6:55 AM
St. Louis Post-Dispatch | Posted: Wednesday, July 2, 2008 12:00 am
Tuesday, just minutes after customers had watched images of his face flash on
TV news broadcasts warning that he was wanted in the murders of eight people in
five days.
He ordered ice water and asked bar owner Bill Watson for a lighter.
"I gave it to him and didn't ask any questions," Watson said.
A Bindy's regular, GaryRange, recognized Sheley from across the room. Range,
56, of Granite City, talked with others in the bar and they agreed it was
Sheley. At least one patron called police.
Range walked out of the bar and spotted police. "I yelled out, 'We got the guy!
He's in here,'" he said.
Police arrested Sheley when he went out for a smoke. "This is first time the
smoking law came in handy," said Watson.
Police had been in the area, responding to a sighting of Sheley at a nearby
Subway restaurant.
The previous day, said Joseph Cook, owner of City Buzz salon in Granite City,
Sheley came in and spoke with a stylist.
"He said he needed to change his identity and asked about dying his hair
black," Cook said.
The salon staff was shocked Tuesday upon seeing news reports about their
mysterious client, Cook said.
Police alerts in Missouri and Illinois described Sheley as a methamphetamine
addict who recently told his ex-wife he had more killing to do.
His alleged victims, including an Arkansas couple found dead Monday behind a
Festus gas station, appear to have been killed by blunt force trauma to the
head, according to the FBI, which launched a nationwide manhunt for Sheley.
"He is strung out on drugs, he's desperate and we don't know what he is going
to do," said Festus Police Chief Tim Lewis moments before Sheley's arrest.
Police focused their search in St. Louis after finding a victim's blood-soaked
truck parked near Second and Cherokee streets Monday morning.
Late Monday night, witnesses told police, Sheley approached a group of
tailgaters outside Busch Stadium and asked to borrow a cell phone. Police would
not say to whom the call was placed, but said Sheley asked the group to delete
the phone number before disappearing among baseball fans.
Tuesday morning, police in tactical gear searched a Collinsville apartment
building at the request of the St. Louis Area Major Case Squad but didn't find
Sheley.
Police believe the killing spree began June 26 with the murder of 93-year-old
Russell Reed of Whiteside County, Ill. Police suspect Sheley then headed to
nearby Rock Falls, Ill., and on Saturday killed four acquaintances: Brock
Branson, 25, and Kenneth Ulve, 29, both of Rock Falls; and Kilynna Blake, 20,
and Dayan Blake, 2, both of Cedar City, Utah.
The spree continued that night 60 miles south in Galesburg, Ill.
Police in Galesburg believe Sheley stole a late-model pickup and killed its
owner, Ronald Randall, 65, of Galesburg, at a carwash. Police used the truck's
satellite-based OnStar feature Monday to trace the truck to the Second and
Cherokee streets location.
Galesburg Police Capt. Lindsey May said police there do not believe Sheley had
connections to the Galesburg area nor did he know Randall.
Sheley was charged Tuesday in connection with the killings of Randall and Reed.
Also Monday, police followed a 1 1/2-mile trail of blood from the parking lot
of the Comfort Inn in Festus, where Thomas and Jill Estes of Sherwood, Ark.,
were registered guests. The trail led to a gas station.
Lewis said police believe Sheley put the couple's bodies into a late model
dark-colored truck Sunday night and dumped them behind the gas station. He
would not say whether it was Randall's truck.
Jill Estes' co-workers at the elementary school where she worked with
special-needs students said she and her husband were in town for a relative's
graduation party in Florissant.
After hearing that Sheley had been caught, TollesonElementary School principal
Diane Ashenberger said, "We're so relieved."
She added: "Her children spent the day with the St. Louis medical examiner and
have been fearful thinking he was still out there."
Lewis said: "It was just a coincidence that the victims crossed paths with the
suspect and were beaten to death with blunt objects. It was obviously a very
violent struggle as they fought for their lives."
Three WhitesideCounty residents face charges of aiding Sheley in the past week.
Eric A. Smith, 21, of Rock Falls, Ill., is charged with obstruction of justice,
accused of hiding Sheley's clothes.
Joshua Sheley, the suspect's brother, is charged with helping to conceal a
homicide and obstructing justice.
Jenna Henson, 20, of Sterling, also is charged with obstructing justice.
Henson has been released on bond, while Joshua Sheley and Smith remained in
custody Tuesday in WhitesideCounty.
Nicholas Sheley has a criminal history of armed violence and resisting arrest.
Those involved with tipping police to Granite City said they plan to split a
$25,000 reward that police offered for information leading to the arrest.
They said it was strange that a fugitive would end up at Bindy's.
"I guess he didn't know this is a cop bar," Watson said.