Melinda Loveless was the ringleader responsible for the murder of Shanda Sharer, along with her three accomplices, Laurie Tackett, Hope Rippey and Toni Lawrence.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Melinda Loveless was born on October 28, 1975. She was the youngest of three daughters to Larry Loveless and his wife, Marjorie. Larry was part of the US Army during the Vietnam War, and though horribly emotionally scarred, he was treated as a hero when he returned home. Marjorie Loveless described her husband as a sexual predator. Larry would wear his daughters underwear and makeup and was incapable of staying faithful to his wife. Larry had a mixture of jealousy and fascination at seeing his wife sleeping with other men and women. The family lived in New Albany during Melinda’s childhood.
Larry worked irregularly for the Southern Railway after his military service; his profession allowed him to work whenever most convenient for him. In 1965, Larry became a probationary officer with the New Albany Police Department, but was fired after eight months when he and his partner assaulted an African-American man whom Larry accused of sleeping with his wife. In 1988, Larry briefly worked as a Postman, but quit after three months and did very little work, having brought most of his mail home to destroy it.
Marjorie had worked intermittently since 1974. When both parents were working, the family was financially well off, living in an upper-middle-class suburb. Larry, who was violent and abusive, did not usually share his income with the family and impulsively spent any money he earned on himself, especially firearms, motorcycles and cars. He filed for bankruptcy in 1980. Extended family members often described the Loveless marriage as loveless itself, and the daughters being hungry, apparently not getting enough food at home.
The Loveless parents would often visit bars in Louisville where Larry would pretend to be a doctor or a dentist and introduce Marjorie as his girlfriend rather than his wife. He would also "share" her with some of his friends from work, which Marjorie found disgusting. During an orgy with another couple at their house, Marjorie tried to kill herself, an act she would repeat several times throughout her daughters childhoods. When Melinda was nine years old, Larry had Marjorie gang-raped, after which she tried to drown herself. After that incident, she refused him sex for a month, until he raped her as their daughters overheard the event through a closed door. In the summer of 1986, after she would not let him go home with two women he met at a bar, Larry beat Marjorie so severely that she was hospitalized; he was convicted of assault.
The extent of Larry's abuse of his daughters and other children is unclear. Various court testimonies claimed he fondled Melinda as an infant, molested Marjorie's 13 year old sister early in the marriage, and molested the girls' cousin Teddy from age 10 to 14. Both older girls, Melissa and Michelle, said he molested them, though Melinda has never spoken about this. She slept in bed with him until she was 14, when Larry left the family. In court, Teddy described an incident in which Larry tied all three sisters in a garage and raped them in succession; however, the sisters did not confirm this account. Larry was verbally abusive towards his daughters and fired a handgun in the direction of Melinda's older sister Michelle when she was seven, intentionally missing her. He would also embarrass his daughters by finding their underwear and smelling it in front of other family members.
For two years, beginning when Melinda was five, the family was deeply involved in the Southern Baptist Church. Larry and Marjorie gave full confession and renounced drinking and swinging while they were members. Larry became a Pastor and taught Sunday school and Marjorie became the school nurse. The church later arranged for Melinda to be taken to a motel room with a 50-year-old man for a five-hour exorcism. Larry became a Marriage Counsellor with the church and acquired a reputation for being too forward with women, eventually attempting to rape one of them. After that incident, the Loveless parents left the church and returned to their former professions and drinking.
In November 1990, after Larry was caught spying on Melinda and a friend, Marjorie attacked him with a knife; he was sent to the hospital after he attempted to grab it. She then attempted suicide again, and her daughters called authorities. After this incident, Larry filed for divorce and moved to Avon Park in Florida. Melinda was devastated, especially when Larry remarried. He sent letters to her for a while, preying on her emotions, but eventually severed all contact with her, and in December 1998, he died after being hit by a Bus.
In 1990, 14 year old Melinda began a relationship with 13 year old Amanda Heavrin. Melinda was very emotionally dependant, especially after her father abandoned her. Melinda began getting into fights and suffering from Depression. Melinda got therapy but didn’t come through, In March 1991, Melinda came out as a Lesbian to her mother just like her two older sisters. Her mother was initially angry but eventually accepted it. One day, Amanda bonded with another, younger girl in detention. This girl was 11 year old Shanda Sharer. Shanda was in detention because 14 year old Amanda had beaten her up and the schools way of dealing with it was to put the bully and the victim in detention. Though Amanda had spent a long time telling Melinda how much she hated Shanda for getting her into trouble, when they left detention together Amanda and Shanda were suddenly very close friends. Melinda immediately grew jealous of Amanda’s friendship with Shanda. Shanda eventually began receiving love letters with Amanda and Shanda began replying with love letters. In October 1991, Melinda decided not to go to the school dance with Amanda and instead planned to get drunk with her best friend. In order to make Melinda jealous, Amanda took Shanda as her date to the school dance. Melinda however decided to go to the school dance and saw Shanda and Amanda together. Melinda threatened Shanda. Although Amanda and Melinda never officially ended their relationship, Melinda was so furious with Amanda for cheating on her that she began dating an older woman.
When Shanda’s father and stepmother took her and Amanda to a Festival in late October 1991, and Melinda discussed killing Shanda. Shanda’s mother became concerned with her daughter’s relationship with Amanda after she found a letter Shanda sent to Amanda which implied that 12 year old Shanda Sharer had been having sex with the 15 year old Amanda. It was confirmed by both Shanda and Amanda. After this, Shanda’s mother and father pulled her out of school and sent her to a Catholic school.
Though Shanda had put Amanda behind her, 16 year old Melinda still blamed her because Amanda wasn’t back with her. Amanda was instead stalking Shanda with phone calls, along with her friends. Shanda had since begun dating a boy her own age, however Melinda plotted to kill Shanda with a new friend of hers, Laurie Tackett.
Murder of Shanda Sharer
Laurie had a car which would be used to store Shanda. Laurie (who was 17) invited her friend Hope Rippey (who was 15) to join them, and Hope invited her best friend, Toni Lawrence (aged 15). Melinda hid under a blanket in the backseat of a car at Sharer's house, Loveless waited as Rippey and Lawrence lured Sharer into the car. When Sharer got in, Loveless took her by the hair and held a knife to her throat, screaming "You stole my girlfriend!"
Tackett drove them to a garbage dump off a logging road in a densely forested area. Loveless and Tackett made Sharer leave the car and strip half naked, then Loveless beat Sharer with her fists. Loveless repeatedly slammed Sharer's face into her knee, cutting Sharer's mouth on her own braces, which she hadn't had for long. Loveless then tried to slash Sharer's throat but the knife was too dull, and Rippey came out of the car to hold Sharer down. Loveless and Tackett took turns stabbing Sharer in the chest; they then strangled Sharer with a rope until she was unconscious, placed her in the trunk, and told the other two girls that Sharer was dead.
They went to Tackett's nearby home and went inside to drink soda and clean themselves. They realized Sharer was screaming in the trunk, so Tackett went out with a paring knife and stabbed her several more times, coming in a few minutes later covered in blood. Lawrence and Rippey stayed behind as Tackett and Loveless went "country cruising" at 2:30, driving to the nearby town of Canaan. Sharer continued making crying and gurgling noises, so Tackett stopped the car. Sharer sat up, covered in blood and her eyes rolled in the back of her head, but was unable to speak. Tackett then beat her with a tire iron until she was silent.
They returned to Tackett's house just before daybreak to clean up again. Rippey asked about what had happened to Sharer, and Tackett laughingly told them about the torture. The conversation woke up Tackett's mother, who yelled at her daughter for being out so late and bringing home the girls, so Laurie agreed to take them home. She drove to the burn pile near Tackett's house and showed the other girls Sharer. Lawrence refused to look. She was terrified and paralyzed with fear but she was able to not participate. Rippey sprayed Sharer with Windex and taunted, "You're not looking so hot now, are you?"
The girls drove to a gas station near Madison Consolidated High School, pumped some gas into the car and bought a two-liter bottle of Pepsi. Tackett emptied the bottle and refilled it with gasoline. They drove north of Madison, past Jefferson Proving Ground to a place with which Rippey was familiar off US 421, on what was called Lemon Road. They placed Sharer, still alive, in a blanket and carried her into a field by the gravel country road. Tackett made Rippey pour the gasoline on her, and then Tackett set her on fire. Loveless was not convinced Sharer was dead, so they returned a few minutes later to pour the rest of the gasoline on her.
Incarceration[]
The next day, Loveless called Amanda Heavrin and confessed that she murdered Sharer. Heavrin didn't believe her because she couldn't "fathom that 4 girls would do this to another human being". That evening, Toni Lawrence turned herself in to the police and told them everything that had transpired. Shortly there after, the others were arrested.
All four girls were tried as adults and they all pleaded guilty. Toni Lawrence, the least involved, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but was paroled in 2000. Hope Rippey was sentenced to 60 years, but was released early in 2006. Tackett was released in 2018 and Loveless on September 5, 2019 from the Indiana State Women's Prison.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Melinda Loveless is portrayed by Krystle Sansom in the episode "Thrill Killers". Sansom also portrayed Tiffany Cole in the episode "Loathe Thy Neighbor", victim Rachael Koloroutis in the episode "Love Gone Wrong", another victim character in "Mommy's Little Helpers" and a minor character in the episode "Killer Kids".