ST. CLAIR COUNTY, Ill. — A former Freeburg High School teacher who admitted to trying to kill a teenage girl in 2006 was released on parole after serving nearly 17 years of his 20-year prison sentence.
Sam Shelton, now 44, pleaded guilty in 2007 to the attempted murder of then-17-year-old Ashley Reeves. According to court records, he was released from the Illinois River Correctional Center on Monday.
The 2006 attack made national headlines and was the subject of a Lifetime movie.
5 On Your Side spoke exclusively with the St. Clair County Sheriff's Department, whose detectives worked the case 18 years ago.
"This was initially reported as a missing person's case. Then, it spiraled," said Sergeant James Hendricks with the St. Clair County Sheriff's Department.
Shelton claimed in a taped confession that he accidentally broke Reeves' neck when he put her in a chokehold during an argument in his car, then tried to cover up his involvement.
Authorities said Shelton then strangled Reeves with a belt and left her for dead in a Belleville park.
Reeves was missing for a total of 30 hours.
Hendricks said the Sheriff's Department's former Investigator Steve Johnson, who is now the Fairview Heights police chief, was successful in the interrogation room.
"Ultimately, Mr. Shelton confessed that he believed he had killed her, and he had left her body in the woods," Hendricks said.
Believing her to be dead, Shelton led police to her body.
"When our guys came out, they believed they were doing a recovery mission to recover her body," Hendricks said.
But that's not what happened. Astonishingly, when Johnson and other detectives found Reeves in the dark woods, she was still alive.
"Once they recalled seeing her body, and that's all on video, you can recall them shouting, 'She's still breathing' and 'get medics in here.' This very well could've been a case where they came a couple of days later, and she was actually deceased. So, we're very happy that she's still alive and doing well," Hendricks said.
Reeves underwent rehabilitation to relearn how to swallow, talk and walk.
Now that Shelton is a free man, Hendricks said, "We hope that he's been successfully rehabilitated and that he'll become a productive citizen."
5 On Your Side spoke with the Reeves over the phone Wednesday. She said she's hoping to move on and forget about the past.
"She's got emotional scars that'll last for the rest of her life, and she just wants to kind of move on," Hendricks said.
According to the Department of Corrections, Shelton will serve three years on parole.