Is Ashley Reeves Still Alive? The Ashley Reeves Horrifying Case

Ashley Reeves was born on January 1, 1983, in Bellevue, Illinois, to her parents Michelle, and Michael Reeves. She had a younger sister named Casey who she was very close to and Casey says that she really looked up to her older sister.

Soon, after the girl was born, the family decided to move one town over to Millstadt Illinois, a small town with a population of about 3200 people.

Ashley was a junior at Columbia High School and was also in a relationship at this time, she had a boyfriend named Jeremy Smith who also went to the same high school, and the two of them had been dating for about two years. Her parents were really supportive of her relationship with Jeremy, they said that Jeremy was a Kind person and really cared for Ashely.

Ashley Reeves went missing

While everything seemed to be going well, on Thursday, April 27, 2006, Ashley told her parents that she would be returning home by 10 pm, driving to Fairview Height for an interview and basketball practice with a friend after school.

After getting ready, Ashley and her sister Casey left the house and headed over to the school, later that day when they finished the classes Ashley went to go meet with her sister Casey at her locker, and they headed over to Jeremy’s SUV and then Ashley dropped Casey at home, and headed over to her interview.

Her parents were worried as Ashley was not home till 10 pm and was not responding to any calls or messages from them. Then, her parents called the police to report as missing. As Ashley said that she was going to play basketball after the interview, the detectives headed over to Louderman Park, where Jeremy’s SUV was parked, Ashely wasn’t inside the car and was nowhere around the car. When searching for the clue, they found an outfit of Ashley that she packed for her job interview and basketball, but even after searching all night they still had not found Ashley.

The next morning Jeremy became the suspect, and police questioned him, Jeremy told investigators that the last interaction he had with Ashley was when she texted him, and from that moment he hadn’t heard from Ashley. During the interrogation with police, Jeremy said that Ashley was going to meet a man named Samson Shelton, Ashley’s Middle School physical education teacher.

Samson Shelton Suspect on Ashley Reeves Missing

After this, the next suspect Samson Ashley was brought to interrogation. According to the detectives, Sam was very cooperative and friendly, also, he insisted that his relationship with Ashley was strictly platonic. Police kept asking more questions to him, they felt like he was trying to manipulate them, police did not believe anything Samson was saying.

At first, he stated that his relationship with Ashley was completely platonic but when police brought u the statements from Ashley’s friends he immediately buckled under pressure and said that he never kissed Ashley, after this, he again admitted that he and Ashley had sex in the back of his car.

Next, he revealed very crucial during the interrogation that Ashley had been inside his car the day she disappeared, he was the last person to see her. According to Samson, that day they met up and got into an argument he says that Ashley was being very erratic, kicking, and screaming, and decided to let her outside the car at Radio Range Road and just took off.

The police decided to bring another detective named Steven Johnson to interrogation where Steven tried a different approach, he tried to reason with Sam by asking him to admit it he had made a mistake and he even brought up Sam’s grandma whom he was really close to. After more than 12 hours of interrogation, Sam finally confessed to what really happened.

What actually happened to Ashley Reeves? Final Confession

Sam says that Ashely did go to her interview that day and they met up later and were together in his car, they had sex, then they sat in the front seat, Sam was in the driver’s seat, and Ashley was in the passenger seat this is when Sam tried to end things with Ashley and that led them to get into his huge fight and Ashely refused to get out of the car, then Sam forcefully tried to get out of her seat, and he got her into a wrestling choke hold then he pulled her out of the car.

When he tried to pull her into a choke hold, he heard her neck was broken, Ashely went limp and he panicked he didn’t know what to do. He then decided to strangle her and tried to make it look like someone had attacked her. Sam tried choking Ashely to death with his hands but that didn’t work as she was still breathing, he choked her until she stopped breathing, then he left Ashley to Citizen Park which was a 42-acre park several towns away.

Ashely Reeves was found: Dead or Alive?

After 30 hours of missing, Ashely was finally found in Citizen’s Park, covered by insect bites all over her body as she had been deep in this forest for a long time. As the investigators got closer to her they realized that her chest was moving and was breathing, the officers were shocked that they had found Ashely alive.

At the hospital, Ashley was kept in a coma, several weeks later, Ashley woke up from a coma which was a miracle.

Where is Ashley Reeves Now? [Updated 2024]

As of now, Ashley is completely living a new life and has two kids. Also, she is working as a caregiver in Illinois. Also, there is a lifetime movie made about Ashley’s story called Left for Dead: The Ashley Reeves Story which premiered in 2021.

Was Sam Shelton Arrested?

Sam was arrested and charged with attempted on April 28. Later, he was released while awaiting trial and put under house arrest, when he was under house arrest he tried taking his own life. in June 2007, Sam pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Currently, Sam is serving his sentence at the medium-security Hill Correctional Center in Galesburg. His original discharge date is April 22, 2027. He was 26 years old when arrested, and currently, he is 41 years old now.

News: Who is Rafael Devers? Is he in a relationship? Know in Detail!

Sandika Rijal

Hi, I’m Sandika Rijal, and I have been working as a Content Creator for the last 2 years. I will be writing about my beautiful country Nepal, and its famous places, and people. Hope you will enjoy reading my articles!