Family, friends of killing spree suspect baffled

And for a week, the newlyweds were a model family.

Nicholas took the couple's 2-year-old daughter and Holly's 10-year-old daughter to the park and swimming every day. He mowed the lawn. He washed dishes without being asked.

"For that one week, I thought that no one could have asked for a better son-in-law," said Frey.

That began to end when the couple, who were saving for their own house, took their green Cadillac to a car title loan company. Sheley promptly used some of the $1,000 loan to buy alcohol, Frey said.

He turned mean, like he often did when he was drinking or on drugs. He and Holly quarreled, and Sheley stormed out of the house, hopped in the car and took off.

That was June 23, Frey said--three days before the body of a 93-year-old man was found in the trunk of his car, the first of eight people authorities allege Sheley brutally killed in Illinois and Missouri over several days. He was arrested July 1 outside a southern Illinois tavern after an intense manhunt.

Sheley is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Russell Reed, of Sterling, and Galesburg resident Ronald A. Randall, 65, whose body was found behind a food store June 30. Sheley is being held in the Knox County jail in lieu of $1 million bond in the Randall slaying.

A judge on Wednesday appointed public defender Jim Harrell to represent Sheley, though the suspect said he is trying to find a private attorney. Harrell would not comment to The Associated Press, saying he had not yet met his client.

He also has been named a suspect--but not yet charged--in the deaths of four people in a Rock Falls apartment and a married couple in Festus, Mo. The bodies of Kenneth Ulve, 25, Brock Branson, 29, Branson's fiancee, Kilynna Blake, 20, and her 2-year-old son, Dayan Blake, were found in Branson's apartment June 30. The bodies of Jill and Tom Estes, of Sherwood, Ark., were found the same day behind a Festus gas station.