National crime show puts spotlight on Ashley Reeves case

The April 2006 case of a missing teenage girl from Millstadt who was found nearly dead in the woods near Citizens Park in Belleville reached a national audience this week.

Crime Watch Daily, a nationally syndicated crime show with host Chris Hansen, did an episode on the disappearance of then-17-year-old Ashley Reeves, who went missing on April 29, 2006. A high school teacher, Samson Shelton, led police to her body after confessing to murder in a 13-hour interrogation. But instead of finding a lifeless body, they found that 17-year-old Ashley Reeves was barely breathing.

Shelton was sentenced to 20 years in prison for attempted murder while Reeves successfully recovered after rehabilitation. According to the Illinois Department of Corrections, Shelton is not scheduled to be parolled until April 2024.

Crime Watch Daily came to the metro-east in December to do interviews for the piece. Crime Watch Daily is shown locally weekdays at 2 p.m. on Fox 2.

Broken up into four segments, here is Crime Watch Daily piece on Reeves’ story:

This story was originally published February 7, 2017 at 12:29 PM with the headline "National crime show puts spotlight on Ashley Reeves case."