melinda looks at Shonda and says, if you talk to her again, I will

f**king kill you. And she goes around just telling all of her friends, oh my god, did you talk to her again, I will fucking kill you. And she goes around just telling all of her friends, oh my god did you see what happened at the dance? Yeah, it's all shondasfall. I hate shondas. I'm gonna kill her. I'm gonna kill her. She even asked one of her close friends, how do you get rid of a body after you kill them? The friends like, well, I read somewhere that you put it into a barrel with leaves and you set it on fire fire because leaves are flammable and they can identify someone who's you know burnt to ashes

Huh on fire you say So I'm the land is one thing I learned from true crime is There's no way you can't you can't hide these evidence. Okay, like after years of listening to you talk about this, there's no way. So don't even try. Yeah, don't even try because, I mean, yeah, maybe people get away with this, but. The more I hear it, the more I realize it's almost impossible

to perfectly, you know, make a perfect body disappear. And with like CCTV these days, I mean, just even think about Amazon ring cameras. I'm like, that's scary. That is too many ring cameras out there guys So while Melinda is I don't know probably planning the murder of Shonda I mean Shonda's at this new school. She's getting stressed out. She's embarrassed and she starts kind of Becoming herself again. She starts making girlfriends. She starts, you know hanging out with boys

They had this one boy that kept calling the house all the time and her mom was like, finally, I knew that I was complaining about this, but I've got my shonda back, not because of her sexuality, but she's just herself again. She's bubbly, she's doing her hair, she's like, mom, what should we watch on TV tonight? She's just becoming her again. She's on the basketball team, she's not talking to Amanda anymore, and it's gonna be okay. It's gonna be okay.

But around this time, Melinda meets someone and this is gonna change the trajectory of everything. So Melinda meets a 17 year old by the name of Lori Tackett. Now Lori was a very interesting person. She had this fascination with black magic. She was a bit of a loner, she was bisexual, very strange girl, not because of her sexuality, but just, let's really everything else. Okay, let because of her sexuality, but just let's really everything else.

Okay, let me get into it. So she had a really tough appearance. Her dad had spent two years in prison for a robbery, but her mom was like this really crazy religious person. Like when I say religious, this isn't even religion anymore, this is just like craziness. So they would do this thing where they would constantly speak in tongues, they would have these visions, they band the girls and all the kids up at church from wearing makeup and jewelry. Guess what?

Advil? Yeah, Advil is the devil. The doctor? The doctor is the freaking devil, okay? Jean's denim is the devil. You will burn in hell for taking up, you know, a piece of Advil. You will burn in hell. So Lori, most of her life was forced to wear these long dresses to school.

She couldn't even take PE because she wasn't allowed to wear sweatpants. Her parents would literally tell her, you're gonna burn in hell for this if you wear sweat pants. She was only allowed to listen to gospel music. They sold their TV because the TV is the devil. And when Lori was 14 years old, she tried on a pair of jeans, secretly in her room. She had like borrowed it from a friend. And her mom walks in on her and tells her, that's the devil! And she starts chasing her around. Jump some top of Lori!

This is where the laughter goes away because she starts strangling Lori. Oh my god. So Lori tries to escape, goes to the neighbors to get help and she just, at this moment, Lori's like just flipped a switch. She started rebelling. I'm not doing this anymore. I'm gonna be the opposite of my mom. I am going to be Satan. Like, I will literally be the devil that she's so terrified of. And I can kind of understand where this is coming from. So she starts wearing clothes like mini skirts, super mini skirts, stockings, open blouses. She starts having sex at a young age with guys. Her boyfriend cheated on her, so she tries to run him over with her car.

Thankfully he didn't get hit, hit, she was attracted to girls and she wrote about her confusion and her diary and her little brother found it and this little kid ratted her out. And her mom acted like, you know what, I'm just going to ignore it, but the next time they went to church, the whole sermon was about how homosexuality is the devil. Oh my god. And they will all go to hell. You will burn in hell for eternity. So she wants to escape this, and that's how she fell into things like the occult, black

magic, wanted to cast spells on people that she hated. She started self-harming and cutting herself. She would use that blood to draw pictures and she called it blood art. Her mom called a preacher over to perform an exorcism. This pissed her off. So what she does is she barricades herself in her room and turns up the most vile music that she had on her stereo. And at only 16 years old, Lori was taken to a hospital

because she had cut herself so badly. And people believed it was a suicide attempt. She was committed to a mental hospital for weeks. So, when she gets out, she's got this anger. She wants to be the opposite of her family. She wants to be the devil almost that her family hates so much. She's got this resentment, and even her own small friend group starts to get creeped out by her, because she would tell them them guess what dream I had last night. I saw these mutilated burnt infants hanging from the trees.

No, it wasn't a nightmare. It's just a dream, not a nightmare. Anyway, don't you think it'd be fun to kill someone? Imagine pushing a knife into someone's stomach. I wonder what that feels like. So few people know what that feels like. Don't you want to be one of them? At parties, she would try to cut other people's arms

and try to suck their blood. And first of all, they did not consent to being cut. They did not consent to have their blood drink in. So they started getting really frustrated. Like, we don't want to be your friend anymore. Stop trying to drink my blood. This isn't the vampire diaries. And then she would talk about, but you know what the best would be? More than drinking blood is to watch someone being set on fire. A lot of people conclude that this is the

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Text Mango to 388-17. Now, one of her friends gets into a fight with her grandma. So this girl is like, oh my god, Laurie, I hate my grandma. She's so mean. And Laurie looks at her and says, do you want me to kill her? What? My grandma? Yeah, I could easily do it. She's old, isn't she?

Besides you, Hader, we could do it together. No, it's fine, Laurie. I don't think I want to kill my grandma because I have a curfew. OK, well, let me know if you change your mind. Like just deadpan. She was so serious. So at parties, Louis started drinking her own blood because nobody wanted to give them their blood.

She would, you know, force others to try to drink her blood. They weren't having it. She would do this thing where she would quote unquote channel the dead. She would sit there, go into a trance. Her voice would change it. She said that she could bring back people from the dead. She would sit there, go into a trance, her voice would change it. She said that she could bring back people from the dead, she could curse people. She was Diana the Vampirus and wants to kill someone. It was just a lot. The only friend that she really had at that time was Hope. Hope Rippy

had been her friend since they were like in elementary school. And she saw Lori as like an older sister of some sorts. Hope also started self-harming at 15 years old, came from a really rough background, her parents were divorced, but technically she wasn't as, quote, strange as Lori. But she still don't fit in. I mean, most of the kids at school, especially the popular kids, they were preppy. But hope she smoked cigarettes, she had some edgy or fashion, she cursed a lot so they didn't accept her. So she really admired Lori for being herself. You know, she was like, you're so cool, I want to be like you. Now Hope's best friend was Tony Lawrence.

These are going to be the four murders. Melinda Lovelace, Lori Tackett, Hope Ripy, and Tony Lawrence. So Hope's best friend is Tony Lawrence and she actually came from a really nice family. Like they weren't rich but they had a comfortable life and she was an average student. She was kind of liked by almost everyone. Just didn't really stand out. Like she wrote poems. She loved being involved in school.

She shopped her clothes just super normal compared to the rest of the group. But about a year prior to this, she was raped by a boy at a friend's house. And her family finally found out about it. They marched over to the police station and said, you got to press charges on this kid. But instead, the police station gave that boy a lecture. And at school, a lot of the kids even talked about how Tony is such a snitch.

Why would she rat him out? And they started making fun of her and bullying her and taking her rapist side. So of course, she became more shy. and she really just hung out with hope. And that was it. That was the only person that really understood her. So with that connection to hope, I mean, she met Lori. She really liked Lori. She just remained, right? Just weird.

So this is when Melinda meets Lori and they immediately click, you know? Melinda's having a hard time. Lori is having a hard time. She's getting pushed out of her small friend group. So they start talking, well, why don't we go to a concert? Let's go to a concert. There's going to be a crazy concert in Louisville. And we're just not going to tell our parents.

We're going to tell them that we're like sleeping over at a friend's house. It'll be fun. Lori's like, yeah, I can even invite my friend Hope. And maybe Hope can invite her friend, Tony. So it'll be all four of us Wait, but what are they trying to do? Just go to a concert. Oh, okay, and that is when Melinda says wait But before we go to the concert, can we do something fun? Remember Shonda that I was telling you about the girl that stole my girlfriend

Can we go to her house and beat her up? I? Just want to beat her up. I just want to scare her. That's what I want to do. Where he's like, yeah, sounds good? Let's do it. So Lori tells Hope the whole plan. We're going to terrorize the shit out of this 12-year-old girl, right? Don't tell Tony because she's not going to come then because Tony is like more of the straight-edge kid

and Hope's like, yeah, let's go terrorize her. So they all get into the car and they start driving around. They go to a Walmart and stuff. They all lie to their parents, saying that they're sleeping over at another school friend's house, and Lori starts nudging hope. Like, have you told her yet? Have you told her?

Tony's like, told me what? Lori turns around and says, we're gonna kill a little girl. They say kill? Yeah. I thought they were just trying to... Gonna beat her up, right? Is that the moment that? Lori is like, yeah, were just gonna beat her up right is that the moment that

Lori is like yeah, I'm gonna kill her. Lori has never met Shonda by the way Melinda wants to beat up Shonda and now Lori is like let's just go all the way. Why just beat her up? I want that blood Oh my god, and what is everybody else's reaction? So Tony's reaction is no, you're not Oh my god, and what is everybody else's reaction? So Tony's reaction is, no you're not. She just says, yeah we are. And Tony's uncomfortable. So she just changes the subject. She doesn't believe that.

I'm like, this is one of Lori's like weird. Oh, I'm doing a channeling the dead. Look at me, Arm Deanna, the vampire is like, this isn't happening, that's crazy. So they start driving around and they decide that they're gonna bring Shonda to a place called the Witch's Castle, which was the ruined remains of like this mansion, this stone mansion, and the place was super creepy. It's called

Witches Castle because people speculated that a bunch of witches were burned there back in the day. I don't know if that's true, but it's kind of like one of those haunted places where you'll see like graffiti, pentagrams and stuff. That's how everyone describes it. So they're like, okay, that's where we're going to take her, and it's all going to everyone describes it. So they're like, okay, that's where we're gonna take her and it's all gonna be great So once they get to Melinda's place to kind of regroup Melinda pulls out a rusty old kitchen knife from her purse And says this is what I'm using tonight They're like what?

Yeah, I'm gonna kill her and she starts angrily ranting about it. Just about the whole situation So again, hope and Tony, they still think, now we're just gonna go scare her. I mean, this is like a, this is saying, I'm so angry I could kill her, right? Yeah, that makes sense. And then Melinda allegedly goes on to say, I'm gonna run this knife down, Shonda's stomach and tease her with it. Again, they're like, okay, no, that's fine. So the plan is, we're going to go to Shanda's dad's house, where she is for the weekends, Hope and Tony, who have never met Shanda, are going to go to the front door and ask Shanda

and say, hey, Shanda, Amanda's in the car and she wants to talk to you. So she's going to come to the car and we're going to push her in. Melinda's going to be hiding in the car with the knife, and they're going to drive her to the witch's castle and they're going to beat her up. Melinda's gonna be hiding in the car with a knife. And they're gonna drive her to the witch's castle and they're gonna beat her up. Maybe even killer. Meanwhile, at Chanda's dad's house, Michelle the neighbor comes by and tells Chanda, hey, do you want to come to a party with me? So Chanda's like, dad, please, can I go? Please, please, please, please, I'll be back before curfew. She was ecstatic. She was like, oh my god, where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where

am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? Where am I?, where, where, where I put in my hair? Like she was so happy. While she's getting ready There's a knock on the door. It's these two girls she's never seen before so she opens it and they say hi My name's Hope. We're friends of Amanda's Shhh, lower your voice because she's not allowed to hang out with Amanda remember So hope continues and this is And Tony interrupts her and says hi, I'm Stacy Okay, little weird. She's doing a fake name.

Anyway, Amanda's waiting for you at the castle by the river. We want to take you there. She wants to talk to you really badly. It's really important. Oh, um, sorry guys, but I can't. I'm going to a party. But Shonda, she really needs to talk to you. It's super serious.

What does she need to talk to me about? We can't tell you, but it's kind of serious. So she starts getting a little curious, you know? She wonders like, what could it be about? So she says, fine, why don't you bring her to the house later instead of going to like this weird castle by the river? Why don't you bring her over? I'll sneak out of the house around, let's say midnight.

And maybe I can talk to her in the car or talk to her in the front lawn. So that sounds good. And they go back into Lori's car. So they're like, okay, we got a comment midnight. So what's the plan? They go to the concert to kill time. They go to the concert. So Melinda and Lori, they're in the concert just singing, dancing,

having the time of their lives. Meanwhile, hope and Tony start talking to a couple boys and they take them into Lori's car so that they could hang out in the quietness of this car. Now it's a legend that they had sex with the boys where they're talking. We don't really know, it doesn't matter, right? But just putting that out there. And one of them asked the girls, like, which room?

You guys seem a little bit preoccupied in your thoughts. You see them in a little tense, what's going on, girls? And Tony says, well, you know those two girls that we came with? Well, they're going to kill a little girl tonight. And the guys are just laughing, like, okay, sure. No, I'm not kidding. They've been talking about it all night. That's all they'll talk about. Right hope didn't they even show us a knife? And I was like, yeah, they did.

But the boys still don't believe it. And they said, well, if you guys are so scared, why don't you guys just come with us and leave those two girls? They're trying to shoot their shot, honestly. Okay, this is what the boys are doing. But for whatever reason, the girls do not. They stay with Lori and Melinda, and they go with the plan. As they're driving to Shonda's house to meet with her for around midnight, this is when things get really just...

Melinda even starts talking about how much she hates Shonda, but how Shonda is very sexy. And wouldn't mind doing sexual things with her. Allegedly, that is coming from one of the other girls. So it's just really bizarre. This whole thing is bizarre. So Shonda gets home and she begs her dad. can Michelle sleep over? Can Michelle sleep over? And her dad says, no. So Michelle goes home and Shanda is alone. Well, her parents are there, her stepmom, her dad's there, but she's just downstairs eating pizza, watching TV when there's a knock on the kitchen door.

So she opens it up and she doesn't look like she, it looks like she forgot, honestly, that's what people were saying. Like Michelle was saying, I don't think it makes sense. she wouldn't have asked me to sleep over if this was happening. So she opens the door and she was like, oh shoot, which I wear. So hope even sneaks upstairs, to Shonda's room and helps her pick out an outfit. Knowing full well what's about to happen. Knowing that she's not gonna see Amanda. So Shonda gets into the car and they start driving.

Now, there's some evidence shows that So Shonda gets into the car and they start driving. Now there's some evidence shows that Shonda was forced into the car, but it's kind of up for debate. The girls state that Shonda got into the car willingly. And around this point, they're riding around when Melinda, who was hiding in the back under a blanket, sprung up, started pulling Shonda's hair, put the knife to her throat, and Shonda started screaming. Melinda says, surprise.

I bet you didn't expect to see me here. throat and Chanda starts screaming. Melinda says, surprise. I bet you didn't expect to see me here. And she starts asking questions that you really shouldn't ask. Like, did you go to this party with her? With Amanda? And Chanda's like, yes. Did you guys do blah, blah, blah sexually? And Chanda says, yes.

And Melinda is getting herself angry or angry and angry. And Chanda's just saying, please, please, please. Like, I haven't talked to her in so long. I won't see her anymore please just let me go and this is when Melinda straight up tells her I told Amanda that I was gonna kill you today and she wanted me to this is not true but imagine the amount of pain emotional pain even that would inflict so they keep the knife to Chanda so as they drive her to the witch's castle and she just full on sob as they drive her to the witch's castle,

and she just full on sobbing. They grab her out of the car, get into the abandoned house, sit her down on a bench, and just tire up with pieces of rope, and that's when the taunting begins. They say, oh, doesn't Shonda just have the prettiest hair? I wonder what it'll look like if we cut it off. They say, oh, that's a cute watch. Hope loves her watch. It was a Mickey Mouse watch that Shonda had recently gotten for Christmas. Mickey Mouse, this girl is 12. And hope slaps it out of her wrist and puts it on hers. So hope is now wearing Shonda's Mickey Mouse watch.

They take off several pieces of jewelry from Shonda and they start passing it around so that they can wear it. They light a shirt on fire. And Lori tells Shonda, they start passing it around so that they can wear it. They light a shirt on fire, and Lori tells Shonda, look at this shirt, because it's going to be you soon. And they start beating her up. Now, Tony and Hope were kind of the side players. It seemed like Lori and Melinda did most of the beating. Hope will later do a couple of things, but Tony didn't do anything. She was just a bystander. Now, is that resolving any guilt from her? Absolutely not. There were multiple times in this story that you're going to see that Tony could have saved a life, but she doesn't. She actively chooses not to.

So it's said that at this point, Lori says, I'm done with these childish pranks. Let's get her out of here. I know a place we can take her. A place near my house where nobody can see us. So they grab her and march her back to the car, but they realize that they're low on gas. So they cover Shonda with a blanket and pull into a gas station. So at this point Tony is full on freaking out and she says I need to talk to someone. I need to call a boyfriend of mine like a guy that she was talking to.

So she steps to the side, calls him on the pay phone and does not mention anything about Shonda. Doesn't try to call the police, doesn't tell the guy to call the police, nothing. Then why does she calling him for her own Need to feel some comfort Because this is giving her anxiety, you know She was out of ear like out of hearing from these girls. She could have done something But she did not

So then the girls pumped gas, they start driving away. But then they get lost. So they had to another gas station to ask for directions. So Tony and Hope, they spot a couple of cute boys start talking to them. Another opportunity to tell someone, but neither of the girls did, and they drove off again. And then in the car, I mean things just get weirder. Shonda tried to reason like, guys, my stepbrother's gonna be mad. He's gonna be looking for me. And they would say things like, oh, I'm so scared of your stepbrother.

Like, just really evil. They forced Shonda to take off her bra so that hope could wear it. It was just strange. I mean, who... So hope as she's driving, because she had taken over, she puts on this bra. And then at one point Lori just starts singing opera at the top of her lungs to creep out Shonda and then starts mimicking her crying and then she would go into what she called

her devil laugh which was just this really maniacal laugh that she would do. So they drive to that remote area, they pull out Shonda. And now Tony claims at this point that Tony and Hope stayed in the car for a little while. And they're watching this happen in front of them, like the headlights are on. So we've got Melinda and Lori telling Shanda to take off her clothes. Now she's completely nude. They want to keep her clothes. They're holding this knife to her.

Suddenly Lori grabs Shanda's arms and says, do it now, Melinda. Do it. Hit her. Punch her. So Melinda starts punching Shanda to the ground., do it now, Melinda. Do it. Hit her. Punch her. So Melinda starts punching Shonda to the ground. She's punching her in the stomach. And Shonda's just saying, please stop.

I have asthma. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. Like, please stop. And they keep hitting her. They smash her head into Melinda's knee. And because Shonda had braces, there was just blood splirting out of her mouth.

Both girls get on top of Shonda, and they try to slit her throat, but the knife is too dull. So all they did was manage to stab her with it in the back of her neck. And at one point, Shanda was able to break free and hope jumps out of the car, joins the group. Now to Tony, from inside the car,

it looked like Hope was helping the two girls make sure that Shanda was free. And this is her best friend. Hope is her best friend. she thought that hope was on her side of like these girls are crazy but when hope gets back in the car Tony's like why are you helping them and she says I wasn't I was trying to pull chanda away so it's kind of up for debate we hope say that I was trying to help chanda yeah so I mean to Tony she said it looked like she was helping Not Shonda the two evil girls. Yeah, so it's kind of up for debate, right?

Now Lori and Melinda tell the girls in the car to crank up the radio just in case they pull out a piece of rope and they start strangling Shonda And after a while she stopped moving. They said, well, do you think she's dead? Well, I don't know. Let's toss her in the trunk So they toss Shonda's bloody body into the trunk and they head to Laurie's house. They really couldn't go anywhere because Laurie and Melinda were covered in blood. They also had a 12-year-old in their trunk. So they go into the house and it's so strange because everyone was acting normal.

I mean, Laurie got them sodas, Melinda went to the bathroom to wash off the blood and they just tried to like, just tried to have a nice night. There's no families. Her parents are home. They saw them bloodied up. I mean, they were asleep. Lori's dog barks out of nowhere, just nonstop. And they freeze.

And they can hear the muffled screams of Shonda from the trunk. And so Lori's like, sh**, okay. I can handle this by myself, guys. Don't worry. She grabs a knife from her kitchen. So Lori's like, shh, okay, I can handle this by myself guys, don't worry, she grabs a knife from her kitchen and she leaves. By the time that she comes back, the screaming had stopped, the barking had stopped and she was covered in blood once again. And she tells the girls, okay, well we gotta go, my parents are gonna wake up if we keep doing this, like if she starts screaming again, they're gonna wake up and they're gonna

investigate. At this point, hope and Tony don't know what's gonna happen, they don't wanna be a part of it, they say, we're gonna stay up and they're gonna investigate. At this point, hope and Tony don't know what's gonna happen. They don't wanna be a part of it. They say, we're gonna stay here. We're gonna stay in your house. This again, some people might see it as, see, they didn't want to do anything to Shonda. But if they are alone in that house, they could have woken up the parents. They could have called 911, they could have done something, but instead, they just sat there.

Exactly. So just Lori and Melinda get back into the car and they start driving away. So the two girls are arguing, like, do you think she's dead? Well, how would I know? Well, what do we do? Do we just check on her so they just drive around with no plan? And Melinda remembers, wait a minute, Lori. My friend told me that we need to burn the body in order to get away with it.

Okay, but we don't have any gasoline or like caracene or anything. And I think she's still alive. So they come up with this plan that they're just going to drive around for a while. Listen to this. To let Shonda die slowly in the trunk. And maybe that's going to take too long though. How long do you think it'll take for her to die? How would I know? Well, there's a creek. Should we just throw her in the creek? No, she's gonna float. They're gonna find her. Okay, well, I guess we do have to burn her. But we don't have gasoline.

So they come up with this new idea. Why don't we take her out of the trunk? Put her on the road. Have her stand up and we just run her over. And we tell the police, oh my god. She just came out of the woods bloody and we ran her over so they open the trunk there was not one inch of Shanda's body that didn't have blood on it and Shanda got up and said mommy and Lori hit her with the tire iron and closed the

trunk again she was not in a position to be taken out of the trunk. Every time they heard something from the trunk on their way, just driving around, Melinda would stop the car. Lori would get out with that tire iron. Go to the trunk. And Melinda would hear a thump and a weeping sound. And Lori would get back in the car.

Oh my God. On one of these occasions, Lori stuck the tire iron, covered in blood under Melinda's nose and said smell this. I hit her on the head and it was so cool. I could actually feel the tire iron going into her skull. Look I hit her like this and she started hitting the dashboard to show her. She starts laughing. Lori starts laughing. You've got to see her. She's soaked in blood. I mean, she's completely red.

I think our heads came in. They did this till the sun came back up. They would stop the car and hit her with this tyrant until the sun came back up. So they go back to Lori's place to get the rest of the girls and to wash off the blood. And Melinda had blood all over her face, all over their hands, and they tell Tori in hope like she might still be alive So they go back to Lori's place to get the rest of the girls and to wash off the blood. And Melinda had blood all over her face, all over their hands, and they tell Tori in hope, like she might still be alive in the trunk, or at least last time we checked.

So we got to do something. And they kind of tell them the whole story of driving around, you know, hitting her on the head with the tire iron, and they're laughing. And they're giggling. Lori even giggles, like we probably hit her on the head like 60 times. Insane. Lori even giggles like we probably hit her on the head like 60 times Insane Quick you're sending an email to your boss to your employer to your professor. How long is it gonna take? I mean you're ready. You're ready to go out into the pool at summertime You want to enjoy those vitamin D's but you got to write this email. How long is it gonna take you? Probably 15 minutes to write it up and then you got to send it to at least three friends for their consultation

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Google Docs. So with the free version of Grammarly, you're safe from those embarrassing basic, spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes, but their premium is what saves you time. So cut down on editing time and spend more time out in the sun, okay? It's summer time. Write more confidently with Grammarly Premium. Get 20% off of Grammarly Premium by signingm-m-a-r-l-i.com slash rotten mango. So that now they need to go find some gasoline. They decided to get it out of gas station. But before they left, hope was shown shondis body. Tony did not want to see it. Tony just got straight into the car

but they lifted the trunk for hope to see. and there was not one inch of her that didn't have blood completely covered lying in a fetal position and hope stated not looking so hot now are you so maybe there was some jealousy there could be the reason for hope killing someone that she had never met before because Shanda was a beautiful girl. So hope reaches for a bottle of Windex, like a window cleaner, and sprays it all of her Shanda's wounds, open wounds. So she tortured her, too?

Yeah. And this is on the girls' shock, because Shanda pushed herself up into a sitting position. And she was swaying back and forth. Her eyes were open, but they said that her eyes were kind of rolling back into her head. And they started freaking out and Melinda was like, Guys, where's the heart? Where's the heart? On the left side of the chest, why?

Well, we got to put a knife in it. How do you get a knife into her body? You've got to jab it! Well, who's going to do it? I'm not going to do it. You do it. And that is when Laurie's mom comes out of the house. What are you guys doing right now? Your body, you've got to jab it! Who's gonna do it? I'm not gonna do it! You do it! And that is when Lori's mom comes out of the house.

What are you guys doing right now? It's so early in the morning! They're like, fork. Uh, nothing! We're gonna go get McDonald's! And they slam the trunk down. And they drive off. They go to that gas station.

They get that two liter of Pepsi filled with gas. Drive to a quiet place called Lemon Road. They take her out, put a blanket on top of her. They take Shanda out, place her on the ground, put a blanket on top of her. And Melinda is complaining about how gross this is. And Lori snaps at her. What are you complaining about?

You're the one that started this whole thing. So they placed Shanda on the ground. Hope pours the gasoline all over Shanda. Lori steps close to Shanda'sonda on the ground. Hope pours the gasoline all over Shonda. Lori steps close to Shonda's body on the ground, lights a match, and tosses it. Lori and Melinda are laughing when they get back into the car. Tony stayed in the car for all of this. That's, again, not saying she's a good person, just stating the facts.

So when they get back into the car, they're driving away and they look back in the rearview mirror and they see that the flames are starting to die down. So Melinda's like we got to go back we got to go back we got to make sure that she burns all the way. So Melinda is the only one at this point that gets out of the car and pours the rest of the gasoline on to Shonda's body. And when she gets into the car she says you guys should have seen it. Her tongue was like going in and out of her mouth. God, I'm so glad that she's gone. Did you see her? She was like clutching her little blanket.

I'm so glad that she's out of me in Amanda's lives, finally. And she starts giggling. So they have this small pep talk on the way to McDonald's, like everyone, keep your mouth shut. And when they get there, they order a full breakfast. How do you eat after something like this? And that's when Lori holds up that sausage patty and says, look guys, it looks like Shonda. Man, how can you be so evil at this age? I mean, I know that some people will say it's

gotta be the abuse that they faced, but how many people have been abused? And I think it's almost... I feel like it's almost a disservice to say that because there are so many people who have been abused as kids that don't have a violent bone in their body. Yeah. So, at the at the share house, Steve the dad wakes up and he's checking up on everyone and realizes that the kitchen door is open and that they're a house dog, their family dog is outside limping in the driveway. So that's why there's some speculation that maybe Shonda was forced into the car. Lamping? Yeah, because I mean, why is he outside the house?

Maybe he had gotten into a fight with one of the girls trying to protect Shonda. Because the dog is a rot-wiler. They have very protective instincts, not violent, but protective. Wow. So he's like, what the hell is going on? They see Shonda's person coat still on the table. I mean, it's freezing outside. So they start looking for Shonda throughout the house.

Maybe she's downstairs sleeping. No way. They can't find her. So they panic a little bit. They start calling all of Shonda's friends. Nobody's seen from her. They go to all their neighbors. Nobody. The woods. Nobody. They even call Amanda. Who they don't like. Amanda has no idea where she is. And so Steve starts breaking down. Like, oh my god, someone grabbed my daughter. They grabbed her. They grabbed her. They called Jackie. The mom, right? They call the police and everyone was a mess. The whole family, all of their friends come gathered to help them, but it was just so sad. They noticed that Steve, every like 30 minutes would excuse himself, go to the garage and just lose it.

Just ball his eyes out and come back into the room collected, ready to go search. Around this time, two brothers, about 60 miles away from Steve's house. They start driving towards the rural roads, because they're hunters, they're gonna go hunting today. And one of the brothers, as he's driving, he kind of stops the car and he says, damn, did you see that?

That looked like a body. The other brother is like, let me see. He looks back and he says, now what the hell is that? No way there's a body that's like one of those mannequin things. But curiosity peaks, they get out of the car and they start walking towards it. The figure looked like a young woman. The figure was nude with blue panties charred from the waist to the head, so the legs were

like this pale white, and they were spread almost bent at the knees at a very provocative angle. It seemed like the body was posed almost. The reason that they believed that this was not a human body was because the arms were raised in the air. It almost like a fighting position frozen, frozen in motion. Looks like they were reaching up to the sky. The fists were clenched. Oh my god. What if she's trying to hold up the burning blanket?

Yeah. She's trying to get... that's what they find out later. Her mouth is open, her eyes were this cloudy color. Her breasts didn't look like it had nipples, so they're like, okay, well, this is probably a mannequin then, there's no way this is a human. So like, oh, you know what it is? It's one of those sex dolls that guys have,

like those rubber ones. Probably some sort of sick bachelor parties, some sick joke, maybe it's a wife that got pissed, you know? Anyways, it doesn't even smell. One of the brothers was a Vietnam veteran and said that, listen, that's one of those things you never forget in war is the smell of dead bodies. This one doesn't have a smell.

But when they touched it, when they touched Shanda, she was soft and fleshy, and they looked closer and there was body hair, there was toenails. They said, oh my god, call the police. So the police bring in the state police, the lab technician, and they stated that she was probably in her early 30s, maybe 17, maybe a little bit younger, but what kind of animal does something like this? So their initial theory is it's got to be a rapist. Murdered her, burned her to get rid of the evidence. I mean, they run scans for missing women in the area and their late teens in early 20s, nothing.

So they start collecting the evidence. Footprints, car tracks, comb the entire area, and a police officer would, I mean, this mess with them. The image of Shonda messed with them for the rest of their lives. A police officer would get so emotional he would stop every two seconds, go to Shanda's body, and whisper at her. Please help us find who did this to you. Please help us catch this monster. Because he didn't even know what would happen if they didn't catch this person. Yeah, how would they sleep at night? Yeah. Knowing that this was done. So they bring Shanda to be autopsy, and she had wounds on her feet, and forearms, ankles, they were binding marks.

Looked like she had been tied up by rope, she had stab wounds all over her body. There were several blunt force trauma lacerations, and a tyrant would fit that description. The skull was not fractured, there was no internal hemorrhaging, this is important. She had multiple lacerations inside her anal cavity. Inside her rectal. She was sawed amized viciously, violently with a blunt cylindrical object. A tyrant could match that description. It damaged the inner walls.

She was alive in this took place. And in her throat, they found thick black suit, which means that she was breathing when she was set on fire, which means she was alive. The examiners came to the conclusion that the injuries on Shanda's head and her rectum were serious, but under proper medical care she would have recovered. Remember all those moments that Tony could have done something? She would have recovered, the cause of death with smoke, inhalation, and severe burns. So these four girls, they're just driving around after their McDonald's breakfast, feeling great about themselves. They drop off hope and Tony, and now it's just

Melinda and Lori. They go back to Lori's house and they rinse off the car with the garden hose, and they're cleaning the inside of the trunk, which has bloody handprints all over it. They find a blood-soaked white sock. They also find a soft piece of flesh. A mass. Until Lori holds it up to Melinda and says, look, it's her skull! Smell it. And so Melinda slaps it onto the ground.

And Lori's just like, well, I guess my dog will eat it. Because her dog lives outside, I guess. Now it seems like Lori is the only one keeping it together because Melinda starts falling apart. I mean, she starts calling on her closest friends, telling them, I killed someone, I killed Shonda, please come over. So one of her closest friends gets to her house and Melinda and Laurie just tell the girl the whole story.

Melinda's crying, Laurie's just sitting there and Laurie even is just trying to show off. She starts laughing, she's like, I don't even feel bad about killing Shonda. So this girl is like, okay, well I gotta go home now because you guys are weird. So she leaves, and now Melinda wants to go see Amanda. So she's like, Lori, please take me to see Amanda. They pick her up at a mall, and immediately Melinda's like, babe, guess what? Shonda's dead. Tells her the whole story. All I wanted to do was beat her up, but Lori went crazy and killed her.

So Melinda's blaming Lori for all of this. And she even shows Amanda the bloody trunk. And she realized that this was true. So Amanda, she too, is like, I just want to go home. And when she's getting dropped off, Melinda looks at her and says, Amanda Poo, because that's her nickname for her. Amanda Poo, you're not gonna tell anyone, right?

You can't tell anyone. You know that I love you, right? Meanwhile, Laurie is having a freaking blast, okay? She's going to Taco Bell with Melinda, saying, guess what? I can do a say-ons and talk to Shonda, because she's dead now,

and I can talk to the dead, remember? I can use the Tire Iron to summon Shonda's dead spirit, and she's laughing the whole time. But this girl is so evil. This is scary stuff. Meanwhile, hope and Tony were having a hard time. They're having nightmares, they can't function well, so they meet up with each other, and they decide the only way to feel better is to hang out with friends Let's go to the Anderson bowling alley to talk to some boys So they go to the bowling alley and they tell a bunch of dudes from school the whole story These guys are like oh my god. You got to tell the police so the two girls are like yeah Yeah, we're for sure gonna tell the police, but they go home and watch TV and fall asleep instead

Eventually they knew knew, okay, we should probably tell our parents. So Tony and Hope tell both of their parents and they have very different approaches to things. So Hope's parents immediately lawyer up. Meanwhile, Tony's dad was shocked, but he told her, we have to go to the police right now. You have to tell them everything right now.

So they take her into the police station, but the police were already dealing with a bombshell. A young man and his father had walked in and told this bizarre story of how these teenagers from school came to a bowling alley and admitted to killing someone. So they're like, okay, maybe this is all coming together. I mean, this is not even in their wildest thoughts. The police thought that this was some like 50-year-old rapist

But now you're talking teenage girls What do you what it what is happening? And one of the girls is here now. Yeah, so they talked to Tony and I mean they're shocked by the age of Shonda They're victim 12 years old They did not think something horrendous could happen to someone who's only 12 12 years old. They did not think something horrendous could happen to someone who's only 12. Inflicted by other teenage girls who were only just a tad bit older. And Tony's story is just shocking, but police knew parts of it weren't true. She told them the full story except some of her lies. You know, she kept in all the gruesomeness, but she claimed that

she wasn't there when the girls burned her. She stayed at Laurie's house. But the police who knew the area knew that the timeline just didn't match. There was no way that they could drive her to Laurie's house and then it just didn't work. They were like, yeah, that doesn't make sense. While listening to all of this, Tony's dad slowly realized, Tony came home. My daughter came home and she knew that a girl was dying, but she didn't tell us. And so there were certain parts in this interrogation where the police would ask Tonya question and she would be crying and she wouldn't be answering because she's crying so much and her dad would get angry. And say, what do you mean you don't know? Answer the question! Because her dad is like, who is this kid?

Yeah. This is not my kid. So they have to arrest Melinda Lovelace and Lori Taken and Hope Ripy, but they all have to let the sheriff family know that Shonda is gone and she had been murdered. So they arrest all the girls without any incident and once they're taken into the police station, they start noticing some weird things, okay? Melinda is trying to seduce the police. She's just trying to act like an adult, trying to flirt with them, showing she would like lean over and push her arms together to push out her cleavage in front of the cops when they're asking her questions.

It was clear to them that it seemed like she did this a lot to try to get her way. It was just very natural the way she did it. And the fact that she did it to these full grown police officers is like, what is happening right now? So the police start their investigation. They recreate the version of events, they knew that all four girls were there when the gas was purchased and when Shonda was murdered.

But Tony and Hope, they don't want to talk anymore. So they start searching the car, they start talking to all these high schoolers getting the motive, getting the timeline. I mean, Lori's friends even revealed more. Lori always talked about killing someone. She said that it was part of her destiny to hear someone dying. A point of contention and a point of like huge discourse was that the police saw the letters that um so Amanda's dad had come in to turn in letters from Melinda, like a while back. So Amanda's dad found love letters between Melinda and Amanda and was like this is this is illegal homosexuality. What's not?

But he brought it to the police and filed a restraining order on Melinda. So the police had these in possession and the letters that Melinda wrote to Amanda were saying about how much she wants to kill Shonda. So there's this question of why didn't they alert Shonda's parents? So that was like a huge point of contention.

So psych exams were done. For Melinda, it was, it was said that she had borderline personality disorder. She was also not very intelligent. She barely knew the president at the time, like the name of the president. She was like, oh, isn't it like the George guy or something? Yeah, like a George Washington or something. Yeah, like one of those. They did psych evaluations for Lori.

They thought that she was very bright, articulate, intelligent. Her spelling is near perfect, very high social intelligence. Communication skills were great. She had no genuine psychosis, but she had some weird claims. She claimed that she didn't remember anything from before she was 11 years old. But at the same time, she claims that she was hallucinating since she was two years old. She had voices in her head since she was 11 years old. But at the same time, she claims that she was, who was inating since she was two years old, she had voices in her head since she was two, she was also assaulted when she was four, six, and 11.

So a lot of people had some, I mean, listen, I'm not a psychiatrist, but I don't know. A lot of people were like, that doesn't make sense to me. But maybe it could. She also claimed to have DID. Everyone in her system had their own names, but when she described them to the psychiatrist, they were very one-dimensional and none of it matched with the real cases of DID. To sum it up, the psychologist thought that Laurie is desperate to avoid conviction.

Like she's willing to avoid prison at all costs, even exaggerating symptoms to get an insanity plea. This is a calculated impression of psychosis. So the press goes crazy. I mean, teenagers are involved. The age is shocking enough, but then you're adding in the satanic panic element. Oh my God, which crowd? And then, oh my God, human sacrifice.

Lies being love triangle amongst kids. A lot of people were quick to blame Shonda's parents. What? How could you get your 12 year old involved in a lestbe-n-loved triangle? So the prosecutors start seeking the death penalty on the girls. Now, this is a lot, right? So Tony also gets arrested.

They're all spending time in jail. And Tony is the first to start falling apart. I mean, she would lay on the ground for hours. Wouldn't stop crying. So the guards were evil to her. She was found in her cell at one point after taking a handful of pills. She somehow didn't crush it. So when you are given antidepressants, they crush it and they make sure you eat it.

So you can't save them up for a suicide attempt. But for somehow, some reason she saved them up. And she ate them all at once. She was in a coma for five days, but she survived. And when they took her to that mental hospital, she told her therapist that she wasn't trying to kill herself. But her parents were going out of town and they weren't gonna be visiting her. So she felt abandoned and she felt like if she did this,

they wouldn't go out of town. So this kind of shows like this girl really thinks this way. She thinks like this is how life works. So finally, after five weeks, Tony takes a plea bargain. If she testifies against the three other girls, she will plead guilty to criminal confinement and she is looking at probably six to ten years. I swear, I mean every time I go on TikTok, even Instagram these days, it's always like this new shirt that's in fashion, this new dress that's in fashion,

and you just want to have it because you want to look cute for summer. But then two weeks later, no no no, it's all about this dress and I can't keep up. I can't keep up, but more importantly, maybe the world can't keep up either. Because if you guys are looking for that new wardrobe for spring and summer, why not try a sustainable one? Did you know that thrifting an item instead of buying it new reduces its carbon waste and water footprint by 82% So show the planet some love by shopping at threat up. It's an online thrift store with over 35,000 brands all up to 90% off of estimated retail value. I mean, I'm talking gap. I'm talking Gucci Like you can literally upgrade your entire wardrobe without even coming close to breaking the bank So next time you see this new trend of, oh this is the new summer dress you need, it's

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because I can go on there, customize my search by my size, my style and my budget. These are things that I always struggle with when I go to an actual thrift store. I'm like, ah, where do I find anything? And the items come in high quality condition. A lot of my pieces came with their tags still on deliver to my door. They also have an easy return policy because I know

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inches taller. And then she was like oh yeah and then I'd probably not like to be like suicidal and depressed. So I mean just the the order of that people were thrown off they asked her what do you think you'll be doing in 10 years? Well, when I have kids, I probably want to adopt, I want a well-paying job, I want my husband to have a well-paying job, ooh, a vacation home in the Bahamas. Maybe we can go to France for two years. I just hope that I've gotten all of this mess behind me and I'm just finished with it.

This mess. You guys murdered someone, and you want a house in the Bahamas? Yeah. Meanwhile, I'm prison Melinda's having the best time of her life. She's sending letters to friends. She's getting into fights with inmates. She felt like she was a celebrity, started handing out autographs to fellow inmates, hung up a picture of herself and wrote most wanted on there. When girls would ask for cigarettes, I don't know how they had it, but they did, she would stick them in her nose first or in her vagina first to like laugh at these people. She was also placed in an adult prison just so you know. She would flash guards as they walked by. Like guards

would walk by and she would just show them her boobs. She was actually caught having sex with a guard in one of the rooms. Are you kidding me? Another guard busted them and Melinda just casually put her pants back on, went back to herself, and she bragged to all the other inmates that she just screwed a guard that everybody thought was cute. And that guard quit before getting fired. Crazy. This is crazy. Yeah.

Meanwhile, Lori is doing the most too in prison. In adult prison, she's got a new girlfriend They're constantly doing it. She had a girlfriend outside of prison a girlfriend inside of prison Just sending letters and hating on Melinda the whole time Lori's resentment for Melinda was growing I mean she's a bitch. She's the reason that all of this happened. I didn't even know Shonda before her and she's trying to blame it on me Don't feel bad for Laurie at all, because she also said that she hated everyone in jail, didn't want to stay here long, because she especially hates N words. With the hard-hearted, sent that in a freaking letter.

So it's clear to the prosecution that this is going to be a blame-shifting game between the two. Melinda's going to say Laurie did it, Laurie's going to say Melinda did it, and already, I mean, they have so much press in their county. It was really embarrassing, The blame shifting game between the two. Melinda's gonna say, Laurie did it. Laurie's gonna say Melinda did it. And already, I mean, they have so much press in their county. It was really embarrassing, honestly, for this small town in Indiana. So they decided to give the girls a plea deal. This is very controversial.

This was called the plea deal of the century, because of how good it was for the girls. Why would they do that? The prosecutors in the India, honestly. So he would drop the death penalty and all other charges if the girls pled guilty to murder, arson, and criminal confinement. They would face 30 to 60 years.

But in Indiana, they have this law. For every good day that you have in jail, your sentence gets reduced by one day, a day for a day. So that 30 years could easily be 15 years. That's 60 years could easily be 30 years. The defense attorneys thought that the prosecutor was a freaking idiot. They knew that this was a better deal

than even if they asked for something. They wouldn't even ask for this deal. Because it's that good of a deal. So they jumped on it and the girls pled guilty. So they had a bit of a sentencing trial. So it's not like your typical trial of the jury, but the judge would be there. The girls would testify.

All of these witnesses would testify. And the judge would determine, do they get the max sentence or what? So like this mini trial. And the main question that would never get answered during this trial and even afterwards is who's sottomized Shonda? Like it happened.

But who viciously sottomized her? All the girls denied knowing anything about it. Now at many times during this little sentencing hearing, Melinda would just bust out crying. I mean, they would have to take so many recesses because Melinda was wailing. A lot of people were annoyed by this. There would be a random bystander who would just be in the back in mock sympathy, like, oh, you poor thing.

Every time she would cry, because why are you crying? Melinda would see pictures of Shonda when she was burnt and she would just start crying and wailing in court. Why Melinda, you did that. So the family also could testify to the judge to say, listen, you need to give the max sentence. So when Jackie, Shonda's mom went up there, she showed a slideshow of Shonda.

And at one point, hope looked away. And Jackie stopped and said, judge, can you please force her to look? And the judge says, hope, lift your head and look. So when Jackie was addressing Melinda, she said, I want you to think of a person that you love the most, and imagine them being burned and mutilated. The proper punishment for Melinda would be to place her in a cell with pictures of Shonda's burned body and force her to continually listen to a tape of my daughter's screaming, like she did that night.

I know the law will only allow 60 years, to give them anything less would be an atrocity equal to my daughter's death. And she looks straight at Melinda and she said, Melinda, I hope and pray that you remember these words for the rest of your life. May you rot in hell. And everyone started applauding. Shanda's parents addressed Tony and they said that, if Shanda was in Tony's position,

she would have done anything to stop it. Most kids would. Tony, you are not a victim in this. None of you girls are. The only victims, and there are a lot, are Shonda and her friends and family. Shonda's dad testified and he was sobbing, and he said, I guess my mother said it best.

Every morning, my mom wakes up and says, well, I'm just one day closer to Shonda. Now I tell her that's right mom because we know where she is now. No one can hurt her. Maybe one day we'll get there. We know that she's in heaven so we just have to make sure that we live a good life so I can see her again. Paige Shonda's older sister was seven months pregnant when she got up to testify. And she looked straight up Melinda and said, they sit there and they cry. But they didn't cry when they were doing this to Shanda.

Why should they cry now? Because they're in trouble. My sister doesn't have a chance to cry. She didn't have a chance at anything. She didn't have a choice but to die. And as she was leaving the stand, Melinda just straight up starts wailing. Now, this is a moment that everyone was annoyed by, but it seemed to be the moment that Melinda finally realized

that nobody saw her as anything but a murder. Like that was it. She thought that she was gonna get away with it truly. But now she's realizing, holy shit. Like being cute, being pretty, putting my boobs out there are not, I mean, these are my actions. There's gonna be consequences.

And then you find out they're not that bad, the consequences. So Tony was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but she was released after serving nine years in 2000. She was only like 23 years old. Hope was sentenced to 50 years in 2000. She was only like 23 years old. Hope was sentenced to 50 years in prison, reduced to 30, but she only ended up spending 14 years in prison. She was released in 2006 and she was like 30 years old. Melinda and Lori got 60 years which is the max sentencing, but they would only spend 26 to 27 years in prison.

Laurie was released in 2013, and Melinda was released in 2019. Both of them are in their 30s and 40s. But they were released. But Jackie somehow found love. Shonda's mom. So when Melinda was in prison, she became one of the best workers for a thing called ICANN, a program, which is inmates training dogs to be service dogs. And she saw a video of Melinda training a dog. And Shonda's mom said, I'm glad that she can give back.

It's nice to see. She looks almost reborn. She seems really sincere. What? And in 2012, Jackie donated a dog named Angel and asked Melinda to train it in Shanda's memory. That's crazy. And what's crazy is Jackie got hate for this.

They told her you're the worst mom ever how can you forgive these girls and she's not forgiving them. But I mean I think what Jackie is thinking, right, is that these girls are gonna get out. They're not in prison for the rest of their life. I just think, I don't think anybody can tell someone like her how to feel. Like imagine the complex feeling you have to live

with every single day. I feel like if I'm in her shoes, I don't even, I feel like every single day is a new complex feeling. Feel like, yeah, maybe today you're like, I'm gonna go kill him. Yeah, I have to overcome, right? So, I mean, I don't think anybody can judge, right? But people were hating on her.

I mean, I think it's a situation where I don't think Jackie forgave them at all. I don't think she'll ever get over it. But I think it's like, they're gonna get out. It's better if they're rehabilitated so that they don't go killing other people. Versus will. And Melinda didn't believe it. I mean she thought this was crazy. She was stated saying Jackie helped her heal and grow with this dog that she can't thank her enough and that she's doing this for Shonda and for Jackie. Jackie also started a foundation called No Silence about violence and did a lot of talks around the country. People love her. I mean they gravitate towards her. For someone who

should be, I mean no one would blame her for being just the most angry person. No one would blame her. But she's just someone who has such good advice and just wants to help people. It's crazy. And Steve Scherer died in 2005. He had lost his battle to addiction and depression. Oh, man. Which he didn't have any of those things prior to. The murder. I mean, this case is crazy. There's some really good books on it, Little Lost Angel by Michael. Really good. He had the full cooperation of the Sheriff's Family.

A lot of interviews done with the murders, the Sheriff's Family, just a really deep dive into Shonda's life and how everything unfolded. And a lot of the letters are in there. And I think the most popular book is Cruel Sacrifice by Aphrodite Jones. That one was good too, but if I were to recommend one, definitely read Little Lost Angel. I mean, there are so many times I just put it down and I was just in tears.

So I hope you guys enjoyed this week's main episode. Stay tuned for the mini-soda. I know this one was really dark. Maybe I'll do a slightly lighter case and I'll see you guys on Sunday. Bye. enjoyed this week's main episode. Stay tuned for the mini-soda.

I know this one was really dark. Maybe I'll do a slightly lighter case, and I'll see you guys on Sunday. Bye.