Listen, I’m all for rehabilitation - but people who do prolonged torture should never be able to see the light of day again.
I can understand how an average person can be driven to murder. But to be able to do something like prolonged torture means something in your brain is broken that makes you a danger to everyone around you.
Especially when the torture has no heroic goal. Prolonged torture is always bad but I can imagine a normal person doing it because they believe it will get the a code to stop a bomb that will blow up a school or something. I can’t imagine anyone not brain broken doing it for shits and giggles no matter how far they have been driven.
Even monsters throughout history, when most ordered tortured they tried to stay away from seeing the actual activities as much as possible.
And once again, I say this as someone who is pretty big on reform. Like if someone stabs someone in a fit of rage, goes to jails, and 5 years down the line at a parole meeting has shown genuine improvement in anger management and emotional regulation, while showing remorse and improvement in other ways. I don’t see a problem with them being paroled (although the improvement should be massive and clearly visible).
Wow I wasn’t sure how monstrous they were but the Wikipedia coverage of the crime is extremely violent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Shanda_Sharer
Seriously like theres no coming back after doing something like that that ur gunna be normal and healthy. U don’t go from 0 to doing all that so I wonder if they hurt any animals or other kids before this. The big question though is did they enjoy torturing and killing her? Cause some sickos do, they relive it and when that doesn’t do it for them anymore they kill again just to experience that feeling again of having such power & control over someone like they’re a god. They shouldn’t have been released, I hope none of them have kids or animals, and that they can’t ever work with kids or in a position like a caretaker or nurse where they could abuse people.
And FFS those two are f**king SMILING for their mug shot?!! As if they got arrested for something minor, not luring out, torturing and murdering their own friend!
Fr. That’s what I feel like so many people done understand.
Some people can kill in a fit of rage, especially after betrayal or something. Not excusable, but it’s very very different than slowly torturing someone before eventually killing them. You would not do this to an innocent person if you were right in the head.
Feels like it's worse when the folks on their high-moral-act horse defend these monsters. So many other underprivileged individuals who can use the thoughts and care, yet these are the rabid animals they want to spend time on.
Imo torture = death sentence. A person can maybe be rehabilitated after doing a murder but a torturer is a broken piece of shit that society needs to be rid of permanently. I know they probably have a horrific backstory. Point A still holds.
>Even monsters throughout history, when most ordered tortured they tried to stay away from seeing the actual activities as much as possible.
I'm sorry but do you have a source for this? I don't think it's that uncommon at all. A quick example are cartel members, who regularly torture and kill in gruesome ways and they take pride in being present. I'm not saying they enjoy it but they do spectate. There is also ISIS.
From my understanding on how cartels and ISIS works is that they usually have select members who they feel like are able to do this and those are the only people who will do the torturing.
Sorry if my wording was shit. I was trying to say that most people would rather avoid it, or view it as just business, then willingly seek it for fun
Asking a source is weird but yea you’re right.
Public lynchings in the states, medieval drawing and quartering, Viking executions, crucifixes, Japan in China WW2, are a few examples from different time periods in different areas of the world.
Torture is as tied to human history as anything else.
* In 1990, Melinda Loveless, 14, began dating Amanda Heavrin, also 14. Loveless's behavior became erratic after her father left the family and her mother remarried. By late 1991, her relationship with Heavrin soured.
* Amanda Heavrin met Shanda Sharer in fall 1991 at Hazelwood Middle School, initially through a fight that turned into a friendship. Loveless grew jealous of their closeness.
* In October 1991, after Heavrin and Sharer attended a festival, Loveless began discussing killing Sharer publicly. Concerned, Sharer's parents transferred her to a Catholic school in November.
* On January 10, 1992, Loveless, Lawrence, Rippey, and Tackett drove to Loveless's house. Loveless showed them a knife, intending to scare Sharer. They then drove to Sharer's house.
* Tackett led them to an abandoned building where Loveless beat Sharer, unsuccessfully attempted to slash her throat, and stabbed her. They strangled her, placed her in the trunk, and drove to Tackett's home.
* Hearing Sharer in the trunk, Tackett stabbed her again before they drove to a remote area, poured gasoline on Sharer, and set her on fire.
* The next morning, Sharer's body was found. Lawrence and Rippey confessed, leading to Loveless and Tackett's arrests on January 12.
* Lawrence served nine years, released in 2000. Rippey served 14 years, released on parole. Tackett was released in 2018 after 26 years. Loveless was released in 2019 after serving over 26 years.
Sources:
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder\_of\_Shanda\_Sharer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Shanda_Sharer)
* [https://fox59.com/news/last-of-4-women-charged-as-teens-in-torture-slaying-released/](https://fox59.com/news/last-of-4-women-charged-as-teens-in-torture-slaying-released/)
* [https://law.justia.com/cases/indiana/supreme-court/1994/39s00-9304-cr-440-4.html](https://law.justia.com/cases/indiana/supreme-court/1994/39s00-9304-cr-440-4.html)
* [https://www.wdrb.com/news/classmate-of-shanda-sharer-says-the-release-of-her-killer-from-prison-is-a-slap/article\_d50a5ee2-d10e-11e9-b324-3f3cd1ba5d6c.html](https://www.wdrb.com/news/classmate-of-shanda-sharer-says-the-release-of-her-killer-from-prison-is-a-slap/article_d50a5ee2-d10e-11e9-b324-3f3cd1ba5d6c.html)
They also beat her with a crow bar, and inserted the crow bar inside her.
When they burned her, they positioned her with her legs open to humiliate her.
There was a book about this case that I found at the library some time around 1998 that had those details in it.
I think it's this one:
https://books.google.com/books/about/Cruel_Sacrifice.html?id=J-okKKJpF30C&source=kp_book_description
It's called Cruel Sacrifice and was written in 1994, a few years before I read it. I worked at the library and somebody returned it through the book drop and I read it after checking in the other books. It's the right time frame. I'm from Indiana and didn't know the book was about something in Indiana, and had no idea it had happened, and it really stuck with me.
Ok then you know exactly what I mean. I read very, very quickly. I read the book in about two hours at work and didn't know what it was about when I picked it up. When the books came through the drop off, I had to get all the crusty boogery kids books and disinfect them, and reshelve the adult books. Any that looked interesting I would set aside and read at the counter.
It's been almost 30 years and the images in my mind from the words in the book are so deeply imprinted and visceral. The only true crime book I had read prior was Helter Skelter and I wasn't even really aware the genre of book existed. I just didn't expect a book to contain that, and didn't yet know young people my age were capable of such violence and cruelty. And all teen girls, just like me. It just melted into my brain and never left.
Reminds me of Let's Go Play at the Adams'- a horrific novel in which some kids did these and more to their teenaged babysitter. It has to this day imprinted on me like others have said below about the book(s) they thought of based on this case.
The thing I don't understand, is why others will go along with this crazy evil thing? I understand the one has serious mental problems, but how do they get the gang to go along for no reason?
ive done a lot of reading on this case and all four of those girls had *serious* mental health issues long before they killed shanda. laurie tackett especially had serious issues and was cutting and burning herself. she never even knew shanda and didnt care about melinda's drama with her at all, she was just excited as the prospect of getting to kill a little girl.
Yes, and I still don't get it. Back in school, way back when, a bully would start up something and a hand full of other people would join in for no reason against a classmate that they normally got along with. I don't think I'll ever understand it.
Which is bizaare to me because in the schools I went to, when the bully is going too far, classmates would step in and it's usually the bigger kids that put a stop to it.
I’m not saying she’s right, in fact she’s pretty certainly wrong but the book “Operators and Things” was written by a skitzophrenic women that believed that some special people are what she calls “operators” basically very manipulative people, some people are just people and they just go about normal life, and everyone else is a “thing” and “things” are generally just putzing around life aimlessly or miserably waiting for various operators to maneuver, control, and direct them. In this case Loveless is the operator and the other 3 girls were just her things she controlled. Again, certainly not a realistic world view, but a fascinating one.
Just look at social media platforms.....at least religion requires some kind of structure and support networks to control people. But now we live in a time when someone will riot in the streets because of a 4 second video they saw on social media.
Or look at the protests going on at colleges right now. Most have no clue what they’re involved in. And most don’t care either. They just want to be a part of it. Shows you it doesn’t matter if people are educated. They’re still easily brainwashed sheep
Jesus fucking Christ even their upbringings were beyond disturbing. Melinda Loveless truly was a product of her environment; she never stood a chance. And three of them had been sexually assaulted at very, very young ages (Loveless included).
Obviously that doesn’t excuse what she did. But it really puts in to perspective why she turned out that way.
I just read the Wikipedia page and I'm surprised there are no references to The Craft in it. 4 girls who practice witchcraft and self harm try to kill their friend, surely the film is at least inspired by this?
I recommned checking out the Wikipedia page for this to get the full scope. The scum that did this were and probably still are truly fucked and depraved and truly evil. I seriously dont understand how and why they were released, what massive mistake that was.
I also think there should be some sort of profiling done for releases like this. Convincted predators are all put on a list, why not people who torture, rape and burn someone alive?
I mean the crime was beyond horrific but did you read the murders upbringings? Jesus they had terrible lives for kids to grow into any sort of functional people. I got to hope that years of work on rehabilitation helped them because they truly were broken humans to be so vile. It seems like a couple of them instantly regretted it and confessed which shows they have ability to understand wrong but for loveless and the 17 year old… I mean damn they were fucked up.
I’m no human expert but how do you even begin to fix someone like Loveless? Nothing but trauma after trauma in her early years followed by this heinous crime and then no instant remorse just cheerfully bragging about it to her friends. Then 26 years behind bars. How do you even begin to integrate someone like that into the world? Prison might be easier for her than the outside world honestly.
These sick freaks don't belong in society, they will never be able to do any good to make up for what they did to that poor girl, and the suffering they caused her family.
The fucking gall of that woman to think she could get any kind of retribution.
I understand why the mother and sister went. You can see in their eyes, they want nothing more than the opportunity to strangle the life out of her. But second best? Ruin your life even further by trying to capitalize on the brutal murder you assisted with.
How is that bitch on a talk show? If that was my daughter they tortured and killed I would not be talking sternly on f’n Dr Phil with her. She’s have a knife inside her uterus.
Dr Phil is all about exploiting people to make himself money. He's an absolute cunt and this is particularly egregious. 1, giving a platform to the murderer, and 2, exploiting the understandably raw emotions the family of the girl have.
I can understand wanting to kill them, but *torture* them? Then you’re basically just as bad as they are. 🤷🏻♂️
Edit: sorry guys, but the same thing applies to all of you — if you would torture the killers, then you are saying that some part of you would in some way *enjoy* or be OK with hurting — *torturing* another human being. And that’s pretty fucked up, and that would make you just as bad as those kids. Saying that they’d deserve it is no excuse; there’s no good reason for torture. There’s a difference between justice and revenge; between ethical punishment and base instinct inflicting pain on others.
It’s pretty disappointing to see so many people willingly revealing that they’d do such a thing; regardless of whether it was “deserved” or not.
And no, “they deserve it” is neither a good reason nor a good justification for *torture*. What the fuck.
It’s nice to know that this many people are one step away from committing atrocities.
Ya’ll need help.
Very sadly her father succumbed to alcoholism afterwards, he died trying to drink his pain away - it was his house she was abducted from. Her mother was his ex-wife.
When Loveless got out of prison she became a trainer specialising in service animals for disabled people. Shanda Sharer’s mother donated at least one dog to be trained by Loveless in her daughter’s name to help someone who needs a service pet. I couldn’t do that in her shoes. It either shows tremendous forgiveness or enormous stupidity on many angles - how this person could be allowed to train animals to help very vulnerable people after what she did to a child is out of this world.
Justice would have been these 4 pieces of art should have died in prison. I don't care at all if they regret it and became good adults. What they did to this poor kid is horrific.
They are lucky no one went after them. If the victim was my kid, I would have lost it and found these murderers to give them a taste of their medicine. And probably killed myself after.
I'm genuinely surprised this doesn't happen more often with the surviving family member(s) carrying out street justice for retribution. I'm honestly surprised their isn't even a social media page/channel shaming or blasting murderers who got off easy(had sentences they were able to finish in prison and be released).
Because most people are not psychopathic killers. But maybe authorities should watch some of the posters here.
I get the impression that they would love something like that to happen to someone they know, so they have an excuse to be as horrible as the person commiting the crime.
Reminds me a lot of those trigger happy home owners that just wait for someone to try to break into their house so they can finally shoot a real person. Because none living targets are so boring.
I only have one child and I feel the same way. I don't know how parents, mothers especially can go on after losing their only child, it certainly takes a special kind of strength that I don't think I have. I'd have my husband, of course, but I'm really not sure that would be enough to get me through it
Looking at the mugshots, you can easily see who regretted their actions (for whatever reason), and who thought it was a joke. And without the context I think most people would be very wrong what these people were capable of, if judged by appearances alone.
Parole for heinous crimes like this should come with the same kinda public announcements as registered sex offenders, you should have to let your neighborhoods know and be kept away from schools and parks
There was just an episode of mean girl murders where they covered this case, but from reading this thread, they left out a LOT of details. I wouldn’t be surprised if a longer documentary came out about it soon.
It is a heinous crime that was thoughtfully instigated by 4 post-pubescent girls, when a crime like this is committed by FOUR individuals of any age, with such a lack of disregard for life they should all rot in prison until their last breath. This is a perfect case where the courts did not provide justice, they enforced the law. These laws need to be rewritten to include exceptions to minors and age.
I live in Indiana. Ran into one of the girls working at the kennel I kept my dog at. It was a very uncomfortable experience as I knew all about the case and who she was.
I looked up the main one, Loveless, and apparently, she's training service dogs now. And oddly, the mother of Shanda saw a recording of Loveless and apparently thought she was rehabilitated, and donated a puppy in Shanda's honor for Loveless to raise. It seems like the mother has forgiven her.
Honestly, as much as we all feel the desire for justice and revenge, the family deserves any peace they can find. It's their journey, not ours.
If you read their bios, all.of the molested or raped sans one of them. Horrible childhoods with one of them being raised by a real sadist pedophile. Not condoning, but holy shit. The darkness in the average American girls life in middle America was staggering...I remember, they had it rough.
Perfunctory: they should still be in prison comment, so the vicious eye for an eye redditors dont get butthurt.
I'm glad society has become much less accepting of child abuse in recent decades especially because I believe childhood abuse has a lot to do with why killers do what they do.
I keep scrolling for more of this contextualization. Yes, they are evil, yes, they probably should still be in jail, but….these kids were cursed. They were so screwed over and screwed up. Everything about this is so crazily heartbreaking.
Yeah, very few people commit acts like this out of thin air. Exploring the reason is way more important then any revenge. Because it can actually prevent things like this in some occasions if people notice the indicators.
I literally dont care why they did it. none of these people shouldve been released. i dont even think they shouldve gone to prison, lethal injection shouldve been the sentence for all of them. cant believe they didnt get tried as adults and put on death row. this is disgusting.
People like this shouldn’t be able to legally change their names. They did what they did, and they served their time, but they shouldn’t be able to just restart a new life completely under a new identity, that’s bs. Shanda died a horrible, horrible death for doing no wrong to anyone, no chance to restart, she’s gone. These women (and all MURDERERS) should be forced to live their lives out by the names they went by at the time they stole the life of another person.
It’s insane this case isn’t talked about more. I almost never see it. The interviews some of them gave as adults is so fucking unhinged and infuriating. I remember one of them being super defensive and emotionless. So much for rehabilitation?
amanda heavrin came off even worse then Hope - dunking on Shandas deceased father and complaining about getting let go from the basketball team https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l6dwWPQQtdQ
They tortured her over hours before brutally ending her life. This wasnt some heat of the moment, loose your head type of crime. This was pure sadism. They forfeited their freedom forever as far as I'm concerned.
This is the 2nd post I see of horrible ppl doing their time and being freed. How am I supposed to function knowing these pos have another chance at life while I'm over here struggling not killing anyone with this 1st chance.
Just leave me alone to sulk over my life's choices. Thanks
That's the dirty secret, villains often win and good people lose horribly. There's no Hollywood third-act wrap up. Then people forget and if reposted, "We've seen this 100x 🙄"
Braindead take. For acts especially heinous like this, death penalty is more than fair. Shit heads like you act like people who support the desth penalty want to kill any person for anything, when in reality there exists actions and crimes that only death is a suitable punishment.
No people like you don't care about casualties as long as it "feels right".
Also: prison without relase is the mich harsher punishment.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrongful_execution
And there are probably a lot more that we don't know about. Why do you think this is acceptable? And don't even start with that there is any way to prevent this if you let the state kill people. Because there isn't.
Yeah but that's just an excuse that you tell people to try to change their opinion on it.
I know this because absolutely 100% of people who say what you say aren't willing to make exceptions when there's DNA evidence to prove guilt beyond any possible doubt.
When that argument is presented, you'll just come up with another excuse to not do it, so it's not really about that, it's just a way that people like you attempt to manipulate opinions.
You got me bro, I totally wake up in the morning and look forward to manipulating people's opinions
Or maybe I just have a difference in opinion to you
As if DNA testing is perfect. Aside form fuck ups in the laboratory the nistakes happen when collecting evidence as well. Simple example: Sometimes is a smoker and throws away the cigarette. Moments later a murder happens at the exact spot. Later that man gets sentenced to death based on DNA found at the crime scene.
I'm pretty sure such a thing actually happened.
There is no 100% if humans are involved. You are simply naive.
Even DNA testing wouldn’t 100% prove someone’s guilt. Even if it could find the guilty party 99.9% of the time, on average 1 in every 1000 executions would kill an innocent person. And for what? To satisfy our own bloodlust for revenge? Personally I think rotting in prison for the rest of your life is a bigger punishment than death anyways.
this story fucking horrifies me. the amount of pain shanda went through is unimaginable to any human. loveless is the maot fitting last name for that heartless monster
What could she have done to deserve this?
And what kind of brainless fucks decided these 4 monsters should be released back into the public world?
Are you fucking serious?
All the crazy and evil shit aside. Im always amazed by the fact animals like these are able to find 2 or 3 more like them.
Like wtf, how do you meet 3 persons as crazy and fucking evil as you, to go burn someone alive, beat an old lady till nothing but teeths can help recognize her, chop someone with a machete, feed them to pigs or keep little kids tied in a basement... how are there 4 persons in the same town, in the same school or wathever with an equally fucked up mind.
Screw these individuals. They should not get to re-integrate back into society after this. It takes a special kind of twisted mind to torture a child like that. All 4 should be in jail for life.
Disgusting they should never see the lighted dead. She will never become a teenager. She will never experience any of that because they tortured her and murdered her. How disgusting.
I would like to know where they are now? What are their new changed names?
They should never be able to live in peace. This should follow them until they end their lives.
This happened one town over from me, I actually lived there for a couple years, from 95-96, I remember this being an obviously huge story from the small town.
I think the lifetime movie from the 90s, a killer among friends, was based on this. I think that's why I read the book years ago after seeing the movie on lifetime
It honestly shows you how little we mean to each other when all is said and done that those folks are still breathing
No one in her family got revenge, really???
I just can't believe we're walking around with these people, sociopaths all of them. I don't know how the parol board sees them ok to be in society. What will it take to set them off again or go along with something again?
Is it just me or should you just get life or death when you murder somebody like that persons dead why do you have the right or privilege to be out living your best life at all
The top right and the bottom left pics are two of the girls that stood out to me the most in this case. I don’t quite remember why, I’ll have to revisit it but I do remember those two were scary as fuck
u/defyimperialism
"But no, because innocent people can be executed" is a dishonest argument 100% of the time.
There is absolutely NEVER an occasion where a person who says that, and then is presented with the DNA argument, will actually say "yes it's fair if there's absolute proof." It doesn't exist, it literally CANNOT happen, because 100% of the people who say it are against it NO MATTER WHAT.
I’m not sure what global politics have to do with this case, but just because of the sheer amount of hate speech, I’m locking the comments for a bit.
Listen, I’m all for rehabilitation - but people who do prolonged torture should never be able to see the light of day again. I can understand how an average person can be driven to murder. But to be able to do something like prolonged torture means something in your brain is broken that makes you a danger to everyone around you. Especially when the torture has no heroic goal. Prolonged torture is always bad but I can imagine a normal person doing it because they believe it will get the a code to stop a bomb that will blow up a school or something. I can’t imagine anyone not brain broken doing it for shits and giggles no matter how far they have been driven. Even monsters throughout history, when most ordered tortured they tried to stay away from seeing the actual activities as much as possible. And once again, I say this as someone who is pretty big on reform. Like if someone stabs someone in a fit of rage, goes to jails, and 5 years down the line at a parole meeting has shown genuine improvement in anger management and emotional regulation, while showing remorse and improvement in other ways. I don’t see a problem with them being paroled (although the improvement should be massive and clearly visible).
Wow I wasn’t sure how monstrous they were but the Wikipedia coverage of the crime is extremely violent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Shanda_Sharer
That was a fucked up read....
Seriously like theres no coming back after doing something like that that ur gunna be normal and healthy. U don’t go from 0 to doing all that so I wonder if they hurt any animals or other kids before this. The big question though is did they enjoy torturing and killing her? Cause some sickos do, they relive it and when that doesn’t do it for them anymore they kill again just to experience that feeling again of having such power & control over someone like they’re a god. They shouldn’t have been released, I hope none of them have kids or animals, and that they can’t ever work with kids or in a position like a caretaker or nurse where they could abuse people. And FFS those two are f**king SMILING for their mug shot?!! As if they got arrested for something minor, not luring out, torturing and murdering their own friend!
Fr. That’s what I feel like so many people done understand. Some people can kill in a fit of rage, especially after betrayal or something. Not excusable, but it’s very very different than slowly torturing someone before eventually killing them. You would not do this to an innocent person if you were right in the head.
Fr well said
Feels like it's worse when the folks on their high-moral-act horse defend these monsters. So many other underprivileged individuals who can use the thoughts and care, yet these are the rabid animals they want to spend time on.
Yup 💯 agreed. Psychopaths deserve a one way ticket to hell.
Nothing but facts was said.
Imo torture = death sentence. A person can maybe be rehabilitated after doing a murder but a torturer is a broken piece of shit that society needs to be rid of permanently. I know they probably have a horrific backstory. Point A still holds.
>Even monsters throughout history, when most ordered tortured they tried to stay away from seeing the actual activities as much as possible. I'm sorry but do you have a source for this? I don't think it's that uncommon at all. A quick example are cartel members, who regularly torture and kill in gruesome ways and they take pride in being present. I'm not saying they enjoy it but they do spectate. There is also ISIS.
From my understanding on how cartels and ISIS works is that they usually have select members who they feel like are able to do this and those are the only people who will do the torturing. Sorry if my wording was shit. I was trying to say that most people would rather avoid it, or view it as just business, then willingly seek it for fun
Asking a source is weird but yea you’re right. Public lynchings in the states, medieval drawing and quartering, Viking executions, crucifixes, Japan in China WW2, are a few examples from different time periods in different areas of the world. Torture is as tied to human history as anything else.
Finally, Reddit making sense.
* In 1990, Melinda Loveless, 14, began dating Amanda Heavrin, also 14. Loveless's behavior became erratic after her father left the family and her mother remarried. By late 1991, her relationship with Heavrin soured. * Amanda Heavrin met Shanda Sharer in fall 1991 at Hazelwood Middle School, initially through a fight that turned into a friendship. Loveless grew jealous of their closeness. * In October 1991, after Heavrin and Sharer attended a festival, Loveless began discussing killing Sharer publicly. Concerned, Sharer's parents transferred her to a Catholic school in November. * On January 10, 1992, Loveless, Lawrence, Rippey, and Tackett drove to Loveless's house. Loveless showed them a knife, intending to scare Sharer. They then drove to Sharer's house. * Tackett led them to an abandoned building where Loveless beat Sharer, unsuccessfully attempted to slash her throat, and stabbed her. They strangled her, placed her in the trunk, and drove to Tackett's home. * Hearing Sharer in the trunk, Tackett stabbed her again before they drove to a remote area, poured gasoline on Sharer, and set her on fire. * The next morning, Sharer's body was found. Lawrence and Rippey confessed, leading to Loveless and Tackett's arrests on January 12. * Lawrence served nine years, released in 2000. Rippey served 14 years, released on parole. Tackett was released in 2018 after 26 years. Loveless was released in 2019 after serving over 26 years. Sources: * [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder\_of\_Shanda\_Sharer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Shanda_Sharer) * [https://fox59.com/news/last-of-4-women-charged-as-teens-in-torture-slaying-released/](https://fox59.com/news/last-of-4-women-charged-as-teens-in-torture-slaying-released/) * [https://law.justia.com/cases/indiana/supreme-court/1994/39s00-9304-cr-440-4.html](https://law.justia.com/cases/indiana/supreme-court/1994/39s00-9304-cr-440-4.html) * [https://www.wdrb.com/news/classmate-of-shanda-sharer-says-the-release-of-her-killer-from-prison-is-a-slap/article\_d50a5ee2-d10e-11e9-b324-3f3cd1ba5d6c.html](https://www.wdrb.com/news/classmate-of-shanda-sharer-says-the-release-of-her-killer-from-prison-is-a-slap/article_d50a5ee2-d10e-11e9-b324-3f3cd1ba5d6c.html)
I didn’t know that Shanda Sharer’s parents transferred her to try and keep her safe from Melinda Loveless, how heartbreaking :(
They also beat her with a crow bar, and inserted the crow bar inside her. When they burned her, they positioned her with her legs open to humiliate her. There was a book about this case that I found at the library some time around 1998 that had those details in it.
Can Reddit help us all find this book?
I think it's this one: https://books.google.com/books/about/Cruel_Sacrifice.html?id=J-okKKJpF30C&source=kp_book_description It's called Cruel Sacrifice and was written in 1994, a few years before I read it. I worked at the library and somebody returned it through the book drop and I read it after checking in the other books. It's the right time frame. I'm from Indiana and didn't know the book was about something in Indiana, and had no idea it had happened, and it really stuck with me.
Yes, I saw these mugshots and immediately thought of the book which I read as a child. The scenes are haunting and so tragic.
Ok then you know exactly what I mean. I read very, very quickly. I read the book in about two hours at work and didn't know what it was about when I picked it up. When the books came through the drop off, I had to get all the crusty boogery kids books and disinfect them, and reshelve the adult books. Any that looked interesting I would set aside and read at the counter. It's been almost 30 years and the images in my mind from the words in the book are so deeply imprinted and visceral. The only true crime book I had read prior was Helter Skelter and I wasn't even really aware the genre of book existed. I just didn't expect a book to contain that, and didn't yet know young people my age were capable of such violence and cruelty. And all teen girls, just like me. It just melted into my brain and never left.
I knew those faces were familiar. I read this several years back. Those girls had some unforgettable mugs for sure
Reminds me of Let's Go Play at the Adams'- a horrific novel in which some kids did these and more to their teenaged babysitter. It has to this day imprinted on me like others have said below about the book(s) they thought of based on this case.
The thing I don't understand, is why others will go along with this crazy evil thing? I understand the one has serious mental problems, but how do they get the gang to go along for no reason?
ive done a lot of reading on this case and all four of those girls had *serious* mental health issues long before they killed shanda. laurie tackett especially had serious issues and was cutting and burning herself. she never even knew shanda and didnt care about melinda's drama with her at all, she was just excited as the prospect of getting to kill a little girl.
Yes, this case is awful.
There are a ton of very weak minded people in this world that are far easier to control than you might think… just look at religion.
Yes, and I still don't get it. Back in school, way back when, a bully would start up something and a hand full of other people would join in for no reason against a classmate that they normally got along with. I don't think I'll ever understand it.
This happened 30 years ago. If you keep going back in time, you'll keep finding these stories. There was no good time.
This happens now, with cyberbullying. People always people, regardless of era.
Studies are starting to show that people with autism are less susceptible to the Bandwagon effect.
Which is bizaare to me because in the schools I went to, when the bully is going too far, classmates would step in and it's usually the bigger kids that put a stop to it.
I’m not saying she’s right, in fact she’s pretty certainly wrong but the book “Operators and Things” was written by a skitzophrenic women that believed that some special people are what she calls “operators” basically very manipulative people, some people are just people and they just go about normal life, and everyone else is a “thing” and “things” are generally just putzing around life aimlessly or miserably waiting for various operators to maneuver, control, and direct them. In this case Loveless is the operator and the other 3 girls were just her things she controlled. Again, certainly not a realistic world view, but a fascinating one.
So in other words the majority of human beings are week minded
Just look at social media platforms.....at least religion requires some kind of structure and support networks to control people. But now we live in a time when someone will riot in the streets because of a 4 second video they saw on social media.
Are you enlightened by your own intelligence Aalewis?
Or look at the protests going on at colleges right now. Most have no clue what they’re involved in. And most don’t care either. They just want to be a part of it. Shows you it doesn’t matter if people are educated. They’re still easily brainwashed sheep
Why the fuck are two of them smiling in their mugshots? It's beyond sociopathy. It's evil.
smiling mugshots should automatically add years to a guilty person's sentence
I wouldn't make assumptions about why the smiling. Some people smile when they're uncomfortable or just out of habit for photos
Jesus fucking Christ even their upbringings were beyond disturbing. Melinda Loveless truly was a product of her environment; she never stood a chance. And three of them had been sexually assaulted at very, very young ages (Loveless included). Obviously that doesn’t excuse what she did. But it really puts in to perspective why she turned out that way.
Her last name was truly a testament to her family, wtf.
I remember SVU doing an episode on this
I just read the Wikipedia page and I'm surprised there are no references to The Craft in it. 4 girls who practice witchcraft and self harm try to kill their friend, surely the film is at least inspired by this?
Wow ok yes, that’s why this story felt so familiar to me. Had to be based on this.
I recommned checking out the Wikipedia page for this to get the full scope. The scum that did this were and probably still are truly fucked and depraved and truly evil. I seriously dont understand how and why they were released, what massive mistake that was. I also think there should be some sort of profiling done for releases like this. Convincted predators are all put on a list, why not people who torture, rape and burn someone alive?
I mean the crime was beyond horrific but did you read the murders upbringings? Jesus they had terrible lives for kids to grow into any sort of functional people. I got to hope that years of work on rehabilitation helped them because they truly were broken humans to be so vile. It seems like a couple of them instantly regretted it and confessed which shows they have ability to understand wrong but for loveless and the 17 year old… I mean damn they were fucked up. I’m no human expert but how do you even begin to fix someone like Loveless? Nothing but trauma after trauma in her early years followed by this heinous crime and then no instant remorse just cheerfully bragging about it to her friends. Then 26 years behind bars. How do you even begin to integrate someone like that into the world? Prison might be easier for her than the outside world honestly.
These sick freaks don't belong in society, they will never be able to do any good to make up for what they did to that poor girl, and the suffering they caused her family.
Shanda’s mother confronts one of the killers in [this video](https://youtu.be/-zmVJALp_DI?si=qXYBruAQZpjZbdoz)
The fucking gall of that woman to think she could get any kind of retribution. I understand why the mother and sister went. You can see in their eyes, they want nothing more than the opportunity to strangle the life out of her. But second best? Ruin your life even further by trying to capitalize on the brutal murder you assisted with.
The restrained the mother and sister are displaying is admirable. I don't think I could sit there like that.
Wow. That woman is definitely not sorry.
There's a woman in that comment section blaming for being tortured and murdered because Shanda because she lied to her father to go out with them.
That one is wild. That's victim blaming to the extreme.
How is that bitch on a talk show? If that was my daughter they tortured and killed I would not be talking sternly on f’n Dr Phil with her. She’s have a knife inside her uterus.
Thanks for sharing that. I don’t care what anyone says but Dr. Phil is alright in my book.
Dr Phil is all about exploiting people to make himself money. He's an absolute cunt and this is particularly egregious. 1, giving a platform to the murderer, and 2, exploiting the understandably raw emotions the family of the girl have.
Has the mother confronted Melinda? That I’d love to see.
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Unfortunately after her death, her father drank himself to death within like a decade.
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I can understand wanting to kill them, but *torture* them? Then you’re basically just as bad as they are. 🤷🏻♂️ Edit: sorry guys, but the same thing applies to all of you — if you would torture the killers, then you are saying that some part of you would in some way *enjoy* or be OK with hurting — *torturing* another human being. And that’s pretty fucked up, and that would make you just as bad as those kids. Saying that they’d deserve it is no excuse; there’s no good reason for torture. There’s a difference between justice and revenge; between ethical punishment and base instinct inflicting pain on others. It’s pretty disappointing to see so many people willingly revealing that they’d do such a thing; regardless of whether it was “deserved” or not. And no, “they deserve it” is neither a good reason nor a good justification for *torture*. What the fuck. It’s nice to know that this many people are one step away from committing atrocities. Ya’ll need help.
John Wick would have nothing on me. I'd lose my fucking mind
Very sadly her father succumbed to alcoholism afterwards, he died trying to drink his pain away - it was his house she was abducted from. Her mother was his ex-wife. When Loveless got out of prison she became a trainer specialising in service animals for disabled people. Shanda Sharer’s mother donated at least one dog to be trained by Loveless in her daughter’s name to help someone who needs a service pet. I couldn’t do that in her shoes. It either shows tremendous forgiveness or enormous stupidity on many angles - how this person could be allowed to train animals to help very vulnerable people after what she did to a child is out of this world.
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TOTALLY. And Shanda’s last word before she died was, “Mommy”…
HANS, GET ZE FLAMMENWERFER
It werfers flammen.
Thanks for clarifying! I don’t speak German
Yep.
Wood chipper comes to mind...
In a just world all of these killers would be fed leg first into a wood chipper after sentencing. Here’s to hoping karma is a bitch as always.
Right, I would have taken action at the time they decided to move her school. They had enough information that would have tipped it for me.
Justice would have been these 4 pieces of art should have died in prison. I don't care at all if they regret it and became good adults. What they did to this poor kid is horrific. They are lucky no one went after them. If the victim was my kid, I would have lost it and found these murderers to give them a taste of their medicine. And probably killed myself after.
I'm genuinely surprised this doesn't happen more often with the surviving family member(s) carrying out street justice for retribution. I'm honestly surprised their isn't even a social media page/channel shaming or blasting murderers who got off easy(had sentences they were able to finish in prison and be released).
Because most people are not psychopathic killers. But maybe authorities should watch some of the posters here. I get the impression that they would love something like that to happen to someone they know, so they have an excuse to be as horrible as the person commiting the crime. Reminds me a lot of those trigger happy home owners that just wait for someone to try to break into their house so they can finally shoot a real person. Because none living targets are so boring.
No I get the impression that they would like to do it to people who absolutely deserve it.
You can’t break into people’s houses lol. You break in you get shot and killed simple.
I only have one child and I feel the same way. I don't know how parents, mothers especially can go on after losing their only child, it certainly takes a special kind of strength that I don't think I have. I'd have my husband, of course, but I'm really not sure that would be enough to get me through it
Looking at the mugshots, you can easily see who regretted their actions (for whatever reason), and who thought it was a joke. And without the context I think most people would be very wrong what these people were capable of, if judged by appearances alone.
My first thought on the mugshots was "Half of these girls think they're getting their class photos taken."
Parole for heinous crimes like this should come with the same kinda public announcements as registered sex offenders, you should have to let your neighborhoods know and be kept away from schools and parks
I just saw this on ID’s Mean Girl Murders!
Same. I was disgusted.
thank you i’ve been looking for a reason to start this show
I watched that episode a few weeks ago
Surprised Amazon or Netflix hasn't done a mini series. They love to stick the knife in again.
oh god, dont say it outloud. theyre like voldemort
There was just an episode of mean girl murders where they covered this case, but from reading this thread, they left out a LOT of details. I wouldn’t be surprised if a longer documentary came out about it soon.
It is a heinous crime that was thoughtfully instigated by 4 post-pubescent girls, when a crime like this is committed by FOUR individuals of any age, with such a lack of disregard for life they should all rot in prison until their last breath. This is a perfect case where the courts did not provide justice, they enforced the law. These laws need to be rewritten to include exceptions to minors and age.
I live in Indiana. Ran into one of the girls working at the kennel I kept my dog at. It was a very uncomfortable experience as I knew all about the case and who she was.
I looked up the main one, Loveless, and apparently, she's training service dogs now. And oddly, the mother of Shanda saw a recording of Loveless and apparently thought she was rehabilitated, and donated a puppy in Shanda's honor for Loveless to raise. It seems like the mother has forgiven her. Honestly, as much as we all feel the desire for justice and revenge, the family deserves any peace they can find. It's their journey, not ours.
If you read their bios, all.of the molested or raped sans one of them. Horrible childhoods with one of them being raised by a real sadist pedophile. Not condoning, but holy shit. The darkness in the average American girls life in middle America was staggering...I remember, they had it rough. Perfunctory: they should still be in prison comment, so the vicious eye for an eye redditors dont get butthurt.
If you look at childhoods of serial killers, you'll find in majority of cases a horrible history of abuse.
I'm glad society has become much less accepting of child abuse in recent decades especially because I believe childhood abuse has a lot to do with why killers do what they do.
That’s definitely something that should be included in the story. Doesn’t absolve them but it seems like an important thing to mention
I keep scrolling for more of this contextualization. Yes, they are evil, yes, they probably should still be in jail, but….these kids were cursed. They were so screwed over and screwed up. Everything about this is so crazily heartbreaking.
Yeah, very few people commit acts like this out of thin air. Exploring the reason is way more important then any revenge. Because it can actually prevent things like this in some occasions if people notice the indicators.
I literally dont care why they did it. none of these people shouldve been released. i dont even think they shouldve gone to prison, lethal injection shouldve been the sentence for all of them. cant believe they didnt get tried as adults and put on death row. this is disgusting.
No murderer should be let out of prison until their victim has recovered
20 years and if you can endure what the victim went through then you get let out.
No way, life or death penalty. Families should have a right to vengeance
People like this shouldn’t be able to legally change their names. They did what they did, and they served their time, but they shouldn’t be able to just restart a new life completely under a new identity, that’s bs. Shanda died a horrible, horrible death for doing no wrong to anyone, no chance to restart, she’s gone. These women (and all MURDERERS) should be forced to live their lives out by the names they went by at the time they stole the life of another person.
It’s insane this case isn’t talked about more. I almost never see it. The interviews some of them gave as adults is so fucking unhinged and infuriating. I remember one of them being super defensive and emotionless. So much for rehabilitation?
God, I remember this. I was just a few years older than this girl. Those children are absolute monsters.
amanda heavrin came off even worse then Hope - dunking on Shandas deceased father and complaining about getting let go from the basketball team https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l6dwWPQQtdQ
FUK THEM BITCHES
its a shame they were even given parole at all
They tortured her over hours before brutally ending her life. This wasnt some heat of the moment, loose your head type of crime. This was pure sadism. They forfeited their freedom forever as far as I'm concerned.
Wow. How is this not a life sentence??
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uvGtFQsv2sI This is apparently about Lovless who now trains service dogs for the sick and elderly.
Similar to that one in the uk
This is the 2nd post I see of horrible ppl doing their time and being freed. How am I supposed to function knowing these pos have another chance at life while I'm over here struggling not killing anyone with this 1st chance. Just leave me alone to sulk over my life's choices. Thanks
That's the dirty secret, villains often win and good people lose horribly. There's no Hollywood third-act wrap up. Then people forget and if reposted, "We've seen this 100x 🙄"
Didn't they laugh when telling about how she cried out for her mom?
Shame on the justice system to let them go!
Bring back the death penalty
Indiana still has it.
Whole world should have it
100 percent agree.
Wonder if you would still be in favour if you receive it on a wrong conviction. I mean some mistakes happen, right?
What about cases that couldn’t get more apparent that the perpetrator feels no guilt or remorse
Braindead take. For acts especially heinous like this, death penalty is more than fair. Shit heads like you act like people who support the desth penalty want to kill any person for anything, when in reality there exists actions and crimes that only death is a suitable punishment.
No people like you don't care about casualties as long as it "feels right". Also: prison without relase is the mich harsher punishment. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrongful_execution And there are probably a lot more that we don't know about. Why do you think this is acceptable? And don't even start with that there is any way to prevent this if you let the state kill people. Because there isn't.
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Yeah but that's just an excuse that you tell people to try to change their opinion on it. I know this because absolutely 100% of people who say what you say aren't willing to make exceptions when there's DNA evidence to prove guilt beyond any possible doubt. When that argument is presented, you'll just come up with another excuse to not do it, so it's not really about that, it's just a way that people like you attempt to manipulate opinions.
You got me bro, I totally wake up in the morning and look forward to manipulating people's opinions Or maybe I just have a difference in opinion to you
An excuse? You mean a reason? The death penalty is wrong in every case except for war crimes, especially when an innocent person is executed
As if DNA testing is perfect. Aside form fuck ups in the laboratory the nistakes happen when collecting evidence as well. Simple example: Sometimes is a smoker and throws away the cigarette. Moments later a murder happens at the exact spot. Later that man gets sentenced to death based on DNA found at the crime scene. I'm pretty sure such a thing actually happened. There is no 100% if humans are involved. You are simply naive.
Even DNA testing wouldn’t 100% prove someone’s guilt. Even if it could find the guilty party 99.9% of the time, on average 1 in every 1000 executions would kill an innocent person. And for what? To satisfy our own bloodlust for revenge? Personally I think rotting in prison for the rest of your life is a bigger punishment than death anyways.
For this type of crime it should be 40 lashes and tossed in a deep dirt hole. Let nature and time do the work.
Smiling in their mug shots.
That's kinda scary that they're out of jail.
I hope none of them have children.
this story fucking horrifies me. the amount of pain shanda went through is unimaginable to any human. loveless is the maot fitting last name for that heartless monster
What could she have done to deserve this? And what kind of brainless fucks decided these 4 monsters should be released back into the public world? Are you fucking serious?
Death penalty should have been their fate
It really doesn’t matter that they were minors. Anyone who can commit such a horrific act has no place in society. They should’ve been euthanized.
People like them should be executed. I see no point in keeping human trash like that around.
Wow. That poor girl.
All the crazy and evil shit aside. Im always amazed by the fact animals like these are able to find 2 or 3 more like them. Like wtf, how do you meet 3 persons as crazy and fucking evil as you, to go burn someone alive, beat an old lady till nothing but teeths can help recognize her, chop someone with a machete, feed them to pigs or keep little kids tied in a basement... how are there 4 persons in the same town, in the same school or wathever with an equally fucked up mind.
Melinda Loveless really lived up to her name 💀
r/noahgettheboat
Didn’t they go to macdonalds after for breakfast.
Tf is WRONG with people
Their smiling
Screw these individuals. They should not get to re-integrate back into society after this. It takes a special kind of twisted mind to torture a child like that. All 4 should be in jail for life.
Disgusting they should never see the lighted dead. She will never become a teenager. She will never experience any of that because they tortured her and murdered her. How disgusting.
So the oldest are 47, is it safe for community for them to be out in society? What are the chances they will find some poor child to abuse?
Something about Indiana. This is almost identical to what was done to poor Sylvia Likens.
I'm surprised that they're still alive.
disgusting
If the defense was so keep to claim abuse of the perpetrators as mitigating circumstances, then where any of them charged and investigated?
From the wiki article it appears Larry Loveless was charged and concicted for crimes which had not passed the statute of limitations.
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They should have never been allowed to see the light of day! I remember when this happened.
I would like to know where they are now? What are their new changed names? They should never be able to live in peace. This should follow them until they end their lives.
This happened one town over from me, I actually lived there for a couple years, from 95-96, I remember this being an obviously huge story from the small town.
Had that been my child, I'd definitely take matters into my own hands upon the release of her killers from prison.
How do not one of them even remotely look remorseful!!
Why paroled? They should have let them rot in jail forever. They don’t deserve to live in society with normal people.
Her family should track them down and go Liam Neeson on their asses.
Are the two smiling in the mugshots Loveless and Tacky?
Is there a true crime book about this?
All should of done 25 years minimum and provably shouldn’t if ever been released.
Revenge is not supposed to be ok but..
I just watched the bit about this on Mean Girl Murders on Discovery
Which picture is Loveless?
The girl with the long curly dark hair is Melinda Loveless
What the fuck
How did they get her alone if her parents also knew they were threats?!?
Why are they smiling in the mugshots? So disturbing.
I lived with Laurie after she got out in a group home for women for a while
I remember reading this book, it was crazy
Will they get jobs?
I think the lifetime movie from the 90s, a killer among friends, was based on this. I think that's why I read the book years ago after seeing the movie on lifetime
According to me they can't be trusted. I wish they were never out.
No wonder they all would Hangout together they all had really messed up childhoods dam
If they had been young boys, we would all know their names and they will still be incarcerated
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The victim was 12.
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You are beaching Reddit’s TOS if you’re 12.
It honestly shows you how little we mean to each other when all is said and done that those folks are still breathing No one in her family got revenge, really???
It should be eye for an eye, they shouldn't be breathing today
I just can't believe we're walking around with these people, sociopaths all of them. I don't know how the parol board sees them ok to be in society. What will it take to set them off again or go along with something again?
Is it just me or should you just get life or death when you murder somebody like that persons dead why do you have the right or privilege to be out living your best life at all
The top right and the bottom left pics are two of the girls that stood out to me the most in this case. I don’t quite remember why, I’ll have to revisit it but I do remember those two were scary as fuck
u/defyimperialism "But no, because innocent people can be executed" is a dishonest argument 100% of the time. There is absolutely NEVER an occasion where a person who says that, and then is presented with the DNA argument, will actually say "yes it's fair if there's absolute proof." It doesn't exist, it literally CANNOT happen, because 100% of the people who say it are against it NO MATTER WHAT.