Melinda Loveless, Mary “Laurie” Tackett, Hope Anna Rippey And Toni Lawrence
Disclaimer: This is a story so shocking in its brutality that I’m surprised nobody ever submitted it to PYSIH. It is a crime that I cannot believe, even after extensive research that anyone with the most infinitesimal, minute, minuscule, primal sliver of simple morality would ever think of committing. If graphic, horrific violence against innocent children makes you faint-hearted, please do not continue reading.
Now, anyone can kill. Most of us who have consciences and would like to sleep well at night decide against it. A minority that unfortunately gives the rest of humanity a bad rap does choose to take another’s life, whether it be out of passion, psychopathy, or any other excuse that defense attorneys throw around in court like the hot potato. They’ve earned themselves their spots in hell.
But it takes a special kind of inhuman specimen – who seems to have skipped a step or two in the evolutionary process – to threaten, humiliate, frighten, beat, 
strangle, mutilate, torture, burn alive, and abandon the mangled corpse of someone who you’ve never even met, all because your friend wants to teach her a lesson.
If this is starting to sound a little bit like a Stephen King novel, I am truly sorry that I have to enlighten you otherwise. My faith in four billion years of human evolution has greatly diminished with the knowledge that subhuman creatures like this do exist, breathing our air and taking up space – ones who have the gall to call themselves people and look others in the eye.
I’d like to introduce you to four charming young ladies: seventeen-year-old Laurie Tackett, sixteen-year-old Melinda Loveless, and fifteen-year-olds Hope Rippey and Toni Lawrence. On January 12, 1992, the nation of America received a horrible shock when they were 
arrested for the brutal ten-hour torture and subsequent burning of twelve-year-old Shanda Sharer.
Starting to sound familiar? In the following weeks, media all of the U.S. went wild over how four teenage girls from a small county in Indiana could possibly have gotten it into their heads to so viciously tear someone apart. Unfortunately, there was, has always been, and will always be no completely honest answer. Because the thing is, I’m not really even sure the murderers themselves have one. After all, three of them gave some sort of excuse as to why, in Shanda’s last ten hours of suffering, they were unable or unwilling to seek help for her.
Melinda, Laurie, Hope, and Toni had not had easy lives. Melinda’s father had sexually abused and humiliated her, her sisters, and her mother. Laurie came from a fanatically religious household and frequently fought with her mother. Hope’s parents were divorced and her family life was “turbulent.” Toni was abused and raped at a young age and had 
attempted suicide. All four girls self-harmed. And when this unstable TNT cocktail came into contact with Shanda, who had never known anything but love from her family, it quickly became a recipe for destruction.
But for this story to really hit you emotionally, we need to go back to the beginning. Not the beginning of the last night of Shanda’s young life, but the beginning of what should have been a long, happy, and successful existence.
Shanda Renee Sharer was born on June 6, 1979 to Steve Sharer and Jacqueline “Jacque” Vaught. She had one older sister, Paije, who was seven years her senior. Shanda was the light of her parents’ lives; friends often described her as “bubbly.” Just by looking at her picture with its cloud of curly blond hair and rosy-cheeked grin, you can tell that it would’ve been hard not to like her.
In middle school Shanda was athletic and on the cheerleading, softball, and volleyball teams. When her parents divorced she and her mother moved first to Louisville, then to New Albany in Indiana. It was there that Shanda was enrolled in Hazelwood Middle School. Like all twelve-year-olds she sought to belong, and when Shanda 
met fourteen-year-old Amanda Heavrin, it seemed that her fears of being left out would be history. The two girls struck up a relationship that quickly became intimate, and eventually sexual.
Shanda’s parents didn’t like Amanda – she was considered to be a bad influence on their normally compliant daughter. Not long after, Shanda was pulled out of Hazelwood and enrolled in a Catholic school where she joined the basketball team. There she began to date boys, further exploring, as many adolescents do, the many mysteries of sexuality. But her problems were only just beginning.
It turned out that Amanda had an ex-girlfriend, sixteen-year-old Melinda Loveless, who was bitterly, poisonously, and irreparably jealous of the cherub-faced darling from Kentucky. Melinda expressed her loathing for Shanda in letters to Amanda, even going so far as to threaten Shanda’s life. She also harassed Shanda to her face. But the twelve-year-old just wouldn’t stay away, and Melinda knew that she had to do something before Amanda was gone to her forever.
Let’s pause for a second and assess Melinda’s options at this point. There were several things that she could have done to ensure that Shanda knew her place. She 
could have challenged her to a fight, with Amanda as the coveted prize. It definitely wasn’t the best idea, but would hopefully have been a one-time showdown. Melinda, being four whole years older than Shanda – thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen – could have played the adult role in this scenario and requested to speak to Shanda about her feelings towards Shanda’s relationship with Amanda Heavrin. The two, after talking it out, could have reached a peaceful compromise. It goes without saying that Melinda Loveless chose neither of these options. There would be no talking and no fighting.
Instead, Amanda called on her friend Laurie Tackett, knowing very well that Laurie had a history of violence. Laurie drank other people’s blood at parties and had previously expressed a “need to kill”, just to know what it felt like. Melinda had a problem that needed fixing, and Laurie would be more than happy to take Shanda out of her friend’s life – permanently – and get a high while doing so.
On the night of January 10, 1992, Shanda was staying at her father’s house. She’d had an argument with him earlier when he wouldn’t allow a friend to sleep over and went to her room afterwards. At the same time, Melinda and Laurie were making preparations to fix their vendetta against Shanda. They got into Laurie’s car and drove to Shanda’s house, intending to lure her out with a promise to take her to Amanda. Along for the ride were two of Laurie’s friends, Hope Rippey and Toni Lawrence, who had not met Melinda before but were filled in on her plan to make Shanda “pay.”
On the way Melinda showed the other girls a butcher knife that she planned to use to scare Shanda, and continued to talk about how much she wanted her dead. Because Shanda had already had run-ins with Melinda and would refuse to come with her, Hope and Toni were sent to Steve Sharer’s door with the message that they would take Shanda to see Amanda Heavrin. Shanda answered the door and, excited at the girls’ promises, asked them to come back after her dad fell asleep. To pass the time, the four girls went to a punk-rock concert and came back to Shanda’s house around midnight. Toni, who at this point had lost some faith in the plan, refused to go back to the door so Hope and Laurie went. Melinda, knowing her presence would scare Shanda off, hid under a blanket in the backseat, holding the knife.
Shanda was waiting for them outside, bubbling over with the excitement of seeing Amanda. When Hope told her that Amanda was waiting for them at the Witch’s Castle, an isolated house with a dark history, Shanda quavered a bit in her resolve, but steeled herself by imagining her joyous reunion with her old girlfriend. Blonde curls bouncing, she hopped into Laurie’s car and as they drove off answered Hope’s falsely casual questions about her relationship with Amanda. When Melinda heard something that she didn’t like, she hopped up out of the backseat and put the knife against Shanda’s throat, snarling threats against her life. Shanda began pleading and sobbing for Melinda not to hurt her, but Melinda called her a bitch and continued with the harassment.
At the Witch’s Castle, Shanda’s hands and feet were bound with rope and she was made to walk. Frightened beyond words, all that the poor girl could do was sob as Hope, Toni, and Melinda took her jewelry for themselves. Laurie lit an old t-shirt for light and, devil’s face illuminated by the flames, pointed to it and told Shanda that that was what she would look like before the night was over. When lights from passing cars made the girls nervous about being caught, they forced Shanda back into the car and drove to an area by Laurie’s house. They stopped at a gas station on the way, where Shanda was put behind the backseat and guarded by Melinda. Laurie, Hope, and Toni expressed no sign of discomfort that they had another human being held captive in their car.
When they pulled onto a side road by Laurie’s house more than an hour later, Shanda was jerked out of the backseat and the ropes – which had been on her since they entered the castle – were untied. Immediately, she tumbled into Laurie’s arms, hugging her tightly and begging for help. Imagine how desperate she must’ve been to plead for mercy from someone who had threatened to set her on fire.
But Laurie ignored her and Melinda ordered Shanda to strip down – in the middle of nowhere, in Indiana, in January. Shanda did so, shivering in her panties as Melinda took her clothes for souvenirs. Then, as Laurie restrained her, Melinda began to hit Shanda. When Shanda begged for her life again, swearing that Melinda could have Amanda, she was told to “shut up” and punched in the stomach so hard that she fell to the ground. But Melinda wasn’t done yet. She kicked Shanda in the mouth, jamming her braces into her lip and causing her mouth to bleed.
Sometime around the time that Shanda lay on the cold ground, nearly naked, bleeding from Melinda’s abuse and still pleading with her captors, the girls realized that they had reached the point of no return. They could not risk Shanda’s recovery and possible blabbing about the night’s events. To save their own worthless asses from getting in trouble – oh no, arrest and maybe a night in jail – they decided that Shanda would never get the chance to tell.
Melinda tried to slit Shanda’s throat with the knife, but the blade was too dull. Hope got out of the car and pinned Shanda down while Melinda tried using her foot to force the knife, but to no avail. Getting a little scared that Shanda was proving such a tough piece of work, Melinda and Laurie passed the knife back and forth like a bottle of alcohol, each taking their turn at stabbing Shanda in the chest.
Bleeding from the wounds but still very much alive, Shanda continued to plead for mercy as Laurie retrieved a length of rope from her car. She sat on Shanda’s chest, wrapped the rope around her neck, and pulled hard enough to render Shanda unconscious. Her body was tossed into the trunk and the monsters – for lack of a more descriptive term – drove to Laurie’s house, where Laurie read their fortunes like nothing was out of the ordinary. If Mr. and Mrs. Tackett noticed something “off” about the situation, they said nothing.
Suddenly, Laurie’s dog began barking hysterically, and Shanda began screaming in the trunk. Annoyed, Laurie assured the other witches – ahem, girls – that she would take care of it and grabbed a paring knife from her mother’s kitchen on the way out. She opened the trunk and stabbed the screaming Shanda several times, hoping to silence her for good. She then told the other three that a ride was in order.
Hope and Toni, having had their sadistic fun, decided to take a nap instead. Don’t ask me how they could possibly fall asleep while knowing that someone was dying less than a hundred feet away.
Melinda and Laurie left together, and after driving in circles for a while, they opened the trunk again to see if Shanda was dead. To their horror, she sat up and looked right at them – at least, they think she did, because all that was showing were the whites of her eyes. Shanda tried to speak, probably – even in her state – to beg, one more time, for her young life. Instead, all that came out was one gurgling word.
“Mommy.”
The last word that was heard from Shanda Sharer was a little girl’s plea, seeking the person who had cherished her and protected her from harm for twelve years. I wonder if, in her horrific pain, she imagined that it was her mother who stood before her with wide arms, promising to fix all of her problems with a kiss.
Shanda would never see her mommy again. Instead, it was Melinda Loveless and Laurie Tackett who stood before her, and they weren’t touched in the least. Shanda was being an inconvenience, holding up their escape.
Laurie reached into the trunk, grabbed a tire iron, and brought it against Shanda’s head so hard that it made a dent. Shanda fell, and the trunk was slammed over her limp body. The car stopped several more times and the ritual with the tire iron was repeated because Shanda was still, after everything, conscious. CSI wouldn’t be able to invent a scene gory enough for what Melinda and Laurie had created.
On one occasion when the trunk was opened, Shanda was covered head-to-toe in her own blood. Her hair, blonde and flirty when the night had started, was crimson. The stab wounds in her chest gurgled as she, no doubt, tried for mercy one last time. In response, Laurie delivered a blow with the tire iron so severe that a chunk of Shanda’s skull flew off. She then enthused to Melinda about how “cool” it was.
They then headed back to Laurie’s house to retrieve Hope and Toni, because it was imperative that they cover their tracks. Never mind that, in a few short hours, a father would discover that his daughter wasn’t in her bed and make frantic phone calls before facing the truth that she was missing. Never mind that they had just mutilated a human being in the way that normal people wouldn’t wish upon rabid dogs. Until they got rid of Shanda, they were in just as much trouble as she was.
Hope Rippey came up with the genius plan to burn Shanda, because someone had told her once that burning a body was the best way to get rid of it. What did they expect – that, poof! Shanda wouuld magically disappear in the flames? But you’ve probably realized by now that these four weren’t exactly the sharpest crayons in the box. Some gloating needed to take place first, courtesy of Laurie, who showed Hope what she considered to be her handiwork. Toni revved the car’s engine so that no one would hear Shanda screaming, but was too frightened to look for herself. Cue the world’s tiniest violin, please. Let’s all take a moment to feel sorry for poor little Toni, who spent all night in full knowledge of Shanda’s torture and didn’t once attempt to help her. I’m sorry. A writer’s emotions shouldn’t get in the way of her work. Let’s continue.
Hope decided that Shanda – who was, after all, covered in blood – needed to be cleaned up a little. Luckily, there was a bottle of Windex in the trunk that seemed able to do the trick. Hope sprayed the cleaning agent into Shanda’s open wounds, and somehow, despite everything she had endured, Shanda sat up and swayed. Laurie spoke to her, probably getting in enough taunts before she was dead, and one of the girls sodomized her with the tire iron. Normally, treatment like that would get my blood boiling. Don’t get me wrong – it still does, but after the four’s demonstrations about the demonic natures that they kept hidden behind their young faces, I can’t say that it surprises me. Sometime during the night, this had stopped being about Amanda Heavrin. Now, four teenagers – three of which who didn’t even know Amanda – took a sick pleasure in rewriting Shanda’s fate as brutally as possible.
They went on the road again, stopping at a gas station for a two-liter bottle of Pepsi. After passing it between themselves and draining most of it, they filled it with gasoline. Hope was familiar with an area that they drove by and decided that it would be a good place to get rid of their little liability. Laurie, Melinda, and Hope rolled their victim onto a blanket and carried her out in front of the car. She then poured most of the gasoline on Shanda. Laurie lit the match and threw it onto Shanda’s unrecognizable body. The three of them stood there for a moment, wordlessly and soullessly, watching the fire spread. Toni, who had not wanted to see, stayed in the car and didn’t look. Then they got back in the car and drove away.
Before long, Melinda grew scared that they hadn’t doused Shanda enough and that she might live to tell the tale and – gasp – get them in trouble. Laurie turned the car around and drove back to the scene. Melinda hopped out, poured the rest of the gasoline on Shanda – who was now curled in the fetal position, typical of burn victims – and stood for a moment longer, admiring the result of her brilliant plan, before getting back into the car. This time, they left Shanda behind for good.
Such an accomplishment calls for celebration, and these four weren’t ones to deny it. They strolled into a McDonald’s and ordered breakfast as the sun was rising. During the meal, Melinda and Laurie joked that the sausages on their tray looked like Shanda in her final moments. After breakfast, Hope and Toni were driven home and Laurie went to Melinda’s house. Melinda made phone calls, to Amanda Heavrin – whom the whole plan had been based upon – and bragged that she and her friends had killed Shanda, and hadn’t gotten caught. To prove it, she showed Amanda the bloody trunk of Laurie’s car and one of Shanda’s bloody socks. Unsure whether to believe Melinda, Amanda chose not to say anything because she didn’t want to get her friends in trouble.
Are we seeing a pattern here?
Meanwhile, back in the field where Shanda took her last breaths, brothers Ralph and Donn Foley were out on their morning quail hunt. They saw something in the distance that looked like a body and walked closer to investigate. The brothers’ first thought was that someone had burned a rubber doll and discarded it, perhaps as a teenage prank.
But the horrifying reality became apparent as the got up close. It was a human, gender indeterminable because of how badly the chest was burned. The victim’s panties were pulled to the side, suggesting that she had been molested. The eyes were empty, the teeth clenched tightly on the tongue – a last cry for help.
The case was out of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office’s hands – the Indiana State Police were called in. Forensics experts located the discarded bottle of gasoline and deduced that it had been used to render the victim unrecognizable. None of them were able to positively identify her as Shanda Sharer, as she carried no ID and was a far cry from the beautiful child that she had been less than twenty-four hours ago.
At around 9 p.m. on the night of January 11, a hysterical Toni Lawrence burst into the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, babbling about a murder that she had witnessed that morning. She identified the perpetrators as her friends Laurie Tackett, Hope Rippey, and Melinda Loveless. After listening to Toni’s confession, police believed that they had enough evidence to get a warrant for Laurie and Melinda’s arrest.
As Toni and her parents were leaving, the office received news of a missing person’s report filed earlier in the day by Shanda’s parents. The description was too close to the unidentified body found in the field to be a coincidence. Sheriff Richard Shipley called the Sharers with a heavy heart.
No parents should ever have to hear that their child is never coming home. It can’t be any easier to be the one to tell them the true details behind the tragedy. Sheriff Shipley tried to break it to them gently, but Jacque Vaught became hysterical when she learned that her baby was gone. The worst news, though, was yet to come.
Shanda’s autopsy revealed many horrific details about the way she was beaten, stabbed, and strangled during her last ten hours. Perhaps the most heartbreaking conclusion reached was that Shanda had died from breathing the smoke coming off of her own body. She’d been alive when Hope Rippey poured the gasoline and Laurie Tackett lit the match. And, up until that moment, had any of the four girls demonstrated even the slightest hint of compassion towards a little girl begging for her mommy, Shanda would have survived the ordeal.
With all four girls in custody, the death penalty seemed merciful. However, even then, they couldn’t show the tiniest morsel of respect for Shanda’s grieving family. Instead, they accepted plea bargains that would save their pathetic lives. While waiting for trial, reporters swarmed the case. Laurie Tackett was interviewed by a TV station and said that she blamed Melinda for Shanda’s death, saying that there was “nothing she could do.”
Oh, really, Laurie? There was nothing you could do? Who lured Shanda into the car? Who kneeled on her chest and strangled her while she pleaded for mercy? Who stabbed her when she wouldn’t die and beat her head in with a tire iron? Who lit the match that ended her short life? You had the power to save her at any time during those ten hours, and instead you chose to prolong her suffering for your own sick mind.
On December 14, 1992, Jacque Vaught spoke at Melinda Loveless’s trial. She expressed her unhealing sorrow at losing such a beautiful daughter and ended with the sentiment for Melinda Loveless to “rot in hell.” Melinda’s defense attorneys combated the charges against her by bringing up her abusive childhood, but the jury was not swayed. Laurie Tackett’s similar trial began on December 28, 1992. On January 4, 1993, both girls were sentenced to 60 years in prison. They will be eligible for parole in 2022.
Toni Lawrence was sentenced to 20 years in prison on January 21, 1993. Out of all four girls, she was the only one who did not directly participate in Shanda’s torture. Her cooperation with the investigators weighed in her credit, and Toni apologized directly to Shanda’s family for all the pain that they had suffered. Jacque denied her any sympathy because of her failure to seek help for Shanda.
Hope Rippey’s trial began on June 1, 1993. Psychologists called to testify on her behalf insisted that, because of her age and immaturity, she should not face such heavy charges. She was simply pressured into her actions by Melinda and Laurie.
I say to that: BULLSHIT. Don’t even try to tell me that someone who has been on this earth for fifteen years doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong. I myself am a few months shy of how old Hope was on that terrible night, and I can tell you with absolute certainty that no one under the sky could “pressure” me into taking the life of another human being. Had I been there with Shanda, I would have thrown myself in front of her without a second thought and faced Melinda and Laurie to spare her life. In a way, what Hope Rippey did to Shanda was even more appalling than the crimes of Melinda and Laurie. Melinda, in her own twisted world, saw murder as the only way to right a wrong committed against her. Laurie had always thirsted for someone else’s blood. But what did Hope have against Shanda? She hadn’t even met the girl before she walked up to her door on the night of January 10, knowing what she was luring Shanda into. She had no reason to participate in the torture, even less to add insult to injury by spraying Windex in Shanda’s wounds, and absolutely none to pour gasoline all over her broken body. But she did, because she has less human in her than a chimpanzee.
Hope was sentenced to 60 years, reduced to 50 with the possibility of parole.
The only time any of these girls cried was then they learned that they would be spending the years of their prime behind bars. May I be the first to say that the years they sacrifice are not worth one one-thousandth of what Shanda could have given to the world. We’ll never know what she could have been capable of. Melinda Loveless, Laurie Tackett, Hope Rippey, and Toni Lawrence may have taken from us the next Shakespeare, Maya Angelou, or Albert Einstein. For sure, they took a happy child who lived with love and saw the world through fresh eyes, who was a beautiful daughter and sister and could one day have made a great mother.
In actuality, Melinda, Laurie, Hope, and Toni should be charged with two murders. Following his beloved daughter’s death, Steve Sharer sank into a deep depression and began drinking heavily to forget. He died of a broken heart in 2005.
These girls still feel no regret. In fact, two of them are already out of jail. Toni Lawrence was released on December 14, 2000 at the age of 24, after less than eight years behind bars. She now has two children. Hope Rippey was released in 2006, after a measly 13 of her 50 years, and now goes by her middle name, Anna. To the anger of many, she works at Sleepy Hollow Pet Ranch, caring for other people’s animals. You would fear for the animals, wouldn’t you, knowing what Hope is capable of doing to a human. But this world must have some justice in it, for she has no children. Melinda Loveless and Laurie Tackett are serving out the remainder of their sixty years, though Melinda has appealed against her sentence. Luckily, she was denied. As of date Laurie is the only one of the four who has opted to serve out her entire sentence.
Although she is incensed that two of her daughter’s murderers are now walking free, Jacque Vaught accepts that she cannot dwell forever on Shanda’s death, although she will always hold her in her heart. After Hope Rippey’s sentencing in 1993, Jacque said, “I don’t know what normal is anymore. I’m not the person I was when Shanda was here. I’m going home to my new grandbaby who was just born. You have to go on. Shanda’s with God.”
Author’s Note: My deepest, sincerest condolences go out to Shanda’s loved ones, in particular her mother Jacque. I wrote this article because, after hearing about Shanda, I just couldn’t forget about her beautiful, smiling face. It was like I, in some way, had also lost someone dear to me. I felt that it was necessary, in whatever way I could, to show my compassion and sympathy for everything that you have endured. Shanda was truly lucky to have been raised in such a wonderful family, just as you are lucky to have had her for twelve years. I hope that whenever you think of her, you remember how happy and loving she was in life. I know without a doubt that she is now clasped safely in God’s arms, where she will never know pain again, and that she is always smiling upon you.
Your family will forever be in my thoughts and prayers. There are no words I can say to make your burden any easier, nor is there anything within my poor human power that will take back that horrible night. I can only pray and hope with everything I have that the entire world learns something from Shanda about forever loving with an open heart.
And, Shanda dear, fly with angels.
This story was written and submitted by Kitty Xie, probably the youngest person to ever submit a story to PYSIH. It was hard for me to believe that the young lady who wrote such a well written, heartfelt story is only 16-years-old. She possesses an abundance of both talent and character – so much so that I can only admire her and the job her parents did raising her.
Do Melinda Loveless, Laurie Tackett, Hope Rippey And Toni Lawrence Deserve Hell?
- Yes, they all do. (89%, 1,014 Votes)
- Yes, but only Melinda Loveless, Laurie Tackett and Hope Rippey. (8%, 96 Votes)
- Yes, but only Melinda Loveless & Laurie Tackett. (3%, 34 Votes)
- No, none of them do. (0%, 15 Votes)
Total Voters: 1,136
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171 Comments »
Chilling.
That was extremely well written, & heartfelt. Thank you for sharing her story with more people.
I cannot understand how a pet place would hire someone without doing some kind of background check. Or do they have a “work-release” program there? If that’s the case…. Wow. That would be some hell of a decision to leave my dog there.
At the present time all I can really take from this is how much Shanda’s body was able to endure before she finally died… It’s unnerving, and I could only hope to expire quickly if I had one-one hundredth the torture inflicted on me that she did… I’ll form a more coherent thought later.
Beautifully written!
But what a bunch of disgusting little brats. One was allowed to PROCREATE? Whatever happened to the good old days, when we sterilised our murderers? I’m also stunned about the dog- parlour assistant or whatever she is, but fuckit- RAISING CHILDREN? That’s pushing the “I should by rights be dead, but society gave me another chance”- another chance would entail say, becoming a street sweeper or a binman or being allowed to work in an Adidas sweat shop. Oh, no, this bitch had to milk it and have kids!!!! Who the fuck does she think she is? I’m outraged!!!!!
What hope do those children even have, with Satan’s little personal whore as their mother? It’s a revolting thought, the little buttiglia diavolo incarnate popping out babies when she made a name for herself torturing a child to death!!!!!
I was a third grader in Valparaiso, IN when this occurred. While I was on Christmas vacation, playing with my first-ever holiday presents, this poor girl was being tortured to death and I’ve never even heard of her until now.
I’ve read this article several times, I’ve watched all of the linked Youtube videos, and I don’t understand this awful crime one bit. I certainly felt jealousy towards other girls in my school, but I never contemplated kidnapping one of them and torturing them to death! I also cannot imagine watching my friends do this to someone and not doing something to stop them, now or back in high school.
One of those girls could have run off and called the police. There was plenty of time and opportunities to do so. I cannot comprehend witnessing such a horrible thing and not having any inclination to help the victim.
I really want to call that place she’s employed at and let them know what kind of monster they have working there in case they don’t already know.
To the author of this story, you my friend give me faith in humanity. This is one of the best written stories that I have came across and for you to be so young I say KUDOS to you and your parents for raising such a bright and well mannered young woman. My daughter is only 4 1/2 years old and I hope and pray that she turns out to be such a productive young adult such as yourself. Keep up the good work. You’ll go far in life with such a bright mind. Again thank you for your input you really just made my day.
Not only was it incredibly refreshing to see a teenager actually use proper grammar and English and refuse to degrade themselves by resorting to broke ass AOL lingo as if they were texting a 12-year old, I am extremely impressed that a teenager is concerned about the world around her, and willing to write a wonderfully written piece about the agony endured by a beautiful little girl.
Well done, Kitty Xie, you have restored my faith in humanity for today.
I remember this case and it still lingers with me to this day. I cannot help but to imagine the pain and suffering Shanda was put through by these evil demons. I hope her remaining family is able to find some peace on this earth. That being said the evil bitches who did this to Shanda need to rot in hell and be tortured every day the way they tortured Shanda. It appals me that two of these evil bitches are out, that one has children (dear God, hopefully CPS is keeping watch over them!) and one works at a kennel with animals. My blood just boils over this injustice! They should be in jail, and here they are out in the community! Disgusting!
I don’t remember this, but it happened when I was only 7 years old… After hearing it, it’s really sad that teenage girls are capable of something so terrible. I can’t imagine what type of mother she is now………
I remember this story well. I was in grade school in Kentucky at the time. Same age as the victim. We had a lot of warning talks about what had happened and how to protect ourselves from putting ourselves in danger.
Very well written. Thank you for the story. Please write another soon.
*Small edit* In paragraph 14, “Laurie drank other people’s blood at parties had previously expressed a “need to kill” to know what it felt like.” I really like the tone of this sentence, but I think you’re missing an “and” in there somewhere. Not nitpicking at all. Just wanted it fixed because the line is so powerful to the overall story.
Thanks Mike, I missed that during proofreading. Don’t hesitate to let me know if you find things like that.
I only get upset about corrections when people insult the writer or otherwise act impolitely.
Yeah. There’s a right way and a wrong way to do most things. It bothers me too when people act like they’ve never typed the wrong word or misspelled something.
This was a hell of a story though, and like I said, that was a powerful line. Just wanted to make sure it flowed. Thanks for understanding.
Thanks for submitting this story, Kitty. I’ve always been especially drawn to this one because there were so many opportunities not to kill her, but none of these animals took even one of them.
I think that Shanda’s murder was a perfect storm. You had a group of girls who were just barely one step above human waste, jealousy, a need for acceptance etc. The only girl who I felt remotely like she was sorry was Toni. Even the other girls admitted that Toni spent most of the night in the back seat of the car in hysterics. I’m not saying she is innocent, just less guilty than the rest. Melinda was clearly the ring leader and has never shown remorse. I read somewhere that she took Shanda’s ring off her finger when she died and kept it on when she was arrested. Since she was locked up with it in her possesion, the jail wouldn’t release the ring to Jackie. I believe Melinda still has it….
I was wondering if this story would ever end up here. I learned of Shanda a few years ago when I had to do a paper on children who kill for my criminology class. From the first day I read her story I was so affected by Shanda and everything she went through that night. Nevermind what poor Jacqui goes through daily. For those who are interested, there is actually a message board dedicated to little Shanda and to keeping Laurie and Melinda locked up FOREVER! If you google her name, its one of the first links to come up.
To me, none of these girls deserved mercy, maybe, just MAYBE Toni deserved less time since she was the only one who didn’t actively participate in Shandas brutal torture and murder, but I can never fathom how HOPE RIPPEY was released! The one good thing that I will say is that I learned from the message boards that Hope isn’t doing to well. She works in a dead end job cleaning dog cages and constantly deals with haressment and taunts… GOOD FOR THAT BITCH, SHE SHOULD BE DEAD! I’m sorry if I’m ranting, but as I said, I was more affected by this case probably than any other I’ve ever read. Its not just the murder itself, but who committed it, why it was committed and the brutality behind what they did that gets me.
RIP Shanda… I’m convinced you are now an angel. God rest Steve Sharer’s soul and may God continue to grant peace to Jacqui Vaught.
I remember this story very well as I am the same age as Shanda….. I remember being in utter shock as the killers were also so young…. However for some reason Teenage girls seem to be so bad for this…. Not months later girls I went to school with beat another girl to death in a bathroom :(
Kitty Xie, I am in awe of your talent and compassion please never lose who you are, the world needs more teenage girls like you!
This reminds me of Gertrude Baniszewski. If there is a Hell, Melinda Loveless, Mary “Laurie” Tackett, Hope Anna Rippey, and Toni Lawrence should rot in the worst layer of Hell along side with Jeffrey Dahmer, Osama bin Laden, 9/11 Terrorists, and Adolf Hitler. They deserve each other as lovers in Hell.
More proof for life in prison means life in prison. No parole! No exception!
It appears that many of the good citizens of Indianapolis are not too happy about Hope (now called Anna) working at Sleepy Hollow Pet Ranch. Check out their citysearch page and their “reviews” heh heh
http://indianapolis.citysearch.com/review/3956420
Ugh..actually, read with caution. The owner of this business knows exactly who she hired and defends her.. some of the other customers do, too. One even goes so far as to say “If Shanda wasn’t meant to die, she wouldn’t have”.. W. T. F…
Yes, I just finished reading those comments. The stupidity of people who hide behind “forgiveness” and other hypocritical Christian values never ceases to amaze me. But shifting the blame for Shanda’s death by torture from Hope Rippey (It’s no surprise that she is going by her middle name, Anna, instead of Hope – a sure sign of a guilty conscience) to FATE! There’s something I’ve never seen before. (“If Shanda wasn’t meant to die, she wouldn’t have”.. )
Fucking amazing…
Well, I’m a Christian, and some people need to realize, to forgive is not to forget. People love quoting scripture on this site.. Here’s one for ya, and I think it fits PYSIH just fine!
Prov 21:15,16
When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.
Whoever strays from the path of prudence comes to rest in the company of the dead.
Very well said.
Thank you.
So which bible verse do we believe in this round? Should we agree that he who has never sinned should cast the first stone? Should we aquiesce to Jesus’s insistence that we turn the other cheek? Or should we just determine that god loves justice, and burn all of the criminals while claiming that you forgive them so that you don’t seem like a hypocrite?
Sorry…you religious folk are rather insane. You pick and choose from ancient, contradictory, superstitions to justify your silliness. I believe that she needs to be allowed a second chance, and I can justify it with Science.
The society that a person lives in dictates the dirction of their morality. That is why there are different levels of right and wrong in different countries; nuture is an integral part of how we view the world, and what we view as correct. There have been several sociological studies done to assure us that this premise is valid. The family is a micocosm of society. Take an adolescent with an unformed mind, place them into a societal structure that is unstable, loveless, violent, and anamalistic, and you will vastly increase the chance that you are going to produce an emotionally volatile, morally compromised, ill adapted nightmare. Violence, callousness, and horror is not shocking to these children; they deal with it on a daily basis. Naturally, Anna would not be as horrified by the violence she was witnessing as a child that had never seen rage or hate would be. This is the reason why many war veterans come home with greatly increased inclinations toward agression and violence.
Secondly, consider how each girl was affected by Herd mentality. If you are not familliar with the effects of this state of mind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_behavior
This is why riots occur. This is why gang violence erupts. This is why people “speak in tounges.” This is how 4 girls can find it in them to cooperate in a torture and a murder. It takes a well adjusted, reasonable, intelligent, and morally sound person to remain impervious to the effects of behavior which appears to be appropriate to the group at the time. Now take 4 angry adolscents, simmer them in an enviornment of abuse, neglect, and instability, give them a helpless victim and the suggestion of impunity, and watch what stews. If you still can’t understand, then perhaps you need to read this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
Jess, I am going to repeat myself for the 1,268,957,413th time… The society to which we are exposed is not responsible for who we become, what we do, or what choices we make for our lives. It is the individual who is responsible for his/her/its own life and the direction it takes. It does NOT take a village to raise a child, however, given the chance, the village will raise an idiot.
Yes, sleepy hollow is connected to the prison reentry program, they found Hope that job. I have been informed that other inmates have passed through there as well, all connected to the dog training program at IWP. Very religious people involved with many of the programs at IWP, who believe that forgiveness comes first and outrules the law, and they have said as much in Hope and Melinda’s defense across the internet.
JESS>
How dare you use this board as a place to hop onto your soapbox as a way to show everyone that you are smart, you read, you have done all this research on all these disorders, damn you! Wanna talk psychobabble? You are obviously suffering yourself from Narcisstisic PD along with your need for showing how smart you are. You are an asshole. I normally don’t like verbally abusing, it makes me sound petty, ignorant and small-but screw it, you piss me off with rambling about shit you know nothing about.
WAR VETERANS-You don’t know shit what you are saying! How dare you compare AMERICAN HEROS who most are more depressed and traumatized, sad, BRAVE men, boys-who fought for our country-how many of them do you hear about in the news commiting crime, any kind of crime? These men and woman still have heart, soul and compassion. What the men endured in WW2, cowering in fear in fox holes, constant explosions, looking over to see their buddy blown to pieces, MOST OF THESE MEN SUFFER GUILT OVER GETTING TO GO BACK HOME TO AMERICA< because they DID HAVE EMPATHY, and felt pain and remorse. You think they wanted to murder men in the first place? They had to!
Infact Most War Veterans come home sick of violence, haunted by the memories of everything they saw, sorrowful.
How dare you act like you know anything about God? Right and wrong is instilled in us from birth, dumbass. That is what seperates sociopaths from loving-they have no soul. God's children know, and it's not superstition, and just scripture-it's feeling love towards your fellow man, it's knowing to save others from harm, and pull them out, it's something far too deep for you to know.
A perfect example is Pinnochio-Jimminy Cricket is really like the holy ghost, always telling Pinnochio the right thing to do-always there, that little voice that is CHOICE in and of itself! Right and wrong is obvious, I dont care what country you live in.
THe parents of a 15 year old girl thought it was wrong for her to not marry a man that had raped her, she commited suicide and I forget what country this was.
You know Jess, I could go on and on but you are not worth wasting anymore of my time.
I totally agree with all that about abuse, but as for your article about HERD SYNdrome, I agree your ass needs to be HERDED into a mental hospital cause you fit a ton of behavioral distorders, but have you murderd anyone?
My Father and his brothers and sisters were violently abused by my Grandfather daily, having chairs broken over their heads, kicked my dad's chins in till they bled, beaten with belts and boards of wood, one daughter molested endlessly. This went on for years, they watched my Grandma beaten every day. Yeah they are all pretty messed up, yet none have ever tortured somebody else, my dad has a good heart-he promised he'd never do that to his kids, and he kept his word, we never endured any physical abuse at all. Verbal? Yes. It made me sensitive and extremely empathetic, I can't crush a grasshoper, and most little bugs I find in the house, I scoop right up and put outside in the grass. That is what God is about.
Don't you ever, ever again imply that what these dirty bastards did to Shanda is justified in any way from their abuse.
You know what the greatest gift is that God gives us? Its love. We are to love one another, treat one another with respect and kindness. SCREAM out at injustice, and when you see someone in danger you forget yourself, you know-not be selfish and you run to that persons aid!
Every word of your post is phony baloney and you need to step out of JESS land, and get into reality. Now Im kinda pissed I let you piss me off so bad, but I hate what these girls did to Shanda, she haunts me, and it tears my soul to shreds, it hurts to know about Shanda.
Poor baby, And God forgive me, I also hope they live eternity in Hell.
Watch a video called "Journey Into Hell" on YouTube. It shows what happens to everyone there, scares me to death and just watch it.
THAT IS WHAT SHANDA"S Justice willl be, but she is in Heaven with God, doesn't feel any pain, she is happy and loved and loving and her poor Father is with her, but the love of God is golden and they will never suffer nothing, they are free of pain. and filled with joy.
Wake Up Jess! And God Bless all of you, Jess-you too, I hope you find out that God loves you very much, and his door is open to you always, he will never leave nor forsake you. Faith, haveing faith is believing in something you can't see.
I bet their clientele are from Gertrude Baniszewski, Jim Jones, Osama bin Laden, and Adolf Hitler.
Interesting to note that Baniszewski and Jones are from Indiana and are religious fanatics. Baniszewski was a hard core Christian Fundamentalist. Jones was a Christian, but turned against it because he saw it as too excluding and not radical enough. Hope no one takes offense at what I said, just what I have read in the past.
Baniszewski, Jones, and bin Laden are religious nutcases that justify their crimes in the name of their religion. They also have a cult of personality excluding Baniszewski. All of them exhibit high levels of paranoia and controlling in nature.
I have been saying as much for years…and the least involved or violent was Toni Lawrence…the only Atheist of the bunch.
Melinda even asked her friend the next day if god will forgive her and her friend answered, “Yes, all you have to do is ask”. WTF, that is a hell of a thing to teach our young people.
I remember reading about this crime on the True Crime Library website. I think it was the first one I ever read on that site. That was years ago and I still think about Shanda Sharer fairly often. I just don’t want to imagine the sheer terror, not to mention the physical pain, that she felt that night. For hours. It must have seemed endless to that poor girl.
I was and still am beyond horrified at the actions of those girls, and I couldn’t agree more with the author….they were plenty old enough to know right from wrong. As has been said before on this site, plenty of people were victims of abuse as children, yet manage to overcome that past. It is no excuse for committing such a sadistic crime.
They all should rot in prison for the rest of their days, then rot in hell afterward. Including Tony Lawrence. She had several chances to get help for Shanda, with no risk to herself, and she didn’t. So fuck her. She doesn’t deserve anyone’s sympathy.
My sympathy is reserved for Jacque Vaught and Steven Sharer and of course little Shanda. I hope they are all at peace.
Great Job writting this one up! I have also heard this story before and have never forgotten how evil those girls were and just to think that 2 of them ar free…..crazy world.
I agree, great job, Kitty Xie! The way you express yourself at such a young age is truly impressive.
Is the last name of one of the perpetrators really “Loveless”?
How could they have let Hope out?
Look at her smiling in that mug shot.
Disgusting. They put people in prison for longer for much less, but somehow this stain on humanity is free.
The young woman who wrote this article should seriously consider majoring in English when she goes to college. Very, very well written and touching. When this horrible murder took place I was 17 and fresh out of high school. I remember reading about what Shanda endured and sobbing hysterically over this little girl that I never knew. She’s been in the back of my head ever since. Her mother is a much stronger woman than I could ever be, and I have nothing but the deepest respect for her.
She would make a great true crime writer.
I also ready this story on crme library but this version, when you consider it was written by a young contemporary of the “animals” in the story, brings the sequence of events right befor your eyes. It’s unbelievable what they did. And the worst possible punishment I can think of for them would for them to suddenly be enlightened about what they did, what it means to others and what it says about them, and to know….to really KNOW deep within, how evil they were, how horribly they treated the girl and to have the burning guilt and pain eath them alive.
Thanks to everyone for your comments! :) When I read Shanda’s story, I felt the least I could do was make sure that her short life did not go to waste. Since I love writing so much (and PYSIH!) I knew that this was the best way to express myself. Once again, thanks to everyone for taking the time to read this and leaving their opinions about the case and my writing. The commentators on this website constantly restore my faith in humanity.
P.S. I just wanted to clarify one thing that Max said. I am 14, not 16 (though I must admit that 16 is the more desirable age of the two…can someone say “driver’s license”?). Oh, and thanks to Max for doing such an awesome job editing! :)
You are really a great writer. I could not finish it since it was too horrifying.
Fourteen? My word! I am a twenty four year old professional freelance writer, but when I was fourteen, it would never have occurred to me to try to branch out and write something this meaty, let alone to get it published. To seek out a published writing credit at fourteen (and, not to mention, to absolutely nail it) shows some serious chutzpah and talent. Keep at it, kid. The whole world is your oyster.
wow is right. well done, young lady. most impressive. I’m not a judge, nor am I God (far from it), however since you asked, yes these 4 people, in my opinion, will burn in hell. and I’m okay with that.
Laurie Tackett’s mother was a fundamentalist Pentecostal Christian.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Shanda_Sharer
Interesting to note that many infamous killers had one or both parents that were religious, but they were not themselves religious. Richard Kuklinski, Betty Broderick, Diane Downs, and Gary Gilmore had religious parents.
I had religious parents and I haven’t killed anyone yet. =)
Ultra religious parents tend to lead to anti-religious, rebellious youth. However, I don’t think any one thing in this world can produce monsters. The level of depravity and abuse that the killers suffered early in their lives would probably factor into it, and that religious holy-roller nut-job lunacy was probably just a part of it. And that’s not an attempt at excusing their actions, at all.
Society casts blame in any possible direction when horrific acts take place, as a coping mechanism, simply because the majority of people refuse to acknowledge basic human nature. Be it blaming music, or video games or whatever… the truth is that some part of humanity has always been brutal.
I personally believe that if not for the fear of imprisonment, there would be a lot more dead bodies in this world. I’m not saying that everyone is a shoot first, ask questions later hot head, but the fact of the matter is that either by design or by circumstances, or even by a true evil presence in the world we all are faced with decisions and choices that could have lead us to be very much like the monsters we read about on this website.
Some people are weak. Some people are stupid. Some people are cowards, and ultimately some people are just cruel and evil. But that starts getting into the “products of their environment” bullshit defense, and I don’t buy it. If someone is cruel and evil, it is because they chose to be, whether they know it or not.
No argument from me. It is interesting you mentioned that ultra religious people were very wild and rebellious. That does not surprise me one bit. Some of the biggest religious leaders were very wild and rebellious and getting into trouble all the time.
Toni Lawrence myspace = http://www.myspace.com/hatemetoday1976
It is obviously set that only her “friends” can see it.
Sorry but this story seems to have been taken from another true crime site and it would only be proper to acknowledge the original writer.
Can you share the link?
SMP,
If you’re going to accuse some one of plagiarism, you should provide a link.
Written by David Lohr:
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/young/shanda_sharer/1.html
I checked it out, and you really need to look up the meaning of the work plagiarism. I couldn’t find one example where the author borrowed text from Mr. Lore’s article.
Kitty Xie certainly relied heavily on Mr. Lore’s article as a reference source, but she also added so much additional detail that doesn’t appear in Lore’s stpry that it’s completely unfair to compare the two.
If there are similarities, it’s because this is a true story, and there’s only one way to describe what happened – the way it happened. Sure, you can choose different words and descriptive terms, but a paring knife can’t become a butcher knife, and the writer shouldn’t leave out that one of the perps used her foot to try and force a too-dull knife to cut just to make that writer’s story unique.
David Lore wrote a great article – so did our writer, Kitty Xie.
I see no evidence of plagiarism in this article. In my opinion you owe the author of this piece a huge apology.
Both authors wrote about the same subject, that is the only comparision I can make between the two articles, so no I dont see why the author of the true crime report should be acknowledged on this story.
I’ve read David’s article and while the facts are the same, as they should be, since facts are facts, Kitty’s story is written from a different point of view with different sentiments. She did an excellent job of researching and putting together the narrative. I’m really impressed with her.
This is not plagiarism, it is a well written article about the event. The facts cannot be changed and will be similar in explanation as to other articles. The writer interprets the other articles in her own words and even adds her own opinions and comments…well done!
Remember, I have been involved with this case for over 4 years and experienced similar criticism. Know that Hope Rippey stalks such sites as this to read what people are saying about her.
Great story, well written.. personally I would have left the videos as a offshoot link as they were so bad they almost discredit the story into a weird type of follow up…
You think so? Perhaps I made a bad choice when I selected those videos, but I was hoping to show what was going on since the perpetrators had gone to prison.
What do the rest of you guys think? I don’t mind changing the video clips if it will make for a better story. God knows I’m not infallible.
Obviously, the videos just add another element to the story. I think any reader on this site wants all the information on a story that they can get without having to use Google..unless of course they want to.
I’d keep ‘em…but that’s just my opinion.
It was a follow up, no one knew Hope was released early or Melinda was trying as the news was local and not national. My videos were the first to present this fact beyond the southern Indiana area…plus, some of the first good video of the Witches Castle, and the time and distance involved with this crime. They drove around a long time with Shanda being held at knifepoint from the Castle to the logging trail by Lauries house…passed right through the main part of Madison on this journey. Lots of time for any of the girls to change their mind!
These video shows actual locations, the surrounding area to get a feel of the landscape, the town and my travels throughout…not to mention my chat with Toni.
The production and quality kinda distract.. To me the guy comes off more as a ‘nut-head’ than a valid ‘documentary producer’.. unshaven, lying in a hotel bed interviewing himself, filming backing out of a parking spot…really bad production…
But it is more info, and out of all of it, perhaps 5 minutes is worthy..
“Nut head”…I’ve heard such comments before by supporters of Hope and Melinda…so witch one do you favor? You know nothing about doc’s, as I have been trained to turn the camera on yourself when alone and without another video person. Especially when trying to convey an emotion or thought that has immediately impacted you. This video shows actual locations, the surrounding area to get a feel of the landscape, the town and my travels throughout. Not to mention the updates of this crime and the people involved. No one knew Hope was released early or Melinda was trying as the news was local and not national. My videos were the first to present this fact beyond the southern Indiana area….plus some of the first good video of the Witches Castle, and the time and distance involved with this crime. They drove around a long time with Shanda being held at knifepoint from the Castle to the logging trail by Lauries house…passed right through the main part of Madison on this journey.
I did not know I had to shave to impress you, but I was on the road digging up information and wished to blend in with the locals who do not always shave everyday. And the last thing I wanted to look like when I approached Toni’s door was a network news guy…But Hope and her supporters have posted these same complaints before.
There are several things that I did forget to add (kudos to those of you who pointed them out) in the original story. First of all, Melinda Loveless did take a ring from Shanda at the Witch’s Castle. She wears it to this day because it is supposedly “like a wedding ring,” always keeping her tied to Shanda. (Thanks, LilMissSunshine). Secondly, I believe that I may have made a mistake when I said that Laurie spoke to Shanda after Hope sprayed her with Windex. It was, in fact, Hope who said to her, “Not so pretty now, are you?” But maybe Laurie said something to her too. I wouldn’t put it past her.
And as a matter of fact, I DID rely heavily on David Lohr’s article to write this (thanks Max). It was fantastically written and as honest a piece as I’ve ever read. However, I wanted to make this a more personal work and tried to add many of my own emotions and opinions throughout. Therefore, I stuck to Lohr’s story for the hard facts but tried to show those facts in their brutal truth by developing Shanda and her murderers more emotionally. I want to offer my sincerest apologies to anyone else who felt as smp did. I don’t believe I have seen anyone else on PYSIH cite their sources, but if it makes you feel better, the link is in the comments. Again, most definitely NOT my intention to make this look like a plagiarism of Lohr.
I am trying to make time to read your article today, Kitty Xie. From all accounts, it’s certainly worth it. :)
Kitty, if what you did is plagiarism, then every history book known to man was copied from someone else as well. Don’t let people get you down! Your article was beautifully written for someone so young!
Kitty, baby girl, I don’t think I have ever been as impressed with a teenager as I am with you right now. Not only did you write an extremely well-thought out and emotional piece, but you did it with such compassion. That is something that cannot be faked. Please continue to write and congratulations on a job very well done. If these other young ‘ladies’ (and I use that term very loosely) had an ounce of your humanity, they would be very different people today. Again, I say, good job.
A polite citation to Lohr would be appropriate then, where needed, but you seem to have gathered significant, extra information. I suggest that you work with Max real quick to put together something small and specific that helps to handle any difficulties. A reach out to Lohr, with a thank you might also be nice.
Well done though, there are AP reporters who don’t convey the meat and details as well. You have significant and original content that does not require the attribution, I simply feel that the attribution seems warranted by your own gratitude for Lohr’s efforts.
Hope Rippey was just recently on Dr. Phil with Shanda’s mother and sister. I couldn’t believe this story. I truly think she was attempting to do what she could to make things right by giving the family some answers. Retract the claws…that being said if you are sentenced to 60 years. you should serve EVERY SINGLE DAY OF IT. This was an awful evil crime.
Really? Because I watched the show, too, and I didn’t get the sense of her trying to give answers to Shanda’s mom because she said a lot of ‘I don’t know why’s. And she said she deserved to be out of prison because she’s being punished every day by what she did to Shanda. I find that to be bullshit of the highest level. If you acknowledge what you did and believe you should be punished for it, your ass should be behind bars, not out and free. I didn’t get the sense that she was all that remorseful, other than she got caught and is now rightfully hated.
Hindsight is 20/20, and I think she has a serious case of it. Now she realizes that things aren’t forgive and forget on the outside, but I honestly don’t think she feels true remorse for her actions. I just didn’t see it in her eyes.
Hope told me back in2009 that she would only go on camera if Shanda’s family wanted her to…and to that she kept her word in relation to the Dr Phil show. I never expected her to admit to anything wrong on this show…”I don’t know” is a copout. I think she has to block out many things about that night to function from day to day. And she does visit such sites as this to see what people are saying about her, and sometimes posts under a phony profile.
@hollablonde…. Thank you…. I have Youtubed the episode and I am now watching it…..
Wow…one is lost for words. has mercy become a myth? To think that they are able to continue on with their lives as if they hadn’t taken the life of another…wow may hell nip at their backs until they are sent there. (great writing :) what a pleasure it was to read your work)
Kitty Xie, I can’t say much that you didn’t already express in this story. Because of your age, you can see this from a perspective that many of us no longer can, and you used your eloquence to share that perspective with us. What a unique, heartfelt tribute to Amanda and an undeserved gift to the rest of us.
All I can really offer to this thread is the observation that, while there are so many monstrous children in this world, selfish children who have no sense of empathy for anyone, nor will they ever have because of their upbringing and absolute lack of ingrained moral code… there are also young adults like you.
I hope you live a long, happy, beautiful, productive life full of realized dreams, Miss Kitty Xie. I know you will effortlessly make a pure, shining mark on this world on behalf of Shanda and all of the young victims who weren’t even given the chance to grow into what you are certain to become. You will do what they were never able to do, and you will do it because that’s just who you are. That might somehow make some of it o.k. That will help to balance the scales a bit more in the favor of humans.
This story didn’t make me cry, but YOU did. I’d heard it before as many of us have, but your words made it *more*, if that makes sense. You give me faith in humanity. I mean that with every fiber in my being and I can’t thank you enough for it.
I woke up in the middle of the night bawling about this story and all of the dead baby tales on PYSIH. I think it’s time for a break for me.
Kitty Xie, you wrote an amazing story.
I remember reading about this case, however, your story reminded me of two things: that Shanda would be just a year older than me now, and that my oldest daughter is almost as old as Shanda was when she died.
My daughter is much more outgoing than me and as I read what you wrote, I kept picturing her in Shanda’s place. I have raised her to be open but cautious with people, and she is. But this is what bugs me: Shanda was doing what any 12 year old would do. She was doing what millions on middle school aged kids do.
My daughter is at camp this week but I plan on showing her this story. Not only to show her that this stuff happens, but to also inspire her writing. She is an wonderful writer and is more advanced than her peers and classmates. It really is wonderful to see that she is not the only one these days under 16 who doesn’t use txt-speak.
Kittie Xie,
thankyou for showing such compassion and empathy for your fellow humans, it really shines through in your writing.
I hope this is (in some way) a counterattack to the negative image of teenagers given by this story.
People can be cruel and kind and stupid and wonderful and obvious and boring all at once, but you managed to tell this in a compelling way that defied labels. Kudos, and a massive hug.
I am so sorry for Shanda’s mother. You can love them, nurture them, feed them and want them to be happy, but evil will always find a way in, no matter how well you do.
It just doesn’t seem fair.
Does anyone notice that when one person is savagely beaten, it happens in 6?
Poor Shanda. One thing you had not been taught. Man is for Woman. and Woman is for Man. This is nature. Peace be with you.
Humans love. It’s not for you or anyone else to tell them who they may or may not love, or how to share and express it with their loved one. Romantic love isn’t just about procreation, it’s about a deep, bonding connection to another person. Procreation is a very small part of it, and can easily be cast aside while romantic love remains. If it was integral, I’d not be married to a man that I love deeply – we have no intention of ever having children.
Nature? My cat tries to rape my leg each time I get a text on my phone. Is he trying to breed with me? What about dogs who try to have sex with ducks? I could go on but you get the picture. THAT is nature vajayjay. Your post is shallow, ignorant and self-righteous. Peace be with you.
I couldn’t have said it nearly as well, vcbecky. Goodness. People these days.
oh shut the fuck up author, you would not have thrown yourself in front of gasoline and a match, and frankly, in a world without cellphones, the idea of “calling for help” with a sadistic murder and a bowie knife in between you and help is fucking terrifying.. im sure toni committed suicide in prison because of what she saw and her inaction, as im sure anyone would. peer pressure is one thing, but the threat of violence breeds self preservation. you dont have to be the fastest, just not the slowest to get eaten by the bear.
@vcbecky … you cant just say peace be with you at the end of a post and expect it all to be forgiven. also, a married woman using the word “vajayjay” is just fucking wrong.
Ken, you’re very dense. My closing remark ‘peace be with you’ was obviously made to point out how condescending and rude vajayjay’s use of the term was. I understand that was lost on you, because you have no understanding of human nature. I don’t want forgiveness, because there’s nothing to forgive. That wasn’t the point of my post, or any part of it. You’re dense, Ken. I think that’s the source of your uncontrolled outburst… you don’t understand, so you’re angry. It happens all the time.
There are plenty of us who would have done the right thing. Sure, many people in the world are wandering around without a sense of ethics, without an ounce of courage or moral fiber, with an extreme desire to avoid speaking out against any wrong or, heaven forbid, doing anything about it because they don’t give a shit about their fellow man. Don’t brand the rest of us as cowards just because you happen to be.
Anyone who thinks a persons vocabulary changes because they’re married is a person who, again, doesn’t know shit about human nature. What a stupid comment you made. Shut the fuck up, Ken.
Peace be with you… not for forgiveness, but because it irritates you so.
Hey Ken, do me a favor will you? Search this site for Peter Cantu. Open your damn eyes, read that fucking story that took place in the early nineties (you know, before cell phones were the norm for teenagers?) and tell me exactly what Jennifer Ertman did when Jessica Pena screamed her name. Screamed her name as she was being dragged down a fucking hill to her rape, torture, mutilation, and death. Self fucking preservation my ass! Jennifer still chose to attempt to help her friend, resulting in the loss of her life, yes. But don’t you dare, don’t you fucking dare, come on here and say no one would have tried to stop this horrendous murder. Those stupid cunts responsible for Shanda’s death should not represent the norm and anyone, like you, who thinks it does, should suck a dick and leave the rest of humanity alone.
That was fucking brilliant, Katrina, unfortunately I didn’t see it before I posted. Yes, Jennifer Ertman was FOURTEEN. Even younger than Toni. And she came back because there was a chance, however slim when confronting gang members, that she could save her friend. So, Ken, don’t lapse into condescending “self-preservation” shit to us. You’re obviously as ignorant to the world as my stove. There are courageous, moral people in this world who WILL choose to do the right thing. Don’t try to hide your obvious cowardice behind shit like that.
Wonderful write up of a horrible story Kitty.
Ken, I sincerely hope that no one you love is ever put into a life-or-death situation, because you’ve admitted that you sure as hell wouldn’t lift a finger to save them. If you’d actually bothered to read the story, you would have noticed that Toni and Hope were alone in Laurie’s house for four WHOLE HOURS. Even in an age “without cell phones” (which, may I add, is COMPLETELY incorrect – cell phones were introduced 9 entire years before this incident) – they could have called the sheriff’s department on a landline or WALKED their fucking worthless asses there. They could have told Mr. and Mrs. Tackett, who I am sure were not nearly as heartless as their POS daughter. Seriously, get all of your facts straight before you go defending child killers. And “you dont have to be the fastest, just not the slowest to get eaten by the bear” – that is the most cowardly piece of shit I’ve heard in my life. Is it okay, then, to throw a friend into traffic to save yourself? How about allowing a helpless child to be tortured for ten hours because you’re scared for your own life? I don’t know which parts of the story you read, Ken, because Shanda Sharer was TWELVE YEARS OLD. She wasn’t even a teenager when she was killed. Think about when you were fifteen or sixteen (it can’t have been too many years ago as indicated by the maturity level in your comment). What would you have done if you’d seen a SEVENTH-GRADER being beaten and strangled? Just watched and said nothing because your so-called sense of self-preservation outweighed whatever compassion you have for a child begging for help? For the love of all that’s holy, I don’t even know why I’m spending so time appealing to such a dense comment (thanks vcbecky). If you can sit down at your computer and defend people who allowed a child to die before their eyes, then that makes you no better than Toni Lawrence. As a side note, Toni DID attempt suicide while she was in prison. So, once again, get your fucking facts straight before jumping to rash conclusions. Normally, I would say that suicide is the individual’s choice, but in this case it was no more than an act of supreme cowardice.
And if you truly feel that self-preservation takes precedence to saving the life of another, then so be it. That’s your opinion, and I’m not going to waste my precious time trying to convince you otherwise. And honestly? I don’t give a shit what you think about the moral people in the world, who place HUMAN LIVES ahead of the fear of physical pain, who value their own ability to do good more than their lives. I reiterate that you must not be much older than any of the perps were, because your immaturity completely blows my mind. So, kudos to throwing salt into Shanda’s family’s wounds by trying to make some petty, lameass justification for her death. I’ll end with the words of my fellow commentator vcbecky: You don’t know SHIT about human nature.
Ken is the type of “man” who would hide under his bed like a pussy if someone invaded his home…possibly using his wife and/or children as human shields. – This kind of cowardice is intolerable, and makes me oh so happy that I not only married a man who is 6’4, works out every day, and is in great physical shape, but a man who owns weapons and wouldn’t hesitate to use them to protect his wife ( me ) and our children, but learned how to shoot in the United States Marine Corp, and has had to take human life away from some of the owners.
Ever been in a fire fight, Ken ? Ever had to defend yourself ? Ever had to protect your buddies from a shit load of people trying to smoke your ass ? Obviously not…but don’t you fucking dare think that everyone would cower like a little bitch in any dangerous situation just because you would, you unimaginable pussy.
I totally agree with you Kitty…99.99% Except that I have lived in Indiana my entire life, and I promise no one in Indiana used cell phones back then. They may have been invented or developed well before ’92, but Southern Indiana is still pretty rural, and cell service is even spotty in 2011!
Otherwise perfect comment…ITA H & T had a chance to stop the murder thousands of times…just pointing out that from development date to actual permeation of cellular phone technology into these ‘flyover states’ took quite a while.
Thanks for the reminder of Shanda, though. This story was HUGE for us back then.
Whoops, sorry about that, libby. :) But landlines existed, right? The girls could have called the sheriff’s department while Melinda and Laurie were out.
What’s more, Ken, although it’s true that not all of us have the moral courage to throw ourselves between a murderer and her intended victim, there were any number of occasions when Hope Rippey and Toni Lawrence could have gotten help for Shanda without any risk to themselves. How hard would it have been for one of them to talk to the Tacketts, or use their phone to call the police? Would it have been impossible to slip a note to the cashier at the gas station telling them to notify the authorities? Shanda could have been saved without anyone having to resort to an act of desperate heroism. (In fact, such subtle tactics might have been preferable, as an outright confrontation might well have resulted in the death of the one making the attempt, while doing nothing to benefit Shanda.) The fact is, Hope Rippey and Toni Lawrence could have saved Shanda’s life if they’d really, really wanted to. And obviously, they didn’t.
They had many opportunities, remember that Toni was already threatened by Milnda by this time and was loosing interest. There is a good chance that Hope stayed behind at the Tackett house with Toni to make sure she did not tell or call anyone. Hope’s own words about being not interested do not reflect her actions. She is prancing around with Shanda’s bra on and holds her down so Melinda can strangle her at the logging trail, than 15 minutes later at Laurie’s house she is suddenly against it, than hours later when Melinda and Laurie return Hope sprays Windex into Shanda’s open wounds and says, “You don’t look so hot now do you”….and eventually goes on to pour the gas on Shanda. Hope later said she did not spray Windex on Shanda but sprayed it into the car trunk, (year right) And this statement was made when she was trying to be released. NOW she says she did not spray anything…she is full of it!
I’m just in a 3-year relationship. Am I allowed to say vajayjay? We’ll be married when we’re older. I’d like to know what constitutes the right to use certain words. Can I still say it? You’re all-knowing, Ken. I’d like to know what the specific statutes are.
/sacrcasm.\
I actually think that the word ‘vajayjay’ is cute. It’s better than “Gash” or “Cunt” or “Fuckbox” or “nethermouth”, thank you Anne Rice.
Perhaps I’m expected to use the proper word, vagina?
Ken is a vagina.
You forgot “axe wound”. =)
From blackchampagne.com
Slang for Vagina
• Axe/hatchet wound
• Ass mate
• Bearded oyster
• Beaver
• Beef curtains
• Bikini bizkit
• Cock holster
• Cooter (Southern US regionalism)
• Cherry pop
• Cat flaps
• Cha-cha
• Chuff
• Furburger
• Grumble
• Hairy goblet (what a knight might drink from)
• Honey pot
• Honeysuckle • Hooch
• Hush puppy
• Lick-me-please-me
• Muff
• Mud flaps
• Map of Tassie/Mapatazi (Map of Tasmania)
• Panty hamster
• Passion fruit
• Poonany
• Quim
• Southern belle
• Taco (pink)
• Tongue magnet
• Velcro triangle
• Vertical bacon sandwich
• Vertical smile
• Wunder down under
Size Related
Large
• The Grand Canyon
• The Great Divide
• Horse’s collar
• Clown’s Pocket
• Cathedral (my organ’s never played in one this large before)
Small
• Mouse’s ear
• Eye of a needle
Slutty
• Box of assorted creams
• Municipal cockwash
• Bulldog eating porridge (post coital appearance)
Pubic Hair
• Bear trapper’s hat (hairy as a)
• Minge
• Brillo pad (coarse)
• Rusty brillo pad (redheads)
• Baby bear
Clitoris
• The little/bald man in the boat.
• The sugared almond
• The remote control (can never find it when you need it)
• Pearltongue
Labia visible through clothing
• Beetle’s bonnet
• Camel’s toe
• Monkey’s chin
• Shark’s fin (swimsuit display)
• Mumblers (When they can be seen moving through the clothing, but you can’t understand a word they are saying.)
______________________________
My personal favorite vag-related term is “Taco Wash”, the female version of “Teabag” :)
They missed cooch (or coochie) and fish taco. Oh, and bearded clam.
You should submit an updated list. I’m sure they’d appreciate it! ;)
Ouch. But I LOL. =)
That’s an incredibly thorough list, but they forgot my mother’s favorite: Pelt. She loves that one for some reason…. o_________o hahaha.
Ken, you’re a natural born coward
Thanks Max, I was waiting for you to pop up :)
Sounds like he is from The Equality Project.
http://www.theequalityproject.net/
Really naive.
Bullshit Ken, I went out in the middle of the night to apprehend a peeping tom with a screwdriver in his hand for trying to enter my babysisters bedroom…and I beat the hell out of him before I called the cops. It is chickenshits like you that run the other way as the reason we have such victims. My friends and I beat the hell out of a group of guys outside of a bar that were beating up a guy with his girlfriend…Ya got to make a stand sometimes and prevent what could be disastrous results. But a guy like you would just run the other way…do you yell, “I’m going for help” as you run??
These viscious killers should be executed and dead and gone for a long time. Instead two of them are enjoying life. There is no justice for victims. At least there is this site and people can learn what pieces of trash like this Hope Anna Rippey did for instance and they can tell others and warn them against her. I would NEVER bring my animal to a place where i would KNOW that a person that comited this disgusting act works. NOT IN A MILLION YEARS. No fate was responsible for the death of this precious girl – Shanda, but these four monsters wearing human flesh. Get the facts straight people at that pet ranch! Get them through your thick sculls. And prey that monsters like that won’t turn on you and bash them.
RIP Shanda <3 I'm so sorry not one righteous person was there to stop them.
I grew up & lived about 60 miles from this when it happened. My Best Friend from that time FELL IN LOVE with Toni Lawrence, exchanged many letters with her, and bought her a shit-ton of stuff. He was an idiot, and I yelled at him every day once he finally admitted all this to me.
She took complete advantage of him. This would have been around the time of trial—he actually got a crush on a murderer from the teevee!
Needless to say, he is no longer my friend. But I do remember that Toni was very defensive and denied any real guilt right after she was convicted, at least to him in letters from that time. It was beyond gross.
I remember somebody I knew on the internet doing the same with Melinda Loveless. A lot of people tried to give him a reality check but it didn’t work. I’d been freaked if it was one of my real life friends.
Hey I’m just wondering are they pictured in the order their names appear at the top? On another note, Max I don’t think you should take the videos off. I also do not think the author plagarized anyone she was merely stating facts then added her opinion/emotions.
Kitty Xie, again sweety you did a great job and so did your parents in raising such a fine young lady. I hope/pray that one day my daughter is like you. I admire you so much and am so very impressed with you. Thank You so much and please continue to write for PYSIH.
Yes, Tiffany, the mugshots of the “girls” are in the same order as the names at the top.
And thanks for your kind words :)
Kitty – you are an excellent writer, I just wish that you were writing about over due library books – I am sure that you could make such interesting as well.
These bitches are about as close to pure evil as one can get.
Yes they had horrible childhoods, but how many other childhood have been lost? Millions have had horrible / non existent childhood during The Holocaust and other similar times of war. Millions of abused children grow up to be some of the nicest adults…..
Shanda sounds like she was a bit of a handful….. face it she snuck out late at night. I will dare say a good kid easily influenced by evil people……
12 years old is an awkward age – too old for Barbie dolls and too young (IMO) for the type of relationship she was having with Amanda. At that time, IMO, there was not much for a child of that age to do – not a kid anymore, but not a teenager either – life without the ‘net was quite different then….
Still – no reason for murder……
I will dare say if Shanda was more obedient and stayed in, she may be alive today, depending on how driven Melinda was at the time.
Then again – how many of us did stupid things??????
I’ve gone out with wrong numbers……….. Not the safest way to meet people………..
I got off a bus in the Mattapan area of Boston against the advice of the driver who as black….
These soulless bitches should have been released into an asylum…
The fact that 2 of them are out walking among us scares me.
The fact is that there are people who care more about these for POS and will not even give a first thought to Shanda and that is what is wrong with our system. Dead victims are forgotten all too soon.
Please do not construe that I am blaming the victim in any way.
Just like if I leave my keys in the car – whose fault is it that someone stole my car????
Mine – a bit yes, BUT unsupervised keys left in a car do not drive the car, a thief does!
She probably thought she was safe going with other girls. I know when I was 12, I would not have gone off alone with 4 teenaged boys, but I probably would not have thought for a second that 4 girls would do something so horrible to me. A lot of girls are taught that older boys are dangerous, when they should be taught that ANY strangers trying to get you to sneak out at night are bad news.
Still – Friends of friends…….. can’t be all that bad many will dare assume…
Two of these POS are smiling like they are getting their yearbook pictures taken!
It’s a MUG SHOT!
And what’s worst is that Hope is roaming the world freely!
When Hope was on Dr. Phil with Jacque and Paije, she was asked about her smiley mugshot. Her excuse was that when she was brought in to the station, she was upset and crying so the detectives tried to cheer her up. She also claimed to be crying when Shanda was burning. That woman (I use the term loosely) is a chronic liar and she was more fearful for her own future than remorseful over the death of a child. I don’t know about Melinda Loveless’s mugshot, but I’d imagine that she smiled because she was happy that her little plan worked out so well.
Hope told me the same story of why she was smiling back in 2009…probably true. But I think the cops made her laugh, than snapped the picture to show the world what they thought of her. She also said that Toni was woken up from sleeping just before they took her pic. As for Melinda…she’s just an idiot. Prob smile at any camera pointed at her.
Good article Kitty, and you can link my videos anytime.
I was reading an article last night on PYSIH and a passing reference was made about the Depropetrovsk maniacs. I googled to see what the story was and unfortunately watched a bit of the video where the man is tortured and killed by them.
This has given me unneeded visual insight into what this poor little girl went through.It is one thing to read about what happened (and that was sickening enough) but to actually see what I think was a close resemblance of what Shanda went through…man.
I sincerely feel guilt sometimes that I have brought two little lives into this sick and evil place.
I also watched the youtube episodes of The Dr Phil show where Shandas’ Mum and Sister confront Hope Rippey and have to applaud them for keeping themselves under control.
I could not imagine coming face to face with someone who had commited the foul acts she did on my child and being able to be civil.
Seriously,if I was in their place that woman would have ceased to exist pretty damn quick…a quick apology would have been made to Dr Phil for the blood spatter on his shiny leather shoes.
You have to ask yourself WHY Shanda’s family is not screaming at the top of their lungs, “WHO IS PAYING FOR THE ATTORNEY FEES??” Because without the money, Hope is never released and Melinda never attempts. Something is not right, were they pressured in other ways by the corrupt political machine that can be bought for a few dollars ?? Read about the organizations related to the IWP prison programs, they’re political and deal with millions.
What a shocking, sickening crime. They are all sick puppies.
So, why was this not identified as a homosexual murder ? (Note the media in America has a strong pro-homosexual bias.)
Does Shanda’s homosexual activity AT TWELVE YEARS OLD, have no bearing at all on the “friends” she made, and the risks she took, eg. sneaking out at night with people she has never met before, for a “sexual” encounter. Has no one told her that lesbians are statistically the most violent (five times more) with their lovers, particularly lovers who leave them ? Was Shanda’s mum homosexual ?
Now some people are going to say, people should be free to drink blood, act like maniacs, etc; a little bit of perversion does not lead to brutality and murder. And the rest of us are quite sure otherwise. How would it have turned out if it was NOT normal for:
• 12 year olds to be having sex, let alone homosexual “sex” with a 14 year old (the writer confuses “friendship” and “intimacy” and “sex”)
• people to be openly drinking blood at parties
• get drunk at 14 yo
• people to make threats of harm against others (and not be taken seriously)
• and none of it gets reported or dealt with !!!
Forget about the creeps in society, if they had not picked Shanda, they would have picked someone else, we have no control over that. The only control we do have is in NOT placing ourselves within such circles, where violence and mayhem, mental & physical disease and an early death, are quite predictable. No wonder her dad just laid down and died: first he could not protect Shanda from her mum, then he could not protect her from further extents of the same outside the house.
It is as stupid as going to a redneck bar and drinking so much that you pass out (I am not suggesting that the victim of rape is “to blame” for the rape, I am saying it is a stupid thing to do). Now if you get raped or worse, your dad (not you, because you are past reason) might be very sad that he did not teach you how to (a) recognise danger and (b) stay away from it, let alone (c) willingly jump into the which of it. No use wringing your hands and crying about rape being against the law, when you are hanging out with people in a mental state that contradicts law, and who actively speak of rape as normal and who treat women badly.
Now all the heterophobes are going to call me homophobic. That’s why they need special laws, for the abnormal people to call the normal people, abnormal. Now that’s what I call a sick world.
Am I the only one who is sick and tired of reading the dumb ass shit that you type ?
Shut.
The.
Fuck.
Up.
No, I second that as well. We get it Derek, you don’t like the gays. Thanks for stopping by, again, to make sure we know how bad them gays are by leaving that utterly ridiculous and pompous comment.
No, I’m 100% with you Maelstrom.
Derek, you are not normal. Normal people have empathy for victims, even if their lifestyle choices are different that their own. If Shanda was my daughter, I would not have intervened in here lesbian relationship. I would have encouraged her to talk to me about it, and I would have tried to protect her from people like Melinda Loveless and Laurie Tackett.
Here’s what’s wrong with your whole argument, and what makes you such a despicable person – You want us to believe Loveless’ and Tackett’s lesbianism was a big part of the evil that made them kill Shanda. It’s true, Loveless was jealous because of Shanda’s relationship with a person of the same sex, but it just as easily could have been a boy, or dog, or god knows what. The only reason Shanda is dead is because Melissa Loveless is a psychopath and Laurie Tackett is a sadistic psychopath. Sexual orientation had NOTHING to do with it.
You talk a lot, as if you think the more you comment the more right you are. What I don’t understand is most of the time, I like your comments. But the things you’ve said here and and the the Anti-Semitic remarks you made earlier have been so offensive to me, only an immediate full and unconditional apology can save you from being permanently banned from this website.
There’s one thing I do not tolerate here, and that’s homophobic, racist, and Anti-Semitic comments. Act like a rednecked grand wizard of the KKK and I WILL exercise my discretion as editor of PYSIH and take away your posting privileges.
You have 48 hours to make your apology.
I’m with both you and Maelstrom 100%. The very first post of his that I saw seemed both sane and lucid, and I almost felt tempted to say so, and ask him to post more often. Something held me back, though (probably laziness), and when I noticed more posts by him I though, well, no need to ask him to contribute more often.
But it’s like he’s forgotten to take his medication, or exchanged the pills for posting or something, because his posts have progressively become more and more off-center and disagreeable. His comment about the jews funding the holocaust and his “88″ source was the one where he – for me – revealed his true colours and lost every single shred of credibility.
I honestly don’t know what the fuck he’s trying to accomplish here. The first thing to come to mind is that he’s trying to give a friendly face to white supremacy. You know, to somehow prove that you can be an all-round nice guy with a strong sense of morals and ethics and more than half a brain – just like the majority of posters here – yet still hate jews, homosexuals, people of all colours (as white is not a colour) and whatnot. Prove that they’re not as far removed from us as we’d like to think.
But a leopard can’t change its spots, and derek here just isn’t patient enough for such a ruse to actually work. The hate and the idiocy is just too strong in him. I’d be surprised if he apologizes, and even more so if his apology is sincere.
Max, there will be no apology from Derek. He is like a toad hopping from story to story defecating his posts along the way, but I have noticed he never comes back to clarify his posts when asked by others.
Given the several comments made recently about the “regulars” and high horses and e-gangs, I was just going to ignore his drivel.
But we are kinda damned if we do and damned if we dont, I would hate for someone new to the site to read his comments and think that they were views accepted by the rest of us.
I look forward to his banning.
“He is like a toad hopping from story to story defecating his posts along the way”- Lovely, I was enjoying a delicious Scotch egg for lunch, and now I’m trying to remove bits of it from my nasal passages! Thanks for the giggle!!!
Nope, Maelstrom, you’re most definitely not the only person who feels that way. Derek, just spare Max the extra work and remove yourself from this site. It’s better to exit with some dignity.
Oh, wait…
Not to mention every time I see his name I get The Beatles stuck in my head, and while I’m a huge fan, they’re part of my soul and shit, it’s not a song I want on loop in my brain.
WTF?
Seriously, if you get raped while you’re drunk, or beaten up as a lesbian, you’re just ASKING for it????
I’ve been trying to decifer your nationality for about a week, Derek, and you seriously strike me as an old NAT, black- hating Afrikaner straight from the cesspit that is Oranje, South Africa. Because I have a difficult time believing that a first- world culture could create someone as warped in their belief system as you.
Just, wow.
Derek, I don’t think you’re homophobic. I think you’re humanphobic. I think you’re worried about the rest of the world discovering that you’re made entirely of fear because you’ve embraced ignorance, even using it as a shield. You don’t realize that your fear is practically screaming from your posts (and probably smeared all over your face) with every word you type. I’m not mad at you – I pity you. If I were you, I’d be ashamed of myself. That’s actually a paradox – if I were you, I’d have no concept of shame. It would be overshadowed by my fear. Pity really is the word.
Yeah, Derek, I didn’t do my homework before I wrote to you last – so, umm, just disregard my previous comments.
So you really do hate Jews and Homos? Actually, now that I think about it, that’s really pretty fuckin’ cool!
If it wouldn’t be too much trouble, could you teach me how to hate Jews and Homos?
Do you think you could mold me, a reasonably intelligent open minded white guy, into an ignorant prick?
Maybe I could start with Blacks and Mexicans? I think they’re probably easiest for someone like me to identify. Then I could graduate to Jews and Homosexuals? and maybe, I could even move on to Democrats. I’m sure I’ve seen Jews, and Homos, and even Democrats because they’re the ones that look just like us, right? I’ll bet they’re tough to identify in their camoflage.
Anyway, if you could share your secrets with me, that would be so fuckin’ cool – turning me into a real live card-carrying bigot.
Me an’ Derek – oh, yeah, we’re cool, – speading hate and discontent. It’ll be great – Ignorance will be bliss – I’ll never have to think again.
Derek, I must disagree with you on all points, especially the last about “special laws.” It’s not normal or “abnormal” people who make this world a sick place. It’s people like your homophobic, quite possibly incapable of compassion self who rape the world of every last good quality it has and pride themselves in doing so.
So, please, remove your headache-inducing comments (and yourself, preferably) from this site. All of us have better things to do than read your uneducated opinions.
The perps of this crime had major issues of self-hatred from what I have read. Three of the four had Fundamentalist Christian parents, which probably fueled their self-hatred and rage.
U see,many people today like kind of lifestyle.Men with men,women with women,or with both.They approve it.But if something bad happen,believe me,they will always put blame on others.No wonder something like this would happen,moral is too low,adult was thinking only self-satisfaction,when kids follow their ways,and making something terrible,they put all the blame to them,like they have no mistake at all.Did they know all of that was related?If we showing them(our family,friends,neighbours)a good behaviour,and treat our children and wife nicely,they wont be like that.
Bloody hell, learn the English language, please!
Most gays and lesbians are non-violent. They are normal, everyday people who happened to be born with an attraction to their own gender. Studies have proven it IS something you’re born with, and I’d explain those studies, but I think I’d make your head explode. In every sexual orientation you’ll find violent people. These happened to be lesbians. I could show you 100 non-violent lesbians for each of these bitches.
Nelysa, pray tell, what the fuck does that have to do with anything? Your wall of text just informed me that you are a narrow-minded, bitter, crotchety old bitch. Nothing more, nothing less.
Aw man, did I miss the new idiot? I wanted to play too.
Damn. That’ll teach me to get sick and go to bed early
Oh you know it, Travis. Another idiot, it never fails.
Um, Derek? I’m not a heterophobe. I have two mothers and some of my closest friends are gay, and when a friend told me she was in love with me a couple years ago, I went ahead and gave it a try even though I wasn’t at all attracted to her in that way. But I happen to be a woman who wants to be with a man. I’m not ashamed of that. I’m happy to be my heterosexual self. And my homosexual friends support and encourage me in that, just as I support and encourage them.
But you know what? You’re disgusting. Did Shanda Sharer engage in some risky behaviors? No doubt. I cringe at the thought of a twelve-year-old being sexually active. But what does sexual orientation have to do with it? Frankly, if I were a parent and my 12-year-old was having sex, I would be relatively relieved to learn it was with someone of the same gender – bad enough to have sex at that age without having to worry about pregnancy.
But here’s the thing. Shanda didn’t get her heart broken. She didn’t become the target of nasty rumors at school. She didn’t get beat up and left with a black eye and a bloody nose, or even taken advantage of at some wild party while drunk. She was TORTURED FOR TEN HOURS and BURNED ALIVE. That’s not a natural consequence of making some foolish choices. I was never the wild type – I’ve never been drunk, I never so much as cut class when I was in school, and I’m still a virgin to this day – so I’m not trying to justify my own behavior when I say that if torture-killing was a logical consequence of teen drinking, early sexual involvement (yes, even early homosexual experimentation), or sneaking out of the house at night, there would be a lot more smoldering bodies by the side of the road.
Where the hell is your compassion?
Aletheia, unfortunately Derek hasn’t the capacity for something so human as ‘compassion’. He’s a victim of self-imposed moral and ethical poverty. He’s a terrified bigot, and he likes it that way.
Derek, aren’t you the guy who made sure we all know he has an Engineering Degree as if that means a goddamned thing, which only reminded me of that Futurama episode with the whale biologist? (“That bathing suit is ugly! That’s my opinion- I’m a whale biologist!”) Or am I confusing you with some other intellectual retard? It would be an honest mistake. Someone really should break that mold – there are more of you than any sane society should be required to support.
is it wrong that i think it’s funny that her name is “loveless”?
(funny in an, “oh god, holy shit,” sort of way. great writing, by the way. i’ve been fascinated by this case since i first heard of it.)
Deplorable. I cant believe 2 are OUT of PRISON What the hell is the world coming to? I know that if someone were to dare harm my child… think ” A TIME TO KILL”. I would go to jail gladly knowing I had rid the world of scum and no other would suffer at their hands. Wonder how “ANN” feels now that she has 2 offspring. Hopefully DFACS looks in on them.
I’ve been a reader of this site for awhile, and this is actually the first time I’ve commented on a story. I apologize for how it rambles – I’m still shaken up over this story. I grew up a little bit away from where this took place – Henryville, IN, if anybody is curious – and was born the year after it. Growing up, this one one of those cases that was never discussed. I only heard about it two years ago, after I started a new school and one of my friend’s mom was talking about how disguising it was that one of the women involved had been able to get a job.
Kitty, if you read this – thank you so much for the excellent write up. This is one of the most in depth articles I’ve found. I actually read it when it first came out, but it’s taken me this long to be able to read all the way through the article and comments and not be too shaken up to write a comment when I finished. I’m 4 years older then you, and I can’t imagine writing something like this. I’d end up breaking down in the middle of research, so great job.
I can’t say anything that hasn’t been said before, but these people are murdering scum who should have been prosecuted to the full penalty and weren’t. I’m not a huge supporter of the death penalty, but this is one case I think fully deserved it.
Also, is it just me, or did a lot of horrific and creepy murder cases happen in rural Southern Indiana between the 1970s and early 1990s? Aside from Shanda, there were also the unsolved cases of Daniel Guthrie (which even more then Shanda, is never talked about. Seriously, try to talk about him, and you were practically shunned where I grew up) and then the Henryville Forestry murders…I’m not going to sleep tonight, after looking then up again. My mom was actually in High School when one of the murders happened (I believe it was the one found in the barn) Anyways, the area is just weird. I’ve moved to another small town, a little bit away from there, and I feel much safer at night.
I read this story and immediately went for the mind bleach. It was truly horrible, and I wondered why know one had put it out there. I think it was just because it was simply too horrific to deal with.
Awesome job.
Of all the incidents I’ve read and PYSIH this is the worst. I don’t live in the US. But seems like your country’s laws need to be re written. They all should of have been sent to death by lethal injection or something. What ever you may have endured in the past, that doesn’t give you the right to harm other people. You cant’ do this to another human being and say “Oh, she had a rough childhood, so she should be forgiven, or ask for leniency .
I was never a fan of serial killers. But now I seriously hope there are some people like dexter out there. Why the hell would we want to keep this bitches alive.
forgive the bad grammar
I burst into tears reading this story. When you first mentioned her crying out for her mom, I just started sobbing and sobbing, I honestly couldn’t stop. Something about this story just really hurt my heart.
this story needs to stay alive lest shanda and this horrific crime be forgotten. it is unbelievable to me that 4 teenage girls could carried out a crime of this magnitude. that 2 are free…what kind of country is this? i am from Indiana and i am literally appalled. and that one is working caring for pets?? makes me wonder what kind of place would even hire her. how ironic, she is caring for beloved pets when she tortured and murdered a beautiful beloved child. i hope the place she works goes out of business for hiring this monster. i wouldnt trust her to care for a spider. and i dont like spiders. i hope all 4 of them are having vivid nitemares for life of the crime they committed and never know a moment’s peace. Rot in hell indeed, all 4 of you!!
I remember reading about this years ago. I remember reading how Hope said she was too scared of the other girls to do anything. I remember reading especially about the times they were in the gas station and all Hope had to do was go up the attendants and say, “Please help me. Please protect me, those girls are nuts. Please rescue the little girl who they stuffed in the trunk.” She made her choice, over and over that night. She stayed on the side of evil.
A couple years ago, when I was told I had to have surgery, I went to my friend’s house and, when I started crying, her DOG tried to lick my face. Even a DOG has more compassion that these sorry excuses.
Not only that…another customer at the gas station looked funny at Hope when he heard noises coming from the trunk of Laurie’s car while the others were paying for the bottle of soda and the gas. So Hope moves the car to another location so Shanda’s moans would not be heard by others.
Incredible retelling of the story. Brava to the the author. Now on to the important comments:
First of all, I have to say I’m appalled that Melinda’s defense (I can’t imagine any of them truly felt anything but horror for her) played the “she’s borderline” card. For those who don’t know, borderline personality disorder is a mental illness that often comes on as the result of post-traumatic stress, in this case Melinda’s abuse as a child. It tends to create an irrational sense of attachment in those plagued by it. These people aren’t regular “clingy,” but neither are they stalkers most of the time. They have rocky relationships and go through periods of adoring and hating their partners. Break-ups are difficult, because there is such an intense fear of abandonment. These are also people who tend to be impulsive, self-destructive, and have skewed senses of identity. How do I know all this? Because I, like Melinda Loveless, have borderline personality disorder. Mine comes from watching my father hold a gun to his head in front of me two weeks before he actually shot himself to gauge my reaction, in case you were wondering. Anyway, it isn’t an excuse for her to kill. I can’t imagine EVER so much as glancing over at someone doing what these girls did to Shanda and not trying to save her. She really gives the disorder a bad name. Please understand that her actions don’t represent those of us who suffer from BPD as a whole. I encourage you to research the disorder. You’ll see that her case was extraordinary, probably because the severe abuse she watched and endured at her house during formative years impacted her and kept her infantile.
Secondly, I want to try to clear something up. There are lots of people to blame in this case. So many lives were screwed up because of Shanda’s murder. Amanda was tormented by the insanely jealous Melinda months before that January night. She warned Shanda through letters, but what kid would take those threats seriously? She alleges, by the way, that she took the letters to the prosecutor and nothing was done. I’m not defending her, just stating something that she has since mentioned. Amanda was FOURTEEN at the time. Amanda was 12. Melinda was 16. If you’ve seen pictures of her, she was far from unattractive (assuming you can ignore the actions she took long enough to look at her). She could have had anyone she wanted. Amanda reminded her of her father, whom she adored… romantically. And yes, who molested her at least from the age of 3. Melinda took advantage of a little girl, too. She raped Amanda on a few occasions. And then Amanda met Shanda, who seemed much older than 12 and was fairly normal compared to Melinda. Shanda had said she wanted to be older than 12, and she was wearing tight jeans and makeup. She was a gorgeous girl who looked more like a 16 year old than a 12 year old. Shanda’s mother says she didn’t approve of Amanda, but she certainly let them go out to events together and have sleepovers. She didn’t deserve what happened to her sweet daughter, but she now blames Amanda for the murder – when she could have put a stop to the relationship long before it got so serious. Instead, she left it up to Shanda to end the relationship and took her out of the public school. Nothing else was ever mentioned between them, although she’d already found sexual letters exchanged between Shanda and Amanda. If my 12 year old daughter were having sex with ANYONE, we’d be sitting down having a serious talk about making some lifestyle changes. (Note: After Amanda, it’s reported that Shanda continued “experimenting” sexually with boys) If you ask me, this was all a dynamic brew.
Everyone involved in the case has a role to play. Shanda was a little girl trying to grow up too fast, and she fell in with the wrong crowd by accident. She didn’t know it was going to cost her her life. She isn’t here to tell us today what she would change, but I’m sure it would be to never so much as cross paths with the explosive Melinda Loveless. She was killed by a girl who had openly hated her, threatened her, and attacked her. This was the same girl who had written her letters signed “Luv ya!” and suggesting a desire to be friends. This was the girl who had found letters from Shanda in Amanda’s jacket and screamed “You’re sleeping with a baby! You should be babysitting her!” Melinda couldn’t carry out the murder on her own. She wasn’t intelligent enough. That’s why Laurie the sociopathic occult dabbler with a need to kill was enlisted. She didn’t know Shanda. None of the other girls did. They aren’t at all innocent, not one of them. Not even the people who got involved later, like the friends to whom the girls confessed but chose to do nothing.
Did these girls have to be sick to commit the murder? Probably so. But they were all very much aware of what they were doing. They refer to Shanda as being a “little girl” repeatedly in their confessions. They said things like “We didn’t want anyone to know we had a baby dying in the trunk.” And when it comes down to it, that’s what Shanda was. She may have wanted desperately to be older, specifically 13. She couldn’t wait to grow up. She simply got caught up in an incredibly dangerous situation by doing things that aren’t at all abnormal for middle school girls to do. It cost her her short life. She will never get to see 13, all she wanted to do. It’s not just a horrifying crime. It’s an absolute tragedy. Rest in peace, Shanda. We all love you here.
I have a borderline personality disorder caused by much of the same reason Melinda’s was. Now, the disorder effects everyone differently depending on the circumstances involved and how it seems to have manifest itself in the person. I’m pretty withdrawn and have been and don’t interact socially ’cause i have no desire, though I feel that if I was in a situation like Melinda I would become violent. I do feel that I am capable of violence though I feel I am able to control myself but I feel like certain situations could bring it out. I’m not choosing to think like this, but I am forced to. So I would say that it can cause problems linked to violence but other situations and the effect they have on the mind make it more likely to be brought out like that, it seems to me everything about how you are and about your life can have an effect. FYI- No one with borderline personality disorder is a psychopath as it most often arises out of post-traumatic stress, which can be seen in some ways as the opposite of psychopathy. Could I have been helped? Yes. But bad social experiences prevented me from that. I think if we lived in a wolrd where everyone was kind and understanding I wouldn’t have gotten this bad, there are nice people not anyone i could open up to but sometimes that’s not enough to help.
A murder is a murder. If you are witnessing something as horrible as this and don’t do anything till it’s too late it’s your fault too. You shouldn’t be given mercy. Because the victim wasn’t. Toni shouldn’t have been let out of jail and given mercy, because Shanda wasn’t. She was not spared so no one else should be. Period.
Very well-written story, Kitty Xie. You’re only 16? You have a bright future in writing ahead of you!
I can’t imagine what poor little Shanda went through – how awful. Those four bitches are evil, just evil. They must have no souls.
RIP Shanda and Steven.
This is the worst story I have ever read in my life,
and I have read plenty. I am sure these monsters will eventually
grow old and their consciences will eventually kick in, and the
dreams they will have….good for them.
I know Law & Order portrayed an episode based on this horrible
story.
To live in a civllized society with laws is what keeps more of this
from happening.
Oh, God, she’s called Loveless xD
Where can one find the full Dr. Phil interview? I can only find bits and pieces.
Who was on the parole board that let these two.. Um… Individuals… out? Maybe the citizens of Indiana need to call for a reform in who gets to decide which criminals get to frolic in the free world..
Hope… or Anna.. or Satan, whatever her name is, was released because of…? Looks to me she was just as guilty as SheBitch Loveless and DevilWhoreTackett. Absolutely ridiculous that either demons were released. I pray Lawrence’s children never meet someone like their “mother” and her “friends”. Give her hell, kids, and feel properly ashamed in your gene pool.
You are correct about the fact that people have to stand up to such early releases. In Hope’s case, it was the religious groups that enter the prison (many times subsidized with our tax dollars) who helped with her release, but it appears that other factors were silently behind them. It is no accident that Melinda and Hope used the same attorney, it is no accident that this attorney and prosecutor Scott Durham went into a closed room and when they emerged, the prosecutor decided to not fight Hopes sentence reduction, which set her free. Blame the people responsible for her release, demand that this prosecutor be fired, vote out the Indianapolis politicians involved with the reentry program, as they are using tax dollars to promote and defend Hope….they got her the job at sleepy hollow. But most importantly, watch the video “Charlie Scars” by NC dog breeder Charlie Petrizzo. He is very religious and his dogs are in prisons in over ten states because of his political connects, including IWP where Hope and Melinda were in the same dog-training program. This is no accident that both are in the same program, discover religion, and someone secretly pays for the same attorney for both of them. Religious, politically connected Charlie was an x-Wachovia banker who Indiana representative Dan Coats lobbied for. Wachovia was busted for laundering hundreds of millions of drug cartel money, assisting companies who committed identity theft upon senior citizens, stealing more millions. And were bailed out with our tax dollars for their bad investments that managers like Charlie regularly made…this is how he made his millions. Years ago an x-inmate told us that Melinda had a rich sugardaddy from another state who wrote her letters, sent gifts, and paid for her attorney. We now believe that this is Charlie! A rich con man with a fetish for pretty child killers…and he is supposed to be a religious, married, family man.
I just told this story to my 12 y/o daughter. I told her to please never ever sneak out or trust anyone blindly like this. How can any of them be walking free? God Bless Shanda’s mother.
The facts say Shanda did not sneak out, but simply went to the car to talk to Amanda, as she thought she was in the car. She had no coat when the rest of the girls were bundled up to endure the cold night…it was 11degrees that night + the wind chill. The back door was left ajar and her dog was out, found sitting at the end of the driveway the next day limping! For her to tell complete strangers that she was having a relationship with Amanda is beyond comprehension. The story they tell is to neat, no errors, and not likely. They knew they would be in more trouble had they abducted Shanda so they created the story at Hope’s house that afternoon when Mr. Rippey seen all four of them in the driveway discussing something, after Toni suddenly leaves work for being sick and goes directly to Hope’s house. Word got out immediately amongst the cops there in Madison that there was a girl found dead out on Lemon Rd…they have children and friends with children. Don’t think for a minute that they were not asking around to see if any children were missing from the area, and Toni was working at a fast food restaurant where such cops would stop and ask such questions. Toni knew Shanda was found, she called Hope, Hope called Laurie and they all met at Hope’s house to create their story incase they were questioned.
Good article Kitty, well written! And you can link my videos anytime. To those who do not like them, they were created to show the actual locations…a reality trip with only one camera.
I have gathered much information since these videos were released
This seems to be entirely spam. The movie seems to be about a Dog that ran into the street and later was electrocuted. Bad form.
holy fucking shit son
Shanda,
Even though I never had the opportunity to meet you, you seemed like a very good girl, that should never be mistreated. Those 4 girls that did you in should ALL be locked up for the rest of their lives. You deserve so much better than what was done with you. At least youre in heaven now. Even though I’ve never met you, Shanda, I love you, baby girl.
Madison Junior High Principal Larry Cummins said that Laurie, 17, had been “a fine elementary student” with “good values.” A classmate recalled that Laurie had once been very religious, like her Christian fundamentalist parents.
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1992-06-21/news/1992173004_1_madison-girls-shanda-north-of-madison/2
Don’t take this as an attack on Christianity. I am stating facts. Three of the four had fanatically Christian parents.
I sincerely hope that every time Toni’s children cry, she hears Shanda’s sobs and that every time she closes her eyes, she sees Shanda’s terrified look. I also hope that when her mind goes over the tragic events, Shanda’s face is replaced by her children’s faces. I hope she has nightmares that show her own children in Shanda’s place. In short, I hope Toni is haunted by her memories for the rest of her life. As for the rest- why are they still alive??!!
from the videos on youtube about dr. phil show i think the girls only are sorrry they got caught saying they cried and didnt want to do it because of peer pressure, is bullshit they all knew what they was doing and had fun and enjoyment of it. toni lawrence was just there though she didnt have a part in the killing mosty she is still responcible for her death, she could have called the police and so could hope rippey when they were at lauren tacketts house. these girls are cold blood murders but do not deserve to go to hell, noone does, as long as they ask for forgivness and reorse i beleive that god will truely show them their ways to help. these girls have done something truely unforgettable and heart crushing for shandas family and for her family friends, i beleive that its not truely all amandas fault she thought the girls were kidding when they said they were going to kill shanda, i mean who would beleive young teens it was more than likely a talk of anger. i feel for shandas family i mean dealing with their daughters death and then her dad drinking himself to death? its horrible what shanda has experiences in her torture of 9 hours in a truck of a car slowly dying and going in and out of conciousness. this is a truely interesting story and book.
The Solution is very simple, America should be completely wiped off the world
Your all just a buncha SICK FUCKS!
England on the hand is amazing
First of all, it should be you’re, as in you are, not your. Your shows possession. Also, bunch of instead of buncha.
Secondly, and you’ll all have to forgive me for using a overused internet cliche here, but: Youmadbro?
“The Solution is very simple, America should be completely wiped off the world Your all just a buncha SICK FUCKS! England on the hand is amazing”
Yeah. Because America is the only country in the world where fuck up shit happens. Good joke though, almost thought you were serious
This is such a sad story.
Towards the end the amazing author (I’m truly impressed by the quality of writing at such a young age!) mentioned that perhaps there was some justice in Hope not having any children. Apparently that has changed. In January she had a son through invitro with her partner. I don’t have any links handy but the information is available via Google searches.
In regards to the argument about whether or not Toni could have done something to save Shanda without endangering her own life, I think this discussion should be pretty cut and dry. During the first stop at the gas station, relatively early on but late enough that no doubt existed that Melissa meant to do harm, Toni used a payphone to call a friend. The other girls were busy pumping gas, paying, and guarding Shanda so she wouldn’t have been overheard. She said nothing about what was happening. Not one word. Period. Choosing inaction IS an action in my opinion.
None of these demons should have ever been released! Justice did not prevail in this case! My heart goes out to young Shanda’s family. One of the sickest stories I have ever read and I still can’t believe all these little demons didn’t get the death penalty! Not only that but some of them are already out and living among us! Keep those others in prison for the rest of there lives ( where they all should be).
Ok so I just found this and MANY of you who reads this will not like what I am going to write but you know what I do not care that is why I am not hiding behind a screen name or whatever to hide who I am.. I dont agree with the murder of any one…let alone that of a child. I can not speak for all 4 of the girls that were in this murder but I can tell you what I know of Mary Tackett 20years later she is still in PRISON not only in person but in her mind also. Mary is a good friend of mine I becaome friends with her a few years ago. She was apart of something so wrong that she will never forgive herself. She has taken her sentence and done every part of it without doing anything to try and get out sooner like these other girls have done with filling appeals, and other things. to get their sentenced reduced of forgiven. Mary on the other hand feels that she should be there for her part in this. She has not given interviews or cashed in on this like the others have. She has done her time and done everything she could to better her self. Mary is a kind loving person who would do anything for someone in need!!! She does not walk around the prison with her head big or thinking she is better than anyone else she still feels the pain in her heart everyday knowing that she took a life of a little girl.. Can she change anything that was done No she cant and she knows that!!! People want to bring up the bible and say all these things about her. And you dont even know what it is like to live a day in her shoes let alone a minute with the pain that she knows she caused. I passed judgement on her to before I knew her. I learned very quickly what kind of person she is now… And I am not afraid to say Mary Tackett is my friend and I love her for the person she is today not the person she was 20 years ago…
not sure what you’re hoping to accomplish here. To let the world know that you have shitty taste in friends, or that you have no problem having a “friend” in someone who helped murder a girl because “well, she feels really really bad about it.”
mission accomplished.
I’m glad I’ve never lived a day in her shoes. Because that would mean I’m a bitch murderess.
Lots of people have shitty backgrounds. Not a lot of those turn to murder. I don’t give a fuck what happened in your life, there is NO reason for your solution to be ‘kill someone who barely wronged me’. Shanda had done nothing to deserve the death penalty, yet your ‘friend’ and her friends decided to dole that out. I hope they feel bad. I hope they see Shanda in every dream they have from now until the day they die. I hope they smell her burning flesh and feel the pain her family feels. It’s what they deserve. The day they stop feeling bad about it is the day their humanity is permanently lost, and they don’t have much to begin with.
So I don’t feel bad that she feels bad. I hope she reads this. She needs to be reminded what she did and feel shitty about it for the rest of her life. She doesn’t deserve a break.
So far i know,they all have a family problem,especially Melinda Loveless.She was the daughter of a very problem father.I think the kids dont exactly deserving hell,it was their parent was not really teaching them with good,especially with religion.Their moral soo low.No offence,sometimes we always put blame on the fruit,but what about the root?I studied many religious book including Al -Quran.If u want to find the meaning of life,wants to fix yourself and your family,find the solution in the Al-Quran.Every human deserve heaven,but it only deserve for somebody who search for it and find it,and bringing his children and his family along to it.If u already find the truth,but dont want to accept it,hiding it,and like to live your own way,keep doing bad thing,still living an ignorance life,then we can call it “deserve to hell”.For the sinners,if we cant seek forgiveness from human,then seek it from Allah swt.He is the one who judging u and everything u do.So,if it pain if everyone cannot accept u,hating u,it was the price u have to pay for all u have done.Ya,everything was counted and there is time we have to pay.But as long as we ‘doing great’ and becoming good person day by day,keep repent,insyallah we will be in peaceful at hereafter.People who live in misery,suffering from anything,dont forget,the pain in this world was not permanent,also this world.Someday we all be gone,there will be justice for you and for them,in this world maybe they can escape,but at hereafter,just wait.Actually,we all will be paying for a bad thing we’ve done,that maybe others dont know,but He know.