Shanda Loveless Murder Case

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Crime has happened ever since law and society has been a thing. No matter if it is murder theft, torture, or fraud, it has slowly become more prevalent. Crime has evolved throughout time as well. Having access to guns and other weapons and high explosives have made crime easier to commit. These crimes have also become more brutal throughout time as well. A good example of this is the murder of Shanda Sharer. She was tied up, choked, cut, sodomized, and burned alive (Grossman 1992). Shanda was 12 years old, and 4 teenage girls did this to her.
On January 10, 1992, 16-year-old Melinda Loveless, 17-year-old Mary Tackett, 15-year-old Hope Rippey, and 15-year-old Toni Lawrence took Tackett’s car to a punk rock concert in Louisville. The night was …show more content…

She started talking about how she was mad because Shanda Sharer, a 12-year-old that lives near them, was trying to take her girlfriend. Lawrence said at one point Loveless said “I would like to kill Shanda”. After hearing about Shanda, the girls decided to go pick her up and do something about how she’s been supposedly talking to Loveless’s girlfriend. Loveless hid under a blanket in the backseat of the car while Tackett went to the door to invite Shanda to join them. They started driving and the girls started to ask about Shanda and her interactions with Loveless’s girlfriends. After hearing them talk, Loveless threw herself out from under the blanket grabbed Shanda by her hair and held a knife to her throat. The girls tied Shanda up and put her in the trunk of the car. On the drive, all the girls, except Lawrence, threated and taunted Shanda scaring her. Loveless and Tackett punched and kneed Shanda repeatably and then stabbed her multiple times in the chest. Loveless tried to slit her throat but the knife was too dull. They thought the girl was dead, so they dumped her body in the trunk and when inside to clean up. But she wasn’t, they were brought back outside by her screams. Tackett stabbed her more and …show more content…

They called the police and they came to investigate. A teenage boy came forward and told police that he had overheard a conversation between some girls about how they knew about another girl getting killed. As investigators were discussing the case they got a call about how Toni Lawrence was at the Madison police station hysterical saying she wanted to talk about the case. This is when Lawrence told the above account of the murder to police and what eventually led to the arrest of all 4 girls. But she did leave out some details. The autopsy showed that Shanda was tied at her arms and legs, her legs were cut repeatedly, she had been beaten and stabbed multiple times, sodomized and then burned (Grossman 1992, Lewis 1993). They also found out she was alive when she was dropped off. Her death was caused smoke inhalation and server burns. Warrants were sent out for the arrest of Tackett and Loveless for murder. The other two were not immediately arrested because Lawrence came forward and Rippers attorney old them he’d bring his client to the station. After hearing about the murder, the town was shocked. Madison was voted the safest place to live yet there was just a horrific murder. The judge, defendant, and prosecutors have never dealt with a murder case before since the town was known to be so safe. The town was not comfortable with words like “lesbian” yet and didn’t know what to think about

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