Shawn Grate Arrested in Ashland After a Captive Woman Calls 911
Police who answered her call found the bodies of two women in the house, and Grate led detectives to a third in Richland County.
Published
The call came early on Tuesday, September 13, 2016. A woman was on the line to the police in Ashland, Ohio, saying she had been abducted, and she was calling from inside the house where she was being held. When officers reached the home, they found her alive. They also found the bodies of two other women.
The man who lived there, Shawn Michael Grate, 40, was arrested and charged with kidnapping. Detectives said that after the two bodies were found in the house, he led them to a third body, in neighboring Richland County. The police released little else that first day.
By Thursday the Ashland County Prosecutor's Office had filed two counts of murder against him on top of the kidnapping charge, and said more charges could follow. According to the prosecutors, Grate had held the woman who called 911 against her will from September 11 to September 13 "for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity." One of the women found dead in the house was identified as Stacey Stanley, 43; court documents said she had been killed sometime between September 8 and the day her body was found. The second woman had not yet been identified. She had been killed, the documents said, on or after August 16.
At his bond hearing on Friday, Judge Ronald P. Forsthoefel set bond at $1 million. Asked whether he agreed to the conditions, Grate answered, "Sounds fair."
What this story covers. The 911 call, the rescue, the discovery of two bodies in the house, the kidnapping charge and the third body in Richland County come from the Associated Press report carried by WCBE in Columbus on September 14, 2016. The murder charges, the prosecutors' account of the captivity, Stacey Stanley's name and age, the time frames given in court documents and the bond hearing come from News 5 Cleveland's report of September 15 and 16, 2016. At the time, police had not identified the second woman in the house or the remains in Richland County, and this story does not name them.
Sources
- Suspect In Discovery Of Bodies In Ashland, Richland Counties Identified, WCBE 90.5 FM (Associated Press)
- Murder charges filed against man arrested in Ashland abduction, News 5 Cleveland (WEWS)