Shawn Grate, 40, is being held in the Ashland County Jail on a kidnapping charge in a connection case, according to Chief Deputy Carl Richert of the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office. “The cops said she was unrecognizable from the beating”. She had known him for about a month and a half, she told the dispatcher.
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The family of Stacey Stanley, one of the three women whose remains were recovered Tuesday as a result of a desperate 911 call placed by an allegedly abducted woman, is remembering her as a devoted mother who turned her life around following a years-long struggle with heroin.
Ashland officers later uncovered the remains of two women in and near the house where Grate was allegedly holding the kidnapped woman. She was reported missing on September 8.
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.
During a search of the home, investigators found the remains of two other women.
The local chapter of American Red Cross was called to the Ashland scene Tuesday evening to provide a mobile feeding unit for first responders. “The State Fire Marshal’s Office came in to investigate”.
Ashland County Prosecutor Christopher R. Tunnell said the investigation is still in the early stages and more charges could be filed.
Sheldon said Grate was a homeless man who spent time in the Park Avenue East house.
Authorities checked the Mansfield-area site Tuesday and found decomposed remains down a ravine in a wooded area behind the house.
The house was abandoned and Sheldon said the man and the woman had spent time in the house. “We need to properly identify the person”.
Grate later led authorities to a second location in Madison Township, where a third body was found.
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Richland County coroner’s investigator Bob Ball said a forensic anthropologist from Mercyhurst College out of Erie, Pa., will help authorities identify the body, as there is a significant amount of decomposition. The Court can be contacted at 419-282-4268 to obtain that information.
