Miraculous Survival: Ashley Reeves

0:06 Welcome to Unspeakable, a true crime podcast. Or I tell stories of real crimes with real victims whose cases are so shocking that many are left wondering how is this even real? I use my experiences in law enforcement corrections, and combined with my years as a criminal justice educator, dig deep into complex cases of evil acts, some so evil many feel they are unspeakable. Warning. Unspeakable as intended for mature audiences. If you are easily offended, then I'm not your girl. Listening discretion is advised. Hey, y'all, it's kJ here, back for the episode of Unspeakable. How's it going?

1:02 This episode today is one that I actually use in my classroom, And I said, you know what, I tell this story all the time, why don't I tell it on the podcast? So that's what you're getting today. And if you've been a student of mine before, you might know this case. So it took place in two thousand and six, and it's when seventeen year old Ashley Reeves was a high school student in the great state of Illinois. Ashley, if you're looking at her, she looks like every high schooler that I see every day on the job. She wears her hair in a ponytail, but think, you know, think back to the classic stylings of two thousand and six. She has it up in that ponytail, but she has those two thin little pieces that we used to pull out and have that went kind of down on the sides of our faces. She has blue eyes, dark brown, dark blondish hair, kind of a brownish color, and she has freckles on her nose when you look at her little smile. She has a gap between her front teeth.

1:56 Nothing crazy or anything, but she's just a natural girl when you're looking at her photos. She's not one to wear a ton of makeup, and you know, maybe some eyeline or something like that. I've seen some eyeshadow and some of the other pictures, but not an overwhelmingly makeup type of girl. Her ears were tastefully pierced. She had a couple of piercings that went up her ear. She wore a small gold hoop at the bottom of the lobe, and then she had like two studs that went up the other side. And remember chokers were in style for a while back then. She liked those two and so even in her school picture, she has a choker one and friends would describe Ashley as funny. She was a fun friend, but she was down to earth and super smart.

2:39 She was doing really well, and she was currently in her junior year of high school and was so excited to almost be done. Only one more year of high school until I graduate. And I know, if you're out of high school, you know the feeling and if you're in high school, you know the feelings of being like, man, I'm almost done. You know, let's do this. And like most sister relationships, her sister Casey, it was her younger sister. She looked up to Ashley and thought that she just hung the moon, and she looked up to her in so many ways. Ashley was, you know, an everyday girl, but was living what younger girls would look up to. The fact that she had a boyfriend was always exciting.

3:20 So she was comfortable with her boyfriend and happy. His name was Jeremy Smith and he had been her steady boyfriend for a while. It wasn't a new boyfriend or anything like that, and they spent their free times together. They did the things that interest all teenagers at that age, you know, they football games, projects, watching TV. Whatever it was they were into that and she also had a lot of friends. She was a very motivated girl, and she was very secure in her decision making, so she was kind of bold and her sister looked up to her for that. Her love, though, was playing basketball, and she would go and she loved playing at the local public courts that they had, And she didn't have just free reign though of the parent. Well we got parishes here, I know, it were like the only ones, right, we have parishes. Everybody else has counties. But she went to the local ones and she didn't have free reign of her parish or her county. She did have rules in her household, and one of the main rules in her household was that she had a ten o'clock curfew which she had to obey. And she wasn't known to give her parents really any trouble beyond the typical teenager shenanigans.

4:32 She was a good kid. She was not troubled, and her parents were very proud of her and all the things that she had accomplished to this date. But on April twenty seventh, two thousand and six, it was a typical Thursday for the teenager who had school, and then she did have plans for the afternoon afterwards, where she was also one of those kids that was very responsible, and she was responsible enough to tell everybody what her plans were so that they would know where she was. Around three thirty in the afternoon, Ashley left her house and she was headed for a job interview, and she had told her sister this, she had told her family this. After that interview, her plans were then to go play some pickup basketball at a local court, like I told you, and she promised her mama that she would be back by curfew, And there was no inkling at that moment when she walked out of the door that all of their lives would just be changed forever in just a few hours. So the hours passed by. Ashley was at her interview and then she went to go play her basketball game. But then curfew time came around and Ashley was a no show. So a little concerned, her parents began calling her phone, blowing it up like we all do, blowing up the phone, Where are you? Where are you?

5:49 But this is before the days of life three sixty you had to actually answer the phone, and Ashley just wasn't answering, So they went the parents went and got her little sister. Casey said, look, have you heard from Ashley? And she said, no, I haven't heard from her. They said she was going on the interview. How did the interview go? And she said, look, I haven't spoken to her. I don't even know how the interview went. And they followed up with some text message. But those text messages that they sent to Ashley, those two remained unanswered. And I'm sure we can all imagine the slight annoyance that would come along with that, like answer the damn phone, I'm paying the bill, answer the phone. But that slight annoyance would turn to concern and then evolve into just outright panic because their teen daughter would not answer the phone, and nobody could tell them where she was, not even the people who were friends with her that knew where she was supposed to be. And I'm sure they'd a pit in their stomachs as the minutes, you know, painstakingly passed by with no answer as to where their baby girl was. So eventually her parents made the horrifying call to police explaining that their daughter was missing, a teenage girl late at night, not answering her phone, and their minds immediately were just jumping off into worst case scenarios.

7:14 Hours continued to go by and no word no one had seen her and no one had heard from her, which left police with zero leads to follow. So, with nothing in their arsenal that just jumped out to them that hey, this is what we need to go check out. They began trying to analyze Ashley's inner circle and to question anyone who might be in a position to affect her whereabouts. Now, you know, I know kids aren't allowed to go missing. I've said that a lot adults are allowed to go missing. Seventeen year old is kind of a weird age because they're old enough to be able to take care of themselves in the moment, they're old enough to run away. But the detective that took the call said he could just tell in her mother's voice that there was something more to this and that it was just not the average my teenager won't answer the phone, and that's why he jumped on it so quickly, not making them wait any longer. That then he you know, they wanted to, and so when they started talking to her inner circle, this included talking to her friends, her tight friends, and they also said, Look, we haven't talked to her, she hasn't answered. So life fact, and I'm gonna tell you this, and I know it from experience.

8:32 Teenage girls may ignore their parents, and they may ignore people that they don't care about, but they do not ignore their friends. And this may not be direct evidence in the fact that something happened to her and that there's a problem, but it definitely was red flag number one. She wouldn't even answer her friends that knew her secrets, right, So where was she and what was she doing? So the Saint Clair County Sheriff's Office took the case really seriously and they immediately were out and about doing questioning but also looking for Ashley. And this is why concern grew exponentially soon thereafter, because they were able to locate Ashley's boyfriend's SUV which was abandoned in the Latterman Park in Belleville, and it still had some of Ashley's items still in it. Now why this was so important was because I want to make sure I make this note to you, was that he had actually loaned his personal vehicle to Ashley to go on that interview and then to go to the basketball game. So they found the car and know Ashley, but the items inside of the vehicle are found inside of the vehicle were also raising that concern level because they included the very outfit that she had taken with her to wear to the job interview, and there was also the change of clothes that she would have needed afterwards to go play in the basketball game.

9:57 So if the clothing for every stop she planned to make was still in the car, then it's beyond alarming to realize that she clearly hadn't made any of the plans stops. So the investigators took the clothing and looked at it, and it was very clear to them that it also had not been worn. It wasn't like she had gone to the interview and then changed clothes or was you know, changing or something like that. It was fresh laundry and had not been used. And so in case someone was wondering, if you know, maybe her timeline had changed, or you know, something like that, or maybe you're like, oh, well, maybe she made some more stops, the timeline hadn't changed and the clothing had never been worn, So it wasn't like the timeline was just off and the clothing had been changed. And that's when Ies quickly began to focus on her boyfriend, Jeremy Smith. So a little bit about Jeremy. He was an all American guy.

10:55 Her parents loved him. They thought of him as just a likable guy looking at him. He had this dirty blonde hair, kind of brown as dirty blonde. And he was a solid guy, both in character and in stature. As it's common that those who have ill will towards us tend to be those that are closest to us. Statistically, this was a logical direction for the police to go in to go check further into who might know where Ashley is. So Jeremy was brought in and he was questioned about his last couple of days with Ashley, and he seemed to come across as completely genuine. He was upfront, honest, and he was open in his answers, and his demeanor was really calm. His statements to the police, he was just openly saying how he loved Ashley. He used those words a lover, and he said, I've been crying over her disappearance. I just I don't know what to do.

11:54 He also had a solid alibi as to his whereabouts when she was believed to have gone missing. He was at this bar and grill with his uncle in another town, and it was solid. He really was there. Ashley too, he said, had messaged him at some point saying, hey, call me when you get a chance, and he hadn't called her back, and he vocalizes that, man, I wish I would have called her back looking back on it now, you know, and he kind of like The detectives then stepped out of the room, I guess to talk to each other. And after he says that, he just his head kind of dropped down on the table and he began to cry, you know, openly, and the cameras caught it all. He just seemed so genuine. So when the detective returned to the room and the two started to get into more specifics about the last communication between the two, the detective honed in on like specifically, when was the last time y'all spoke and when was the last time that you talked to her? It was yesterday between it was around nunish between like eleven and on. She said, I'm gonna go to this interview and I'm gonna go play basketball. Now listen to that. What was odd about it?

13:07 Was that the park that she would have gone to meet people to play basketball in was a considerable distance from her home and from the school, so it just seemed like an odd choice of location of where to go play. So police followed up with a friend who confirmed, yeah, that that's true, and so they're like, okay, well what was you know, what was with the game? You know what was going on? And that friend added, well, she usually would meet up with an unnamed man that was a little bit older to play ball. So like, who snap, right there, right, we've got red flag number two rearing its ugly face. We thought this was just going to be a basketball game. Why is this random man that no one knows anything about meeting a teen girl at a faraway park and her parents don't know it, nor does her boyfriend know it. It's not looking good. So meanwhile, students, neighbors, family friends, everyone is out now searching for Ashley. And Ashley's sister and her mother. They were in their car and they were just driving around town aimlessly, like looking for her. But they also had her phone bill literally in their hands, and so they just started dialing those numbers on the list. And I thought that was kind of genius, right, just start calling everybody in the list.

14:27 Let's see who all this is now missing more than twenty four hours. This was just beyond distressing. Twenty four hours. I know I've kind of said this quickly, but the girl's been gone twenty four hours and they are just we're talking, you know, hundreds of calls to her phone, tons of text messages, yet nothing in response. So they're just knocking out these phone numbers. And when they do that, they you know, share that information with police. And this is where police realize that there's someone they may need to talk to, because while Ashley's mom and their and sister were reviewing those phone records to see who she had last spoken with, they found a number that was in her call log, and by in her call log, I mean a lot in her call log. This was, like I said, mentioned to the police. And so they took that number and they traced that number and found it to be owned by the same person that Ashley's friends seemed to be talking about, mentioning that she may have gone to play basketball with, and the police found that his name was Samson Shelton, known as Sam for short.

15:39 So I wanted to give you a little bit of background on Sam, and he's not this creepy guy or something that at this point it kind of seemed like he would have been. They were kind of surprised or like, oh, he was actually a teacher who was known to go play basketball with Ashley. So it's kind of like, oh, okay, well that's not as crazy as where most minds would have gone. A matter of fact, the fact that they spoke on the phone outside of school a lot is what struck me personally as an issue in an immediate red flag number two, Like you know, or I guess this would be number three. Why would a teacher be talking to a student on a cell phone that much? Like, what could you possibly have in common with this kid that you know goes to high school? So they kind of wanted to find out more about this teacher. Now, again, he's not scary, y'all. He previously met Ashley because he was her seventh grade teacher. Now she's a junior now.

16:39 He taught her whenever she was in seventh grade, but they had maintained contact throughout the years. They both loved sports, and Sam wasn't teaching her now he had actually moved schools. That's common, and you know, teachers will move schools throughout their career. And he now worked as a Freiberg High School driver's ed teacher and he was also the gym teacher there. Now, well, I'm going to also be first to tell you this Sam is a traditionally handsome man. He too has that dirty blonde brownish hair. It's cut into a traditional man's cut, and he's got really pretty blue eyes. He was born March ninth of nineteen eighty and so he was in his late twenties whenever this case took place, and he seemed to be thriving as a teacher. His job interviews went well. He had a great work history, and he was also kind of jokingly thought of as the cute teacher when he was student teaching.

17:35 But he knew it. He was told, it makes me think about it. This is so true. I went to Broadmore High School. Y'all shout out to any of my broad Moore peeps, and I remember, I think it was my junior year of high school, I think, and I was taking a science class, I don't remember exactly what it was, and we had this teacher come in and his name was his first name was Jared. Why can't I remember his last name? Let me tell you why. Because the teenage girl I was and all the other girls that went to school, we thought it was kind of funny. We called him Jared because we thought he was handsome instead of saying his last name. If you went to school with me, don't blast it. You know everything about me? Please online. But someone reached out to me to remind me what that guy's last name was. That that science teacher, because he was cute and y'all all know it. Well, this is kind of funny. But you fast forward twenty years from when he was student teaching with me as a student. When I got hired out where I work, I was in my new hire, my new teacher higher you know meeting we have, and I'll be damned if that man didn't come sit down next to me and I looked over and I went Jared, and he was like, uh yeah, And I was like, you remember me? He said no, I said, you taught me in high school. He was like, oh, hell, but uh, I guess what I'm saying is I understand this right?

18:49 And I'm sure it was flattering and halfway embarrassing to be a young teacher and the girls think you're cute. You know, maybe it was flattering, but we are high school kids back then, and Ashley is a high school kid, so it's gross, like their kids gross. Okay, so more funny than flattering. But he kind of liked the fact that he was thought of as being handsome when he was a teenager. Just a little bit more about him too. He was really interested in law enforcement, having been a participant in the local Explorer program, which is a program we had that out here. It's now been revamped and it's the youth law enforcement you know program out here, but it used to be called the Explorer program, and it takes youth who are interested and want to know more about being police and they get trained in the program.

19:35 It gives them a whole lot of hands on insight into the life of what it's like to be a police officer, but it ultimately is teaching and coaching them in career choices and good decisions for teenagers. He loved it. He thought that was great. But now in his late twenties, he stands six foot one, he's one hundred and ninety five pounds. Currently single, but definitely ready to mingle. And sure he still lived with his mom and his grandma, but he loved them both dearly and he wanted to make them proud. He also liked to go to country bars and he could be found their time to time drinking and line dancing. And he looked athletic. He has an athletic look about him. Think of think of a baseball player, you know, like the baseball coach or something.

20:22 They look the part. Usually he was athletic too, because he moonlighted as a professional wrestler. I know, you want to know what his stage name was, because Mama wanted to know too, So I went and looked, and his stage name was actually in line with the thing he loved to do most because his stage name was quote unquote the teacher on the wrestling stage. So his stick or his costume on stage was he was in khakis and like a sweater vest. You know. The other ones looked like, I don't know, Nacho Libra or whatever. They've got the like the tight hulkogan looking outfits and masks and stuff, but not him. Sweater vest and khakis. He really played up the role and he was listed as a member of the Ultimate wrestling alliance and if you will even further into him, he participated in several Metro East Prize rings of that area, So I mean he was good at it. I personally find cheesing cheesing. Did y'all just gonna say cheazing? Good God, I personally find wrestling cheesy, like you know, think whole Cogan and all that.

21:25 But hey, you know, different strokes, different folks. That was his thing. So knowing that he was one of the last people to speak with Ashley, the police decided, you know, maybe we need to go see him. We need to know if maybe he knows more about her whereabouts. The police did not consider him a major lead though, and anything really at this point was a lead, because they were coming up on almost thirty hours of Ashley being missing and still did not have even an ounce of idea of where she could be. So police pulled up to the high school and that's where they found Sam. He was still at baseball practice, yelling out instructions and cheering on the ball as they were working hard on the field, and so he seemed a bit surprised that the police were wanting to speak to him, but he still wanted to help and was happy to head down to the station to be interviewed. So when they made it back to the station, he was friendly and cooperative, saying that he wanted to help in any way possible, and he was, y'all still dressed in his coaching gear.

22:21 He has on his baseball pants, he has on a long sleeve jersey with the number twenty one on it. He's still got his cleats on his feet. That's how quickly he was like, I'm on my way, I'm coming to help. And his statements were that, yes, you know, I know Ashley. We knew each other from school. We played basketball from time to time, and he just kind of was given the general information. But police kept questioning him because they just felt that he was holding back, that he still had more to share, and that maybe they were going to have to pride out of him. Even though he was kind and he was gentle in his response, it just came across as overly reserved to the seasoned detective. So the police kept questioning him, and they got to the point where they started asking him about them talking on the phone, them as in Ashley and Hilm talking on the phone, and he did acknowledge that this was the case. Yes, we speak on the phone, and he said, but recently, I've been kind of trying to distance myself from her, kind of separate myself from her.

23:23 And so they kept prodding and they're like, well, why would you need to separate yourself from her? And he said, okay, look, she kind of seemed to be obsessed with me, and so it got weird and I just wanted her to kind of go away because she was acting obsessive, and so thinking about it, you're like, okay, well, this would justify why she had been calling him so much recently. But the problem police had with that statement was that the calls went both ways. She called him, he called her, she called him, he called her. Not just one way. Call it a gut instinct, but the investigators still felt like he was holding back. Although cooperative, he just didn't seem to be completely open with them. He did say, so they kind of went into the questions about, Okay, do y'all have have you all ever had any physical contact with one another? And he's like, I mean, we've hugged before, but I mean I don't think that's inappropriate.

24:21 Teachers hugged their students, so they pressured him continuously to tell them more, which at first he denied knowing anything. He's like, I don't know anything. You keep asking me. I don't know. I can't make it up. I don't have any information for you. But they continued to question him for hours and he would not break He wouldn't say anything, and so the detectives were kind of cocking back in their seats, going, damn, man, I mean, how could he not know anything? And they just talked this much, it just didn't seem to jive. So then they bluntly presented to him in his faith, the fact that Ashley's friends were saying that they thought there was more to the relationship than just basketball and just teacher student relationship.

25:12 So when they directly said it to him without him being guided or you know, he had never mentioned anything to that sort. But when they directly accused him or questioned him with what the other teenagers were saying, he almost immediately said, okay, fine, took a deep breath, Yeah, we messed around a little. That makes my stomach sick. As a teacher, it makes me friggin sick. But he admitted it, and he said they were just friends at first, Remember, he just kept saying we were just friends. Then he flip flopped and said in the next breath that he wanted a relationship with her and that there was a messing around. So it was like his his statement wasn't steady, and that is a clue you have to keep pressuring.

25:56 So the questions intensified at this point, and then he dropped a bombshell that when you listen, well, it will almost make you question if what you just heard was legit. Did I just hear what he just said? Go ahead and take a listen to this. I will say this. He never kissed. He never kissed. Yes, we did have sex in the back of the vehicle there and after that day I felt absolutely terrible about that. Wait, what excuse me? What did he really just clarify to the police he never kissed her? Like what is this? It's like, do you think this is the movie Pretty Woman, where you know kissing is what matters? Remember in the movie She's like, I control who I kiss. Huh, what in the shit is going on right now? I was so outdone when I heard that, as if it even mattered. Baby, you haven't sex with a kid, you think kissing matters like he knew not to cross that line of smooching or something so ridiculous. It really took me back. I'm again.

27:02 I was like, wait, what, So remember how I told you he lived with his mama and his grandma. Well, this is actually going to come into play now at this point. Just because he had a completely inappropriate relationship with this team doesn't mean he knew where she was, but it sure would seem that he was close enough with her to at least warrant a motive right that she might be missing. So that's when police switched gears and tactics. When they heard him say that he had messed around with this girl, and then he admitted he had sex with her, but he didn't kiss her. Oh Jesus, that's when they completely switched tactics and they went in for the kill, no pun intended. They went in for the kill. What do I mean by this? Y'all? They went and they hit him hard with the Granny card.

27:57 That's right, yep. Sam had not been emotional at all to this point. But when Granny was brought up and they said, you know, you need to come clean. You need to come clean to make your grandma proud. That's when Sam's shell began to crack. The investigator then, I mean, it was pretty good. The investigator then impressed upon him that his granny raised him right, she raised him up good, and that he needed to honor his granny by coming clean and telling the truth. And then the detective kind of leans in and he goes do it for Grandma Sam. So, as immature and almost comical as that seems, that statement seems, y'all, it worked. They appealed to the emotion in Sam, and he started crying like a baby when his granny was brought up. Now, before you feel sorry for Sam, remember he hadn't cried when he was told that Ashley was missing.

29:02 He didn't cry when he admitted to having sex with a minor that was his student at one point either. He only cried when his granny was brought up. And that's when the tears started flowing. It sounds like he only really cares about himself and the fact that Granny's gonna find out that he likes to have sex with children. So his story then changed that the two had seen each other the night she went missing or the afternoon she went missing, and that they had gotten into a fight. So as they got into the fight, he says that she was kicking and screaming and she started acting, you know, just crazy, and so he pulled over and he made her get out of the car, just get out of my car before driving off. He said, I'm you know, he wasn't dealing with it, and he made her just get out of the car and he dumped her there, and he was like, I got to go. This is insane.

29:55 And the problem with that is it seemed just a little too convenient that he just says, okay, fine, and he keeps breaking down more and more and more, and now he says, I kicked her out of the car, which seems just way too convenient considering she's missing. So they kept pressing him and they were like, so you know, you really sit in one voice or telling us that you cared about this girl, you wanted a relationship with this girl, you're sleeping with this girl, but you never went back to check on her after dumping her off, Like you made her get out of the car after an argument, and then you just left and you never went back. I mean, how would she have gotten home?

30:36 What did you think was gonna happen when you made her get out on the side of the road, and I mean, they bring it up again. They're like, I mean, didn't you care about her at all, considering all the history y'all are having together. And that's when Sam cuts in, kind of cuts off the detective asking this question, and he just goes into this sort of like rant. It's like this just rant about how he doesn't like scary things and he has a weak stomach, so he would just be sick if she were to be hit by a car or something. And then he goes on to say how he wouldn't be able to get it out of his mind if something had happened to her, and he added that, you know, even the Texas Chainsaw Masker movie, it scared me so much. I just I couldn't get it out of my head. To this day, I'm afraid of the of the Texas Chainsaw massacre. And it's like just word vomit just going everywhere. So first of all, you got to be asking yourself, who the hell said anything about her having been hurt? And what does the Texas Chainsaw Mascer movie have to do with Ashley? And this is again what we would call a clue. This total word vomit, you know, word vomit session of overly sharing information that wasn't asked for nor consistent with an answer based in truth. It just seemed like over the top.

31:54 It was too much information, and it seemed like a poor attempt at convincing the interviewer that talking to him of something that hasn't even been mentioned or alluded to yet as not being probable. It was just it was way too much. If he left her there, okay, then what did you What did you do all night? Then you left her there? You never went back for even though you care about her, you were too afraid to go back in case she randomly, in your head, got hit by a car. You didn't want to see that. So what did you do all night? Well, he answers that and said that he decided to go blow off some steam, so he went out line dancing at a bar, which police immediately went to go check out, and sure enough they were able to verify he was on tape.

32:38 He was on video dancing and having fun. It also wasn't what was there that was so interesting to police, but more about what wasn't there? And this is what I mean, so he's saying that he dumped her, and then he's saying that he went line dancing. Well, the police were interested. End though, was the fact that Sam had not tried to contact her since he dropped her off on the side of the road, like ever again, like ever again. He never tried to contact her again after that point, so that was very interesting to them. By this point, Sam had been being questioned for nearly twelve hours and Sam was falling apart, so police felt like he was on the edge and ready to break.

33:29 So the police told Sam, look, Sam Ashley is out there somewhere and we need your help, and then quietly got close to him and said, Sam, do you know where she is? And Sam hesitated a bit and then he shook his head very sheepishly in the yes position. Yes. He then immediately emitted that he also had killed her. That's right. The panic then starts to almost take over.

34:09 He almost is like hyper roll hyper, and he's like wanting to talk to the police, and he's like look, you know, and he's real panicked and he says, look, I'll take you to her body, just I'll take you to her body right now. So we went from not you know, barely having a relationship to Yeah, I know her to No, I don't know what happened to Okay, we messed around a little bit to Oh, she was just obsessed with me and I tried to break it off to Okay, actually we're having sex too. We were in a fight, so I dumped her off to now, okay, I went line dancing, but I also killed her. It's all over the place here he is at that breaking point, I shoulder of her. Remember, she's been missing over an entire day and night, thirty plus hours at this point, so I'm sure the police were thrilled. He was leading them to her body, but it had been rainy, and the evidence still may not be there, and it may not be well preserved. So time was of the essence to find her body. So they loaded into a vehicle and they headed straight to Citizens Park in Belleville. And this wasn't a small park either. This park encompasses forty five acres and another part about it is that it's easily accessible from Route thirteen, which makes it a perfect area for there to be a quick getaway. It's a highly recreational park. It's got lighted softball diamonds and a first class baseball field, which seems really fitting as a choice for where Sam would have gone, and he would have been familiar with it. One problem arose though, once

35:42 they got there, and that would be that when he dumped her body, he was admittedly under a lot of stress. Wow, but it was also at night. So they go out there with flashlights, they're looking around, and and that's when he just says, I don't know, man, I don't know where she is when I dumped her. I just got out of here and I booked it. Those were his exact words, actually, And so they kind of looked around for a while, going, damn, I hope he's not lying to us. Is he taking us on a wild goose chase? What is going on here? He lied so much, should we believe him or not? The dense woods and the rain that was happening at the time was just making this a really difficult area to search. So after walking the woods for over half an hour, they're going back and forth with the flashlights looking. One officer's flashlight passed over in the distance what looked like a person, So they flashed back real quick and sure enough, lying on the ground was the broken and bruised body of seventeen year old Ashley Reeves, found just at a m She was clearly dead, not moving. Her arms were bent at the elbow and her hands were curled up almost like under her chin. Her head was tilted to the left, laying to the left, and her hands were kind of bent up by her head. But her hands were bent hard at the wrists. Okay, so if you imagine, my

37:14 arms are bent and they're up by my head, but my hands they're bent really really hard, and they almost looked like the way hands atrophy when someone has like a serious brain injury, if you've ever seen that, and what I'm talking about. And so she was laying on her back, and she had on a blue and white baseball looking old time baseball looking shirt, had a white chest, had had blue three quarter length sleeves, and she's in her blue jeans and her head is laying to the left and her hair is just matted in leaves, and it's just like, ugh, you know, this young life cut short and over what like what would drive you to do this? And honestly, it was a pitiful sight. She was covered in thousands and thousands of bites, and her throat bore the clear signs of strangulation horizontal lines across her neck, so something must have been used as she was strangled. Her tongue was swollen and it protruded out of her mouth, and she also had the remnants of spit and like bloody foam in the corners of her mouth.

38:22 When her eyes and her eyelids were pulled open, you could see that where the whites should have been of her eyes, it was this puffy, red, swollen, bloody looking eyes, like what you would expect of someone who has strangled to death. So for perspective, conscious victims of strangulation will first feel terror and severe pain, and then if the strangulation persists, then comes the unconsciousness. But before lapsing into that unconsciousness, a strangulation victim usually will resist violently, and they usually reduce some type of injury to the face or to the hands of the assailant who is trying to strangle them, unless maybe they were, you know, drugged or incapacitated in some way and unable to fight. So as detectives are sitting there and they're looking over her body with their flashlights in the dark, they're awaiting the coroner to arrive. The officers had they all had this solemn quietness about them looking over this young girl's life that had been just stripped from her, when suddenly an officer's gasp cut through the quiet of the night, followed by did you just see that? So everyone's eyes quickly fixed to the spot of the officer's flashlight where it was pointing, and he said, I think her chest just rose.

39:47 So they all got closer and they're like, no way, bro, she's dead. But then an eyelid twitch. So one of the officers dropped down to his knees and he grabs her hand so tenderly, and you can see in the bodycam video Ashley, Ashley, can you hear me, honey, Ashley? And they flashed the light in her eyes, and she didn't verbal you know, she didn't verbally respond, but her pupils reacted to the light and they all saw it, and so the urgency in their voices obvious, you can tell it in the body cam footage. And they start yelling, get an ambulance, get an ambulance. She's alive, She's alive. And suddenly the obviously dead girl was seeming to just have a flash of life left in her. She couldn't move, she couldn't respond, she couldn't in any way communicate with these officers around her, but they assured her that they would do what they could to protect her, and she was rushed to the hospital. But paramedics told those officers that they would be beyond surprised if she even survived the ride. She was barely breathing. I mean, this was like the death rattle. So clearly, at this point, Sam had been arrested and he was in police custody. Back at the station, they were documenting his body through photographs.

41:02 You know, they'll take your shirt off and they're taking pictures, and so they're photographing his hands and his wrists and all that. But they were very surprised to find that he had no marks on him, like none, zero, not a scratch, And that's just not a coincidence and beyond weird considering the level of violence that had been inflicted upon this young girl. So that's when officers wondered if Ashley had been able to fight back or did something else happen before he started to strangle her, And that is when they asked some questions, and Sam gave one of the coldest confessions of what all he did to Ashley, a seventeen year old girl who he once taught in the seventh grade. During their fight that they had in the car. He admitted that he grabbed her in a choke hold, one of the famous moves that he often would practiced during his wrestling, and as he squeezed, she began to struggle, and as she struggled, he would squeeze even harder and harder and harder and so hard that that constant pressure that was applied tighter and tighter. He kept squeezing, and then he said he felt and heard a loud snap, and Ashley immediately dropped limp. It went boom, and then her body just collapsed limp. He had squeezed

42:33 her so hard around her neck he literally snapped her neck, breaking it and this explained why she was unable to fight back. Hence he had no visible scratch marks on his body. Her body was paralyzed and she went into shock, needing immediate attention, and she was also suffering severe brain trauma when her neck snapped. Then explain what he did, and I want you to listen to him in his own words as he callously details his next steps with Ashley's body. Did he get help? Of course, not take a listen.

43:13 I took the belt, I pulled. I pull it on her neck. I don't know how long I hold on, and it turned my head because I didn't want to see. And all of a sudden I heard I heard like a gurgle, and then all of a sudden, when I heard the gurgle, I let go. And when I let go, she had spit home coming out of her mouth. And then i'd then I'd seen that she was the sickest color I'd ever seen. My dune was like. Kind of protruding like between like that between the teeth. Y'all snapped her neck in a chokehold, and that wasn't enough.

43:55 Then took off his belt and strangled her with it. He wrapped around her neck and then used it for leverage, putting her foot on her and just using it for legge leverage, and then strangling her until she stopped breathing, or at least he thought. And then he just booked it out of there, dumped her in the woods, and then just left to go line dancing. That's cold. That's cold. That is so cold hearted. Do you know how much pressure you would need to freaking break a belt? You're squeezing a belt around someone's neck so tight that you break the belt. That is incredible to me. He meant business, y'all, This was no accident. He didn't just panic. He meant this.

44:42 He absolutely meant this. And then he never called for help, He never offered her assistance, and he tried to finish her off. I've got some photos for you too on Patreon if you can go check him out. So Sam was arrested right and while he was awaiting jail, he then made the most incredible, most out of touch with the reality statements that I I'm telling you I've heard a lot. This was just unbelievable. He asked the detectives if he was gonna be able to go home and get his contact solution so his eyes didn't hurt, and he also wanted his toothbrush before he was booked into the jail. Did Ashley get her contact solution as she lay with a broken neck in the woods for thirty hours?

45:27 Sam he then also asked, y'all's unbelievable. He then also asked for his own private toilet. Am I gonna get my own private toilet? He said, you know, because I have a urinary stress disorder and I couldn't pee in front of people. It would just and direct quote, I would just be miserable if I had to share a toilet. Oh, motherfucker, I don't even know what else to say. Right here, Your deck worked fine when you were having sex with an underage kid in the back of her car in public, It worked just fine. Then now you're shy. Now you're shy having to t tee in front of people. Where do you think Ashley pede for thirty hours when she couldn't move, she couldn't fight off the bugs biting her or the animals nibbling on her. I'll tell you where.

46:15 She pissed on herself, in the woods, on the ground, alone, in the cold, and in the rain. So sorry if I don't have an ounce of sympathy for this moron right here. He was charged with attempted murder, but he made bail right afterwards while he was awaiting trial. And this is when the douche meets the frickin' bag. This douchebag here, Then he's all scared and sad right about what he's just done to a child, and so he makes this half ass attempt at committing suicide. But let's talk about it. And I'm not knocking suicide or making it seem like it's not a big deal, but let's talk about what he did. He took a handful of pills and then rugged some yaeger. Dude, that's a Saturday night in Louisiana for half the people here, like, what are you talking about? You took some pills and chugged some yaeger and then the douchebag calls nine to one one.

47:11 They show up and he starts fighting them and spitting at them like this real attempt of he wants to die. And then they get him to the hospital and he has written a note on his chest that's like, don't save me. It was not a legitimate attempt. It was some ploy to get sympathy. When he went to court, he knows it. I know it. God knows it. Now, you know it. Sam, You're a douchebag if you're listening. So he does eventually plead guilty, and he sent its to twenty years in prison. On June fifteenth, two thousand and seven and guess what, you're gonna love this. He was just recently released on parole from the Illinois Department of Corrections. When I say just recently released, I mean this year right now while you're listening to this. On April twenty second, after he served seventeen years of his twenty year sentence, he was released. Poetically, I guess he did serve one year in prison for every year of Ashley's life at the time that he tried to kill her.

48:10 And he's going to remain on parole for the remaining three years of his sentence, which will make him forty seven years old when it's all said and done. So, he is free and he is out there. So if you're in the great state of Illinois, hey, you should suggest my podcast to him so I can tell me he's a fucking booshbag. Ashley did end up surviving, and she had a very long road to recovery, y'all. She had to relearn to walk, to talk, to speak, to swallow, to do all of the basics. She was in a coma for a long time because her brain wouldn't He just kept relapsing and she wouldn't wake up. And even when she did wake up, she couldn't do much. This was a very slow process. It wasn't quick recovery. But Ashley was a fighter, and I'm happy to report, as is not usually the case in my podcast, I am happy to report that Ashley made a full recovery and today she's married and she's a mother of children. Now, while I know that Sam's family didn't do this, I was reading an article where they were quoted as saying that he pled guilty to stop the assassination of his character. Well, the only assassination attempt I saw was of a seventeen year old girl, if you want to put it blunt and so, I guess you know. They say a good woman will stay by your side no matter how much you lie, you cheat, or steal. But me, personally, I don't know who the hell that woman is other than your mama, Sam, because it's sure ain't us.