The Call That Changed Everything: The Ohio Strangler

Gina Westfall
Apr 8
8 min read

It was a September day in 2016 when a 911 call came into dispatch in Ashland, Ohio. The caller told the dispatcher she had been abducted and was being held in an abandoned house across from a laundry mat. While police immediately raced to the scene where two yellow abandoned houses stood, the caller told the dispatcher the name of her abductor, Shawn Grate. She knew him from the local community center. He had held her captive since September 11^th, 2016, approximately three days before.

The caller, referred to only as Jane Doe to protect her identity, was quiet in fear of waking her capture. This made it difficult for police to find her. The responding officers didn’t see any signs of people in the two yellow abandoned houses and almost gave up, thinking the call was perhaps a hoax. Then an officer saw her hand pressed against a window. As he rescued her, he stated it was a sight he would never forget. The woman had clearly been brutalized. Now she was safe.

The police arrested the sleeping man, Shawn Grate. He cooperated and was rather polite throughout the arrest. At the scene, women’s clothing was tied to the sides of the mattress which had been used to bind Jane during her captivity. The house was unkempt. It was truly an abandoned house that Shawn had been squatting in. He was arrested where just a pair of shorts. Jane explained that the two were friends, having met at the community center, and told stories of being brutally raped and tortured for the last several days. Shawn didn’t present himself as the type of person to commit these types of crimes, but he didn’t deny that it was him. He readily admitted his crimes, in fact. He admitted to much more than just attacking Jane.

Shawn Grate was born August 8^th, 1976, in Marion, Ohio. He didn’t speak until he was four years old. He was known to have learning disabilities and ADHD. He repeated the kindergarten and the first grade. He always had a tumultuous relationship with his mother. He described their relationship as one of mutual hate. His mother abandoned their family when Shawn was eleven and went to live with another man in Kentucky.

Shawn was an avid baseball player until a tumor was discovered in his arm and he had to have surgery to remove it. Following the surgery, during his high school years, he never played baseball again. During this time, his father moved in with a woman across the street, leaving Shawn and his brother to fend for themselves. Shawn admits the teenagers started to party and do whatever they wanted at that point with no parental supervision.

According to Shawn’s high school girlfriend, he experienced depression in which he would lie around for days at a time. However, he was never given proper treatment for his mental health. In 1994, he was arrested for grabbing his girlfriend’s throat. He graduated high school in 1995. In 1997, he was arrested for a felony burglary charge and sentenced to four years in prison but was released after just seven months on parole.

In 1999, Shawn’s then girlfriend was pregnant. He was known as a possessive partner and often very abusive. In this case, he threatened to kill her. During the fight, domestic violence was reported. This violated his parole and he was sent back to prison to finish serving his four-year sentence on the burglary charge. His first child was born while he was in prison.

Upon his release from prison in 2003, Grate met the woman that would bare his second child. He again became very possessive and controlling and domestic violence was a part of that relationship as well. He was accused of sexually assaulting her and arrested and charged for two counts of domestic violence against her. It’s unclear what sentence he was given on these charges. She gave birth to his second child, not allowing him access to this child either.

In 2011, Grate married a woman named Amber and had his own business making wooden signs. If anyone thought he had turned his life around, however, they were wrong. Amber became pregnant with his third child. Grate’s history of domestic abuse and violence became evident. Amber soon filed for divorce and took steps to keep Shawn away from their baby daughter. Shawn made ominous threats such as, “If I can’t see my daughter, then no one will”.

Between 2011 and 2016, Shawn was a vagrant, traveling from county to county in Ohio to dodge child support and charges on various crimes he had committed. He faced drug charges, domestic violence, child support contempt, and other petty crime charges. He mostly squatted in vacant homes, like the one in Ashland, and frequented shelters and community centers. He used his charm and charisma to make female friends that he would later take advantage of. Then came that ominous day in September of 2016.

After taking Jane Doe’s statement and sending her to the hospital for a full medical evaluation, sex crimes detective Kim Mager sat down with Shawn Grate. What he would confess to would shock not only the detective, but the entire community. Kim Mager was a special trained detective that learned to build rapport with suspects in order to tune in to their psyche. She was able to gain Shawn’s trust so he could confess, which he did in a matter-of-fact way that is chilling to watch on video.

Shawn admitted that he had befriended Jane at the Kroc Center, a local community center. He admired her faith in God and religious nature. He stated he wanted to marry her. Yet he also admitted to abducting her and raping her over and over again. She was different, it seemed, from the others. What others? He said that if they looked in a closet in the house he was squatting in, they would find a body. There was another body in the basement as well. Those weren’t even all of his victims. Shawn Grate was a serial killer. He told Kim Mager about his victims.

The vacant house that two of Shawn's murder victims were found in as well as his rescued victim was rescued from. It has since been torn down.

Dana Lowrey

According to Shawn, a woman came to his house in 2006 and sold his mother a magazine subscription that never arrived. He grew tired of hearing his mother complain about it, so he tracked the woman down. Her name was Dana Nicole Lowery. She was twenty-three years old. Originally from Louisianna, she was the mother of two children.

He said he led her back to his house where he strangled her. He said he dragged her down to the basement of his home, but she woke up. He confessed to stabbing her in the neck. He later dumped her body in a wooded area. She was found in Marion County Ohio in 2006 and was considered a Jane Doe until DNA evidence confirmed her identity in 2018.

Rebekah Leicy

Rebekah Leicy was a friend of Shawn’s that he often went to the bar with. Her body had been found in a wooded area in 2015 and had been ruled a drug overdose. According to Grate, he believed that Rebekah had stolen $4 dollars from his wallet, so he strangled her and dumped her body in the wooded area. Her death investigation was reopened upon his confession.

Candice Cunningham

Twenty-nine-year-old Candice Cunningham was Shawn Grate’s girlfriend in June of 2016. She thought she had found her soulmate. They had been dating one and off again for a few years. According to Shawn, Candice had problems with drug addiction and suicidal ideation. He described killing her after subjecting her to three days of torture. He said calmingly, “I just finished her”. He then set the house on fire. However, he removed her body and hid it in the woods. After his confession he led authorities to her body.

Elizabeth “Beth” Griffith

Twenty-nine-year-old Beth Griffith was a regular face for the Ashland Police Department. She never really was in trouble but frequently called for issues with neighbors and other minor issues. She went missing in September 2016. Shawn admitted to meeting her at the community center and taking advantage of her trusting nature. He strangled her, undressed her, hog tied her, and hid her in a closet in the abandoned house he was living in. He took steps to hide the odor by sealing the closet door closed. Police located the body the same day they rescued Jane Doe. DNA confirmed her identity despite decomposition.

Stacey Stanley (Hicks)

Stacey Stanley was not an Ashford resident but was traveling in Ashford about a week before Shawn’s arrest. She had the misfortune of getting a flat tire. Her son was coming to assist her, but she had run into Shawn Grate first. He helped her put the donut tire on her vehicle and the two decided to hang out.

Shawn admitted to strangling her and leaving her body in the basement of the house, where police discovered it that September day. She was identified by her family due to her tattoos and other identifying marks. He told a story of Stacy fighting, trying to mace him, but he was able to overpower the mother.

Motive

What could Shawn’s motive be? Experts believe it is the hatred he has for his mother. His mother was apparently an alcoholic who was distant and unloving towards her children. She abandoned her children early on and partied frequently as opposed to paying attention to Shawn. Shawn himself admits to a hatred for his mother. His mother compares Shawn to the devil.

In Shawn’s words: “They were already dead, just their bodies were flopping where it can flop but their minds were already dead…The state took their minds once they started receiving their monthly checks”.