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.
