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Skyla Whitaker, Taylor Paschal-Placker: Kevin Sweat Murders Girls, Leaves Dead Bodies On Rural Oklahoma Road On ID’s ‘Shadow Of Doubt’

By Traciy Reyes
Published on: 10:57 PST, Jan 31, 2017

The deaths of two little girls who were shot and killed on a rural Oklahoma road in 2008 will be the featured story for another crime series on Investigation Discovery. The murders of 11-year-old Skyla Whitaker and her best friend, 12-year-old Taylor Paschal-Placker, will air on Shadow Of Doubt. The episode chronicling their grisly murder is “Crossing Bad Creek Bridge.” Family members are expected to take part in tonight’s Shadow Of Doubt, along with local detectives. Re-enactments will dramatize the story.

Sunday Stroll Leads To Double Murder

It was a calm day that Sunday on June 8, 2008. Skyla Whitaker and her best friend, Taylor Paschal-Placker, were heading out to do what many young people did back in those days–enjoy a Sunday walk.

When you look at pictures of the lonely road now, there is an air of creepiness. But before June 8, 2008, it was common for anyone to walk the road without any fear of problems.

Skyla and Taylor didn’t know it at the time, but this would be their last walk.

Detectives received a call regarding two dead bodies that had been found on the side of the road in Weleetka, Oklahoma. When they arrived, they were shocked to see two dead girls. Family members say the girls had spent the night together and wanted to get out of the house for a bit, according to Fox News.

“Skyla and Taylor walked along County Line Road in Weleetka in eastern Oklahoma. They had been headed for Bad Creek Bridge, where they planned to wade through waist-high weeds to the river bank to collect shells and pebbles.”

But when the two girls failed to answer their phones, a family member went looking for them and found them sprawled on the edge of the road.

Another Dead Woman Helped Solve The Case

According to autopsies, they were both shot multiple times in the head and torso. There were no suspects, no witnesses, and little evidence pointing to any specific person. Residents mourned the girls and discussed the case among themselves. But no one was coming forward.

Periodically, local news stations would revisit the case for updates. But there weren’t any. That changed in 2011 after a woman named Ashley Celeste Taylor went missing. According to the missing woman’s family, she was last seen with the man she was going to marry, Kevin Sweat.

When detectives interviewed Kevin Sweat, they found that he had a connection to the area where the girls were murdered. He eventually confessed to the murder of Ashley Taylor and the Weleetka girls. People describes what Sweat said happened.

“He told detectives that back in 2008 he had stopped his black Chevy Cavalier on North 3890 Road when he saw ‘two monsters’ come at him. He says that he panicked, grabbed his Glock.40-caliber handgun from between the seats, ‘shot the monsters,’ then grabbed a.22-caliber gun from the glove box and fired that as well, according to the court papers. Joe Mosher, Taylor’s uncle, tells PEOPLE he believes Sweat made the remark about ‘monsters’ to set the stage for a possible insanity defense down the road, although it is not known if Sweat suffers from any significant mental disorder.”

Kevin Sweat was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison for the killings. The Inquisitr reported in March 2016 that the deaths of Skyla Whitaker and Taylor Paschal-Placker would air on another Investigation Discovery show titled Murder Comes To Town. In that article, it was also revealed that family members suspected that Kevin Sweat had murdered the girls. You can read about that here.

The finally solved cold case will air on Shadow Of Doubt tonight at 10/9 p.m. Central on ID. Below, you’ll find a video of Skyla Whitaker’s father giving a tearful interview with Manny Gamallo. In that interview, he discusses his desire to keep the girls’ memory alive.

[Featured Image by Sue Ogrocki/AP Images]

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