Melinda Loveless was born on October 28, 1975 in New Albany, Indiana. She was the youngest of three and her parents were Marjorie and Larry Loveless. She is a villian because of her plotted and brutal murder of a young 12 year old girl by the name of Shanda Sharer.
Melinda is well known because of her savage act that she did in a group of 4. She is directly responsible for Shanda's kidnapping, rape, torture, and murder. Melinda had been dating a girl named Amanda Heaverin. Melinda became jealous when she noticed Heaverin had been spending a lot more time with Shanda. Jealousy had driven Melinda mad. She wanted Shanda dead. On January 10, 1992 Melinda told her friend Laurie Tackett about her plan to murder young Shanda. Laurie was a 17 year old sociopath. She often talked about how she would love to kill someone to see how it felt like. Later that day Melinda met Laurie's friends Toni Lawrence and Hope Rippey, both 15. They talked and hung out together. Melinda told them about her plan and pulled out a knife and said, "This is the knife I'm going to use to scare Shanda"! Melinda soon said that all she wanted t
o do was confront her, but still joked around about killing her. Laurie's friends had plans to go see a concert. Melinda told them that everything would be quick and that they would go see it afterwards. Melinda managed to get Shanda's address and drove off to Shanda's house. She wanted Hope and Toni to go to the door and ask for Shanda. Melinda couldn't go, for Shanda and Melinda were enemies. Shanda told them that she couldn't go, but to come back at around midnight for her. They went to the concert and came back. Melinda hid under a blanket so Shanda couldn't see her. Shanda was outside already making things easy for them. Once they drove off, Melinda jumped up with the knife and put it to Shanda's throat. Shanda began crying uncontrollably and begged Melinda not to hurt her. Melinda told Shanda that she wasn't going to hurt her to calm her down. She began interrogating Shanda and asking her several questions about her and Amanda. Melinda called Shanda a b**** and a liar when Shanda tried to answer. They drove to a place called the Witche's castle, a populare hideout for teens. Laurie and Melinda bound Sharer's hands and feet and terrorized her. Hope, Laurie and Melinda took Shanda's jewlry while Toni refused to participate. Laurie took an old shirt and burned it. She told Shanda that's what she will look like by the end of the night. Several cars suddenly passed by. Laurie, fearing someody would see the burning flames, decided they should move to a more isolated area. They drove Shanda to a forest. They took unbound her hands and forced Shanda to strip to her underwear. Melinda and Laurie started beating Shanda. Shanda begged for them to stop, but Melinda just kept telling her to shut up. Shanda then hugged Laurie and begged her to not let Melinda do this, but Melinda then grabbed Shanda and punched her in the stomach as hard as she could. Gasping for air, Shanda cried hysterically and kept begging for them to stop and that she won't go near Amanda anymore. Melinda kept ignoring Shanda and slammed Shanda's head into her knee, cutting her own braces. Shanda's jaw began bleeding excessively. They began stabbing her in the chest with a knife, but the cuts were to minor to cause death. Laurie wanted to kill her now, so she grabbed a rope while Hope and Melinda held Shanda down. Laurie strangled Shanda. Unsure if she was dead, they tossed her in the trunk and drove to Laurie's house. They cleaned off and talked together. Then, Laurie's dog began barking and they heard Shanda's muffled screams. Laurie grabbed a big knife and went outside and started stabbing her to quiet her down. She came inside, covered in Shanda's blood, and cleaned off again. Melinda and Laurie decided to go for drive while Toni and Hope stayed behind. Laurie suggested they just drive aroundso Shanda could die slowly. Suddenly Shanda started screaming and kicking and clawing in the inside of the truck. Laurie when to the truck and saw Shanda covered in blood. Laurie grabbed a large metal tool called a tire iron and hit Shanda hard with it on the head. She hit her again just for fun. She went up front and laughed saying, "It was so cool! I literally felt her head cave in!". They drove around again when theey heard gurgling noises coming from the truck. They opened the trunk and were shocked. The gurgling noises was actually the blood from Shanda's wounds. Shanda sat up, dazed. Her eyes were pure white and she said the word "Mommy". Melinda laughed about how stupid she looked and hit her again with the tire iron several times on her head. One of the wounds was so bad that chunk of her skull broke off. They closed the trunk and stopped several times to hit her with the tire iron. They arrived back at Laurie's house to pick Hope and Toni up. Laurie tried to make them see Shanda, but Toni refused and was told to rev the car engine incase Shanda screamed. Toni cried as she heard Shanda screaming and saw a lot of blood. They drove shut the trunk and sat in the car and talked and tried to calm Toni down. Before they would drive to get gas, Laurie wanted to check on Shanda. Shanda sat straight up and just swayed back and forth, probably too injured to realize reality. They then Sodomized Shanda with the tire iron. Shanda started having blood coming out of her rectum, witch made Hope vomit. They drove to the gas station and decided that they should burn Shanda alive. Melinda wanted a painful and slow death but to also leave no trace of her. Toni bought a big bottlr of pepsi and Laurie poured it all out and filled it with gasoline. They drove to Lemon road, mostly because not many people went by there and it wasn't completely covered in snow. They rolled Shanda up in a red blanket, just incase Shanda's blood would stain any other colored one. They layed her down and Hope poured gasoline on Shanda while Shanda was quietly begging for her mommy. Laurie lit the match and then Shanda was on fire. The drove off, hoping that there would be no trace of her. They soon went to McDonalds for breakfast and joked about Shanda looking like one of the sausages.
Discovery of Shanda
Later that day. Two hikers discovered Shanda's burnt up body. Her legs were widely outstretched and her hands were clenched together. She lay in a pool of blood. Scars were all over her body. She had fourth degree burns and her tongue was clenched between her teeth. Shanda's body was taken to the Sherrif's office. They police had recieved a report on a young missing girl by the name a Shanda Sharer. They also recieved several details on her physical features. It was hard for them to analyze and see what she looked like because she was burnt so badly. Researchers took dental records and found that they looked exactly like Shanda's. Also the body was 5 feet and so was Shanda. Later, Toni Lawrence arrived to the police and confessed. She told them everything about the torture and murder. Toni was asked to look at Shanda. Toni decided that she should just do it now and agreed. Toni told them that that was definetly Shanda. Police drove to Melinda's house where Llaurie and her were having a sleepover. They were arrested and charged with arson, torture, and murder. So was Hope. Toni, on the other hand, was charged for criminal confinment since she had several opportunities to get help but chose not to. Autopsy reveald that she was indeed sodomized with tire iron. They were tried as adults. Melinda recieved 60 years, Laurie recived 60 years, Hope recieved 50 but it was reduced by 35 years, and Toni recieved 20 years. Toni was released in 2000 for good behavior and so was Hope in 2006. This sparked outrage in the community. Laurie and Melinda are scheduled to be released in 2052.