Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Wife of Accused Killer Seeks Reward

MORRISONVILLE, Ill. (CN) - The wife of a man accused of a two-state killing spree last summer that left eight dead says she's entitled to some of the reward money for her husband's capture. Holly Gaul Sheley told Sauk Valley Newspapers that she was the biggest lead in Nicholas Sheley's capture in a Granite City, Ill. bar last July.

Sheley, who is in the Whiteside County jail for a drunken driving case, said the money could go toward helping Nicholas Sheley's six children who are suffering because "they no longer have a father around."

Nicholas Sheley has two children with Holly, is the stepfather to two other children and had two children with his first wife. The FBI recently gave $5,000 apiece to two Granite City residents who recognized Sheley in the bar.

Holly Sheley claims investigators already knew Nicholas Sheley was in the Granite City area because she persuaded him to call his attorney, who persuaded him to surrender.

She acknowledged that her cooperation came begrudgingly after authorities allegedly holed her up in a hotel room until Nicholas was captured, secretly taping their telephone conversations, The Associated Press reported. Holly Sheley said she feared authorities would kill her husband.

"I begged (Nick) to turn himself in, because I was scared of what they would do to him if he came back here," she told the Sauk Valley Newspapers this month. "I didn't want to have to explain it all to my children."

Ross Rice, an FBI spokesman, told The AP that Holly Sheley has not formally approached the FBI to seek a part of the reward. If she did, Rice said, the FBI would review it.

Holly Sheley's claim upset Rock Falls, Ill. Police Chief Mike Kuelper. Four of Sheley's alleged killings happened in Rock Falls.

"This is the same young lady quoted in the paper saying that (Sheley) is a wonderful man when he's not doing drugs and that she allowed him to do drugs in front of the kids," Kuelper told the AP.

Nicholas Sheley, 29, of Sterling, Ill., is charged in the bludgeoning deaths last June of six people in Illinois and two in Missouri. He pleaded not guilty and is being held in Knox County, Ill. on $10 million bond.

Follow @@joeharris_stl
Categories / Uncategorized

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...