That third body was found after Grate was arrested and told police that he was responsible for the death of a woman in Madison Township in Richland County, said county Prosecutor Bambi Couch Page, who said she had not seen the confession and hadn’t filed charges related to that death. An announcement on possible additional charges was expected Thursday.
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In the 911 call, the woman gives the dispatcher Grate’s name and said she had been walking with him to “his place” when he abducted her. At one point in the call she says, “I’m in the bedroom with him”.
The remains of two other people were also found.
Police confirmed Wednesday that one of the bodies was that of 43-year-old Stacey Stanley, of Greenwich, Ohio, who had been reported missing from Huron County.
Residents also reacted to the news of two bodies being found in the home.
She replies, “He can catch me and he’s strong”.
The dispatcher eventually convinces the woman to leave the room after she hears that officers have arrived.
Kurtis Stanley says his mother had health problems and was retired.
“If I had seen anything out of the ordinary, I would’ve called the police”, Balsizer said.
Bruce Wilkinson, pastor and director of Pump House Ministries, which owns the home and one next to it, said the properties had been vacant since March and were in the process of being renovated. Ashland police declined to say where they were found or provide other details.
The coroner hasn’t determined Stacey Stanley’s cause of death or identified the second body, Ashland police said in a statement.
Grate pointed investigators to a third person’s remains at a property near Mansfield in neighboring Richland County, police said. He couldn’t be reached for comment while in custody Wednesday.
Authorities checked the Mansfield-area site Tuesday and found decomposed remains of a woman down a ravine in a wooded area behind the house.
Authorities are working to identify the remains.
Grate, 40, whom police say is homeless, has been charged with abduction and was in the Ashland County jail Wednesday night.
Agents from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation were called to both scenes to help collect evidence Tuesday, and that work continued at the Richland County scene Wednesday.
Grate is being held on a kidnapping charge in a connection case, according to Chief Deputy Carl Richert from the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office. When police are closing in on the abandoned home on Covert Court, she describes the house as being connected to another and says she entered through a side door.
The woman said she was able to free herself from being tied up and called police on Grate’s phone while he was asleep.
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The son of a woman whose body was found in an OH house along with a second body says he last heard from her a week ago when she said she had a flat tire.
