:confused:--If that's the book by true crime author Aphrodite Jones, I remember it very well [24], Heavrin met Shanda Sharer early in the fall semester at Hazelwood Junior High when they got into a fight; however, they became friends while in detention for the altercation, and later exchanged romantic letters. Larry remained in prison for over two years awaiting trial; however, a judge eventually ruled that all charges except one count of sexual battery had to be dropped due to the statute of limitations, which was five years in Indiana. Loveless served more than 26 years in prison for murder and criminal confinement. Shanda Renee Sharer was born June 6th 1979 in Pineville, Kentucky. Indiana Offenders | National Organization of Victims of . Toni pleaded guilty to criminal confinement and received a 20-year sentence due to her cooperation. All four girls were tried as adults and accepted plea bargains in order to avoid the death penalty. During the episode, Tackett said that if she could go back, she wouldn't have been there that nightand she would have done everything in her power to stop it. Loveless pleaded guilty to the one count of sexual battery. [7], Mary Laurine "Laurie" Tackett was born in Madison, Indiana, on October 5, 1974. [66], The poem The Whole World Is Singing by Daphne Gottlieb, is told from the point of view of Shanda Sharer and includes lines from notes written from Shanda Sharer to Amanda Heavrin. And Im doing it for Shanda. They beat her, sodomized the 12-year-old with a tire iron, choked her with a cord, and sliced her legs with a knife. According to the show, Shanda began spending much time with her, and the two became romantically involved. She helped me to heal, forgive and grow, whether she wanted that or not. Shanda Sharer, 12 years old, had been reported missing by her parents some eight hours earlier. In court, Teddy described an incident in which Larry tied all three sisters in a garage and raped them in succession; however, the sisters did not confirm this account. Consequently, he was arrested in February 1993 on charges of rape, sodomy, and sexual battery. "They're going to have that.". Slaughter 35,000 Civilians During One Korean War Massacre Or Is It North Korean Propaganda? Wikimedia CommonsA small memorial to Shanda Sharer in the field where she died. As the four girls ate breakfast at McDonalds just after the killing, the four girls laughed as they compared their sausage breakfast to Shanda Sharers burnt corpse. Meanwhile, Lawrence and Rippey stayed behind in Tacketts car. [39][40], The girls went to a McDonald's restaurant at 9:30a.m. for breakfast, where they laughed about Sharer's body looking like one of the sausages they were eating. The perpetrators were four teenage girls who committed unspeakable crimes under the influence of teenage jealousy and peer pressure. She enlisted the help of her friend Laurie Tackett, 17, and the latter's childhood friends Hope Rippey, 15, and Toni Lawrence, 15. A small memorial to Shanda Sharer in the field where she died. Melinda Loveless, now 44, was one of four women convicted in the 1992 death of Shanda Sharer. There, they cold-heartedly beat and terrorized the girl. Instead, they spent seven hours torturing Shanda, who would later suffer one of the worst deaths in history. Shanda moved around a few times due to her parents divorcing. [58] After serving 26+ years in prison, she will serve parole in Jefferson County, Kentucky. Rippey sprayed Sharer with Windex and taunted, "You're not looking so hot now, are you? Upon arrival, they borrowed some clothes from Loveless, and she showed them a knife, telling them she was going to scare Sharer with it. Now 36, she grew up in prison, in the shadow of her legacy: a crime of jealousy. First, they took Sharer to a remote trash dump near a logging road in a densely forested area. As Shanda Sharers mother, Jacque Vaught, said in a 2012 interview, I had many times said if you want to see as close to a person who has absolutely nothing inside of them, look into Melindas eyes because theres nothing there.. I saw someone almost reborn. Moreover, she had not been represented competently by counsel during her sentencing, which caused her to accept a plea bargain in the face of exaggerated claims about her chances of receiving the death penalty. INDIANAPOLIS The last of four women charged as teenagers with the 1992 torture murder of a southern Indiana 12-year-old has been released from prison. [41], A friend of Loveless, Crystal Wathen, came over to Loveless's house, and they told her what had happened. She drove to the burn pile, where they opened the trunk to stare at Sharer. [23], In 1990, 14-year-old Loveless began dating another young girl named Amanda Heavrin. It's something that should have never happened.". Jacque never wanted contact with any of Shanda's killers. She slept in bed with him until he abandoned his family when she was 14. Shanda was the kind of girl you wanted to be friends with; she was bubbly, outgoing and a lot of fun. Larry was verbally abusive to his daughters and fired a handgun in the direction of Melinda's older sister Michelle when she was seven, intentionally missing her. She told Heavrin that they had killed Sharer and arranged to pick up Heavrin later that day. Larry and Marjorie gave full confession and renounced drinking and swinging while they were members. Loveless tried to slash Sharer's throat, but the knife was too dull. primary and secondary emotions chart; dr baig st thomas hospital; equation of elastic curve of a beam; bath and body works lavender shower gel She will now serve parole in Jefferson County, Kentucky, according to the Kentucky Department of Corrections. When her parents divorced, her mother married another man and Shanda Sharer was an ordinary Indiana teenager in 1992 until four girls tortured her for hours before finally killing her. Larry became a Baptist lay preacher and Marjorie became the school nurse. Hang with us: Follow Us on Instagram Like Us on Facebook Join our Case Discussion Group on Facebook Get Killer Queens Merch They arrived at Sharer's house shortly before dark. They entered plea bargains to avoid the death penalty. Melinda has groomed Odle as a courtroom dog for abused and traumatized children. Court testimony indicates that the four girls lured Sharer from her home the night of Jan. 10, 1992, on the pretense that she was being taken to meet her new girlfriend. They became lost, so they stopped at a gas station and covered Sharer in a blanket. [77], "Shana Sharer's mother to appear on Dr. Phil", Sharer murderer Rippey to be freed from prison, "Amanda Heavrin Speaks About Shanda Sharer - In Cold Blood: A Daughter's Brutal Murder", "Death of Innocence - The Murder of Young Shanda Sharer", "Thinking the Unthinkable: What Led 4 Teens to Torture, Murder Child? Died: 11 January 1992. Shanda Renee Sharer (19791992) was a young girl who was tortured and burned to death in Madison, Indiana by four teenage girls. (Sun. She would often attempt to impress her friends by pretending to be possessed by the spirit of "Deanna the Vampire". [17], Tackett stayed in Louisville in October 1991 to live with various friends. [47] Loveless and Tackett were arrested on January 12. Rippey was sentenced to 60 years, with 10 years suspended due to mitigating circumstances plus 10 years of medium-supervision probation. It was only when the puppy, Angel, ran into her arms the first time they met in a crowd of people that Loveless believed it. The Shanda Sharer Murder. He would also "share" her with some of his friends from work, which she found disgusting. Her parents, Stephen Sharer and Jacqueline Vaught got divorced when Shanda was very young. Sharer told the girls to return after her parents were asleep, which they did. In seven years, Loveless has become one of the most trusted and competent trainers in the Indiana Canine Assistance Network (ICAN) program. Hope Rippey was one of four girls convicted of murdering Shanda Sharer luring her from her home in the dead of the night and pouring gasoline on her body. Tackett grew up in a strict religious household where normal teenager things were not welcome behaviors. Witnesses also testified that Tackett, who was obsessed with the occult and the notion of killing someone, had proposed asking Sharer's ghost during a seance how it felt to die by fire, according to IndyStar archives. Upon further appeal, the judge reduced her sentence to 35 years. [53] On November 14, 2008, Loveless's appeal was denied by the Indiana Court of Appeals, upholding Judge Todd's ruling. This tire-iron assault was off and on for hours as the girls went on a joyride through the countryside. After she washed, Tackett told the girls' futures with her "runestones". She demanded that the board be burnt and that the Rippey house be exorcised. So Jacque Vaught did something remarkable. A sleepy Indiana town awoke one chilly morning in the winter of 1992 to discover the lifeless body of 12-year-old Shanda Sharer in an open field. That's all I've ever said.". Be the first one to comment on this story. Shanda Rene Sharer (June 6, 1979 - January 11, 1992) was an American girl who was tortured and burned to death in Madison, Indiana by four teenage girls. However, Amanda was in an on-and-off relationship with Loveless, who could not handle the jealousy and made public threats to kill Sharer. Image of Melinda Loveless, taken in Dec. 2007. [5], Larry worked irregularly for the Southern Railway after his military service; his profession allowed him to work whenever most convenient for him. [31], Eventually, the four girls left for Sharer's house. [63] A documentary produced by Episode 11 Productions, titled Charlie's Scars, captured Vaught's decision to allow Loveless to train dogs in Shanda's name. In May 2011, Tackett appeared on an episode of "Dr. Sharer said that she could not go because her parents were awake, and she told the girls to come back around midnight, a few hours later. My child would want this." The crime was documented in two true crime books, Little Lost Angel by Michael Quinlan[30] and Cruel Sacrifice by Aphrodite Jones;[64] Jones's book on the case became a New York Times Bestseller. [14], Tackett became increasingly rebellious after her 15th birthday and also became fascinated with the occult. Melinda Loveless has a new lease on life as a trainer of service dogs for the disabled. Wikimedia Commons Shanda Sharer In 1991, Shanda Sharer was a bubbly 12-year-old attending Hazelwood Middle School in New Albany, Ind. From what we can tell, she chooses to keep a low profile and spends time with her children and father. Lastly, Loveless was released from Indiana Women's Prison on September 5, 2019. Jacque said she still has no plans to meet face-to-face with her daughter's killers. Furthermore, Shandas grades were getting affected. ", "Judge denies Loveless' request for early release in torture-killing", "Woman convicted in 1992 murder released from prison", "Mastermind behind brutal murder of Indiana girl in 1992 released from prison", "New Albany memorial focuses on Shanda, not her murder", "Shanda Sharer's mother and murderer form unlikely alliance", "In Cold Blood: A Daughter's Brutal Murder", "Watch Jealousy Full Episode - Killer Kids | Lifetime", "Sex and Death: Interview with Marlene McCarty", "MOCA Collection: Marlene McCarty: 20002001: Melinda Loveless, Toni Lawrence, Hope Rippey, Laurie Tackett, and Shanda Sharer January 11, 1992 (1:39 am)", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Murder_of_Shanda_Sharer&oldid=1133311329, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using embedded infobox templates with the title parameter, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Body of Shanda Sharer found in rural Jefferson County, Indiana, Loveless and Tackett accept plea bargains, A judge reduces Rippey's 60-year sentence to 35 years, This page was last edited on 13 January 2023, at 04:34. She claimed that living with her family in Michigan was somewhat turbulent. Laurie Tackett, now 43, was one of four women convicted in the 1992 death of Shanda Sharer. Online records list the earliest possible release date forLoveless as Sept. 5, 2019. She donated a puppy in her daughter's honor to the Indiana Canine Assistance Network program, where Loveless had taken to training dogs for the disabled. Rippey asked about Sharer, and Tackett laughingly described the torture. [12], In November 1990, after Larry was caught spying on Melinda and a friend, Marjorie attacked him with a knife; he was sent to the hospital after he attempted to grab it. The Shanda Sharer Murder has forever changed my life. [59][60] A few weeks following his release, Larry unsuccessfully sued the Floyd County Jail for $39 million in federal court, alleging he had suffered cruel and unusual punishment during his two-year incarceration. In March 1991, Loveless came out as a lesbian to her mother, who was initially furious but eventually accepted it. Mary, Hope, and Toni drove to Shandas fathers place to lure her out sometime after 11:30 pm. Sharer was twelve year old girl from Indiana, USA. When they divorced; Jacqueline remarried and moved to Louisville, Kentucky. Tackett told people in one interview that, I didnt know Shanda at all. The Killing Field. All four girls who perpetrated the assault and murder of Shanda Sharer were tried as adults. Sharer's body was found the morning of Jan. 11, 1992. In 1991, Shanda Sharer was a bubbly 12-year-old attending Hazelwood Middle School in New Albany, Ind. She was kidnapped, tortured and burned alive by four teenage girls. [65] The play was published by Samuel French, Inc. in September 2009. In the back seat, Melinda Loveless was hiding under a blanket with a knife. Sharer moved to New Albany with her. MurderpediaClockwise from top left: Melinda Loveless, Laurie Tackett, Hope Rippey, and Toni Lawrence. Did The U.S. [18] In December, Tackett moved back to Madison on the promise that her father would buy her a car. But, that night, Lawrence and Rippey went straight to the Jefferson County Sheriffs office with their parents and spilled the whole story. I couldnt thank her enough. Catch the episode of The 1990s: The Deadliest Decade, titled The New Girl, on Investigation Discovery on August 19, 2022. The murder of Shanda Sharer occured in Madison, Indiana early in the morning on January 11, 1982. She remained on supervised parole until April 2011. After treatment of her wound, she was admitted to the hospital's psychiatric ward. The former was released in 2000 after serving nine years while the latter served 14 and got out in 2006. Lawrence and Rippey were frightened and stayed in the car. The details of her murder shocked the area. He sent letters to her for a while, playing on her emotions, but eventually severed all contact with her, and in December 1998, he died. One of the four women convicted of beating, burning and killing 12-year-old Shanda Renee Sharer in 1992 was released Thursday from prison on the 26th anniversary of the girl's body being found.. An Indiana Department of Correction spokeswoman says 44-year-old Melinda Loveless was released from the Indiana Womens Prison in Indianapolis on Thursday after serving 23 years and eight months of a 60-year sentence for the murder and criminal confinement of Shanda Sharer in 1992. More: Part 2: How fake witnesses, exposed surveillance operation unravel Grundy murder investigation, More: Burger Chef murder victim's mom had surprising thing to say after 1978 killings. It was a crime of passion and peer pressure committed by four teenage girls. Loveless and Tackett took turns stabbing Sharer in the chest. After Loveless's father left the family and her mother remarried, Loveless behaved erratically. At the Witch's Castle, they took a sobbing Sharer inside and bound her arms and legs with rope. She claimed that her mother beat her often. She was sentenced to 60 years in prison but has served the required [] MADISON, Ind. Melinda has also reportedly changed her name since her release and prefers to stay away from the public eyes. Shanda Sharer moved to New Albany with her mother in 1991. It is also to be noted that her body was posed in a suggestive position, very obviously meaning that this was done on purpose and with intention. [10], The extent of Larry's abuse of his daughters and other children is unclear. There, Sharer attended fifth and sixth grades at St. Paul School, where she was on the cheerleading, volleyball, and softball teams. In November, 1988, Minato (then using the first name Nobuharu) and Hiroshi Miyano (now using the surname Yokoyama), worked together to abduct Junko Furuta as she commuted home from a part-time job. Loveless served more than 26 years in prison for murder and criminal confinement. It was also found that the victim's face and hands were burnt in an attempt to keep her unrecognizable and unidentifiable. And I would thank her. She convinced three other. There, Sharer and Heavrin were confronted by 16-year-old Melinda Loveless, who had previously been dating Heavrin for more than a year and was now extremely jealous of this new pairing. The girls, who were all between the ages of 15 and 17, lured Shanda out of her home in the middle of the night and took her on a drive around southern Indiana. Tackett was released in 2018, and served probation for one year. They both gave very rambling statements, identifying the victim as "Shanda", naming the two other girls involved as best as they could, and describing the main events of the previous night. This description of how the investigation unfolded . They drove north of Madison, past Jefferson Proving Ground to Lemon Road off U.S. Route 421, a place known to Rippey. In a new twist to the case, police have now arrested a man named Johnny Lee Sharer for . The teens then bound, bludgeoned, choked, cut and sodomized Sharer at a remote location. After phoning neighbors and friends all morning, he called his former wife, Sharer's mother, at 1:45p.m.; they met and filed a missing person report with the Clark County sheriff. In early October 1991, Heavrin and Sharer attended a school dance, where Loveless found and confronted them. Tackett poured out the Pepsi and refilled the bottle with gasoline. 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