BELLEVILLE, ILL. - Just hours after prosecutors say Samson R. "Sam" Shelton tried to murder Ashley Reeves, 17, he appeared "completely normal" as he taught drivers education

Friday morning at Freeburg High School, one of his students said Sunday.

"He was normal, joking around as usual," said Scott Brethauer, a freshman at

the high school. Brethauer said he saw nothing to indicate anything out of the

ordinary in Shelton's behavior.

Brethauer said that when he learned that Shelton had been arrested Saturday on

charges of trying to strangle Reeves and break her neck, "I couldn't believe

it."

Reeves was listed in serious condition Sunday evening at a hospital. Searchers

found her, severely injured and unable to speak, early Saturday in a

heavily wooded section of Citizens Park in Belleville. Authorities in St. Clair

County say Shelton tried to strangle her with a belt and break her neck with

his forearm.

They say Reeves was in the woods more than 30 hours before she was found. She

was last seen Thursday afternoon.

A hospital spokesman said Sunday that Reeves' injuries were "not immediately

life-threatening," but declined to answer additional questions.

Reeves, of Millstadt, is a junior at Columbia High School.

"All-American family"

Shelton's arrest has stunned students at the school and neighbors in the

upscale Wildwood Lake Estates neighborhood in Smithton where Shelton has been

living with his mother and grandmother.

The two-story brick home with a three-car garage sits in a country club setting

in the 5400 block of Live Oak Drive, with a well-manicured lawn and neatly

trimmed bushes.

Shelton, 26, who wrestled locally under the nickname "The Teacher," was active

in a variety of sports. He took part in a fast-pitch softball league, and a

recent profile on the team's Web site said his hobbies included "touching

hookers" and pornography.

Some who knew Shelton painted a different picture of him Sunday.

One neighbor, Craig Schwartz, said of Shelton and his family, "If you've ever

heard of the all-American family, that's who they were."

He called Shelton "very polite.

"He would call me Mr. Schwartz."

Craig Schwartz said he often saw Shelton working in the yard, doing chores for

his mother and grandmother.

"I don't know if he'd ever had a speeding ticket; he was just that clean-cut,"

said Schwartz's wife, Lisa Schwartz. She said Shelton's mother was a teacher

and a librarian at the Smithton library. She said she often saw the mother and

grandmother walking in the neighborhood.

Craig and Lisa Schwartz's son, Chris, said Shelton was an assistant coach with

Chris Schwartz's junior varsity baseball team last year. He said he also had

Shelton for a physical education class this year.

Chris Schwartz said he had heard from other students that Shelton was at the

high school earlier Friday - the morning after Reeves' disappearance. But he

said a substitute taught Shelton's 1:30 p.m. P.E. class, during a time when

Chris Schwartz was in the gym lifting weights.

Chris Schwartz said he had never known Shelton to show signs of violence.

"He was laid-back, almost overly laid-back," Chris Schwartz said. "He'd never

get in your face. It was very rare that he would ever even raise his voice.

"If anything, he was shy.

"This is bizarre."

The Schwartz family said Shelton had been away from the Smithton area for about

a year recently. They had been told that he was working at a school in St.

Louis.

billsmith@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8125