Sam Shelton, the 44-year-old former Freeburg teacher who was convicted for the 2006 attempted murder of Columbia High School student Ashley Reeves, was released from state prison last week after serving 17 years of his 20-year sentence. 

Placing her in a chokehold, Shelton broke the teenager’s neck and her body went limp. 

Shelton discarded her body in a wooded area at Citizens Park in Belleville, telling investigators he wanted “to make it look like she got strangled there.” To enhance the effect, he pulled a belt around her neck.

Leaving her in the park, investigators said Shelton went line dancing at a country bar in Collinsville.

Following his confession, investigators went into the woods to recover Reeves’s body — but found her alive instead at about 2 a.m. on April 26, 2006.

Suffering from brain trauma, Reeves had to relearn how to swallow, walk and talk.

Per the Associated Press, officials said the two first met when Reeves was in the seventh grade and Shelton was teaching in Millstadt.

KSDK Channel 5 in St. Louis spoke with Reeves, now in her 30s, over the phone last week and said she’s hoping to move on and forget about the past.

Per inmate records, Shelton will serve three years on parole, ending April 22, 2027.

A TV movie about this case titled “Left for Dead” was released in 2021 and starred Jennie Garth.