Following the bloody trail
by Mike Kroll
Nicholas Sheley is only 28 years old but he already had a long
criminal history prior to his recent arrest for first degree murder, aggravated
battery, aggravated vehicular hijacking and theft; and those are just his Knox
County charges, many more are pending elsewhere. Law enforcement officials in
Whiteside County can recount a criminal career that spans nearly two decades
and included felonies while Sheley was still in grade
school. In just the last ten years since immediately prior to his 18th birthday
Sheley has had numerous and regular run-ins with
police, many involving violence or threats of violence, yet he has successfully
avoided consequences for most of his actions. His most recent spree was so
brutal that he literally left a trail of his victim's blood in his wake.
Today Sheley calls the Knox County Jail home as he sits awaiting
trial for Knox County crimes that could earn him a death penalty but that are
but the tip of an iceberg representing a multi-state violent spree that left at
least eight dead. This current episode in Sheley's
colorful life apparently began with the June 14th push-in home invasion of a
90-year old woman in Sterling where allegedly forced the woman to write him
checks and stole cash and cigarettes before leaving her alive. Sheley is immediately the prime suspect and a $750,000
warrant is issued June 23 as the manhunt begins.
Family of
93-year old Russell Reed or rural Sterling report him missing at 8am on
Thursday, June 26 along with his car. While investigating the Reed home
Whiteside County Sheriff's deputies locate a car registered to Sheley parked nearby. By 3pm that afternoon police locate
Reed's missing care in a residential driveway in Sterling and find Reed's
bludgeoned body in the trunk. That evening an off-duty Rock Falls police office
sights Sheley driving a white Lincoln Continental
whose owner reports as stolen later that night. Along with the car itself Sheley was also believed to have taken cash and two hand
guns. At 9:45 that night the stolen car with Sheley
at the wheel is spotted by Dixon Police who unsuccessfully chase the fleeing
vehicle until they lose sight of it. The next morning a Dixon resident reports
that a red 1999 Jeep Cherokee was stolen from his home and the Lincoln is found
abandoned nearby.
Police now
believe Sheley drove to Chicago on Friday to sell the
guns and other stolen merchandise and purchase drugs but the Whiteside County
manhunt was in full steam. The local SWAT team conducted raids on multiple suspected
hideouts in the Sterling-Rock Falls area and arrested Sheley's
older brother Josh, 31 accused of assisting Sheley
dispose of Reed's car by parking at his girlfriend's house where it was
discovered. The girlfriend, Jenna Henson will be later arrested for allegedly
helping Sheley disposed of blood-soaked clothes he
may have worn in the five Saturday night murders.
After
purchasing his drugs in Chicago Sheley drove first to Davenport where he
telephoned his ex-wife from a rest stop pay phone. Police say Sheley had previously ditched his own cell phone shortly
after the Reed homicide so he couldn't be tracked through it. He then drove to
Rock Island where he apparently broke into the Illinois Petroleum facility
where he stole some clothing and the truck he later drove to Galesburg Saturday
night.
Geography
brought Sheley to Galesburg on Saturday, June 28
where he is alleged to have accosted Ronald Randall at the Southard's Car Wash
on East Main Street at a little after 8pm as Randall was vacuuming the interior
of his dark gray 2007 Chevy Silverado pickup truck. Apparently Randall was
leaning into the passenger-side door when Sheley is
presumed to have attacked him from behind with a still unidentified Òblunt
objectÓ beating Randall about the head and face. Randall was then carried or
dragged to the tailgate of his truck and thrown into the truck bed beneath a
tarp.
Earlier
reports had Sheley arriving in Galesburg hours before
Randall was attacked but police now believe that Sheley
arrived in a stolen Illinois Petroleum truck just before 8pm that Saturday and
he was gone within the hour. Evidence shows Sheley
exiting westbound off I-74 at the Main Street exit. Officials have reason to
believe that Sheley cruised at least one other
parking lot as he searched for a replacement vehicle before he arrived at the
car wash. Randall was already busy at his truck when Sheley
arrived well before dark and accosted the 65 year old man in plain sight.
Mere
minutes later Sheley is alleged to have driven
eastbound on Main Street with Randall in the back of the truck. There is reason
to believe that while Randall was mortally injured he was not yet dead when his
body was dumped beside the dumpster in back of the East Main Street Hy-Vee. A
trail of blood was found leading to and from the Hy-Vee dumpster area.
Randall's body was not reported to police until Monday shortly after noon. It
had been beside the dumpster approximately 40 hours before police were called
are reportedly had been seen by Hy-Vee employees Saturday night who dismissed
it as that of a drunk and did not investigate further until Monday.
Witnesses
as well as other evidence have Sheley driving
Randall's pickup truck into the parking lot of the Hy-Vee gas station at about
8:20 pm Saturday where he parked beside a gas pump and entered the convenience
store to purchase cigarettes. Sheley was wearing
bloody clothes from the Illinois Petroleum truck and he had visible blood on
his face and neck but this apparently did not seem sufficiently suspicious to
cause the gas station employees to take special note of the man or vehicle or
call police. Again a trail of blood was found tracing the path of the pickup
and puddling where it was briefly parked.
When Sheley drove off minutes later he turned eastbound on Main
Street presumably to get back on I-74. Later that Saturday night he arrived
back in Rock Falls. Police estimates place him there after 10pm. In Rock Falls he allegedly attacked and
beat to death two men (Kenneth Ulve Jr., 25 and Brock
Branson, 29) a pregnant woman (Kilynna Blake, 20) and
Blake's two-year old son in the apartment shared by the four. Speculation is
that Sheley went back to Rock Falls to confront
Branson who had previously had a relationship with Sheley's
former wife, Holly. Branson met Blake in Utah and brought her and her son back
to live with him in Rock Falls.
When Sheley left Rock Falls late Saturday night he was en route
to Festus, Mo. Attempting to locate a woman with whom he had conducted a
correspondence while in jail but who eventually scorned him. His letters to her
as well as the return addresses on her letters to him all had a Festus address.
Sheley allegedly spent much of Sunday in an
unsuccessful search for this woman as he drove Randall's pickup.
A couple
from Arkansas, Tom and Jill Estes (both 54) were also visiting Festus that
weekend as they attended a graduation ceremony Sunday afternoon and evening.
The couple left the party at around 10:30pm to return to their motel room at
the Festus Comfort Inn along with two small dogs. They never made it back to
their room that night because they had the misfortune of crossing paths with Sheley in the parking lot late that evening. The couple was
brutally beaten in that parking lot and their bodies thrown into the bed of
Randall's pickup truck so they could be driven a 1 1/2 miles to be dumped
behind a gas station. St. Louis area police officials say they found the bodies
by following yet another of Sheley's blood trails
from the Comfort Inn parking lot to the Phillip's 66 gas station. The two small
dogs were found wandering about the parking lot covered in their masters'
blood.
Large
amounts of blood were later found on the truck's passenger seat and in the
truck bed that officials have positively identified to include that of Randall
and Sheley. Other physical evidence, including Sheley's fingerprints, have been processed by forensic
technicians in St. Louis where the truck was recovered on the morning of
Monday, June 30th. St. Louis police believe Sheley
abandoned the Randall truck and stole another vehicle that he used to return to
Illinois, but not before he left a bloody trail in St. Louis.
When
Randall's family reported him missing Monday they also told Galesburg Police
about the On-Star system built into his missing truck and suggested that it
could be used to locate him. At that time they did not suspect foul play.
On-Star officials were contacted and subsequently were able to direct St. Louis
police to the truck there. By the time the truck was located so too had
Randall's body.
What is
amazing about this case is that the suspect left such a clear and consistent
trail of physical evidence at each step along the crime spree. While there are
apparently no direct witnesses to any of the killings themselves there is ample
evidence connecting Sheley to each and every one of
them according to police officials. That is certainly true in the murder of
Randall here in Galesburg and why Knox County State's Attorney John Pepmeyer was so quick to press charges against Sheley. Galesburg police and Pepmeyer
have already hosted multiple conferences involving police officials and
prosecutors from Whiteside County as well as St. Louis, along with Illinois
State Police and lawyers from the Illinois Attorney General's office.
On
Wednesday Sheley had his second Knox County Circuit
Court appearance — before Judge Steven Bordner
this time — where he was assigned a public defender until he can retain
private counsel. He continues to wait in the Knox County Jail on a $1 million
bond. So far the only other murder for which Sheley
has been formally charged is that of Reed in Whiteside County but additional
murder charges again him are expected in both Whiteside County and Missouri and
it has yet to be determined where he should first be tried.
While many
members of the press and public have opined that Sheley
should first be tried in Whiteside County as Reed was the first victim and five
of the eight victims were in that county, experienced lawyers counter that the
best strategy is to try Sheley first where they have
the most compelling case regardless of the chronology of events.
7/10/08