Christopher Grate is charged with killing Stacey Stanley and a second unidentified woman whose body was found in the home. That’s several blocks from where she was found, at a rundown home that faces a coin-operated laundromat.
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The woman as she was lying next to a grate.
Police said officers following up on the woman’s report Tuesday found her and Grate at a home that was supposed to be unoccupied.
A woman can be heard pleading for help as her accused abductor sleeps nearby in a 911 call released Wednesday.
The woman said the man had a stun gun, and she was afraid of waking him.
She told police that she and Grate had become friends about a month ago before he allegedly kidnapped her and held her captive in the abandoned house. When officers responded to the scene, they found the woman alive along with 40-year-old Shawn Michael Grate. Investigators also found the remains of two people at the home, Chief David Marcelli said.
Missing person flyers for Stacey Stanley remain posted on a laundry mat bulletin board.
Additional charges could be filed, Tunnell said.
Police confirmed Wednesday that one of the bodies was that of the 43-year-old Stanley, who lived in Greenwich and was reported missing from Huron County. Stanley’s son said that she had been missing since September 8 when she told him that she got a flat tire.
Bruce Wilkinson, pastor and director of Pump House Ministries, which owns the home and one next to it, said they had been vacant since March and were being renovated. The woman said, “Not unless they were right here”.
Ashland Police Department and Ohio BCI execute a search warrant on a home where a woman was held captive.
Ashland Police don forensics gear to inspect the house.
Once in custody, Grate told police that, in addition to the remains that were found in Ashland, he also killed another woman in June, according to WEWS.
Police believe one of those bodies may be Elizabeth Griffith who disappeared on August 16 in Ashland.
Authorities checked the Mansfield-area site Tuesday and found decomposed remains of a woman down a ravine in a wooded area behind the house. The remains haven’t been identified.
Perhaps most disturbingly, the Shawn Grate’s criminal past includes charges relating to abduction. It was unclear whether he had an attorney.
Stanley’s family claims that the 20 minute long phone call made by the abducted woman from the home of OH man Shawn Grate is added proof of the local police department’s inadequate and unacceptable response time.
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After the woman’s frantic 911 call and subsequent rescue, police arrested OH man Shawn Grate on suspicion of kidnapping and two counts of homicide.
