High school teacher who infamously strangled teen girl and confessed when he erroneously thought the victim died in park is walking free years early

Ashley Reeves pictured during a 2017 interview with Elizabeth Smart (Crime Watch Daily/YouTube screengrab), Sam Shelton in a mug shot (Illinois Department of Corrections)

A high school teacher in Freeburg, Illinois, who admittedly tried to a strangle a teenage girl in 2006 and confessed when he erroneously thought the victim died is now walking free from state prison.

Samson “Sam” Shelton, who turned 44 years old in March, had been serving a 20-year sentence for the attempted strangulation murder of Ashley Reeves, who was 17 years old at the time of the horrific attack. In the years since, Reeves has spoken publicly about her survival and recovery.

In a 2017 Crime Watch Daily interview with Elizabeth Smart, a rape survivor who was kidnapped in 2002 when she was 14 years old, Reeves said she didn’t remember the events immediately before or after she was left out in the freezing woods of Illinois for 30 hours.

“Do you remember anything about that day?” Smart asked.

“No. I don’t remember a couple days prior and I don’t remember weeks after. I especially don’t remember anything about that day,” Reeves said, noting that she had to learn how to eat and drink again. “I remember my first drink of water and it was amazing.”

Shelton infamously confessed to strangling Reeves with a belt and breaking her neck with his forearm during an argument over their relationship, leading investigators to the wooded area in Belleville where he left the victim, believing she must have died.

At the time, investigators were stunned that Reeves was alive. Shelton, a driver’s education teacher and pro wrestler known as “The Teacher” in his spare time, went on to plead guilty to attempted murder in 2007. When he did so, he claimed that he left Reeves in the woods to “make it look like she got strangled there,” as opposed to inside the car he was driving.

As recently as 2021, the Lifetime movie “Left for Dead: The Ashley Reeves Story” explored the attempted murder case.

Illinois Department of Corrections records reviewed by Law&Crime show that Shelton was paroled on Monday and will remain on parole for three years after serving 17 years of a 20-year sentence for attempted murder.

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