Remembering Sara West

 

A Happy Childhood

Sara West was a precocious five-year-old who loved tea parties, dolls and the movie Cinderella. She always looked forward to visiting her grandparents, where her Grandpa Monte would read her Jack and the Beanstalk, and she would make sprinkle cookies with her Grandma Shirley. Sara loved having long talks with her mother discussing all she wanted to do when she grew up. Sara especially loved being a big sister to her little brother, Seth. The two were inseparable and were as close a brother and sister could be in this world. Sara brought a smile to everyone she met and always brought joy to all those around her.

In 1992, Sara West’s parents divorced after eight years of marriage. Sara’s mother, Tracy, had custody of both Sara and her brother Seth, age three. Tracy hated being apart from her children, but she also knew that both Sara and Seth wanted to spend time with their father.

On February 13, 1993, Kevin West had a visitation weekend with Sara and Seth. It began as a typical weekend with the children spending time with their father on a Friday night. On Saturday night, Kevin West had a date and agreed to let his neighbor, 16-year-old Billy Joe Shafer, watch the children. West, who had lived in his home approximately four months, had spent quite a bit of time with Shafer. Kevin West left the house sometime between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m. Before he left, he had Sara and Seth say their prayers. Both children hugged their father goodbye. It would be the last time Kevin West would ever be able to hug his daughter Sara. That was the last time Sara would be seen alive.

A Night of Terror Begins

After her father left, Sara West began to draw picture for her mother in the kitchen and Seth West played in his room. Sara begged Shafer to let her stay up past her 10 p.m. bedtime so she could finish her picture. Shafer let the children stay up a few minutes past 10 p.m., and then put them to bed. Shafer then drank a beer, snorted some glue fumes and began watching the movie Friday The Thirteenth. According to Shafer, at some point he took some pornographic magazines into the bathroom and masturbated. Shafer then called a friend down the street, who invited him over to see a tattoo gun he had made that day. Shafer left the house and headed down to his friend’s house on a bicycle. Before Shafer left, he took a loaded handgun with him.

It took Shafer around 15 minutes to get to his friend’s house. Shafer stated that he planned on killing everyone in the house, however he decided he could not overpower four people and decided against killing them. Shafer and two other boys went out back and fired the gun a few times. Shafer then left his friends house and returned to the West household. A few minutes later, sometime between 11:00 and 11:45 p.m., Kevin West returned home to change his shirt. West had sweated quite a bit while dancing and decided he would go home to change his shirt and check on the children. West changed his shirt, checked on the Sara and Seth, and left about 15 minutes later. Shafer then began to watch the second Friday The Thirteenth movie that was part of a double feature on TV that evening.

A Brutal Sexual Assault and Murder

At some point during the movie, Shafer decided to get Sara West from her bed. He placed her on the sofa. At that point, Shafer was unsure what he was going to do to her, according to one of his confessions. He then took Sara upstairs to the weight room. Shafer took off Sara’s clothes and began kissing her body. He then began molesting her with his finger. Sara woke up and began screaming. Shafer left Sara screaming in the weight room and shut the door, which was very hard to open. Shafer got a knife, came back to the weight room and began stabbing five-year-old Sara. At some point during the assault, Shafer bit both her thigh and her breast.

Shafer then dragged Sara down the stairs, leaving blood on the walls and on the stuffed toys on the stairs. He put Sara in the bathtub. At some point Shafer cut off Sara’s breast and slit her throat. He also cut her body from her pelvis to her neck. Shafer stated, “Well, then I cut her straight up the front. Uh … pulled her, uh … skin and stuff away from the slit a little bit and stuck my hands inside her with the knife and started cuttin’ … stabbin’. I mean no ‘sific thing I was cuttin’ on.”

Shafer also shot Sara in the head during this time. Based on the coroner’s statement, we believe this gunshot wound occurred after the initial assault. Shafer could have possibly done this after the fact in an effort to mislead people into believing Sara was dead prior to being mutilated. When Shafer was done, he placed Sara’s body, along with the bloody stuffed toys, in two trash bags and threw them over an embankment.

After disposing of Sara’s body, Shafer came back the house and staged a robbery by removing a window and throwing furniture around. He then grabbed a bottle of Pepsi and took three-year-old Seth to a cabin behind the house. He waited there, debating if he should take off before Kevin West arrived home. Shafer then heard Kevin West banging on Shafer’s parents’ door. Shafer ran out of the woods to his parents’ house and tried to tell the robbery story in an effort to exonerate himself. Kevin West ran to the cabin and found Seth barefoot and shaking uncontrollably. The police arrived and it did not take long for Shafer to implicate himself.

Long History of Violence

Before Sara’s murder, Shafer had a history with children’s services. When Shafer was six years old, children’s services witnessed Shafer get angry and punch his grandmother in the face. By age 12, he was brought in for stabbing his six-year-old brother four times while his brother was sleeping. Shafer’s behavior continued to go downhill and, by the time he was in high school, he had drug, alcohol and behavioral problems. He openly admits believing in Satanism as a “religion” and had satanic images on his school books. He openly stated his heroes were Jeffrey Dahmer and Charles Manson.

Cold-Blooded Killer Gets Life

Shafer started talking the minute he got into the police car. His story changed several times over the next several days, however all the stories implicated Shafer, and all in some form relayed the story you have read here. Due to the massive amount of evidence, Shafer knew there was no way out of this situation. Shafer was offered a plea deal if he would answer several questions regarding the murder of Sara West. Shafer agreed. Two comments made during that interrogation were especially frightening. When Shafer was asked what would have happened if Sara wasn’t there and Seth was the only one in the house, Shafer responded, “I woulda did him.” Shafer was then asked why he killed Sara. His response: “I’ve always thought of doin’ it and opportunity was knockin’.” After that final interview, Shafer pled guilty to aggravated murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

After Sara’s murder, Shafer sent death threats to the West family to the point where FBI agents had the family under 24-hour surveillance.