The incident concerning Shanda Sharer’s horrible torture and murder in January 1992 will be next on Investigation Discovery’s rerun of The 1990s: The Deadliest Decade. Sharer was 12-years-old at the time. Sharer’s case shocked the Madison, Indiana, neighbourhood. He was brutally murdered and set afire because of mistaken teenage envy and peer pressure.
The following disturbing information relates to the case that was the subject of the episode The New Girl of The 1990s: The Deadliest Decade.
1) The perpetrators were teenage girls
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Melinda Loveless, 17, was named as the mastermind behind the incidents that resulted in the horrible killing of Shanda Sharer. Toni Lawrence, 15, Laurie Tackett, 17, Hope Rippey, 15, and others were her complicits.
After Laurie dropped out of high school and started frequenting Louisville and New Albany, where she first met and befriended Loveless, the two women grew close.
Melinda Loveless, 17, was named as the mastermind behind the incidents that resulted in the horrible killing of Shanda Sharer. Toni Lawrence, 15, Laurie Tackett, 17, Hope Rippey, 15, and others were her complicits.
After Laurie dropped out of high school and started frequenting Louisville and New Albany, where she first met and befriended Loveless, the two women grew close.
2) Shanda Sharer was killed due to teenage jealousy
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In 1991, Shanda Sharer and her mother moved to New Albany. She started going to Hazelwood Junior High School, where she met 15-year-old Amanda Heavrin and became attracted to her.
Heavrin and Melinda Loveless had an on-again, off-again romance before the two started dating. Loveless threatened to kill Sharer out of envy before carrying out her plot in the most horrible way conceivable.
3) Shanda Sharer was tortured for hours
On the evening of January 10, 1992, Tackett, Rippey, and Lawrence travelled to New Albany in Tackett’s automobile and used the pretext of seeing Amanda to entice Shanda out of her home. Loveless, who had a knife in her hand, was hiding behind a blanket in the backseat of the vehicle.
Loveless jumped out of the car, slashed her throat with the knife, and started questioning her about her relationship with Amanda as soon as she was inside. Sharer was taken to the Witch’s Castle by the girls, where they allegedly forced her to remove her clothing while they tied her up and made fun of her.
4) Shanda Sharer was burnt alive
On January 11, 1992, in the wee hours, the girls drove to a gas station and filled a two-liter Pepsi bottle with fuel. Then, after driving Sharer to a field next to a gravel country road while she was still unconscious, Tackett forced Rippey to douse Sharer in gasoline before they lit her ablaze.
5) The perpetrators had breakfast at McDonald’s after killing Shanda Sharer
The girls drove to a McDonald’s for breakfast at 9.30 a.m. after burning Sharer alive to dispose of her body. They chuckled as they noted how Sharer’s burned corpse resembled one of the sausages they were munching on.
Heavrin first reluctant to accept Loveless when she finally revealed the murder to her and showed her the bloody trunk of the car.
