Teacher who pleaded guilty to attempted murder freed on parole
FREEBURG, Ill. – The crime made international news in 2006 when a now-former Freeburg, IL, high school teacher tried to end an affair with a student by killing her.
Citizen’s Park in Belleville was the scene of the attempted murder. It’s where Sam Shelton said he’d killed a 17-year-old.
Investigators searched the woods, looking for Shelton’s victim. Former St. Clair County Sheriff’s Investigator Steve Johnson, who’s now Fairview Heights police chief, made the astonishing discovery after 30 hours of searching.
Finally, officers found her in the dark. She was alive. Police video captures the moment when you can hear Johnson and another investigator exclaim, “She’s breathing, she’s breathing. Get EMT!”
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Shelton was changing his story with interrogators, first saying he and the victim were just friends and later admitting he was having an affair with the student. Shelton eventually confessed that he thought he’d broken his victim’s neck with a belt after hearing a snap. That snap turned out to be the sound of the belt breaking.
Shelton was 26 years old at the time. He’s now 43.
Illinois Department of Corrections records indicate Shelton was paroled Monday.
He was last housed at the Illinois River Correctional Center in Canton, IL.
His parole does not indicate where he will be living and despite his affair with a student, he is not listed on the sex offender registry. The student was 17 at the time, which is the age of consent in Illinois. So, no sex crime was ever charged.
Instead, Shelton pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years in April 2007, meaning he was paroled three years short of his sentence.
FOX 2 was able to reach the victim in this case, but she declined to comment.
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