Ashley Reeves Survived an Attempted Murder — Where Is She Now?

“It’s roughly hard to consider that that is in reality where I used to be for that lengthy and in that condition. Maybe I am as tricky as everybody says I'm."

Mar. 12 2024, Published 8:39 a.m. ET

Content warning: This article contains descriptions of attempted murder.

Many true crime stories are left unsolved, but that doesn’t make the solved cases any less harrowing. Ashley Reeves was just 17 years old when she was found barely breathing in a densely wooded park in Illinois. The incident left Reeves in a dire situation as police went after her assailant. It took some time, but the following year, her attempted murderer was in custody.

What actually happened to Reeves is a terrifying story, and hopefully, something that could never happen today with the power of cell phones and other types of technology. Even still, Reeves’s assailant will be up for parole on April 22, 2024, so it’s likely we’ll hear more about her story and where she is now.

What happened to Ashley Reeves? Her boyfriend with tried to murder her.

On April 27, 2006, Reeves was reported missing. Over a day later, authorities found Reeves in a densely wooded park in Illinois, according to the Illinois Daily Journal. She survived, but barely. In critical condition, she went to the hospital while police tried to figure out who did this to her. At first, police had no idea who to suspect in Reeves’s attempted murder, but after various interviews, 26-year-old teacher Samson Shelton became the prime suspect.

However, his attorney, Justin Kuehn, said Shelton would plead not guilty. “We want people to know we plan to fight this," Kuehn mentioned. But the evidence in opposition to Shelton was once overwhelming. As his tale persevered to change, police discovered that he met Reeves when she attended a center college he taught at and the two in the end began a romantic courting.

When they attempted to spoil it off, they were given into a violent struggle through which Shelton tried to push Reeves out of his transferring car. When her neck cracked, Shelton carried her and dumped her in the park “to make it seem like she were given strangled there,” according to CBS. He admitted to then tightening his belt around her neck, and then he heard a gurgle after which nothing, assuming she was once dead.

However, Reeves used to be discovered 30 hours later, nonetheless alive, and between the paintings of the police, docs, and nurses, she was once able to survive and tell her story. Because of the wounds and trauma, a lot of her reminiscence around the incident is fuzzy, but she now lives her life without being defined via her attempted murder.

Now, Ashley Reeves is a mother to two children in Illinois.

After the incident, Reeves was once in such unhealthy condition that she had to relearn the whole lot, from swallowing to walking and talking. In an episode of Crime Watch Daily with Elizabeth Smart, Reeves revisited the park where she used to be found. “It’s kind of laborious to believe that this is in fact where I used to be for that long and in that condition,” she stated. “[It] makes me really feel like possibly I am as tough as everyone says I'm. I’m a fighter and I simply keep short of to push myself more difficult and more difficult.”

In 2021, Lifetime made a dramatized movie of Reeves’s tale called Left for Dead: The Ashley Reeves Story. At the tip of the film, it’s revealed that Reeves has two youngsters, who she’s elevating in Illinois while working as a caregiver. Perhaps her revel in informed her resolution to deal with others, but Reeves tries to live with out that defining her. Now 35 years old, she helps to keep a low profile with her ultimate recorded interview in 2017.

If you or someone you realize is experiencing home violence, name the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.

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