On April 27, 2006, Reeves was reported missing. Over a day later, authorities found Reeves in a densely wooded park in Illinois, according to the Illinois Daily Journal. She survived, but barely. In critical condition, she went to the hospital while police tried to figure out who did this to her. At first, police had no idea who to suspect in Reeves’s attempted murder, but after various interviews, 26-year-old teacher Samson Shelton became the prime suspect.

However, his attorney, Justin Kuehn, said Shelton would plead not guilty. “We want people to know we plan to fight this," Kuehn said. But the evidence against Shelton was overwhelming. As his story continued to change, police learned that he met Reeves when she attended a middle school he taught at and the two eventually began a romantic relationship.

When they tried to break it off, they got into a violent fight in which Shelton tried to push Reeves out of his moving car. When her neck cracked, Shelton carried her and dumped her in the park “to make it look like she got strangled there,” according to CBS. He admitted to then tightening his belt around her neck, after which he heard a gurgle and then nothing, assuming she was dead.

However, Reeves was found 30 hours later, still alive, and between the work of the police, doctors, and nurses, she was able to survive and tell her story. Because of the injuries and trauma, much of her memory around the incident is fuzzy, but she now lives her life without being defined by her attempted murder.