that hurt can turn into anger and hate and make you do things that you would never really do This case is about a young girl. Her name was Shanda and had she lived she would have been only a few years older than myself. Those that were lucky enough to have known her would describe her with all the spirited, captivating and joyful qualities one would expect to describe a 12 year old girl. She was exceptional and unique and her loss has been felt deeply across decades. This case raises some uncomfortable questions. Let's take a look at the way she left this life and the people that took it from her. Hello everyone my name is Kevin and welcome to Just Thought Lounge. I'm a new channel and I'm here to present some questions about some thought-provoking true crime cases. A quick word on sourcing before we get started. Usually I would draw mostly from court documents, however this case didn't go to trial so I've opted to focus primarily on local news coverage contemporaneous to the events...and there was a ton of it. That being said the sources in this case do not make it any less upsetting. There are some shocking details ahead so if you're not comfortable with the subject matter that is very understandable and please do close out now. However without further delay let's get started. To explore the details of this case we must transport ourselves to the idyllic town of Madison, Indiana. Madison sits along the Ohio river. It has been traditionally known as a model town, the typical picturesque small town America that is popular with tourists and widely considered safe and family friendly, so not the type of location where brutal murders are meant to take place. It was so stereotypically perfect that during WWII it was cast in an army training film as the hometown the GIs were fighting to protect. At face value nothing bad ever happened in Madison. On the 11th of January 1992 two bird hunters out early on a sunny but cold January morning in a wooded area outside of the city would make a disturbing discovery. Don and Ralph Foley spotted a figure near the edge of some woods, roughly 10 feet from the shoulder of an isolated gravel road. As they approached the shape laying on the ground they thought at first that a department store mannequin had been dumped off the side of the road. Odd to be sure, but it seems neither man could immediately process the devastating scene in front of them. The figure itself had been burnt beyond immediate recognition and so initially it was a confusing image to process. They walked up to the charred figure and the reality of what they were facing became undeniable. They would then immediately call out the Indiana state police to the woods. The identity of the deceased was determined within hours. Shanda Sharer. 12 years old. A 7th grade student at the catholic school Our Lady of Perpetual Help. She was a member of the basketball team, she was happy vibrant and by all accounts well-liked and sociable. Shanda had enjoyed cheerleading, volleyball, softball and spending time with her friends. Her mother would say later that she lived a full life in her 12 short years. The horrific details of her death would leave the approximately 12,000 residents of this picture postcard Ohio river town deeply shaken for years to come. Shanda was found in a grizzly state. She had been burnt, beaten and stabbed. To confirm the details of the crime a Dr George R Nichols, the chief medical examiner from nearby Kentucky was called in by Indiana police to conduct the autopsy. Dr Nichols confirmed the worst parts of the initial conclusions. Shanda's wrists and ankles had been bound, her legs had been slashed and she had been beaten repeatedly on the head with a blunt object. She was also, according to the doctor, brutally sodomized with a foreign object. Dr Nichols listed the official cause of death as burns and smoke inhalation. He confirmed that Shanda had been burned alive. The horrendous discovery would lead the small town down a rabbit hole of rumours and speculation in the weeks following. Local news shortly after Shanda's death would report that virtually anyone you ask in Madison has heard the talk, none of it officially confirmed, that the dead girl and one of her killers were involved in a lover's triangle or satanism or both. This talk was apparently confirmed by a 'very authoritative' source, according to one local news outlet the teens who hang out behind the fast food store on Michigan road claim that they know of satanic circles among other Madison teens, so many of them believe the talk about Shanda's killing. Within hours of discovering Shanda an initial two arrests were made. These arrests however instead of quelling the rumours or calming the collective panic swelling within the community would only raise more questions and concerns. The suspects in custody were 16 and 17 year old girls, one local to Madison and the second from nearby New Albany. The evening of the 11th of January, the same day the Foley brothers had discovered Shanda, two different teenage girls both aged only 15 would be escorted by their parents to the Jefferson County sheriff's department. Hope Rippey and Toni Lawrence would recount a sequence of events that had unfolded the previous evening. The night began innocently enough with a collection of girls drinking soda at a friend's home in New Albany, but ended much differently on an isolated gravel road in the woods just outside Madison in the early morning hours. Toni, a sophomore at Madison high school, had appeared at the police station first at around 9pm and was in hysterics. She wanted to talk about a murder. Toni reported that the previous Friday she and her friend Hope had been picked up after school by Laurie Tackett, aged 17. Laurie had not been in school that day, she had actually dropped out shortly after her 17th birthday. Laurie came from a fundamentalist Christian background and had been deeply religious as a child, according to contemporary accounts. By the age of 17 though she was rebelling. Laurie had started to dress all in black, she had her hair cut very short and spent time with a group of teens that were locally known as 'the alternatives'. Laurie had also suffered a history of mental health problems. Together the three drove to a fourth friend's house in New Albany, the home of Melinda Loveless. Melinda was a friend of Laurie's but not really known to Toni and Hope before that evening. Though only 16 years of age Melinda also had a messy and disturbing past. Abused repeatedly by her father Larry Loveless from a very young age Melinda came from an exceptionally unstable violent and abusive household. Her mother Marjorie had exposed Melinda and her two sisters to more than one suicide attempt and had at one point prior to her separation attempted to stab Larry which left him hospitalized. Larry would later face charges of sexual abuse committed against his own daughters. The four girls left New Albany together in the direction of neighbouring Louisville. Melinda was armed with a knife which she had showed the other girls before leaving. She said she intended to use it on a girl named Shanda. Once in Louisville the girls go to the home of Shanda's father just outside the city where Shanda was staying for the weekend. She could not leave with them however, not while her father was still awake. The girls decide to leave and go to a punk rock show. Upon leaving the concert the evening takes a turn as the girls decide to return to collect Shanda. The time now is just past midnight. Toni and Hope, neither of whom had ever met Shanda, went to the door of the home and requested she joined them. Believing the pair had a mutual friend, Shanda agreed to go with them to join up, reportedly reluctantly. Seeing only Laurie sitting in the car she gets in. Their destination was a collection of ruins from an old stone house that overlooks the Ohio river. Known as the witch's castle, it was reported to be the historic home to a coven of witches and has a reputation amongst the local youths for being haunted. As they make their way towards the ruins Melinda, hiding under a blanket in the back seat, leaps out at Shanda pulls her head back by her hair and holds a knife to her throat. She then threatens to slit Shanda's throat. Once at the witch's castle Shanda's arms and legs would be bound and she would be taunted and further threatened. Shanda had been frightened and sobbing from the initial shock and threats made to her in the car. Items were burnt in front of her, her own belongings including jewellery was taken from her, the attackers were being generally indicative of violence through their taunting but not at this point directly acting on any of the threats they were making. Accounts state that after some time at the ruins one or two of the girls became concerned, not for Shanda, but that they may be exposed by anyone potentially passing by. Perhaps the flames from their burning items would be spotted by someone from the road and so the girls decide to make a move to another location. Shanda is taken with them, at this point in the evening she is terrified but largely unharmed. This would not remain the case of course, Melinda and Laurie make their way to a trash dump near a remote logging road in a very densely wooded area. Here they made good on the threats made to Shanda back at the ruins, Toni and Hope stayed back in the car, Melinda then punches Shanda in the stomach and knees are in the mouth. Laurie, not to be outdone, chokes and stabs her. Shanda is stripped down while the girls beat her. Attempting to slit her throat but finding the knife too dull for the task Melinda opts instead to hold her down while she and Laurie stab Shanda repeatedly. Shanda is then strangled with a rope and believing her to be dead she is placed in the trunk of the car. The girls regroup at Laurie Tackett's house. Once there Shanda regains consciousness and begins to make noises, screaming presumably as much as she is able. It is Laurie who then stabs her several more times before driving off with Melinda leaving the younger girls at the house. One of the many horrors of this series of events is the manner in which Shanda is routinely abused while Melinda and Laurie drive about the city. More than once they are said to have pulled over in order to beat and abuse Shanda with a tire iron until she was once again silent. Returning to Laurie's house they joke about the beatings all the while, by their own accounts, they believe that Shanda is in the trunk now dead. In the early morning hours they decide to dispose of Shanda. They attempt to enlist the two younger girls once again and before leaving Hope sprays Shanda with Windex window cleaner and mocked 'you're not looking so hot now are you'. The girls have a plan. They stop at a gas station and empty a 2-liter bottle of soda and fill the container with gasoline. Toni is dropped at home but Hope assists the older girls in covering Shanda in gas. Once the fire is lit they must have recognised the horrifying truth that Shanda was not yet dead despite the previous beatings, stabbing and strangulation. They set the fire and drove off. A few minutes later, to ensure their tracks were covered or to ensure that Shanda was dead this time, they returned and Melinda poured the last of the gasoline on her. Then they go for breakfast. Sitting at a McDonald's, having burnt Shanda alive that morning, the girls laughed at the similarity between Shanda's charred body and the sausage they were eating. So why did this happen? Well that is a much larger question than we or anyone involved including the perpetrators can really answer, but here's the version as it appears at face value. Melinda was motivated by raging jealousy and the other girls, well they just seemed to be along for the ride. You see Melinda's ex-girlfriend Amanda had started a relationship with Shanda and this was unbearable for Melinda. During her time attending Hazelwood Junior High School Shanda would meet classmate Amanda Heavrin. The two apparently became friends in a very unconventional manner having initially met each other when they got into a fight. During the subsequent detention they became fast friends and then later they developed a romantic relationship. Amanda was a few years older than Shanda, a point that would be sticky and uncomfortable with Shanda's family in later years. According to a statement from law enforcement at the time Shanda was described as having the look of a girl slightly older, perhaps closer to 16. The relationship did appear to be mutual however, in so far as a 12 year old girl can choose to be romantically involved at all. Amanda's past relationship with Melinda would cause problems straight out of the gate. Having found out about the relationship Melinda sent threatening letters to Shanda which were subsequently turned over to a youth prosecutor by Amanda out of concern for Shanda's safety. The threats would also cause Shanda's mother to transfer her to a new school, the school where she was enrolled at the time of her death. Melinda would therefore be the initial instigator of the attack and would be characterized as the ring leader of the operation. This is not to say that the other girls were without their own agency, far from it. There are multiple opportunities along the way for any of them to insert some sanity into the chaos and violence and to say what was happening was wrong, none of them chose to do that. When pressed for reasons years later a guilt-ridden and apologetic Hope Rippey would just say over and over that she did not have a good explanation for what happened that night and she wishes it had never happened at all. You know with something to start out all like fun and games and it's just gonna be you know a rowdy night and turn into something so incredibly beyond anything that you think you could ever be around I just didn't know that it was going to end up the way that it ended up and saying that I can't even say that I still would have done anything differently because I just didn't I don't know what I could have done. I didn't know Shanda at all. I didn't go into that evening knowing anything was going to happen, wanting anything to happen, expecting I didn't. Peer pressure, that's all it was. It spiralled out of control way too fast. It's something that should have never happened. Even she doesn't fully understand her crime but she knows she was hurting from a childhood filled with abuse. It turns into anger if you keep that hurt and don't let it go or don't forgive that person or don't forgive yourself. That hurt can turn into anger and hate and make you do things that you would never really do. Accounts of Melinda's intentions from earlier in the evening paint a blurry picture. It is clear that she had threatened Shanda prior to that evening but on the night of the 11th of January she made statements that she would kill Shanda with her knife, but also conversely she said that she intended only to scare the young girl enough that she would end things with Amanda. The rumours of a love triangle were accurate more or less, but what of the rumours of Satanism? Can this tell us something about the motivation behind Shanda's death? Local press at the time would suggest that Satanism provided some in Madison with yet another ready explanation for the violence. But Dr David Curtis, a minister at the first Christian church in Madison, believes that Madisonians may be letting themselves off the hook too easily. So sadistic yes, but not Satanism. Shanda was found only an hour after Toni Lawrence had been dropped off by the other girls at her home. Toni would then be the first to the police station that evening. All four girls were charged as adults and accepted plea bargains to avoid the death penalty. Initial sentencing was 60 years for both Melinda Loveless and Laurie Tackett. Hope Rippey's 60-year sentence was eventually reduced to 35, while Toni Lawrence received 20. Shanda Sharer's mother Jackie Vaught said in 2012 that 'I had many times said if you want to see as close to a person who has absolutely nothing inside of them look into Melinda's eyes, because there's nothing there.' She had however only a few years after the crime acknowledged the mitigating factors for Melinda. I know that every one of those children that killed my child had somewhat of a horrible childhood. Most of them had had some form of abuse and I know that that's the reason why these children could kill. It's not an excuse at all but it is a reason. In prison Melinda was involved in a program called the Indiana Canine Assistant Network. Behind bars she trained puppies to be assistant dogs for disabled people. Apparently one of the dog breeders who supplies pups is a burn victim much like Shanda Sharer was. The breeder convinced Vaught to watch a video of Loveless grown up and see what she does in prison for the program. I've not come across any evidence in interviews or anywhere else while researching this case that shows that Jackie Vaught has formally or even publicly forgiven the girls, who are now women, that committed the horrific crime against her young daughter. Nor would I have expected to come across such a statement. But what Jackie did end up doing was surprising. She donated a puppy for Melinda to train in prison. This gesture from Shanda's mother to support the rehabilitation of her daughter's killer, I think we can all agree is exceptional. So this raises more questions for me. The questions I have are about both rehabilitation and forgiveness. Is there ever a way to forgive someone who has committed such a crime against a child? The day following Shanda's death Melinda spoke to Amanda Heavrin, telling her the details of the evening before and admitting to the killing. Amanda is said to have not believed her because she could not fathom that four girls would do this to another human being. It's been decades but the loss of Shanda still feels very real. Her Facebook group still sees regular posts. It's a place where supporters of all kinds, those that knew her personally and those that later took an interest in her life and her case can share thoughts and grieve. This has been a difficult case to address for the obvious reasons, but I think it's worth thinking about. What role did child abuse play in influencing Melinda's actions? What role did peer pressure play? Is this an instance where rehabilitation worked? And ultimately is forgiveness even an option? I hope you found it interesting, and as always I hope it's been thought provoking.