Shanda
Shanda Sharer was 12 years old when she and her mother moved to New Albany, Indiana, in 1991. She started attending Hazelwood Middle School and she quickly made a lot of friends. This was easy for her because she was very social, kind, and bubbly.
She was part of the basketball team, the volleyball team, and was a cheerleader. Despite her popularity, she was very humble and sweet to everyone. But one day, Shanda got into a fight with another girl, which was unusual for her, and the two got detention for it.
Amanda Heavrin
One day, Shanda got into a fight with a girl named Amanda Heavrin, who was two years older than her. The two got detention and actually became friends after that. They started talking every single day and became very close.
Amanda was quite the tomboy and had a tough reputation at school. But after their fight, she became very protective of Shanda and actually started developing feelings for the 12-year-old. One person in particular had a huge problem with this.
Melinda Loveless
Shanda and Amanda were becoming closer and closer every single day, which did not sit well with Amanda's girlfriend, 16-year-old Melinda Loveless. Amanda and Melinda had been together for a long time but had their ups and downs.
Despite their fights, they always found their way back to each other. But now that Amanda had found a new friend, Melinda was very jealous. However, she tried to put her jealousy aside and become friends with Shanda as well, so the three of them would often hang out together.
Getting Closer
But Shanda and Amanda began spending time together outside of school as well, something that shocked Shanda's mother. When she heard that Shanda was hanging out with the girl she got into a fight with, she didn't know what to think.
Eventually, her mother gave in and let Shanda hang out with Amanda even though she had a bad feeling about her. She also wasn't comfortable with the fact that she was two years older than her, but she let it slide.
Falling In Love
Shanda had never dated anyone before, so she was a little confused about her feelings towards Amanda. But Amanda was very sure about how she felt: she wanted to be with Shanda. So, she began writing love letters to her.
Even though she was trying to be more than Shanda's friend, she was still in a relationship with Melinda, who slowly started to grow more and more suspicious. Amanda assured her that Shanda was just a friend, but she didn't believe her.
A Hard Childhood
Melinda was a very troubled girl. She had been mistreated all her childhood, as her father allegedly physically, mentally, and sexually abused Melinda, her mother, and her sisters for years.
Her father was eventually arrested but Melinda still loved her dad and wished he would live with them. She suffered from several mental illnesses and had trouble processing her emotions. And as Shanda and Amanda grew closer, Melinda became more unstable.
Struggling
Being gay in a small town in the 1990s was definitely not easy. Neither Amanda's nor Melinda's parents approved of their relationship, but the two were still together for a long time. The two were on again and off again for a whole year until Shanda came in the picture.
Amanda kept writing love letters to Shanda in which she slowly became more and more explicit with her advances. She then asked her to be her date to the school dance, and Shanda accepted.
Jealousy
Everything was going fine at the school dance until Melinda caught Shanda and Amanda together. Filled with rage, she told Shanda to stay away from Amanda or else there would be consequences. But Shanda didn't take it seriously and continued her relationship with Amanda.
After Shanda and Amanda got together, Shanda began changing. Her grades were slipping, she quit all the sports she was doing, and she was just behaving differently. Her mother noticed this and believed that Amanda was a bad influence on her.
The Love Letter
Shanda's mother forbade her from seeing Amanda but she continued hanging out with her behind her mother's back. One day, her mother discovered one of the love letters they were sending each other, through which she discovered that the two were being intimate.
Her mother felt that Amanda was taking advantage of Shanda because she was two years older and that she was a bad influence on her, so she moved Shanda to a different school so that she wouldn't see Amanda again.
The Breaking Point
Shanda decided to listen to her mother and stopped talking to Amanda, who kept trying to get in contact with her. Even though Shanda and Amanda weren't together anymore, Amanda kept pursuing her, and Melinda was not happy.
Melinda was furious and desperately wanted to be with Amanda. In Melinda's eyes, all Amanda wanted was Shanda, and she was not going to get Amanda back until Shanda was out of the picture. She wanted to put an end to this love triangle once and for all.
One Thing
Melinda only had one thing in her mind: getting rid of Shanda. She became obsessed and talked with her friends almost every day about how she wanted to murder Shanda so that Amanda would get back together with her, but her friends didn't take her seriously.
But Melinda knew that she could not do it alone, so she decided to ask one of her friends, Laurie Tackett, to help her get rid of Shanda. Even though Laurie had never even met Shanda, she agreed right away.
Laurie Tackett
Laurie Tackett was a very troubled 16-year-old girl, much like Melinda. Laurie's parents were allegedly abusive and did not accept the fact that she was a lesbian. They were very religious and strict, which caused her to rebel.
She became obsessed with the occult and told people that she could talk to the dead. She suffered from depression and actually attempted to kill herself, but her friend, a girl named Toni Lawrence, called an ambulance and helped save her life.
The Plan
When Melinda told Laurie about her plans to murder Shanda, Laurie decided to recruit two more people: her friends Toni Lawrence and Hope Rippey, two girls she knew since childhood. However, Melinda and Laurie did not tell them about the plan until it was almost time to do it.
They knew that it would be hard to convince these two other girls to join them, so they initially told them they were going to a concert together. Then, once the four of them were in the car, Melinda told Toni and Hope that they were going to stop by a girl's house to give her a scare.
Their Real Intentions
But Melinda didn't want to just give Shanda a scare, she wanted to kill her. Only a few moments before they went to Shanda's house, Melinda told the girls her real plan. Laurie and Hope agreed to it, and Toni just didn't take her seriously. She did not believe that they would actually go murder a girl, so she went along with it.
If Toni had taken the other girls seriously, perhaps everything that happened afterwards could have been avoided - but she didn't. The four girls drove to Shanda's house and tried to lure her outside.
Toni and Hope
Toni and Hope also had very troubled childhoods. They both suffered from physical and sexual abuse and did not feel safe at home. Toni attempted suicide a couple times and suffered from depression.
The girls all bonded over their trauma and had each other's backs. They were all interested in the occult, ghosts, and death, but they saw it as a hobby and did not take it seriously. The only one who did was Laurie.
The Abduction
So, there were four girls in a car on their way to murder 12-year-old Shanda Sharer. It had all been Melinda's idea, and she recruited three other girls to help her. Laurie was in on it, while Toni and Hope had no idea about their plan until it was already in motion.
Toni and Hope were told to ring the bell and tell Shanda they were friends of Amanda's and that they wanted to take her to see her. Shanda had never seen these girls before, but she believed them and got into the car with them. As they started driving, Melinda jumped from the back seat and held a knife to Shanda's throat.
The Witch's Castle
The girls drove Shanda to the Witch's Castle in Madison, Indiana, an abandoned site that was believed to be haunted. There, they took all of Shanda's accessories and clothes while they taunted her and made fun of her. Although she hadn't agreed to it from the start, Hope was actively participating in it along with Melinda and Laurie.
After torturing her at the Witch's Castle, they put Shanda in the car and drove her to a garbage dump. They threw her on the floor and Melinda beat her up. Hope held Shanda down as Laurie and Melinda beat, stabbed and strangled her.
The Horror Was Just Beginning
At this point, the girls thought Shanda was dead, so they put her in the car and drove to Laurie's house. However, they started hearing sounds coming from the trunk: Shanda was still alive. They stabbed and beat her more, but she was still alive. They decided they couldn't stay there and started driving again.
They actually stopped the car several times because they kept hearing that Shanda was still alive. Every time, they got out of the car, tortured her more, and then kept driving. At one point, Hope even sprayed window cleaner in her wounds just to make her suffer.
The Final Part
The girls drove to a gas station and filled up a bottle with gasoline before they drove to a wooded area. There, they wrapped Shanda in a blanket and put her on the ground. Melinda sprayed gasoline all over her, and Laurie lit a match and set Shanda on fire.
This would put an end to the eight hours of torture that 12-year-old Shanda Sharer suffered at the hands of four teenagers, all because of a high school love triangle. Shanda was burned alive and lost her life on January 11, 1992.
Confessing
Although the four girls made a pact of silence, it only took Toni a few hours to tell her parents and go to the police. She told them everything in detail, and all the girls were quickly arrested. Nobody could believe that four young girls would be capable of such a horrific act, so the case was all over the news.
Before Toni went to the police, two men found Shanda's body and called the police. Also, Shanda's parents had reported her missing at this point. It didn't take long for the police to put all the pieces of the puzzle together.
Toni's Involvement
The only one who didn't take part in the torture of Shanda was Toni Lawrence, who claims that she felt trapped and was afraid that, if she ran away, the other girls would hurt her as they hurt Shanda. So, she just stood by and watched.
But the court believed that Toni had several opportunities to make things right, especially when they were at the gas station. She could have used a payphone or asked an employee for help, but she just stayed in the car and did nothing. So, she still received a pretty harsh sentence: a maximum of 20 years.
Sentences
The court believed that Melinda and Laurie's involvement was much more active and serious than Hope's. All three girls were sentenced to 60 years in prison.
However, Hope appealed her sentence, which was reduced to 35 years. Although all girls got very long sentences, they did not serve even half of the time they were supposed to.
Justice?
Even though she had been sentenced to 20 years, Toni was released after 9 years in 2000. Hope was released in 2006 after serving 14 years, and Laurie was relased in 2018 after serving 26 years. In a creepy coincidence, she was released right on the anniversary of Shanda's murder.
Melinda was released in 2019 after serving 26 years. Shanda's family members believe Shanda got no justice because her murderers were all released early. On the other hand, the court believed that the girls were troubled and even though they committed a horrible crime, they were still children. What do you think about the outcome of the case? Do you think justice was served?