FESTUS, Mo., July 11 (UPI) -- A Missouri woman says she feels responsible for the death of an Arkansas couple allegedly slain by accused spree killer Nicholas Sheley -- he was hunting her.
Teri Engel told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Sheley came to Festus, Mo., on June 30 looking for her. Investigators believe that Tom and Jill Estes of Sherwood, Ark., who were beaten to death near a Comfort Inn in Festus, were random victims.
Engel said she began writing Sheley while he was in prison for what she thought was drugs. She did not realize he also had a record of violence.
They corresponded and talked on the telephone, but two years ago she hung up on him when he called at 1 a.m. to say Merry Christmas and they never talked again.
"Maybe if he got what he wanted from me, like revenge for me hanging up on him two years ago, he would have moved on, or if I didn't write to him at all he wouldn't have come here," she said. "I'll never know why he was looking for me."
Engel's nephew has identified Sheley as the man who came to the door looking for her shortly before the Estes were killed.
Sheley was arrested outside a bar in Granite City, Ill., after allegedly killing eight people in two states.
