Death of Innocence - The Murder of Young Shanda Sharer

It took nearly an hour for the girls to reach Madison. Tackett pointed out her house, and a few miles later they pulled onto an old logging road and stopped. Rippey and Lawrence got out of the car and Loveless and Tackett yanked Sharer from the back seat. Loveless untied Sharer's hands and ordered her to remove her clothes. It was bitterly cold, so Rippey and Lawrence got back in the car and took up positions next to the window to watch what happened. Sharer stripped down to her panties as Loveless threatened her with the knife. Loveless then scooped up the clothes and threw them in the car, telling the others that she wanted them as souvenirs. Rippey picked up Sharer's polka-dot bra and put it on as Lawrence turned on the radio.

Tackett grabbed both of Sharer's hands and held them behind her back so that Loveless could hit her. Sharer begged them to let her go and swore to stay away from Heavrin, but each plea was answered by Loveless' command for her to shut up. Suddenly, Loveless punched Sharer as hard as she could in the stomach, and Sharer collapsed to the ground. Through gasping breaths, Sharer begged them to stop hurting her. Sharer's cries fell upon deaf ears; Loveless picked her up by the hair and repeatedly slammed Sharer's head into Loveless' knee. The multiple blows caused Sharer's braces to cut into her lips, and blood flowed from her mouth.

As Sharer lay on the ground moaning, Loveless pulled out the knife and tried to cut her throat, but it proved too dull to cut the skin. Rippey then jumped out of the car to help hold Sharer down as Loveless tried using her foot to force the knife, but again it failed to have any effect. Unable to slit Sharer's throat, Loveless and Tackett took turns stabbing her in the chest with the knife. The wounds were not severe enough to cause immediate death, so Tackett decided that they would have to strangle Sharer and ran back to the car for a length of rope. Sharer continued to beg for her life, but Loveless simply laughed in her face. When Tackett returned with the rope, Loveless sat on Sharer's legs as Tackett straddled her chest. Tackett then wrapped the rope around Sharer's neck and pulled with all her might until Sharer's body went limp. Uncertain if Sharer was really dead, the girls tossed her body into the trunk and headed for Tackett's house.