Missing teen found, teacher charged in murder attempt


Missing teen found, teacher charged in murder attempt
By Leah Thorsen
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
04/29/2006

A Freeburg High School teacher charged with trying to murder Ashley
Reeves, 17, apparently had been seeing her for two months, a friend of
Reeves' said Saturday.

Reeves was very secretive about the relationship, Kristi Baumgartner
said, and would only say that she had befriended a guy named Sam.

"She kept denying that anything was going on," said Baumgartner, who is
17 and attends Columbia High School with Reeves.

Reeves, who had been missing since Thursday, was found by searchers
about 2 a.m. Saturday in a heavily wooded area of Citizens Park in
Belleville. She was in critical condition at an undisclosed St. Louis
hospital on Saturday, authorities said.

The Freeburg teacher, Samson Shelton, 26, was charged Saturday in St.
Clair County Circuit Court with two counts of attempted murder and one
count of aggravated kidnapping. Authorities allege that Shelton tried
to strangle Reeves with a belt and break her neck with his forearm.

Shelton, of the 5400 block of Live Oak Drive in Smithton, taught
drivers education and physical education and volunteered as an
assistant baseball coach, authorities said. Shelton was being held
Saturday at the St. Clair County Jail in Belleville, with bail set at
$1 million.

Reeves' relatives could not be reached for comment. But Baumgartner
said she had spoken Saturday with Reeves' mother, who said Reeves was
expected to survive, although doctors worried she may have suffered
brain damage from oxygen deprivation.

Baumgartner said she had never met Shelton.

Reeves lay in the woods for more than 30 hours before being discovered,
said Lt. Steven Johnson of the St. Clair County sheriff's office.

The trees were so dense that emergency crews had to cut through the
brush with chain saws to get a stretcher into the area to carry her to
an ambulance, Johnson said.

He would not say what led investigators to the secluded spot, although
search teams had been looking for Reeves on the ground and by
helicopter.

Authorities refused to clarify the nature of the relationship between
Reeves and Shelton, or to say what might have prompted the attack.

Reeves, who lives in Millstadt and is a junior at Columbia High, had
been missing since 3 p.m. Thursday, when she was seen driving a Jeep
belonging to a boyfriend, a teen from Freeburg.

She told her parents she was going to a job interview.

The Jeep was found Thursday night in Laderman Park in Belleville - the
same spot where she frequently met her friend Sam to play basketball,
according to Baumgartner, her friend.

Reeves had transferred to Columbia High in the middle of her sophomore
year from Belleville West, Baumgartner said.

Reeves did not have many friends at her new school, Baumgartner said,
and spent her time mostly in Millstadt, Freeburg and Belleville.

A profile of Shelton on the Web site for his fast-pitch softball team
says: "Sammy is single and currently looking for a female companion.
This may include long term or short term relationship. Age does not
matter, must be cute or hot."

The profile also said his hobbies include "touching hookers" and
pornography, and described his occupation as a "teacher, pimp, pimp
teacher, pro-wrestler."

Shelton's mother, Susan Shelton, declined to comment.

A 1998 graduate of Freeburg High School, Shelton has taught there for
two years without any accusations of wrongdoing, said Superintendent
Andrew Lehman.

"We are completely shocked and saddened by these charges," he said.

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