Here’s the full text of the impact statement Dave Neese gave in the parole hearing of Rachel Shoaf, who was convicted in his daughter’s murder.
It was authored by Jacki Duley Morgan.
“Ladies and Gentlemen of the West Virginia Parole Board, thank you for allowing me to speak today.
I stand before you not only as a father, but as a father whose daughter was brutalized, betrayed, and murdered by someone she trusted. Skylar was betrayed by this inmate that she believed to be her friend, and it cost Skylar her life.
Rachel Shoaf wants a second chance. My daughter Skylar, never got a second chance. She never got to finish growing up. She never got to graduate college, build a career that she was working towards as a lawyer, get married, become a mother, or grow old. Every dream she had ended the night Rachel Shoaf and her joint perpetrator carried out the murder they had planned for months.
This was not a mistake.
This was not a momentary lapse in judgment.
This was not an accident.
This was a calculated, deliberate decision to lure my daughter away under the pretense of friendship and brutally stab her over fifty times.
For nearly a year, they planned it. For months, they discussed it. They had countless opportunities to stop. Countless opportunities to walk away. Countless opportunities to choose humanity over cruelty.
Instead, they chose murder.
The parole board is being asked to consider whether Rachel Shoaf deserves another opportunity at life outside prison. I ask you to consider something else:
Who considered Skylar? Who gave my daughter another opportunity? Who gave her another birthday? Another Christmas? Another laugh with her family? Another sunrise?
Nobody.
Because Rachel Shoaf took all of those things from her forever.
For thirteen years, my wife Mary and I have carried a life sentence. We have endured birthdays with an empty chair. Holidays with an empty seat at the table. Family photographs that will never include the woman Skylar would have become.
The grief does not lessen because time passes.
Every day that Rachel Shoaf wakes up, breathes fresh air, speaks with loved ones, makes plans for the future, and hopes for a life beyond prison is another reminder that my daughter was denied every one of those privileges.
Rachel Shoaf has had thirteen years to think about what she did. Skylar has had thirteen years with her remains enclosed into a picture frame that holds her last school photograph.
I understand that parole is designed to recognize rehabilitation. But rehabilitation does not erase responsibility. It does not erase the terror my daughter experienced in her final moments. It does not erase the brutality of this crime. And it does not erase the fact that Rachel Shoaf has already demonstrated difficulty following the rules even while incarcerated. It is my belief that this inmate has done nothing while incarcerated, but become more callous, calculated and dangerous.
The question before you is not whether Rachel Shoaf regrets what she did. The question is whether justice for Skylar has been served.
I do not believe it has.
My daughter’s sentence was death. Permanent. Irrevocable. No appeals. No second chances. No possibility of release.
I ask you to remember Skylar not as a case file, not as a headline, and not as a statistic.
Remember her as a daughter who trusted the wrong people. Remember her as a young woman whose future was stolen. Remember her as the innocent victim whose voice can no longer be heard in this room.
I am her father. I have to be her voice. Both her mother and I will carry this loss until the day we die. And today, I ask you to carry the weight of this decision with the seriousness it deserves.
Please do not grant parole. Please do not shorten the sentence for a crime that shortened my daughter’s life. Please let justice continue to speak for Skylar, because she no longer can.
Thank you.”
