HS teacher accused of trying to kill teenage girl

[JonInMiddleGA]

I guess stories that involve a young victim and a teacher aren't really all that uncommon anymore, but this one caught my eye tonight.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060503/D8HC0I6G0.html
I recommend reading the whole article to get the details, but here's the basics:
ST. LOUIS (AP) - Ashley Reeves had been lying in the woods for more than 30 hours by the time searchers spotted her through the driving rain. The 17-year-old was covered with insect bites, her neck was broken, and investigators were sure she was dead - until she took a breath. A day earlier, authorities now believe, a high school teacher tried to kill her.

"It was almost disbelief that she was still alive," investigator Steve Johnson of the St. Clair County, Ill., Sheriff's Department, recalled Tuesday.

They had to clear brush and trees to get a stretcher to the girl, then rushed her to Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in St. Louis, where she was in serious condition Tuesday.

Johnson is now helping to build a case against the 26-year-old teacher and wannabe pro-wrestler, Samson Shelton, who is jailed on $1 million bond and charged with kidnapping and attempted murder.

Authorities have said Ashley and Shelton had a "relationship," though Johnson wouldn't elaborate or say how the girl, who attended a different school, knew the older man.

Now, normally I would have just filed that away mentally, but seeing the mention of "wannabe pro-wrestler" I was curious whether he was a backyard kind of wannabe or maybe he was working on the indy circuit somewhere, so I googled his name just to see what came up.

What I found was "Huff's Crime Blog" ... and a lot of interesting details about the suspect. I really can't do the thing justice by pasting here, so if you're interested, check out http://huffcrimeblog.com/
Since it's a blog, things might move around as he updates, but the posts are dated April 29th.

Basically, this guy has pieced together a lot of interesting/disturbing things about the suspect by checking myspace.com, Googling his name, etc. In particular, one thing really piqued my interest. It's apparently from some page for a softball team or something, a joke quiz from 2005 about whether "you have enough gray matter to do Sammy's job". According to the blogger the quiz itself isn't particularly funny or unusual, but what he (claims to have) found in the meta tags of the page is:"“This page is about the meaning of life, the universe, mankind, plants and Sam Shelton locking women up in a pit in his house.” The blogger goes on to cite some other references on other internet pages that at least paint an unflattering picture of the accused attacker.

I'm not sure exactly what about this makes me curious, I'm really not. I don't know if I'm headed down the path of "why didn't somebody report this guy if they thought he was into really bad stuff?", or "what the hell all is out there on the internet?", or even "how much free time does this blogger have to dig all this stuff up?". But the whole thing just really strikes me as ... bizarre. And, let's face it, if a teacher trying to kill a student seems less strange than some of the odd details behind the case ... well, that just seems really fucked up to me.

Hell, I dunno, maybe I'm just tired or something and I'm fixating on something that isn't all that interesting after all. But at the moment, it all struck me as being worth throwing against the wall here & getting some feedback on.

[Crim]

I'm left with these thoughts:

1) One hell of a grill on that young lady.

2) I'm very glad she was found alive, and I hope she has a full recovery.

3) What the hell kind of Associated Press story contains the "word" wannabe?!?

[Young Drachma]

Wow. I know just where that is. Not really all that crazy. Those towns down there are small and everybody seems to know everybody.

[Ghost of Cage McQuade]

Girl: Oh, Thamthon.. youre gonna be a great wrethler.

Samson: GRAAAGGGHHH!!!!!

Girl: *gargle*