Granite City, Ill. ? The television image of fugitive murder suspect Nicholas Sheley’s mug shot was fresh in Samantha Butler’s mind as she ventured out to get dinner for the family, warning her relatives to lock the door behind her.

The real-estate agent discovered police swarming a Subway sandwich shop in the St. Louis suburb of Granite City, Ill., and overheard an officer say the man suspected of eight killings in two states had just been there and couldn’t be far. That’s when Butler decided Tuesday’s dinner would come from nearby Bindy’s bar, a police hangout with a grill.

At Bindy’s, Butler gave a description of the suspect and told the bartender that police were everywhere hunting for the 28-year-old fugitive. Then, she grew quiet and fearful as she got her first clear look across the bar and saw the wanted man sitting on a stool, staring back.

Butler quietly slipped out to flag down police, as did a Bindy’s regular who realized the stranger in a dirty T-shirt was the suspect he’d seen minutes earlier on the news.

Police arrested Sheley moments later, after he stepped outside for a cigarette.

The capture is the latest example of how quickly fugitives get flushed out when their names and faces are broadcast to the public.

“I can’t stress enough how important it was” to make Sheley’s mug shot and description public, said Tim Lewis, the police chief in Festus, Mo., where investigators suspect an Arkansas couple found slain were part of Sheley’s alleged rampage covering more than 250 miles.

“The pictures we put out helped us,” the chief said, smiling. With them, “you go from 100 sets of eyes to thousands.”

Authorities believe Sheley killed eight people in the final days of June.