Their bodies were found Tuesday inside a supposedly unoccupied home in Ashland after a third woman called 911 from inside a bedroom and said Grate was holding her hostage.
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Stacey Stanley, from Greenwich, Ohio, has been identified as one of the deceased victims, Ashland County Prosecutor Christopher Tunnell said in a press release.
Authorities are working to identify one of those bodies as well as a third body found at a house in neighboring Richland County. Authorities arrived and found the woman and two bodies at the Ashland property.
Each of the murder counts Grate is charged is punishable by prison sentences of 15 years to life.
The woman whose emergency call led to the grisly discoveries whispered to a dispatcher in Ashland, Ohio, she was afraid of waking her captor. It could take months to identify the body, after which charges will be filed in that case, authorities said.
According to Ashland police, the call came Tuesday from inside the home of Shawn Grate, where a kidnapped woman managed to partially untie herself from ropes used to restrain her. “I want justice, and I will not rest until I see justice is done”, Tunnell said.
Grate has another hearing scheduled for Monday morning.
This woman is saved, thanks to her bravery and the awesome help from the dispatcher and the rest of the police and task forces that showed up when she needed them.
Grate allegedly kidnapped the woman, forcing her to engage in sexual activity since Sunday, according to court documents.
Grate confessed that he had killed a woman in June at a house that was destroyed by fire that month, Richland County Prosecutor Bambi Couch Page told the Mansfield News Journal. She said they were headed to “his place” when things went awry.
One of them has now been identified as that of Stacey Stanley, the woman last seen on September 8.
Authorities checked the Mansfield-area site Tuesday and found decomposed remains in a ravine behind the house.
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Grate is charged with kidnapping in the escaped woman’s abduction.
