Suspect in 8 slayings is arrested

A manhunt for an “armed and dangerous” suspect in eight slayings across Illinois and Missouri concluded quietly Tuesday night when Nicholas Troy Sheley stepped outside a bar to smoke and was arrested.

The arrest ended a day of alarm in the Midwest as police in Rock Falls, Ill., investigated the killings of two men, a woman and a child, while police in Festus, Mo., tried to make sense of the slayings of a visiting couple from Arkansas whose bloody dogs were found wandering in a parking lot. Other killings took place in the western Illinois towns of Sterling and Galesburg.

About 7 p.m., a disheveled Sheley happened into a nearly empty Granite City, Ill., tavern called Bindy’s that is frequented by off-duty police, said Bill Watson, 55, the owner.

He said Sheley, 28, looked nervous, disoriented and shaky -- “not our usual clientele.”

Two customers and a bartender recognized him, Watson said: Just before he walked in, they had been watching television coverage that featured his mug shot.

A customer stepped outside and flagged down police, Watson said.

Then Sheley tried to light a cigarette and was sent outside to smoke.

“That’s when the police caught him,” Watson said.

The FBI said all eight victims were killed by “blunt force trauma” to their heads.

Public records show that Sheley spent three years in prison on robbery, drug and weapons convictions.