According to the Illinois Daily Journal, 17-year-old Ashley Reeves disappeared on April 27, 2006 only to be found more than a day later in a park, clinging to life.
He said that he tried to push her out of a moving car, and when her neck cracked, he carried her to the park “to make it look like she got strangled there.” In an interview with Elizabeth Smart for Crime Watch Daily, Reeves said that the fight happened after she’d tried to end things.
“It’s kinda hard to believe that this is actually where I was for that long and in that condition,” Reeves said.
Anwen O’Driscoll, who plays Reeves in the Lifetime film, told the Sioux City Journal that she reached out to Reeves while preparing for the role, but didn’t want to grill her about the experience.
With the exception of that 2017 interview with Smart, Reeves has understandably wanted to put the whole thing behind her.
According to Illinois inmate records, Shelton is still serving out his sentence at the Hill Correctional Center in Galesburg, Illinois.