Ashley Reeves: Teacher seemed a normal youth
Indigo Ace
Teacher seemed a normal youth
Parents' divorce may have been turning point for him
BY BETH HUNDSDORFER
News-Democrat
Before Samson "Sam" R. Shelton was accused of choking and breaking the
neck of a former student, he appeared to be the All-American boy.
He grew up playing baseball in a small town, attended a local college
on an academic and athletic scholarship and followed his mother into
the teaching profession.
"It looked good on the surface, but no one knows what's going on
underneath," said Dr. Lawrence Jeckel, a forensic psychiatrist from
Champaign.
On April 27 everything changed for Shelton.
Police said that's when Shelton snapped 17-year-old Ashley Reeves'
neck with his forearm and choked her with a belt -- allegations his
lawyer said will be vigorously challenged -- then left her partially
buried in an overgrown area of Citizens Park for more than 30 hours.
The 26-year-old driver's ed teacher is now being held at the St. Clair
County Jail on charges of attempted murder and kidnapping of the teen
girl with whom he'd been having a relationship. He is on a suicide
watch.
What happened that Thursday after Reeves and Shelton met at Laderman
Park and what happened to allegedly cause Shelton to try to kill
Reeves isn't clear.
"There are all kinds of people who commit assaultive criminals acts
and are described as normal," Jeckel said.
Shelton was the second child of a stay-at-home mom and a U.S. Army
major, born March 9, 1980, at Fort Knox, Ky. Shortly after Shelton's
birth, his parents' marriage crumbled.
George and Susan Shelton ended their nine-year marriage when Sam
Shelton was seven months old. It was a bitter divorce.
George Shelton failed to pay promised child support, Susan Shelton
alleged. She sent letters to her congressman and Shelton's commanding
officer.
"The children didn't even get as much as a Christmas card from their
father," Susan Shelton wrote to her estranged husband's commander. "
... He never showed them any affection when he lived with them."
Both Sheltons were found in contempt of court.
Susan Shelton became a teacher and for about 20 years has worked at
Smithton Elementary. She didn't go to work Monday after her son was
charged and was granted a leave of absence effective Thursday, said
Smithton Superintendent Ed Settles.
A substitute will take over her first grade class for the rest of the
year, Settles said.
Sam Shelton and his brother, 32-year-old George Shelton Jr., lived on
Press Road in Freeburg with their mother, receiving financial support
from their father. He was a coordinator of student services at the
University of Kentucky in Lexington.
"I thought it was better for the kids to be with one parent than to be
with two who were always fighting," said George Shelton Sr. "Now in
retrospect that may not have been a good idea."
The Sam Shelton case was national news for a week, yet George Shelton
Sr. said he knew nothing about the charges until contacted by a
reporter.
He's had little contact with his sons, other than paying child support
and college expenses. He has no other children and asked about George
Jr.'s current whereabouts.
George "Bob" Shelton Jr. is a postdoctoral research assistant in
chemistry at the University of North Texas.
George Shelton Sr. has no plans to contact Sam Shelton.
"I made the decision and now I have to stick to it," he said.
Linda Ritchie was George Shelton Sr.'s second wife. They are now
divorced.
"He didn't have any contact with his children," Ritchie said. "I
always thought it was terribly sad -- maybe that led to some of
(Sam's) problems."
An abandoning father can lead to unstable children.
"It's a risk factor," Jeckel said.
Sam Shelton excelled in sports, especially baseball, receiving a
$2,000 athletic scholarship and a $1,000 academic scholarship to
McKendree College in Lebanon in 1998. He decided to became a teacher
like his mom.
He completed his student teaching in physical education at Millstadt
Elementary -- at the same time Ashley Reeves was a student.
After his graduation, he taught for a year in St. Louis, but in 2003
came back to his alma mater -- Freeburg High School. He taught drivers
ed and coached baseball until he was charged and resigned.
When he wasn't teaching, he was a professional wrestler known as "The
Teacher" or "Mr. Discipline."
Shelton spent his free time playing fast-pitch softball, playing poker
and country line dancing as a regular at Wild Country in Collinsville.
His only vice appeared to be Grizzly Chewing Tobacco.
When Shelton met Reeves recently at the Soulard Mardi Gras, Shelton
may not have even remembered her from his student teaching days in
Millstadt.
The two met to play basketball at Laderman Park and to talk at a
shopping plaza in Columbia, according to Reeves' friend Kristie
Baumgartner. Reeves denied to her friend that she was romantically
involved with the man nine years her senior.
On April 27, Reeves left her home and told her aunt she was going to a
job interview. Her car was found hours later in Laderman Park.
Shelton went on with his routine.
Hours after the attack, he went to Wild Country to line dance.
The next morning, he went to his teaching job and instructed his
driver's education students to cruise Laderman Park, where Reeves left
her vehicle. Students said he was the regular, joking Mr. Shelton.
"This kind of behavior is called compartmentalizing," Jeckel said.
"They are so disassociated with their feelings of guilt and shame that
they can't identify with them. It's like a feeling of strolling down
memory lane or redreaming the same dream."
Shelton led police to Reeves in a wooded area of Citizens Park at 2
a.m. April 29. Reeves had been lying there for 30 hours, suffering
from a broken neck, numerous bug bites and exposure -- but still
breathing.
Reeves remains in serious condition at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's
Hospital in St. Louis.
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