Episode 6: Shanda Sharer — The Night They Didn’t Stop

She got into the car willingly.

At first, everything felt normal. Familiar. Safe.

But over the course of a single night, something began to shift.

Not all at once—but enough that someone could have stopped it.

No one did.

And each moment made the next one harder to turn back.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:13

We're back for round two of uh Tell me the Crime. Tell me the Crime for tonight because we for well, we didn't forget, we were uh I was sick and um yeah. And then we went to Chicago and then and now I'm doing two. So it's this one. This is episode six.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Yes. So episode six. Um Tell me the crime. Tell me the crime. This one is a pretty disturbing one. Very disturbing.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Do you think I know this story already?

SPEAKER_01 0:50

I doubt it. Uh I didn't know it the first time, you know, I researched it. So it's yeah, it's pretty messed up.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Um, so what's the title of today's episode?

SPEAKER_01 1:03

The title of um today's episode is um well, I don't really have a good title yet, but it's just the the case of Shanda Scherer.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

Shandasharer?

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So um, yeah, that's the I I'll come up with a good episode name after that.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Shandera.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Shanda Shara. She is the victim, right? Unfortunately, in the case. Yeah. You know, share. The sh sound. Are you are you getting into linguistics or are you just getting married?

SPEAKER_02 1:41

There's the pronunciation for the linguistics uh this symbol.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

This symbol. This symbol. Yeah, because everyone can see an audio. Exactly. Big call. All right. Okay, so before we start, picture this.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

Okay. It's a woman.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

It's a woman. I'm gonna guess. Yeah, you think? Oh my god, you're psychic. Uh yes, it's a woman. It's late at night.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

You get into the car with people you know, you trust them, nothing feels wrong. You're talking, you're laughing, and then something shifts. Not all at once, but enough that you realize you're no longer in control.

SPEAKER_03 2:27

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

Are you talking about the main character of the story?

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Or we're talking about the victim Shanda. This is just an intro. This is just an intro.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

The victim is a Shanda Shandah.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Yes, so the story tonight is not about a stranger, it's not about a stranger murdering you, it's not about, you know, anything sinister. It's actually about a group. It's about group dynamics and about group thinking and diffusion of responsibility.

SPEAKER_03 3:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

And what happens when no one in the group stops things, even when they should. So, who was she? Shanda Scherer. Um, she was 12 years old.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

Gosh, super young.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Super young, I know. It makes it even more tragic. Living in southern Indiana, um, and people described her as outgoing, friendly, trusting. Right? She was young enough that if someone called her outside late at night, she wouldn't assume danger. She assumed it was normal. And that's pretty normal for p, you know, for for kids this age, right? They're not they're not thinking they haven't been exposed to that much threat in life yet, right? It's not going to be an immediate thought of that. Right. Plus, they're they're not thinking as clearly because, well, their brains aren't fully developed yet, right? So you're not going to be thinking about those things.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

What happened?

SPEAKER_01 4:11

What happened? Well, that's that's the critical thing. So, so let um before we get into what exactly happened, let's talk about the people that were that were involved, right? So um Melinda Loveless, 16 years old. She was the main person, right? She was the main leader, um, and she was the driver, right? And um she was the one that had the issue with Shanda. Lori Tackett, um, she was 17, so she was the oldest of the group, and she was more dominant, and she um she ends up being the one to sort of escalate things, um, you know, in addition to Melinda's lead. Uh Hope Rippy, um, she follows and participates, and then there's Tony Lawrence, she's 15, and she's kind of the least dominant, and and she's the the one that confesses later.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

Okay. So it's a group of teenagers.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

It's a group of teenagers, of teenage girls.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Yeah. So um this isn't about one person losing control, it's about four people and no one stepping in.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

Whoa.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Mm-hmm. Okay. So at the center of everything is Melinda Loveless. Now she had been in a relationship with another girl, and she believed that Shanda had become involved with that same person.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Okay. Wait, you mean like a relationship or a struggle?

SPEAKER_01 5:49

A relationship. It was a romantic relationship.

SPEAKER_02 5:51

Relationship, okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

So she was involved with another girl in a romantic relationship, and she was jealous because she believed that Shanda was getting with this. Who was only 12 years, so was only 12 years old, which is what I thought at first, too. I was like, how? Like is that possible? Because Melinda was 16, right? So, you know, uh, she's threatened and jealous of a 12-year-old. It's wild to me. Um, so things um, you know, turned into jealousy, anger, and humiliation for Melinda, and because of that, she wanted to confront um Shanda. Right. Um, but it wasn't just talking that she wanted to do. She wanted to scare her. She wanted to hurt her and teach her a lesson, right? You know, you don't mess with me and my girl, kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

Well, Melinda was keeping it for quite some time then, right? Because she probably has been jealous for some time and suspect that.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Well, what do you mean keeping it for a long time? Like keeping the keeping Like the jealousy, let's say. Well, I don't what makes you think that it was a long time? I don't I don't know. I I d I actually don't know how long it was before she approached her, but uh that's a good question, actually. I have no idea. Um, but I do know that she was jealous of her at some point. Yeah. Um but once multiple people are involved, accountability starts to disappear, right? So who's responsible? Um and you know, I'll t I'll talk a little bit about you know the not just diffusion of responsibility, but another thing called you know pluralistic ignorance. But I don't think that people here could ever claim to be ignorant in any capacity, and you'll see why. Um okay, so January 10th, 1992 is the day that everything starts. Okay, this is the so it's late at night, and they drive to Shanda's house, they call her outside, and she comes willingly. No force, no threat. She gets into the car.

SPEAKER_02 8:12

Well, she probably didn't know what would happen, right? Like she's uh I'm just gonna hang out and exactly.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

She had no clue. A green night with my with my friends and whatever, yep.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Although, you know, why why a bunch of you know older teens. Although I guess for a 12-year-old, that would probably be enticing. She was probably excited about hanging out with older kids, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

Um, probably didn't think that they were gonna do what they did. So she gets into the car, and at that moment she just really thinks she's going somewhere with people that she knows.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

And I would think the same.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

I would think the same too. I mean, that's very reasonable. So they start driving, and at first it's normal. Then Melinda turns around, um, and she starts accusing her, right? Questioning her. Right. And then the first physical act. So Melinda grabs her hair, pulls her head down, and starts hitting her, punching her.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Mm-hmm. Right? So she's obviously pretty angry and jealous. Now the tone is completely different, and and again, she she was uh I mentioned that she was a little bit embarrassed, right? Or humiliated, because I mean if you think about it, 16-year-old versus a 12-year-old, if if if your girlfriend, you know, if you lost your girlfriend to a 12-year-old when you're 16, that would be pretty humiliating, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:41

Well, maybe for her she was her first love or best friend.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

Uh yeah, it could have been. Could have been something like that, but but either way, I can understand why someone would be a little bit embarrassed by that, but you know, the embarrassment is not the end of the world. Yeah. Um okay, so it's pretty clear that the tone is now totally different from where it started. And it's no longer a conversation, right? It this is this is now a totally different beast.

SPEAKER_02 10:13

And all of those girls that you uh described at the beginning got involved in this.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

They're all in the car.

SPEAKER_02 10:19

Okay, they're all in the car and pick uh Shanda Shanda, yep.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

So they they all picked up Shanda. Now, um they drive to a secluded area, they pull her out of the car, and this is where it escalates. Okay? They punch her repeatedly, kick her while she's on the ground, drag her, continue hitting her even when she's unresponsive.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

Okay?

SPEAKER_01 10:49

Even when she's not resisting anything.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

It's a 12-year-old girl.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

I know, it's a 12-year-old girl, and it's four like near adults, yeah. Right? Like kicking her on the ground. And at one point they even strip some of her clothing off.

SPEAKER_02 11:07

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Just to humiliate her. Uh-huh. Right. So she's cold, she's bleeding, and she's crying, begging, trying to understand what she did wrong, right? So she doesn't need I mean, at this point, it's like I would I would be so confused, right? Because even if you knew at this point that this person was jealous, it's like, but why are you doing all of this? This is insane.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Did Melinda ask her or say something about her lover and why she was jealous of uh Shand at all?

SPEAKER_01 11:45

Well, she thought that Shanda and her ex were like together, right?

SPEAKER_02 11:51

She thought that they were Did she verbally mention that when she was attacking her?

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Yeah, yeah. She was questioning her, right? She was asking her questions about um her ex, right? And saying, like, what did you do with her and blah blah blah, you know, like all the questions pertaining to what they might have done together, how many times they hung out, that sort of thing, right? Um trying to get sort of a sense of where they were.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

Yeah, but maybe at that point I think Melinda was not at the uh at the point that she wanted to really listen to the answers or what the reality was. It's more about, you know, I'm I'm so angry, like whatever you say to me doesn't matter. I will I'll I'll need to throw my anger at you.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Mm-hmm. Exactly. Yeah, I get that. Okay, so so at at some point, right, they think that she might already be dying. Or she's close to, right? Because they they really got, you know, they really beat her bad. So at that point, they actually leave her on the ground, in the freezing temperatures, injured, alone.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

No.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Mm-hmm. And then they drive away.

SPEAKER_02 13:10

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

Right?

SPEAKER_02 13:12

Like that's just So who found her?

SPEAKER_01 13:15

So we'll get to that in a second. But but before, so this is a thing, right? She's not dead yet, actually. So this is actually critical. They they could have stopped there. They could have ended this, right? It's pretty bad already, right? Um but they could have still walked away not being murderers.

SPEAKER_03 13:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Um they could have just ended it there. But instead, they came back, they decided to go back. Wow. Because they're worried, not about her, but about getting caught. Because they know if she's still alive.

SPEAKER_02 13:58

Yeah, it makes sense. She would report to the police, probably.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Exactly, right, which of course they should. Yeah, I mean, she should.

SPEAKER_02 14:06

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

Yeah. It's like, well, you shouldn't have done that in the first place. Like, holy shit. Anyway, so so the second abduction, you know, they go back, um, she's still alive, right, when they return, but she's barely alive. She's but she's still alive. So they put her back in the car, and at this point, she's severely beaten, disoriented, unable to defend herself at all.

unknown 14:35

Right?

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Yeah, I could imagine that. Yeah, like one versus what, four?

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Four, yeah. One versus four, and they're and she's substantially younger too.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

The youngest, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Yeah, the youngest. She's 12, right? Everyone else is 15 to 17. Um so now at this point, and you you think it's already horrible, right? But the violence now becomes even more deliberate. Okay. So the dri they drive around for hours and they're not driving around to escape, but to continue. They continue hitting her.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

In the car.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Yep. They can well, they they take stops. They drive around, take her out, beat her, and you know, take her back in the car, drive around. Yep. So they continue kicking her, verbally degrading her, threatening her. Um, and then uh and then at this point, Lori Tackett becomes even more involved here, right? Because remember, it was Melinda that was sort of the leader in in most of this. She was doing most of it at the beginning. But uh, Lori Tackett becomes more aggressive and much more willing to escalate things. Okay, eventually they stop again. But this time the intent is very clear, right? It's not intimidation anymore, it's not threats, it's not anything like that.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

So kill her.

SPEAKER_01 16:11

Yeah. So Lori Tackett takes a knife.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Yep, and she stabs Shanda in the chest.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

I know. Horrible. Not multiple times, but it was one very decisive stab. But it was enough. It was severe enough. And at that point, she's still alive but critically injured. Now you think, okay, how could it get worse than this? Right?

SPEAKER_03 16:43

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

It gets worse. What? It gets worse.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

Wasn't that enough already? They were torture.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

This is all for like, and it's not even true. She was never even with this other girl.

SPEAKER_02 16:59

What? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

Yeah. So so this is this is the the the crazy thing. This is all about a jealous girl girl. And an assumption about them hanging out and being together, which is like wow. You think, first of all, no one even deserves to be like beaten for that. And it was an ex. They don't even deserve to be reprimanded for it because you know they didn't do anything wrong.

SPEAKER_03 17:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

But okay, this is man, it's it thinking about these acts too is it's very difficult. Um so this next one, okay. This is the final act. They pour gasoline on her.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

What?

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

They burn her alive?

SPEAKER_01 17:51

They set her on fire while she's still alive.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Yeah. So yeah, and we you know fire is not instant, right?

SPEAKER_02 18:04

It's I am speechless.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

I know. I I want to tear up. Like, I know, it's it's so messed up. It's yeah, she's a 12-year-old girl, she's innocent, she's trusting, she's thinking, you know, I'm just going to hang out with these older kids, like, and then this happens to her. Like that, that is disgusting. Like, I just oh man. So, um, so at this point, you know, there you it it like I said, it takes time for a fire to to burn someone, and it causes extreme pain. So at this point, there's zero ambiguity left. This is intentional killing, and it's intentional killing in a very painful and awful way, right? So after this, they leave. They get back in the car, and they drive away. And it's disturbing what comes next. They don't go to the police, they don't panic, they don't break down immediately, they just continue on with their lives.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

Okay. When do the police eventually find out that it's Melinda and her?

SPEAKER_01 19:23

So this is yeah, right. So this is what this is where we're um where how they they get caught, right? And and it's because um one of the girls in the groups in the group eventually um you know spoke up? Spoke up, yeah. She she's the least dominant, that was Tony Lawrence, and she starts to crack, right? She talks. So initially two friends, right? Then eventually to the police. So once that happens, everything unravels because this wasn't a clean crime. There weren't multiple people, multiple locations, too many moving parts. Um the confessions here, once questioned, Tony Lawrence cooperates early, right? She's kind of the person that made everything unravel.

SPEAKER_03 20:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

Hope Rippy follows after her, right? Then Lori Tackett eventually um uh is implicated, and then Melinda Loveless, identified as the initiator. Um you know, she she then uh confesses. And importantly, none of them can fully distance themselves because they were all present at multiple stages, right? But um, you know, they're they're s they're basically, you know, why you know you might think like how the hell did something like this even happen, right? Um because it's so it's so gross, it's so cruel, and it's so nasty.

SPEAKER_03 21:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

But this case is kind of described as one in which it started out as an act of wanting to threaten someone and to just really intimidate them, maybe hurt them a little bit, but it escalated. And it escalated in an interesting way because everyone in the group kind of feels some sort of social pressure, right?

SPEAKER_03 21:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

So they they feel like, okay, this person is not stopping, that person's not stopping, and this is where I was gonna talk about pluralistic ignorance, which is the idea that we, you know, when you're in a group scenario, if you're unsure of how you know, you're feeling pretty anxious about a particular situation, let's say. You look around to other people to assess whether or not they're also anxious, right? But because you're not sure of how everyone else feels, you might be sort of trying to compose yourself. But because you're doing that, everyone else, and and if everyone else is doing the same thing, everyone kind of looks like they're calm. And so it's like nothing's wrong, right? So they just keep on doing what they're doing. And that's what often happens in bystander cases where you have um a brutal murder or you know something horrible happen and no one does anything. And it's like there are two things there. There's the pluralistic ignorance where everyone else thinks, oh, you know, like no one else is freaking out, so I guess it's not a big deal. Then the other thing is diffusion of responsibility, right? Where that is the idea that um if if there are multiple people there, you say, well, you know, it's I'm not the only one here, right? I didn't really do that much. You know, it it's it's because there's four of them, it's not just one person. Well, I didn't I only did this, well, I only did that, and I only did that. Well, the end result is that the the four actions together killed the person, right? So um, but yeah, so those those are two things that that's kind of like peer pressure as well, right?

SPEAKER_02 23:28

Because they're well, yeah, that's they're a group of friends and they probably have been getting along for a while and one is doing something and the other person you should be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

Well, yeah, exactly. There's tons of peer pressure.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

Kind of obliged to do the same thing as um your peer.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

Yeah, well, especially when you have like a leader in a group who's pretty dominant, you know, uh or if you uh if someone's telling you you have to do something, and I don't I don't know what the dynamics were in the the conversations that they had and everything and all the details there, but but if someone does tell you to do something in a a very convincing way, um people often simply just think they have to, even though there's like no rational reason for why they should have to.

SPEAKER_02 24:15

Especially if this is a group of teenagers and they I I don't know like like the psychology behind this, but um what I can observe is teenagers like to belong to like a certain group, right? Oh, I will be in that gang, I will be in that gang, and uh this will look cool to me. So something like that.

SPEAKER_01 24:38

So they probably were forming this kind of identity as uh a group of uh cool kids or they're like exactly, exactly, and that yeah, there's there is that sort of need to fit in.

SPEAKER_02 24:53

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

And I belong to this group, and I belong to this group, and I need to sort of show that I belong to this group, and yeah, and and but to you know, and for it to escalate like this, but it here's the thing is that it it it's always a progression from one step to the next, right? And if one step is only a little bit different from the last one, right, you're thinking, well, it I've already gone this far. What's one little step more gonna go? Right? So, and and that's that's dangerous. Very, very dangerous.

SPEAKER_02 25:24

So anyway, uh I have a question about the the ex-girlfriend.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 25:31

Yeah, like did the police call her at all and she out of she?

SPEAKER_01 25:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:37

Oh yeah, was she a part of the court?

SPEAKER_01 25:42

Oh, uh I'm sure that she was she was questioned, but I mean after the confessions, it it wasn't really I mean it's not really relevant, but but that's a I I would be curious to know about you know interviews with her and whatnot.

SPEAKER_02 25:57

Because at some point I think you mentioned that uh Shanda um did not get involved in that at all.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

As far as I know, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:09

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

Well, anyway, that I mean that's a crazy case. So um right, so uh how did they actually feel about this, right? And um I I think that you know Tony Lawrence, she definitely showed the most remorse, right? And she cooperated, she expressed guilt pretty much from the beginning, right? She was she was the one that, you know, like I said, made this whole thing un unravel. Hope um admitted involvement, she later described fear and peer pressure, right?

SPEAKER_03 26:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:49

Um and then there's Lori Tackett and Melinda. So Lori was more detached and she showed less immediate remorse. Um and Melinda framed it around anger and jealousy, not immediate regret. So I'm you know, not not too surprising based on the acts that were in the world.

SPEAKER_03 27:12

Because it's really sad.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

Very, very sad, yeah. So this wasn't a single emotional response, it was a spectrum from regret to justification to detachment. Um, but at the end, all four of them were charged, all convicted, um, but um they didn't receive the same sentences as each other. Um, well, at least one of them didn't. Melinda uh Loveless and Laurie Tackett got 60 years each.

SPEAKER_02 27:46

Wow. Like, well, the whole of their lives, basically.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

Yeah, basically, yeah, which is great. Um Hope Rippy got 60 years, but that was later reduced. Uh I um and then Tony Lawrence, uh 20 years, and that's because she was the one that cooperated with police and she got, you know, the evidence on everyone. So um, and over time some of them were released for uh, you know, after serving a significant portion of their sentences. But um, yeah, they got they got pretty pretty heavy sentences, as they should. So this case is really not about impulse, it's not about one moment, it's about repeated decisions, multiple opportunities to stop, and escalation instead of de-escalation. And the most important part is that no one intervened, right?

SPEAKER_03 28:45

That's a peer pressure, I think.

SPEAKER_01 28:48

It is peer pressure, but yeah, no one no one intervened. And this didn't happen because one person lost control, it happened because four people chose not to stop.

SPEAKER_02 28:58

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 29:01

What about the reactions from uh Shanda's family or their family?

SPEAKER_01 29:06

Oh, I mean they were devastated, right? They everyone was absolutely disgusted and devastated by the entire situation. Um so yeah, I mean, but once you know you're in a situation where you choose not to stop and that line is crossed, it doesn't really matter how it started, right? It only matters how it ended.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

So that's brutal.

SPEAKER_01 29:33

That's the story of uh Shandasher, and I'll come up with a title for that, and you know, um yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:42

Poor little girl.

SPEAKER_01 29:43

Poor little girl indeed. So yeah, that was uh the really, really intense story today.

SPEAKER_02 29:51

So, yeah, thank you everyone for listening to telling the story, and thank you everyone for listening to the story of Tell Me the Crime.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:00

We'll see you next week.

SPEAKER_01 30:03

Thank you.