Shanda Renee Sharer was a 12 year old girl who was tortured and burned to death in Indiana in 1992. The perpetrators were four teenage girls, aged between 15-17 at the time.
Shanda was born in the Pineville Community Hospital in Kentucky on June 6, 1979. Her parents were Stephen Shara and Jacqueline Vaught.
Her parents would end up divorcing. Jacqueline remarried and the family moved to Louisville.
Shanda attended St Paul School in Louisville. She enjoyed cheerleading, volleyball, basketball and softball.
Jacqueline ended up divorcing again, and after that, the family moved to New Albany, Indiana in June 1991.
After that move, Shanda started at Hazelwood Middle School. She then transferred to Our Lady of Perpetual Help school.
While Shanda was at Hazlewood Middle School, she met a female named Amanda Heavrin, who was 14. At first, she and Amanda did not get along and they had a fight. Both girls received a detention for the altercation.
While they were in detention, they changed their tune and became friends. They would later give each other romantic letters.
Another student, Melinda Loveless, who was also 14 at the time, had apparently been dating Amanda. Melinda was having a troubled time at school and she had been in fights and reported that she was depressed.
In March 1991, Melinda came out as a lesbian to her mother. She carried on her relationship with Amanda that year, but it deteriorated as time went on.
Melinda became jealous of Amanda’s blossoming relationship with Shanda. In October 1991, Amanda took Shanda as her date to the school dance. When Melinda found out about this, she confronted Shanda.
Later that month, Amanda and Shanda attended a festival together. When Melinda found out about this, she began to threaten to kill Shanda. This is when Shanda’s parents arranged for her to transfer to the Catholic school, in November 1991.
On the night of January 10, 1992, Melinda got together with the three other perpetrators in this case. We will pause the story here to discuss their backgrounds.
Melinda Loveless was born in New Albany, Indiana on October 28, 1975. Her parents are Marjorie and Larry Loveless. Melinda has two older sisters.
Larry served during the Vietnam War and he returned home emotionally scarred.
Marjorie would later say that he returned home a sexual deviant. He would apparently wear the underwear of Marjorie and his daughters. He also used their makeup. He had a fascination with seeing Marjorie have sex with other people.
After the war, Larry found it hard to keep a job. He lost one position after he assaulted an African-American man whom Larry accused of sleeping with Marjorie.
Marjorie also only worked intermittently. It was said that Larry was violent and abusive and did not share any of his income with his family. He would use the money to purchase guns, motorcycles and cars. He ended up filing for bankruptcy in 1980.
Members of their extended family have said that the Loveless children would often visit their homes hungry because they did not get enough food at home.
Marjorie and Larry would goto bars in Louisville. Larry would pretend to be a successful doctor or dentist and would introduce Marjorie as his girlfriend. The couple would partake in orgies (seemingly at Larry’s request) and he would ‘share’ her with his friends. During one orgy, Marjorie tried to kill herself. She would make several suicide attempts over the years.
When Melinda was 9, Larry had Marjorie gang raped and she tried to drown herself after. She refused to have sex with him for a month after that and he eventually raped her, while their daughters overheard the whole thing. In 1986, Marjorie would not let Larry go home with two women from a bar. He then beat her so badly that she was hospitalized. He was convicted of battery after this assault.
It is believed that Larry abused his daughters and other relatives. It was claimed that he fondled Melinda when she was an infant. He also allegedly molested Marjorie’s 13 y/o sister. He was also said to have molested a cousin, Teddy, of his daughters from the age of 10-14. Melinda’s sisters have both said that he molested them. Melinda has never admitted to any molestation by her father. She slept in a bed with him until he abandoned the family when she was 14.
In court at a later date, Teddy described an incident where Larry tied all of his daughters up in a garage and raped them in succession.
When Melinda’s older sister Michelle was 7, Larry fired a handgun in her direction. He would also embarrass his children by getting out their underwear and smelling it in front of other family members.
Larry and Marjorie joined the Graceland Baptist Church when Melinda was five. They apparently stopped drinking and swinging while they were members. Larry became a Baptist preacher and Marjorie became the school nurse.
That church arranged for Melinda to be taken to a hotel room for a five-hour exorcism with a 50 year old man. Larry became a marriage counsellor for the church. He had a reputation for being too forward with women in the congregation and was accused of attempting to rape one of them.
After this incident, Marjorie and Larry left the church and resumed drinking and swinging.
In November 1990, Marjorie caught Larry spying on Melinda and a friend. She attacked him with a knife. He was hospitalized after he attempted to grab the knife. Marjorie attempted suicide again after this incident. Larry filed for divorce soon after this and he moved to Florida. Melinda was said to have been crushed, and was devastated when Larry remarried. He would end up severing all contact with her. Larry died in a car crash in Missouri in 1998.
Another of the perpetrators was Mary Laurine “Laurie’ Tackett. Laurie was born in Madison, Indiana on October 5, 1974. Laurie’s mother was a fundamentalist Pentecostal Christian. Her father worked in a factory and was convicted of two felonies in the 60’s. Laurie has said that she molested at least twice as a child – once when she was 5 and once when she was 12.
In May 1989, Laurie’s mother found out that she was getting changed from a dress into jeans once she got to school and attempted to strangle her. Social workers became involved after this incident.
After Laurie’s 15th birthday, she became increasingly rebellious and developed a fascination with the occult. She would attempt to impress her friends by pretending to be possessed by a spirit called Deanna the Vampire.
Laurie engaged in self harm. Her parents found out about this and checked her into hospital on March 19, 1991. She was given anti depressants and was released. She was readmitted two days later after she and her girlfriend cut their wrists deeply. She was treated and admitted to the psychiatric ward. She was then diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Laurie was discharged from the hospital on April 12, 1991. She ended up dropping out of high school in September 1991.
Laurie became friends with Melinda in late November 1991.
The third perpetrator is Hope Anna Rippey. She was born on June 9, 1976. Her father was an engineer. Her parents divorced when she was around 8 and she moved with her mother and siblings to Michigan. Hope’s parents would end up getting back together and they moved back to Indiana in 1987. Hope had known Laurie and Toni Lawrence (the fourth perpetrator) since childhood and they became friends again when she moved back. Hope also began to self-harm at the age of 15.
The fourth perpetrator is Toni Lawrence. She was born on February 14, 1976. Her father worked as a boiler maker. Toni was abused by a relative at age 8 and she was raped by a teenage boy when she was 14. She became promiscuous, began to self-harm, and attempted suicide in eighth grade.
On the night of January 10, 1992, Toni, Hope and Laurie drove in Laurie’s car to Melinda’s home. Hope and Toni had not met Melinda up until this point.
When they got to the house, Melinda showed them a knife and said she was going to use it to scare Shanda. Melinda told the girls that she disliked Shanda for being a ‘copycat’ and for stealing her girlfriend.
Laurie later said that she knew there was a plan to kill Shanda.
The four girls left and drove to Jeffersonville, where Shanda stayed with her father on weekends. They stopped at a McDonald’s to ask for directions to the house.
Melinda told Hope and Toni to goto the door when they arrived, and to say they were friends of Amanda’s. Shanda answered the door and the two girls asked for Shanda. Shanda replied that was her. They then asked her to come with them to see Amanda who was waiting for them at ‘the witch’s castle’ or Mistletoe Falls. That location was a ruined house on an isolated hill.
Shanda did not want to go and told them she had already planned to attend a party. She told them to come back around midnight, a few hours later.
The four girls left and attended a punk rock show while they waited. Toni and Hope were said to have lost interest in the music and they engaged in sexual activities with two boys in Laurie’s car.
They ended up leaving again and heading back to Shanda’s home. Melinda said during the drive that she could not wait to kill Shanda, but also said that she just wanted to use the knife to frighten her.
When they got to Shanda’s home at 12.30am, Laurie and Hope went to the front door to collect her. Melinda hid under a blanket in the back seat of the car with a knife.
Shanda’s father and stepmother had gone to bed by this time. Shanda had been allowed to stay up to watch tv. Shanda was reluctant to go with the girls but she eventually agreed.
When she got into the car, Hope began asking her questions about her relationship with Amanda. Melinda then emerged from the blanket and put the knife to Shanda’s throat. She began interrogating and harassing her about her relationship with Amanda.
By the time they got to Witch’s Castle, Shanda was sobbing. The girls took her inside and bound her arms and legs with rope.
Melinda taunted Shanda and said that she would cut her hair off. Melinda also took off Shanda’s jewlery and gave it to the other girls. Laurie got a shirt from the car and lit it on fire to scare Shanda. They feared the fire would be seen by cars so they left with Shanda.
When they got back in the car, Shanda begged the girls to take her home. They became lost and had to stop at a gas station for directions. They covered Shanda with a blanket at this point. This happened a few times – driving, getting lost and stopping to ask for directions.
They finally ended up near some woods near Laurie’s home in Madison.
Hope and Toni became frightened and stayed in the car while Melinda and Laurie made Shanda get out and strip to her underwear. Melinda beat Shanda with her fists and she repeatedly slammed Shanda’s face into her own knee. This cut Shanda’s mouth with her own braces. Melinda tried to cut Shanda’s throat but the knife was too dull. Hope got out of the car and held Shanda down while Melinda and Laurie took turns stabbing her in the chest. They then strangled her with a rope until she was unconscious. They put her into the trunk of the car. Melinda and Laurie told the other girls that Shanda was dead.
They then drove to Laurie’s home and went inside to grab sodas and to clean themselves up. Soon, Shanda started screaming from the trunk. Laurie went out with a paring knife and stabbed her multiple times. She went back inside, covered in blood.
Hope and Toni stayed at the house while Melinda and Laurie went driving. Shanda continued to cry and make gurgling noises, so Laurie stopped driving. When they opened up the trunk, Shanda sat up, covered in blood. Her eyes had rolled back in her head and she was unable to speak. Laurie beat her with a tire iron until she went silent. She later said that she felt Shanda’s head caving in and that she told Melinda to ‘smell it’. The girls sexually assaulted Shanda with the tire iron.
They kept driving around for hours and would stop and continued to assault Shanda with the tire iron.
Melinda and Laurie went back to Laurie’s house just before dawn. They woke up the two other girls. Hope asked about Shanda and Laurie laughed and told her about the torture. The girls were so loud that it woke up Laurie’s mother. She was initially angry that they were out so late but she also offered to cook them breakfast. Laurie said no as she needed to drive her friends home. They all left, and she drove them to a burn pile where they opened the trunk to view Shanda. Toni refused to look at her. Hope sprayed Shanda with Windex and said “You’re not looking so hot now, are you?”
They then drove to a gas station and put some gas in the car. They also bought a Pepsi two-liter bottle. Laurie tipped the drink out and filled the bottle with gasoline. They then drove to an area where they stopped the car. Laurie and Hope wrapped Shanda in a blanket – she was still alive. She apparently was only able to whisper ‘mommy’ by that point. They carried her to a nearby field. Hope poured the gasoline on Shanda and they set her on fire.
Melinda was not convinced that Shanda died in the first fire, so they went over to her body a few minutes after and poured the rest of the gasoline on her.
The girls went to McDonald’s for breakfast at 9.30am. They apparently laughed and said that Shanda’s burned body looked like the sausages they were eating.
Toni called a friend at this time and told her about the murder. Laurie dropped Hope and Toni to their homes. Melinda called Amanda and told her about the murder.
Another friend of Melinda’s, Crystal Wathen, went to Melinda’s home that day. Melinda told her about the murder. The three girls (Crystal, Laurie and Melinda) went to pick up Amanda. They told her what they had done. Amanda did not believe them and they opened the trunk to show her the blood. Amanda was horrified and demanded to be taken home. When they got to her house, Melinda kissed Amanda and said that she loved her. She begged Amanda not to tell anyone about the murder. Amanda promised that she wouldn’t.
Later in the morning of January 11, 1992, two brothers were driving when they noticed a body on the side of the road. They first thought it was a mannequin, but quickly realised that it was a body. They left and called police at 10.55am.
Shanda’s father Steven noticed that Shanda was not around when he woke up on January 11. He called Shanda’s mother at 1.45pm to alert her. They filed a missing person report with the Clark County Sheriff.
At 8.20pm, Hope and Toni went to the Jefferson County Sheriff with their parents. They were hysterical and gave rambling statements. They identified the victim of their crime as Shanda and gave descriptions of Laurie and Melinda.
Police matched the body to the Sharer’s missing person report and Shanda was identified via dental records.
Melinda and Laurie were arrested on January 12. The prosecution immediately said that they intended to try both Melinda and Laurie as adults. All four girls ended up being charged as adults.
On April 22, 1992, Toni took a plea deal. Melinda and Laurie took plea deals in September 1992. These deals were done in order for the girls to avoid the death penalty/.
Melinda and Laurie were sentenced to 60 years in prison. Laurie was released on January 11, 2018 (26 years to the day after the murder) and served probation for one year. Melinda was released in September 2019.
Hope was sentenced to 60 years, with 10 years suspended for mitigating circ*mstances, plus 10 years of medium supervision probation. The judge would reduce her sentence to 35 years after an appeal. Hope was released on April 28, 2006 after she served 14 years. She remained on supervised parole for five years, until April 2011.
Toni cooperated with police and was allowed to plead guilty to one count of criminal confinement. She was sentenced to a max of 20 years. She ended up being released on December 14, 2000, after she served 9 years. She was on parole until December 2002.
Shanda’s father Steven died from alcoholism in 2005, at the age of 53. In an interview with Shanda Sharer’s mother, Jacqueline, on the Investigation Discovery series Deadly Women, she stated that Steven was so distraught by his daughter’s murder that he “did everything he could to kill himself besides put a gun to his head” and that he “drank himself to death. The man definitely died from a broken heart”
In 2012, Jacqueline made her first contact with Melinda since the trials although indirectly. Jacqueline donated a dog named Angel in Shanda’s name to Melinda to train for the Indiana Canine Assistance Network program (ICAN) through Project2heal, which provides service pets to people with disabilities. Melinda trained dogs for the program for several years.Jacqueline reported that she had endured criticism over the decision but defends it, saying, “It’s my choice to make. She’s [Shanda] my child. If you don’t let good things come from bad things, nothing gets better. And I know what my child would want. My child would want this.”
Melinda also spoke about this contact with Jacqueline.
“She helped me to heal, forgive and grow, whether she wanted that or not. She did a good thing. I would thank her. I couldn’t thank her enough. Angel is in good hands. And I’m doing it for Shanda. And I’m doing it for her.”
Laurie has given interviews since her release.
She said in one interview that, “I didn’t know Shanda at all. I didn’t go into that evening knowing anything was gonna happen, wanting anything to happen … I didn’t. Peer pressure. That’s all it was. It spiraled out of control way too fast. It’s something that should have never happened.”
She was also interviewed on Dr Phil and gave her opinion about why people kill “My opinion is that they [kill] to feel superior, or high on the victim’s fear, and they’re thirsty for the spill of blood.”
SOURCE LIST
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Shanda_Sharer
In 1992, in Madison, 12-year-old Shanda Sharer was tortured over the course of a night by four of her schoolmates: Melinda Loveless (16), Laurie Tackett (17), Hope Rippey (15) & Toni Lawrence (15). Eventually, they burned her alive. They were caught, found guilty, and all four are now out on parole.
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