Shanda Sharer: The 12-Year-Old Who Was Tortured And Killed By Four Teenage Girls
Wikimedia CommonsShanda Sharer was tormented by her captors for hours until they killed her.
When 12-year-old Shanda Sharer met Amanda Heavrin at Hazelwood Middle School in New Albany, Indiana, in 1991, they became fast friends. Shortly thereafter, Shanda and Amanda became romantic partners.
Unfortunately, jealousy reared its ugly head in the form of Melinda Loveless, Amanda’s ex — and a deadly plan began to take shape. Shanda and Amanda attended a dance together in October 1991, where they were confronted by the 16-year-old Melinda. Envious of the new couple, Melinda publicly threatened Shanda and even openly talked about killing her.
Shanda’s mother Jacque Vaught eventually transferred the 12-year-old to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic School in an effort to keep her safe.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. On January 10, 1992, Melinda and three of her teenage friends — Laurie Tackett, Hope Rippey, and Toni Lawrence — drove in the bitter cold to Shanda’s father’s house, where she was spending the weekend. They claimed that they would take Shanda to see Amanda.
Shanda told them to return after dark, which they did. But instead of taking her to Amanda, they attacked her soon after she got in the car. It all started in the backseat, where Melinda was hiding underneath a blanket with a knife. She suddenly sprung out and held the weapon against Shanda’s throat, demanding that she admit to stealing Amanda away from her.
Melinda then commanded her friends to drive to a remote location where no one could hear them. Thinking that Melinda intended to scare Shanda into leaving Amanda, the girls obliged. Instead, they spent seven hours torturing Shanda, who would later suffer one of the worst deaths in history.
MurderpediaShanda Sharer’s killers. Clockwise from top left: Melinda Loveless, Laurie Tackett, Hope Rippey, and Toni Lawrence.
First, Melinda and Laurie stripped Shanda naked near a remote trash dump while Hope and Toni waited in the car. Melinda and Laurie punched Shanda repeatedly before stabbing her in the chest and strangling her with a rope. Thinking she was dead, they threw her into the trunk of the car.
It was only later at Laurie’s house, while drinking sodas, that they realized that the young girl was still alive and screaming from the car. Laurie attacked Shanda once again, stabbing her several more times. She then got into the car with Melinda, drove away to another remote location, and brutally beat and sodomized Shanda with a tire iron. When they returned, Laurie laughed as she told the others about what they’d done to Shanda.
Then, in the early morning hours, the girls drove a still-alive Shanda Sharer — who was whispering the word “Mommy” — to yet another remote location. There, they doused her in gasoline and lit her on fire. Then, to confirm that Shanda was really dead, Melinda instructed the girls to light her on fire once more.
The girls stopped to eat breakfast at McDonald’s on the way home, making jokes about how Shanda’s body looked like the burnt sausage they’d ordered. Later that same morning, two hunters found Shanda’s body.
By the end of the day, Hope and Toni had gone to the police to confess to their roles in the murder. Before long, all four of the killers were in custody. Ultimately, they were all tried as adults and took plea deals.
Toni and Hope — who were both younger and less involved with the torture — received shorter prison sentences and were released in 2000 and 2006, respectively. Laurie and Melinda received longer sentences, but they too were eventually released in 2018 and 2019, respectively.
Shirley Ledford, The Final Victim Of The “Toolbox Killers” Roy Norris And Lawrence Bittaker
Wikimedia CommonsShirley Lynette Ledford suffered one of the worst deaths in history at the hands of the “Toolbox Killers” in 1979.
Over the course of five months in 1979, Roy Norris and Lawrence Bittaker stalked Los Angeles County, kidnapping and raping five teenage girls before torturing them to death with instruments from their “toolbox.”
According to The Independent, Bittaker and Norris had met in prison earlier in the 1970s. At the time, Norris had been imprisoned for rape, and Bittaker had been locked up for stabbing a store clerk who accused him of shoplifting. It was there that they had planned their deadly spree. Once they were released, Bittaker and Norris wasted no time in carrying it out.
On Halloween night in 1979, 16-year-old Shirley Lynette Ledford became their fifth and final victim. Shirley had decided to hitchhike home after a Halloween party and was fatefully picked up by Bittaker and Norris.
Much like the other victims, Shirley endured horrific rapes and torture with several instruments, including screwdrivers. But it wasn’t enough for the Toolbox Killers to commit the heinous acts. They recorded them too.
However, the audio tape of Shirley’s torture and murder was instrumental in ensuring both Bittaker and Norris would never again see the light of day.
Getty ImagesLawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris had bonded over a love of sadism and fantasies of rape and torture.
As Oxygen reported, the men were only caught because Norris bragged to a friend about their crime spree. That friend went to the police, and Norris was arrested. Bittaker, hearing about the arrest, started destroying the evidence. He missed one crucial piece, though: the audio tape of Shirley’s murder.
“For those of you who do not know what Hell is like, you will find out,” prosecutor Stephen Kay told the jurors during Bittaker’s trial.
The tape played for 10 minutes in court. Bittaker sat emotionless as the jurors cried. Other people, including the courtroom artist, fled the room. Some jurors said they had nightmares after hearing the tape. “I had a dream I was coming down an elevator at the courthouse,” one said, “And when it opened, Bittaker was standing there, and he threw cinders in my face.”
Criminologist Laura Brand later interviewed Bittaker while he was in prison, describing to The Independent the chills she felt when he spoke so casually of his crimes. She could only listen to 30 seconds of Shirley’s tape.
“It’s just her screaming,” she said. “It’s a visceral reaction because you’re hearing a real-life scream. It’s so much different than what you’d hear in a horror movie. You can feel it in your gut when you’re hearing the screams.”
Bittaker was sentenced to death for his crimes, but he ultimately died in prison in 2019. Norris, who had pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty, was sentenced to life in prison and died shortly after Bittaker in 2020.
