Meet The Other Me

Summary

Podcast Title: 20/20
Host/Author: ABC News
Episode: Meet The Other Me
Release Date: November 23, 2024

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Introduction

In the gripping episode titled "Meet The Other Me", ABC News' 20/20 delves deep into a harrowing true crime case that shook the small community of Ashland, Ohio. Hosted by Deborah Roberts and investigative reporter Kim Major, the episode unravels the complex web of disappearances, abductions, and murders that centered around a chilling figure named Shawn Grate. This detailed summary captures the essence of the episode, highlighting key discussions, insights, and conclusions drawn by the hosts and contributors.

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The Disappearances in Ashland

Ashland, Ohio, a quiet city nestled between Columbus and Cleveland with a population of around 20,000, became the focal point of a series of alarming disappearances. The community was already on edge with the vanishing of Elizabeth Griffith, a 29-year-old woman known for her bubbly personality and active participation in local support groups.

Notable Quote:

David Muir [05:20]: "Elizabeth was known in our town. I had had contact with her. I think we all had."

Elizabeth Griffith's Vanishing

Elizabeth Griffith was last seen shopping at a local Walmart, where surveillance footage captured her swift movements through the aisles before her disappearance. Her absence was particularly puzzling given her outgoing nature and the strong support network she had within Ashland.

Notable Quote:

Deborah Roberts [06:01]: "Elizabeth was a really sweet girl, a simple person. She liked to make people laugh."

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The Case of Stacy Stanley

Just a week after Elizabeth went missing, another woman, Stacy Stanley, age 43, vanished under mysterious circumstances. Stacy was a devoted mother living in nearby Greenwich, Ohio. Her disappearance was linked to a late-night 911 call from a gas station where she had reported a flat tire and encountered a stranger offering help.

Notable Quote:

Kim Major [13:18]: "She was like some nice guy. Stopped to help."

As Stacy's family launched a frantic search, the community's anxiety deepened with the simultaneous disappearances of Elizabeth and Stacy—a rare and unnerving occurrence for a town of Ashland's size.

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The Chilling 911 Call

On September 13, 2016, at 6:48 AM, emergency dispatchers received a desperate call from a woman claiming to be held captive in a house adjacent to a laundromat. The caller, later identified as Elizabeth Griffith, whispered frantically about her abductor being asleep beside her.

Notable Quote:

Deborah Roberts [17:37]: "911, what is the address to your emergency?"

The call was fraught with tension, capturing Elizabeth's palpable fear as she provided fragmented details about her captivity, including the presence of a taser-wielding abductor and the removal of doorknobs to prevent escape.

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The Investigation Unfolds

Detective Kim Major, with over 23 years of service in Ashland, spearheaded the investigation alongside Officer Kurt Dorsey. Their meticulous efforts involved canvassing the community, interviewing potential witnesses, and scrutinizing Elizabeth's last known activities—all while grappling with the realization that Ashland, a town known for its tight-knit community, was harboring a potential serial killer.

Notable Quote:

Deborah Roberts [05:37]: "We went driving the road looking for her in case she might have had an accident, was down in a ravine or a ditch or anything."

The discovery of a second missing woman, coupled with the peculiar circumstances surrounding both disappearances, heightened the urgency and complexity of the case.

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Shawn Grate: The Chosen Suspect

The turning point in the investigation came with the apprehension of Shawn Grate, a 40-year-old man with no prior criminal record in Ashland. Grate, described as charming and likable with piercing blue eyes, became the prime suspect after confessing to the kidnapping and rape of a woman identified as Jane Doe, who was later connected to the disappearances of Elizabeth Griffith and Stacy Stanley.

Notable Quote:

Kim Major [26:10]: "Kim is the best interviewer that I've ever seen. She's able to speak with anyone, whether that be small kids or a violent criminal."

Grate's confession revealed a disturbing pattern of manipulation and violence, resembling the dynamics seen in fictional narratives like Silence of the Lambs. His ability to seamlessly integrate into the community's daily life masked his sinister activities, making his eventual capture a sobering revelation for Ashland.

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The Confession and Trial

Detective Major's strategic interrogation techniques led Grate to divulge incriminating details about his crimes. As the layers of his confessions unfolded, it became evident that Grate was responsible for multiple homicides beyond the initial victims. His trial was a tense affair, marked by emotional testimonies from the survivors and the families of the victims.

Notable Quote:

Deborah Roberts [72:08]: "He seems like a kind of unalarming. I could understand why. Maybe women were trusting of him or went with him willingly because he didn't look like a monster."

Grate's plea of guilt resulted in his conviction on multiple counts of aggravated murder, rape, and kidnapping. The courtroom was a space of collective heartbreak as families shared their pain and sought closure.

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Aftermath and Community Impact

The aftermath of Grate's crimes left an indelible mark on Ashland. The demolition of the house where Jane Doe was held captive symbolized the community's desire to erase the dark chapter from their town's history. Additionally, advancements in forensic technology eventually led to the identification of Grate's first known victim, Dana Nicole Lowry, bringing a semblance of closure to unresolved cases.

Notable Quote:

Deborah Roberts [76:22]: "Now this woman, a victim of serial killer Shawn Grate, has a face and a name."

Detective Major, now retired and working as the Safety Services Director at Ashland University, authored a book titled "A Hunger to Kill", chronicling the harrowing case and its profound effects on all involved.

Notable Quote:

Deborah Roberts [79:13]: "I don't want to forget this case. I don't want anyone to forget it. These women could have been anyone."

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Conclusion

"Meet The Other Me" serves as a poignant exploration of how a seemingly peaceful community grapples with the emergence of a serial killer within its midst. Through dedicated investigative work, empathetic yet determined policing, and the resilience of affected families, the episode underscores the relentless pursuit of justice in the face of unimaginable horror. The narrative not only chronicles the gruesome details of Grate's crimes but also honors the bravery of those who sought to bring him to account, ensuring that the victims are remembered and that their stories contribute to preventing future tragedies.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• David Muir [05:20]: "Elizabeth was known in our town. I had had contact with her. I think we all had."
• Deborah Roberts [06:01]: "Elizabeth was a really sweet girl, a simple person. She liked to make people laugh."
• Kim Major [13:18]: "She was like some nice guy. Stopped to help."
• Deborah Roberts [17:37]: "911, what is the address to your emergency?"
• Deborah Roberts [05:37]: "We went driving the road looking for her in case she might have had an accident, was down in a ravine or a ditch or anything."
• Kim Major [26:10]: "Kim is the best interviewer that I've ever seen. She's able to speak with anyone, whether that be small kids or a violent criminal."
• Deborah Roberts [72:08]: "He seems like a kind of unalarming. I could understand why. Maybe women were trusting of him or went with him willingly because he didn't look like a monster."
• Deborah Roberts [76:22]: "Now this woman, a victim of serial killer Shawn Grate, has a face and a name."
• Deborah Roberts [79:13]: "I don't want to forget this case. I don't want anyone to forget it. These women could have been anyone."

---

This comprehensive summary aims to provide a detailed overview of the episode for those who haven't listened, encapsulating the profound emotional and investigative journey undertaken by the Ashland Police Department to bring justice to the victims of Shawn Grate.

Transcript

[Deborah Roberts]

This episode is brought to you by Amazon. The holidays are here and you know what that means. It's time to get your friends and family the gifts they deserve. Take the stress out of shopping with Amazon's great deals and low prices on a huge range of items from toys to tech and much more. Whoever you're gifting for Amazon has great prices on everything you need this holiday season. Shop Black Friday week deals now. Tonight, the relationship some people say sounds.

[David Muir]

Like a real life Silence of the Lambs.

[Kim Major]

Missing women, a terrifying suspect and the detective who risks her life to solve the case. And all new 2020 starts right now.

[David Muir]

It was a baffling case.

[Deborah Roberts]

Baffling.

[David Muir]

To have missing women in this town of Ashland is a big deal.

[Deborah Roberts]

A huge deal.

[David Muir]

Unusual.

[Deborah Roberts]

Very, very unusual. Elizabeth was very naive. She would trust anybody and everybo.

[Kim Major]

She was like, why?

[Deborah Roberts]

I haven't heard from her and I can't find her.

[David Muir]

The last known images of Elizabeth Griffith were recorded while she was shopping inside this Walmart.

[Deborah Roberts]

It seemed like a very short timeframe that people started to look for Elizabeth that now Stacy is gone.

[Kim Major]

Just love to dance and just have.

[Deborah Roberts]

Fun with the kids. Just a bundle of joy.

[Kim Major]

She's like some nice guy. Stopped helping you told her let him.

[David Muir]

Go, tell him to leave. You've got help coming.

[Kim Major]

Yeah. And she wouldn't.

[David Muir]

But now a phone call that would change everything. A third woman taken there was a.

[Kim Major]

Female and that she had been held captive.

[David Muir]

Sounds like something out of a movie.

[Kim Major]

Absolutely.

[David Muir]

A horror movie.

[Deborah Roberts]

You can hear her desperation for help.

[David Muir]

It's a chilling call.

[Deborah Roberts]

Oh, woke him up. Just set the phone down.

[David Muir]

Did you know anything about what you were about to face?

[Deborah Roberts]

No.

[Kim Major]

And I saw her hand. I saw her outstretched hand through the window.

[David Muir]

And then the line goes silent.

[Deborah Roberts]

Yep. 91 1. What is the address to your emergency? 4th 4th street laundry man.

[David Muir]

It's 6:48am in September 2016. Emergency dispatchers receive a 911 call from a terrified woman. She's whispering that she's being held at a house near the laundromat and that her captor is asleep at her side.

[Deborah Roberts]

Is he in the same room with you? Yes. Does he have a weapon? He's got a taser. Is there any way you can get out of the building? I don't know. Without waking him. And I'm scared. His bedroom is clueless and he made it so it would make noise. We have officers returning.

[David Muir]

Officer Kurt Dorsey rushes to the scene, leaving his siren off so that it does not alert the abductor. So what were you doing when the call came in?

[Kim Major]

We responded from the police station. We were trying to be stealthy. We were told that the suspect was sleeping, so we wanted to approach and not make a bunch of noise.

[David Muir]

You weren't even sure the call was real, right?

[Kim Major]

I didn't believe it was real at first, just because of the town that we live in. Just not a typical call that we would get in Ashland.

[David Muir]

Ashland, Ohio. It's a small city between Columbus and Cleveland. Home to more than 50 churches and a large Amish community.

[Kim Major]

Ashland is a quiet, rural community. There's about 20,000 people who live there. It has a university, a lot of farm fields.

[David Muir]

So this is Ashland. What can you tell me about the town?

[Deborah Roberts]

Well, as you can see, it's rolling hills, scenic, a lot of community stuff going on. Football games, the county fair, a lot of farm animals, a lot of competitions and shows for kids to get involved with.

[David Muir]

Typical small town where everyone knows everyone, right?

[Deborah Roberts]

Yes, exactly.

[David Muir]

Kim major has had 23 years of service as a detective in Ashland.

[Deborah Roberts]

I handled violent crime and I handled sex offenses and child abuse. I'm over 1,000 of those cases.

[David Muir]

Thousand, yeah. At the time of that terrifying 911 call, the community is already on edge. Just a week before, police discovered that a woman in town had simply vanished. Well, there was a missing person named Elizabeth Griffith.

[Deborah Roberts]

Yes, Elizabeth was known in our town. I had had contact with her. I think we all had. A lot of the officers would have an eye on her.

[Kim Major]

She was kind of a vulnerable person and we helped her quite a bit as a police division.

[Deborah Roberts]

She used to call them quite frequently. She would call them about anything and everything. Just like I heard. It's going to snow today. Is there any chance that the roads will be closed?

[David Muir]

She was definitely a character facing mental health challenges. 29 year old Elizabeth Griffith attended meetings at a peer support center called LifeWorks.

[Deborah Roberts]

Elizabeth was very bubbly and energetic. The first time I met Elizabeth was at LifeWorks and she was coming down the hallway and I was coming opposite of her and she was like, hey, you're new here. And I was like, yeah. And she was like, you want to be my friend? And I was like, sure, let's be friends.

[David Muir]

She was embraced not just by LifeWorks, but also by her church family.

[Deborah Roberts]

Elizabeth was a really sweet girl, a simple person. She liked to make people laugh.

[David Muir]

She liked to sing.

[Deborah Roberts]

She loved to worship. She would raise her hand the highest during worship. Even though she was tone deaf, she'd sing louder than anyone else. She was very much with the Heart of a child. It was a little harder for her.

[Kim Major]

To grasp some things sometimes.

[Deborah Roberts]

She was a very loving person and a very loyal person. Certainly financial challenges, certainly medical challenges, mental health challenges. She lived on her own in her own apartment. She did have a case manager that kind of helped her with daily life struggles. She was always introducing herself to everybody, very outgoing. The community knew Elizabeth and she was one of ours and she was taken care of.

[David Muir]

But then Elizabeth's support team realizes no one has seen her in weeks.

[Deborah Roberts]

We were at lifeworks and the phone rang and it was Elizabeth's case manager. And she had asked if we had seen Elizabeth lately. She was like, I can't find her. So I called her cell phone and it just went straight to voicemail, which was highly unlikely for Elizabeth. I was like, something's not right. I was concerned because where would she have gone? What could have happened?

[Kim Major]

She wasn't the type of person that would go missing. So we sort of knew something was wrong there.

[Deborah Roberts]

This is an area where I would often see Elizabeth Griffith walking. And just days before her disappearance, I stopped and chatted with her right up here.

[David Muir]

It was a baffling case.

[Deborah Roberts]

It was baffling. We didn't know if she had taken off or did she meet somebody online and leave. We didn't know if it was suicide. We didn't know where she was. Everybody was taking to social media, posting pictures of her. Everyone was looking for her. Everybody was praying for her.

[David Muir]

Police begin to investigate, speaking to Elizabeth's neighbors and friends and tracing her last known steps.

[Kim Major]

I began talking with some of the public transit drivers because she would often use public transportation before she disappeared.

[David Muir]

Records showed that Elizabeth had taken the bus to go shopping. The last known images of Elizabeth Griffith were recorded while she was shopping inside this Walmart. There's video of her going through the aisles and then waiting for the bus. She disappeared shortly thereafter. And she wouldn't be the only one. It turns out there's another missing woman in Ashland.

[Kim Major]

I said, all right, mom, I love you. I'll talk to you tomorrow. And that was the last we ever heard from her.

[David Muir]

Police in Ashland, Ohio, are searching for missing woman Elizabeth Griffith. And then they discover there's a second woman in town who also has mysteriously disappeared. 43 year old Stacy Stanley, a divorced mom devoted to her sons Curtis and Corey.

[Kim Major]

One of my mom's favorite songs was Lynyrd, Skynyrd, Freebird. It's a pretty good song.

[David Muir]

Corey likes simple pleasures. Playing music, riding his motorcycle on the highways of Ohio, raising his baby Daughter. For him, family is everything. And his bond with his mother, Stacy has always been particularly tight.

[Deborah Roberts]

Good boy. You kiss your brother.

[David Muir]

How would you describe her?

[Kim Major]

Very loving and caring to do anything for anybody. You know, give the shirt off her back if she needed to.

[Deborah Roberts]

Always there for her kids. Calling you consistently.

[David Muir]

No. If she didn't pick up, she'd call.

[Deborah Roberts]

You like a thousand times. My sister was a very outgoing person. It's a perfect time to make this worse. Have a happy birthday. Love Grandma and grandpa's family. Growing up we were so close in age and we shared the same room and stuff growing up.

[David Muir]

Karaoke.

[Deborah Roberts]

She would sing some songs now and then When I see a baby.

[David Muir]

She loved punk rock music and the look too.

[Deborah Roberts]

Guns N Roses, Sweet Child of Mine. I actually had a video of her singing it when we were kids. I was videotaping her singing that.

[David Muir]

So she was not afraid to get on stage and perform?

[Deborah Roberts]

No.

[David Muir]

Even as adults you were pretty close.

[Kim Major]

Yeah.

[Deborah Roberts]

I'd come home from work and she'd have big bunches of food made up and I was like, oh wow, I.

[David Muir]

Hear she was a great cook.

[Deborah Roberts]

Yeah. I mean we didn't get look like this over nothing, you know.

[David Muir]

She fed you well, huh?

[Deborah Roberts]

Yes, sir.

[Kim Major]

Absolutely.

[David Muir]

And Stacy was a new grandmother to Curtis's three year old daughter.

[Deborah Roberts]

She was a great grandmother. She was spoiled the hell out of her for sure. Just love to dance and just have fun with the kids. Just a bundle of joy.

[David Muir]

Stacy lived in Greenwich, Ohio, 30 minutes from Ashland.

[Deborah Roberts]

Stacy was not from our county. She was from a county that butts up to our county. And she had visited Ashland.

[David Muir]

It was September 8, 2016 when she takes a fateful drive to Ashland to run some errands.

[Kim Major]

She went to Walmart to get some gardening supplies because she loved doing her gardening. And she also went to get her nails done. And then after that she was getting some gas and to come back home.

[David Muir]

It's around 8:30 at night when Stacy calls her son Corey from this gas station. She's stranded here with a flat tire and needs help.

[Kim Major]

She was like freaking out and I said, well just calm down, we'll find somebody to help you.

[David Muir]

Were you worried?

[Deborah Roberts]

Oh, not necessarily out the rip.

[David Muir]

It's just a flat tire.

[Deborah Roberts]

You're thinking it's just a flat tire. Yeah.

[David Muir]

They're able to find a family friend to meet Stacy at the gas station. But it turns out a stranger has also shown up to help.

[Kim Major]

She's like some nice guy stop to help. I had then told her to tell him kick Rocks, we got somebody to come and help you. She wouldn't. Well, she's like, oh, he's a nice guy. Just stopped. Help. And so my mom, you know, the person she was, she was friendly and talked to people. This guy takes over, and he changes the tire. She offers him a ride home. And I said, all right, mom. I said, call me in the morning. She said, okay, I love you. I'll talk to you tomorrow. I said, I love you too, mom.

[David Muir]

But the next day, Corey and Curtis don't receive the usual flurry of calls from their mom.

[Kim Major]

And then I talked to my aunt, and I'm like, hey, mom's not picking up. I don't know what's going on. We end up breaking into her house to get in. And she had two little dogs. She loved them. Little dogs, little chihuahuas.

[Deborah Roberts]

Her dogs were still in their kennel. So we knew something was going on.

[Kim Major]

The Huron county sheriffs had put out a bolo. Be on the lookout for her vehicle.

[Deborah Roberts]

We went driving the road looking for her in case she might have had an accident, was down in a ravine or a ditch or anything. We went looking, driving the routes from Ashland back to Greenwich.

[David Muir]

Within hours, Stacy's family spreads out across the streets of Ashland, trying to find any trace of her.

[Kim Major]

We went down to the gas station, the BP where she was last seen.

[Deborah Roberts]

I had printed off, like, almost two or three thousand flyers. They're just passing them out and putting them up everywhere. There's probably a good 70 of us at least, out there handing flyers out.

[David Muir]

Detective Brian Evans is on patrol in Ashland when he spots the family.

[Kim Major]

As I was driving around the city of Ashland, I met up with different groups of her family who was actively searching for Stacy at the time. They were in different groups, knocking on doors. They were going down to some abandoned buildings. It came across the radio that they had. Somebody had reported her car on East 9th street in Ashland. We beat the cops over to the.

[Deborah Roberts]

Car, and I opened the door and I looked.

[Kim Major]

I was like, the seat was all the way back. See, my mom was short, so it didn't make sense why the seat was back. I had grabbed her cigarette container. She put her cigarette butts in. And I happened to see Camel filtered cigarettes in there. And I was like, these aren't my mom's. My mom don't smoke these. At this point, you know, it's alarming because somebody else was in this car.

[David Muir]

So now it's not just Elizabeth Griffith who is missing in Ashland.

[Deborah Roberts]

It seemed like a very short timeframe that people Started to look for Elizabeth that now Stacy is gone. The odds of two women missing at the same time just did not make sense whatsoever.

[David Muir]

To have two missing women in this town of Ashland is a big deal.

[Deborah Roberts]

It's a huge deal.

[David Muir]

Unusual.

[Deborah Roberts]

Very, very unusual for a county this size to have anyone missing, much less two women missing.

[Kim Major]

The community had concern. The word was starting to spread around.

[Deborah Roberts]

We were like, what's really going on? It's Ashland. Like stuff like that doesn't happen in Ashland.

[David Muir]

Then a heart stopping clue in a window at the back of the house. Sounds like something out of a movie.

[Kim Major]

Absolutely.

[David Muir]

A horror movie.

[Deborah Roberts]

I'm a 911 dispatcher, Ashland Police Department. I've been a dispatcher for 26 years.

[David Muir]

What is your typical day like?

[Deborah Roberts]

Go to work, sign into all the computers. We usually have six to eight screens, depending on what center you're at. Answer calls. You never know when the call will come in or what kind of call it's going to be.

[David Muir]

Your most memorable call, probably this one.

[Deborah Roberts]

911, what is the address to your emergency?

[David Muir]

September 13, 2016. 6:48am Yep, the end of my shift. By September 13, 2016, Elizabeth Griffith had not been seen for a month. Stacy Stanley. For five days. You're working the dispatch and you get that call.

[Deborah Roberts]

At first I couldn't hear her. It was real quiet. She was whispering. What's the problem? I've been abducted.

[David Muir]

She says. I've been abducted.

[Kim Major]

Yes.

[David Muir]

Your reaction?

[Deborah Roberts]

My reaction was to find out where she was at first, to get her out of there. 210 W. 81st St.

[Kim Major]

The dispatcher had told us that there was a female and that she had been held captive somewhere near a laundromat. So we immediately and start to drive towards the area of the call.

[Deborah Roberts]

Where's he at now? Where's he sleeping at? In the bedroom. I asked her more questions, trying to get as much as I could before he woke up.

[David Muir]

You have to be calm. But there's an urgency.

[Deborah Roberts]

Yes.

[David Muir]

The woman says she's calling from her abductor's phone.

[Deborah Roberts]

He had fallen asleep at some point and she was able to secure this phone.

[David Muir]

You couldn't trace the call back to?

[Deborah Roberts]

Couldn't trace the call. This was a flip phone. It was not coming back to a location. Do you need an ambulance? Are you bleeding from anywhere? Not anymore. How are you bleeding from? You don't have to talk if you don't need to.

[Kim Major]

Okay.

[David Muir]

Why couldn't she get out on her own?

[Deborah Roberts]

Well, he had taken the doorknobs off.

[David Muir]

Apparently, as Officer Dorsey heads to the scene, there's a problem. How to find her? The caller does not know her exact address, but she tells 911 she's being held captive in a house next to this laundromat. The problem for police is that there are two very similar houses in this area. There were two houses right here.

[Kim Major]

Yes, two identical houses.

[David Muir]

And you didn't know which one?

[Kim Major]

No, they were nearly identical. Both the same color, same shape, two story. We had no idea which one.

[Deborah Roberts]

They can't just gang bust into a house. What if he'd have woke up with a weapon and hurt her? So they had to find her quietly. So they were outside looking for her.

[David Muir]

So how do you approach the house knowing that the captor is asleep?

[Kim Major]

So we first started to just look in windows to see if we could see anything. Just check different doors to see if we can pinpoint which house she's in.

[David Muir]

As police conduct the search, there's a heart stopping moment when the caller says she has awakened. Her abductor.

[Deborah Roberts]

Set the phone down.

[David Muir]

You can hear the sheer terror in her voice when he wakes up.

[Deborah Roberts]

Yep.

[David Muir]

And then the line goes silent. It must have seemed like that.

[Deborah Roberts]

Yes. Forever.

[David Muir]

What's going through your mind?

[Deborah Roberts]

I'm just praying they find her.

[David Muir]

Five agonizing minutes later, she's back.

[Deborah Roberts]

Yep. Are you still there? Okay. Do you hear any officers outside? Okay, they're in the area.

[David Muir]

What was it like to hear her voice again?

[Deborah Roberts]

It was good. Glad she was still there and not hurt. And he was still sleeping, so that's good. You can hear her desperation for help.

[David Muir]

It's a chilling call.

[Deborah Roberts]

It's chilling.

[Kim Major]

I remember as I was checking the doors, panic starts to set in. I wanted to find her so bad. We're going back and forth between the two houses. The dispatcher had told us at some point that she heard a door.

[Deborah Roberts]

Can hear him.

[Kim Major]

I remembered that I had pulled on a door hard and it made a noise that I didn't intend. So I ran around the house that we were currently at and looked towards the direction of the other house and.

[Deborah Roberts]

They told me to come back. She said, hurry, hurry.

[Kim Major]

And I saw her hand. I saw her outstretched hand through the window. And I knew at that point she was in there. I would have gone through the wall to get to her.

[David Muir]

A hand right on the window. That's pretty eerie. Sounds like something out of a movie.

[Kim Major]

Absolutely.

[David Muir]

A horror movie.

[Kim Major]

We went to the door. It was locked. And I asked the dispatcher to relay to her that she needed to unlock the door.

[Deborah Roberts]

Can you unlock the door at all?

[Kim Major]

She's able to unlock it and we're able to open it.

[David Muir]

Where is he? Still sleeping?

[Deborah Roberts]

Yeah. Okay. They have her.

[David Muir]

It took 19 long minutes to get her out. What was it like when you finally hear Detective Dorsey?

[Deborah Roberts]

Best sound ever. I was glad because officers were safe. She was safe.

[David Muir]

You smiled a little because you're proud of her.

[Deborah Roberts]

Yeah, proud of her.

[David Muir]

What a relief. What was it like when you came face to face with the victim?

[Kim Major]

I'll never forget the way that she looked at us. She looked shocked, like she had seen a ghost. She was fully nude. I don't think I've ever felt so much relief to find her. Divine intervention and a good dispatcher led us to that house and ultimately that door.

[David Muir]

So now police need to find out what happened in this house.

[Kim Major]

On Scorned Love Kills, the podcast from id Find out what happens when lust and obsession turn deadly. In each episode, hear direct audio from the hit TV show and uncover true, unexpected stories about love gone wrong. Reporters, law enforcement and psychologists close to each crime investigate the dark side of love. Listen to Scorned Love Kills wherever you get your podcasts.

[Deborah Roberts]

In the dry states of the Southwest, there's a group that's been denied a basic human right. In the Navajo Nation. Today, a third of our households don't have running water. But that's not something they chose for themselves. Can the Navajo people reclaim their right to water and contend with the government's legacy of control and neglect? Our water, our future. Our water, our future. That's in the next season of Reclaimed, the lifeblood of Navajo Nation. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.

[David Muir]

With the terrified 911 caller safely in their custody, police turned their attention to her abductor, a 40 year old man identified as Shawn Grate. The dramatic moment when he's apprehended is heard on that open line from the 911 call.

[Kim Major]

Once we got Mr. Grate into custody, he was handcuffed. He ended up in my car. So I began interviewing Mr. Gray. And how do you know her again?

[David Muir]

We spent a lot of time lately together.

[Kim Major]

We go eat lunch every day.

[David Muir]

The victim, a 36 year old woman police identify as Jane Doe. To protect her privacy, it's transported to the Ashland Police Department. Police are desperate for information. No easy task as the woman was traumatized and still in shock. But Ashland police have a secret weapon. Enter Detective Kim. Major.

[Kim Major]

Kim is the best interviewer that I've ever seen. She's able to speak with anyone, whether that Be small kids or a violent criminal.

[Deborah Roberts]

I was the only female detective for the majority of my career. Is that good? Is that good?

[David Muir]

Major balanced the demands of detective work with the responsibilities of being a mother to three. That morning, Detective Kim. Major is in the shower getting ready for work, and she misses two phone calls from her captain at the Ashland police department.

[Deborah Roberts]

And I called him back, and he said, well, he groffed at me and said, two calls and a text, and he said, there's been a kidnapping. We've rescued the woman, and I need you to come in and interview her.

[David Muir]

You come to the station and what happens?

[Deborah Roberts]

The victim was taken into my office at the end of this hallway, and that's where I spoke with her.

[David Muir]

She had been tortured emotionally and physically.

[Deborah Roberts]

Yes, she had. So I bring her into my office.

[David Muir]

The effects of the woman's harrowing ordeal were immediately apparent.

[Deborah Roberts]

The first thing I noticed is her appearance. Of course, I. I could see that she had been victimized. The second thing I noticed was that I could smell the scent of her perpetrator. It's testosterone.

[David Muir]

You could smell him?

[Deborah Roberts]

I could.

[David Muir]

What did you learn about Jane?

[Deborah Roberts]

I learned that she had met Sean Grate. She eats her noon meal at what we call the croc center. They provide free meals at noon. Jane Doe would eat there sometimes. And that's where she met Sean Grate. He was tall, like my brother, my older brother. And he's kind of goofy, but he was. He struck me as kind when I would run into him at lunch. And if neither one of us was doing anything, we'd just walk around Ashland. This is a woman so strong in her Christian faith that no man's phone number is in her phone. Not one. No man crosses the threshold of her door. He let me know that he was. Would be interested in more, But I told him that I wasn't interested in, you know, and beyond friends.

[Kim Major]

Kim was speaking with Jane Doe, and our captain at the time, Captain Lay, was speaking with Sean Grate in the interview room. David Lay. You are Sean. Sean. Great.

[David Muir]

At the same time, Jane Doe and Sean Grate were being interviewed at the station. Detective Brian Evans was part of a team sent back to search the house where Jane had been held captive.

[Kim Major]

We went upstairs. The mattress in the bedroom looked like a dirty, used mattress that was just found somewhere and used as a mattress. And then there were some restraints, as in tied clothing tied to different areas of the mattress to where it looked like that's where Jane Doe was possibly tied up.

[David Muir]

So just how did Jane Doe end up A prisoner in this house of horrors. The pair had been out for one of their regular walks and ended up at the house where Shawn grate had been staying.

[Deborah Roberts]

He told her that he had some clothes for her. She also had bagged up some food for him. And she said it was against her better judgment to walk through the door because it's unlike her. But she did. He just started showing me the clothes, and I remember him asking if I had an extra bible because he didn't have one. So I got him one. So she sat down to read the bible, and as she's reading, he began to pace. And then he charged towards her, Grabbed the bible from her hands, ripped it from her hands.

[David Muir]

Jane Doe tells detective major that at that point, Sean Gray attacked her.

[Deborah Roberts]

I tried to push him away and get up. I was just doing everything, trying to kick, punch. But everything I did, he just did it so much harder.

[David Muir]

And then what did he do to her?

[Deborah Roberts]

He sexually assaulted her. And her words were every way imaginable. He would always bind my wrists, my legs.

[David Muir]

At times, the details were horrifying. But the interview takes a sudden turn when Jane Doe mentions the name of Elizabeth Griffith, one of two missing women police had been searching for.

[Deborah Roberts]

She lived in the building next to me. Sweet, but like a child. Shawn and I were playing badminton in the front yard, and Elizabeth saw us and came out. I think she just started, yeah, talking with us. And I don't know if I introduced her or she introduced herself.

[David Muir]

Police discover there's a vital link between Jane Doe, Sean grate, and Elizabeth Griffith. All three of them would frequent this community center where they'd get free meals. That connection sets off alarm bells. Was it possible that this man, unknown to law enforcement in Ashland, Shawn grate, was also involved in the disappearance of Elizabeth Griffith?

[Deborah Roberts]

When I stepped out of my office, my captain said, listen, I need you to go in and talk to him about what Jane Doe told you. Can you go in and see if you can nail down the facts regarding that? See if it parallels what he's saying happened? Hey, Sean. I'm kid major. Nice to meet you. The last thing he said before I walked in was, and while you're in there, see if he knows anything about the missing girls.

[David Muir]

Did you know anything about what you were about to face? What do you do?

[Deborah Roberts]

Well, I walked down this hallway. I was told to go ahead and interview him. And this is where the interview room is. And when I came in, he was seated right here.

[Kim Major]

He's right here?

[Deborah Roberts]

Yeah. Hey, Sean. I'm kid major. Nice to meet you.

[David Muir]

Before you came in here, did you have any idea what you were in for?

[Deborah Roberts]

No, I had no idea.

[David Muir]

You had your own recorder?

[Deborah Roberts]

Yes.

[David Muir]

And what did you do?

[Deborah Roberts]

I took the recorder and just dropped it down my top.

[David Muir]

Because you wanted a record of this?

[Deborah Roberts]

Yes. Just a backup in case something happened. And in this case, it proved valuable.

[David Muir]

Valuable indeed, because the video system stopped recording shortly after detective Major began interviewing. Grateful. That means her backup was the only recording of the interview while the system was down.

[Deborah Roberts]

So we're gonna get these cuffs off you.

[David Muir]

You decided to take off his handcuffs?

[Deborah Roberts]

Yeah.

[David Muir]

Why?

[Deborah Roberts]

I need to drop all of those things that would inhibit somebody's ability to relax or feel comfortable.

[David Muir]

But out of his handcuffs, he could attack you?

[Deborah Roberts]

He could. You weren't thinking about that at that time? No.

[David Muir]

In a city where law enforcement routinely interacts with the community, Sean Grade was not known to police.

[Deborah Roberts]

I had never heard his name. I had never had any tips about him. We didn't know him.

[David Muir]

Shawn Grate had grown up in Marion, Ohio. That's about an hour from Ashland. He was a good looking kid, charming.

[Deborah Roberts]

With Sean Grate, people talk about his eyes, their piercing blue eyes. And women will talk about that. That's how they recall him or his eyes.

[Kim Major]

He just had one of these very likable personalities. Very soft, laid back, very unassuming type of personality. And it was just one of those things that you just almost couldn't hardly not like.

[Deborah Roberts]

Sean never told me much at all about his background. I knew he had either a sister and a brother. I had never met his dad. He told me his mom abandoned him. He absolutely hated his mother.

[David Muir]

Christina Hildreth dated Shawn Grate for five years.

[Deborah Roberts]

I think before we moved in together. He had worked at. It was a motel, Super 8 or something in Marion. And he might have worked there a couple of weeks. That was about it.

[Kim Major]

Other than that, I've never known him.

[Deborah Roberts]

To have a job.

[David Muir]

While unknown to police in Ashland, Shawn Grade had become a familiar face at the Kroc center.

[Deborah Roberts]

He would just come to our hot meal and just kind of integrated himself into the community meal and the community that attended and started making friends. I'd see him around town, walking and talking with people, and he just really kind of absorbed what we had.

[David Muir]

What did he say about Jane?

[Deborah Roberts]

At first, he tried to present it as if she wanted him like they were in a relationship, that she wanted the sexual piece of this.

[Kim Major]

One of the reasons why she said she wanted to marry me because she was horny that day.

[Deborah Roberts]

Eventually as we peel that away, you realize she didn't want this.

[David Muir]

Just as empathy had helped in speaking to Jane Doe, Major was using a similar approach, hoping to gain Great's trust. And slowly, he begins to open up. Sharing details about his childhood.

[Kim Major]

May have.

[David Muir]

Started when my mom left me when.

[Deborah Roberts]

I was a child.

[Kim Major]

I come home from school, and she's gone. But I don't blame her.

[Deborah Roberts]

I don't. I used to. But why did she leave?

[Kim Major]

She had to go find herself.

[Deborah Roberts]

I'm sorry. It's fine.

[David Muir]

Does he admit that something happened with Jane Doe?

[Deborah Roberts]

Eventually, he begins to talk about what happened and admits in layers. He admits that he had held her there captive, admits that he had tied her up. I mean, looking at this whole thing, it forced her to have sex. She didn't want to. I abducted her, and I raped her.

[David Muir]

And there it was. Detective Major had the confession. But the confession itself only raised more questions.

[Deborah Roberts]

As he spoke about what he did to Jane Doe and would use the words kill. That he strangled her, you begin to realize this may be way more than Jane Doe. And earlier in my career, I probably would have stopped right at Jane Doe. Now I realize it's a partial confession.

[David Muir]

Detective Major brings the conversation back to Elizabeth Griffin, that missing woman who Jane Doe said also knew Shawn. Great.

[Deborah Roberts]

We can't find Elizabeth. We'll find her, but we can't right now. Hey, look at me. Look at me. I need your help. I can help you. That goes on for just so long. Long enough that he's acting like he has no idea what I'm talking about.

[David Muir]

And then suddenly, Sean Grade makes a shocking revelation.

[Kim Major]

I might not be able to take you to her. Maybe someone else.

[Deborah Roberts]

How many are there.

[David Muir]

Now? Detectives knew Elizabeth Griffith and Stacey Stanley were missing. But now John Grate seems to be talking about even more women.

[Kim Major]

I guess I'm ready to go ahead and get my lethal injection. But I'll tell you first.

[David Muir]

Then things take a bizarre and frightening turn.

[Deborah Roberts]

I'm thinking, this is not good.

[David Muir]

At what point do you realize I might be dealing with a serial killer? You're in this very room alone with a serial killer.

[Deborah Roberts]

The magnitude was becoming clearer to me. Whatever he did, I'm gonna get it. Police are now investigating whether they have.

[Kim Major]

A serial killer on their hands.

[Deborah Roberts]

Are there any other girls in the house right now? He had cut a slit into the back of the couch, and he was crawling in and out of the couch, and he would come out at night.

[Kim Major]

He says, meet the other me. I just froze. The first thing that hit My mind is a monster. You don't normally have a killer show you how he did it. He said, I'll just do it on you. Kind of grinned. I'd get up behind him like this. He locks this in. He locks this arm in. He locks this head here. And then he just pushes down and squeezes.

[David Muir]

Wow. Wow.

[Deborah Roberts]

At one point, he told me it was probably a good thing I had him in custody because there would be more. We knew that she was relatively young. She had perfect teeth. We had somebody that had confessed to her murder.

[David Muir]

A fellow inmate tells you that Sean Gray, that he wants to kill you.

[Deborah Roberts]

No.

[David Muir]

That desire.

[Kim Major]

I'm doing it now.

[David Muir]

Sean Grate has confessed to his assault on Jane Doe. But what about those two missing women in Ashland? It's an urgent race to find out. Is he behind their disappearance and can they be saved? And as you continue interrogating Shawn Gray. Time is of the essence.

[Deborah Roberts]

Time is always of the essence. I feel like I'm against the clock to get them to say something before I say the wrong thing and cause them to stop talking at all.

[David Muir]

And you're thinking he might have these two missing women and they could still be alive?

[Deborah Roberts]

Absolutely. I start pressing him on where Elizabeth Griffith is. Can you take me to where she is?

[Kim Major]

I can't.

[Deborah Roberts]

Why? Sean, look at me. By taking my little detective truck, can you take me out?

[David Muir]

I don't know what you're talking about right now.

[Deborah Roberts]

I'm looking for Elizabeth's body. Can you take me to it?

[Kim Major]

She's dead.

[David Muir]

Then suddenly Shawn Grade reveals shocking information that maybe he can bring Detective Major to somebody else.

[Kim Major]

I might not be able to take you to her.

[David Muir]

Maybe someone else.

[Deborah Roberts]

How many are there?

[David Muir]

I don't know.

[Deborah Roberts]

It depends on how much he say. Many what?

[Kim Major]

I don't know.

[Deborah Roberts]

There might not be none. He says he might not be able to take me to her, meaning Elizabeth, but might take me to someone else. And that there might be some many or there might be none.

[David Muir]

So he's playing with you.

[Deborah Roberts]

Possibly. He's wanting to tell me something. Will you take me there? I think it took place in Mansfield, where she is. Where are you gonna take me? To Mansfield. Or there's another girl.

[Kim Major]

Well, there's a girl. Very nut.

[Deborah Roberts]

What happened?

[David Muir]

She gone? She's been gone.

[Deborah Roberts]

Is she in a house? What is she in? All right. What's her name?

[Kim Major]

Candace.

[Deborah Roberts]

Candace Cunningham. Cunningham.

[David Muir]

He tells you there's someone else and that that woman is Candace Cunningham?

[Deborah Roberts]

Yes.

[David Muir]

Did you know who she was?

[Deborah Roberts]

I did not know. Candace. Candace hadn't been reported missing.

[David Muir]

As her colleagues watching in the other room start looking for information on Candace Cunningham, Detective Major continues to question Shawn for more information. After all, the two missing women in Ashland are still unaccounted for.

[Kim Major]

As I watched the interview, I could see that Shawn was warming up to Kim. He was telling her more. Her methods were working.

[David Muir]

What was it about you that he connected with, felt comfortable with?

[Deborah Roberts]

He told me that I had empathy, that he could see it. Who else?

[Kim Major]

The house where I came from.

[Deborah Roberts]

Yeah. Is somebody in there?

[Kim Major]

Yeah.

[Deborah Roberts]

Who is it? Is it Elizabeth? Where is she? In there.

[David Muir]

So then Sean admits to you that Elizabeth's body is in the closet in that same house where he was holding the Jane Doe.

[Deborah Roberts]

Right. In the same house. When he said that, I didn't know if she was alive or not.

[Kim Major]

As Kim's interviewing, I called Detective Brian Evans to tell him that Elizabeth was upstairs in a closet. He had been working on a search warrant at the house. I was surprised by the information because officers had cleared the house. We headed upstairs to see if we could locate Elizabeth. This is an abandoned house that has old wooden steps. You could see bare footprints going upstairs.

[Deborah Roberts]

One of the guys on scene said there is no closet upstairs. That detective went directly to a particular room and looked up and realized there was a concealed closet.

[Kim Major]

There was a bunch of clothing just all over this closet.

[Deborah Roberts]

There were stuffed animals piled down below.

[Kim Major]

As we started pulling away the clothes, you could see the fly activity. And there was electrical tape that was taped up around the sides of the door to, like, help from the smell to come from the door. And once the door is open, there's another large pile of clothing. You could see the fly activity again all over the clothing.

[David Muir]

Elizabeth's body was underneath all this?

[Kim Major]

Yes, it was.

[David Muir]

But it goes through your mind at that point.

[Kim Major]

Well, that it was a tragedy. And once the clothes were removed, her body, she was actually kind of like face down and hog tied back, chilling. Yes, it was very sad.

[David Muir]

Sean tells Detective Major that the night of Elizabeth's murder all began when he says she called him late at night because she couldn't sleep.

[Deborah Roberts]

She came over about 11 o'clock when she brought on Riyazi, a dotsie.

[Kim Major]

It just happened. I choked her, just reached up, just choked her.

[Deborah Roberts]

We just didn't think it was possible. It couldn't have been Elizabeth. I mean, it just couldn't have been. And then we found out it was. And we just sobbed and sobbed because it had come to a conclusion that we were not going to see our friend again.

[David Muir]

You're in this very room alone with a serial killer.

[Deborah Roberts]

Yes. As it progressed, the magnitude was becoming clearer to me.

[Kim Major]

I guess I'm ready to go ahead and get my lethal injection.

[Deborah Roberts]

But I'll tell he's bought into me. He's going to talk to me. Whatever he did, I'm going to get it.

[David Muir]

Sean Grate has confessed to the kidnapping and rape of Jane Doe, the murder of Elizabeth Griffith, and knowledge of the disappearance of Candace Cunningham. But Stacey Stanley is still missing, and Detective Major has a hunch he knows more about her as well. As the hours ticked by in this very same room.

[Deborah Roberts]

Yes.

[David Muir]

You got more and more out of him.

[Deborah Roberts]

That's right. It just kept coming out in layers. A little bit more and a little bit more. Are there any other girls in the house right now? Yeah, one not in the basement. What's her name?

[Kim Major]

Stacy.

[Deborah Roberts]

He tells me that Stacy Stanley was in the basement of the home under a pile of trash.

[David Muir]

Now, remember, Stacy was that missing woman whose family had been searching for her after she was seen with a stranger changing her tire at that BP gas station. Sean says he was that stranger, and he tells Detective Major his version of what happened that night.

[Kim Major]

She came home with me. We kind of hit it off pretty good, and then sour fast. The mood at the police division was shock. It was just chaotic and pretty unreal.

[David Muir]

Then you get another disturbing call. There's another body in the basement.

[Kim Major]

Yes. If you go down the basement, there's space behind the stairwell. There was multiple bags of trash stacked up. And underneath the trash is where Stacy was. There was actually a picture of just her hand kind of sticking out of the trash, like, eerily saying, like, I'm here.

[David Muir]

Have you ever seen anything like this in all your years of police work?

[Kim Major]

No. I've been on other homicides and other tragic cases, but not to this magnitude. No. A lot of our local community was coming to the area, and you could tell the feeling in the air was that the people knew that we found bodies in that house.

[Deborah Roberts]

What started as a rescue ended with a gruesome discovery that only got worse. Now families wait to find out if those women are their loved ones. I got a phone call saying, I.

[Kim Major]

Need to get to Ashland asap.

[Deborah Roberts]

I don't want it to be my mom. I mean, nobody wants it to be their mom.

[Kim Major]

I don't get to watch her grow old.

[Deborah Roberts]

My daughter don't get to.

[Kim Major]

She don't get to watch my daughter grow up.

[Deborah Roberts]

Honestly, I think that my sister's in.

[Kim Major]

That house, and they're not going to.

[Deborah Roberts]

Know anything.

[Kim Major]

For a couple hours.

[Deborah Roberts]

They pulled out a couple pictures. They're like, is that. Do you guys recognize that?

[Kim Major]

So, yeah, that's my mom's picture. It was very traumatic, you know. You know, happened to see that. And that was my mom laying there. You know.

[Deborah Roberts]

It'S bad enough what he did, but for some reason, thinking that he put her under trash makes it worse.

[David Muir]

It still touches you.

[Deborah Roberts]

It does. For me, the day that cases don't impact me would be the day that I need to pack it in.

[David Muir]

You want it to touch you? Do you want to feel it?

[Deborah Roberts]

I want it to touch me. I mean, I don't want to be in an interview and lose control, but these ladies mattered.

[David Muir]

But Detective Major had to put aside her emotions. Shawn Great had confessed to a third woman named Candace Cunningham.

[Deborah Roberts]

Candice was a little, tiny, vibrant woman, lived in the next county over, Richland County. Candace had not been reported missing, and Candace had dated Shawn Grate.

[David Muir]

On her Facebook page, Candace posts about Shawn Grate, including this picture and later writing, I am with Sean and love him. It was just one month before her murder. In the interrogation room, Sean describes strangling her in an abandoned house after an alleged altercation.

[Deborah Roberts]

3:00 in the morning, I hit in.

[Kim Major]

The face with a bag of tobacco and a snapped.

[Deborah Roberts]

After I was done interviewing him, which went all day, I had asked him if he would take me to where Candace's body was.

[David Muir]

What's going through your mind?

[Deborah Roberts]

I was hoping that he wouldn't shut down from just having the emotions of going back to that place. So this is the scene where the home was, where Candace Cunningham was living with Shawn Great. So there was a home here. He burned it down after he murdered her in the home.

[David Muir]

Investigators took video of Sean that day as he led them to where he left Candace's body.

[Deborah Roberts]

He's agreed to come out, show us where he. Where he put the body.

[David Muir]

He killed her in a house that was here and then dragged her body toward the ravine.

[Deborah Roberts]

Prior to burning that down. He carried her body in a. Wrapped up in a blanket. He carried her to the ravine.

[David Muir]

Yeah, I remember these rocks.

[Kim Major]

How far down?

[Deborah Roberts]

Carried her across the creek and up straight up the hill about between 10 to 15ft.

[Kim Major]

Big shrug.

[David Muir]

While you were here, Sean got emotional.

[Deborah Roberts]

He did. When we rolled up, I actually had to ask him our. Are you okay? You okay? All right. And he said it was hard. It was hard.

[David Muir]

What was it like to finally find this woman and give it some closure?

[Deborah Roberts]

Like, I wanted to go down to the ravine and rescue her, but she's gone. Frustrating that she hadn't been reported missing, that no one even knew at all.

[David Muir]

As the investigation continues, Sean performs another show and tell.

[Deborah Roberts]

I just lost it. And then I just turned her around.

[David Muir]

Revealing more deadly secrets. During the interrogation, you asked Sean to show you his strangulation.

[Kim Major]

He said, I'll just do it on you. Kind of grinned.

[Deborah Roberts]

Fifty years ago, a young woman named.

[David Muir]

Karen Silkwood got into her car alone. She was reportedly on her way to.

[Deborah Roberts]

Deliver sensitive documents to a New York Times reporter.

[David Muir]

She never made it. And those documents she'd agreed to carry were never found. Do you think somebody killed her?

[Deborah Roberts]

There's no question in my mind that someone killed her that night. I think they were trying to stop her in order to get the documents. A new investigation into the life and death of America's first nuclear whistleblower.

[David Muir]

Listen to Radioactive the Karen Silkwood Ministry from ABC Audio. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.

[Kim Major]

Next to that desperate call for help.

[Deborah Roberts]

From a woman being held captive, police are now investigating whether they have a.

[Kim Major]

Serial killer on their hands.

[Deborah Roberts]

Shawn Michael Grate is being held for kidnapping tonight, and the Sheriff's department says he should be charged with murder.

[Kim Major]

Lord, I told that undertaker, Undertaker, please drive slow. The community response was one of just complete shock. People had no idea that something like this could happen here.

[Deborah Roberts]

Even though I don't know him, we are thinking about them and praying for them.

[Kim Major]

All I kept saying was, oh, my God. And it was just like, this is unreal. No, we're not talking about the same guy.

[Deborah Roberts]

I was just like, how I knew he had this anger, but when I first found out, I couldn't comprehend that this was something he had actually done.

[David Muir]

Those closest to Gray were surprised to learn of his killing spree, despite them having their own chilling experiences with him. His former girlfriend, Christina Hildreth, says Grayt once spied on her from inside her sofa.

[Deborah Roberts]

He says, I've been living in the couch. He said, when you came in, you were sitting on me. I seen everything you did. He had cut a slit into the back of the couch, and he was crawling in and out of the couch, and he would come out at night. That was terrifying.

[David Muir]

And his friend Tim Dennis claims he had a text exchange with Sean that made his blood run cold.

[Kim Major]

He had just out of the clear blue, asked me if he could borrow $20.

[Deborah Roberts]

And I told him no.

[Kim Major]

All of a sudden, here's this whole slew of scathing messages. And he told me, bedbugs are coming to Your house roaches are coming. And then he makes this statement. He says, meet the other me. Honestly, I just froze. The first thing that hit my mind is a monster.

[David Muir]

Two days after his arrest. You go interview him again now with Detective Evans.

[Deborah Roberts]

Yes, I did. I asked him if there was anything else he wanted to get off his chest. Anything else you thought about that you haven't talked about? What's that?

[David Muir]

It's a cold case.

[Deborah Roberts]

They've already found her.

[Kim Major]

I'm thinking her name's Dana. I totally forget her name.

[Deborah Roberts]

He tells me that he had killed a woman in Marion county ten years earlier. Ten years earlier.

[David Muir]

Dana.

[Deborah Roberts]

He didn't know her name for sure.

[David Muir]

Who was she?

[Deborah Roberts]

She had come to his mother's house to sell magazines.

[Kim Major]

Sean says he got upset because the woman didn't deliver the magazines that Shawn's mother had ordered.

[Deborah Roberts]

He said he was in town and just happened to see her. So he said he made up a story that he had money back at his house. Saw us when I fronted her.

[Kim Major]

So you gonna rip me off like.

[David Muir]

You did my mom?

[Kim Major]

Dad?

[Deborah Roberts]

That's when I choked her out right here. He said he placed her out by some railroad tracks. Her body had been found years and years ago. She just hadn't been identified.

[David Muir]

Detective Major knows authorities will need to figure out who this Dana is. But they press on, probing Sean about key details of his other murders.

[Deborah Roberts]

Detective Evans and I decided we might try to have him show us how he strangled the victims. So Brian Evans says, would you. Would you do this on a doll?

[David Muir]

And what did he say?

[Kim Major]

He said, I'll just do it on you, and kind of grinned. I was like, okay. And then we got up.

[Deborah Roberts]

So I roll the camera. Okay, this is Detective Major. We have Detective Evans in the room. Sean grate in the room. Then he kind of just gets behind Brian and does a hold on him.

[Kim Major]

Brad just like to grab her.

[Deborah Roberts]

I look at Brian's eyes, and I'm thinking, this is not good.

[David Muir]

So I'm you and you're Sean. So what did he do?

[Kim Major]

So he just came up behind. He said I'd get up behind him like this. And then he comes back. He locks this in. He locks this arm in. He locks this head here. And then he just pushes down and squeezes.

[David Muir]

Wow. Wow.

[Kim Major]

At that point, I kind of mouthed over to Detective Major that, I'm not doing that again.

[David Muir]

You could have lost consciousness in seconds. He could have killed you.

[Kim Major]

I didn't put a whole lot of thought into that. It just went to getting the evidence. And I Feel I have some training, that I don't believe he would have killed me. Police don't normally get this kind of demonstrative evidence. You don't normally have a killer not only confess to a crime, but then actually show you how he did. How do you know to stop? She went like this. This morning, suspect Sean Grate, held on a 1 million dollar bond and facing double murder and kidnapping charges. Do you understand the nature of the three offenses charged in the complaint, Mr. Gray? Yes, you, Honor.

[Deborah Roberts]

He seemed kind of unalarming. I could understand why. Maybe women were trusting of him or went with him willingly because he didn't look like a monster.

[David Muir]

Law enforcement is on the hunt to figure out just who is this unidentified woman. Shawn Grade has confessed to killing 10 years prior in neighboring Marion County.

[Kim Major]

Nobody knew who she was. It was a great mystery.

[David Muir]

Investigators reached out to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

[Deborah Roberts]

My name is Samantha Molnar. My position at Ohio BCI is a forensic artist. I can do a clay facial reconstruction from the skeletal remains. We can actually 3D print an exact replica of the skull. I basically start doing the clay reconstruction from there. Building the muscle structure on the face, placing the average tissue depth markers, and then kind of finishing the sculpture. We did receive some tips, but none of those tips led to an identity.

[David Muir]

Detective Kim Major isn't just trying to crack the Shawn Grade case. She also has to juggle the full time job of being a mom to three active kids.

[Deborah Roberts]

All right, hook her up. I'm always worried about her, no matter where she is. I would stay up at night, me and my little brother would, and just wait till she gets home. I try to say that I am not overprotective of my kids, but I'm sure I am.

[David Muir]

But could this case put Ken or her family in grave danger?

[Deborah Roberts]

When the case was going on, our fair kicked off. I get a phone call and it's a man. And he said, I have your daughter. On Friday night, my husband coaches football. I actually took my younger kids to the football game. And I sat there, which was also surreal, seeing all the things around me and the lights.

[David Muir]

People are happy.

[Deborah Roberts]

They're happy. They're cracking the helmets, the band, watching my husband, hearing the whistles.

[David Muir]

Friday Night Lights.

[Kim Major]

Let's go, let's win, let's go.

[Deborah Roberts]

It's Friday Night Lights. That's small town America. I brought my kids home, put them to bed.

[David Muir]

That's when Detective Major's oldest son, Corbin, who's preparing to enter the police academy, comes into the room.

[Deborah Roberts]

He's like, what's going on, Mom? I said, sean Gray builds forts all over the place. He's like MacGyver, he stays in these things. But there's one in particular he keeps talking about.

[Kim Major]

He had a fort in the woods.

[Deborah Roberts]

And she explained to me where it was.

[Kim Major]

And I remember there was a body recovery within quarter to half mile that.

[Deborah Roberts]

Deemed a drug overdose right on a gas line. I said, what are you talking about? He said, yeah, there was a woman that died of an overdose and they dumped her body there.

[Kim Major]

We also just learned a body was found in Ashland County. Police say gas company worker found the body behind a tree on County Road 1908, just south of Route 30.

[Deborah Roberts]

And he said, hold on a second. I kind of marked out where she.

[David Muir]

Thought his fort exactly was and kind.

[Deborah Roberts]

Of marked the distance it was on the same county road. I was like, there's no way this is just a coincidence that this has.

[Kim Major]

To be from him.

[Deborah Roberts]

It's just there's no way.

[David Muir]

It's not.

[Deborah Roberts]

I said, honey, it's an overdose and a dumping. And he said, that's because of her lifestyle. And people assume it's that. He said he did it. You have to go talk to him. You have to do something. The next morning, went in to the jail, pulled Shawn Grade out. There's a case from out in the county, meaning that we found a girl and we're trying to see if you'll be honest, if that's something he has something to do with.

[Kim Major]

Rebecca Lacey.

[Deborah Roberts]

Yes, sir.

[Kim Major]

I had problems with her once.

[David Muir]

31 year old Rebecca Lacey's death had been ruled a drug overdose by the Ashland county coroner. But now Sean Gray shares what he says happened to her.

[Kim Major]

We played a game of pool. I went to the bathroom night I.

[David Muir]

Had some money in my wallet, and.

[Kim Major]

That'S the first thing I did, was just check my wallet, and it was gone.

[Deborah Roberts]

He said she had stolen a few dollars from him, and he said he had strangled her. He talks about borrowing a car and taking her body out and dumping her in my county.

[David Muir]

This is where Rebecca Lacey's body was found?

[Deborah Roberts]

Yes. Right against this tree right here.

[David Muir]

When was she found here?

[Deborah Roberts]

March of 2015. Her body was found and she had been here for a couple months.

[David Muir]

Hard to believe that such a heinous crime could have happened here.

[Deborah Roberts]

It should be a place of solitude, but instead it's a place where a woman's body was discarded like she didn't matter.

[David Muir]

But Rebecca Lacey's case was public knowledge, and Detective Major needed proof that Shawn was actually involved in her death. So she asked him about details from the crime scene. What did Sean tell you about the placement of that memorial?

[Deborah Roberts]

During the interview, when I had asked him to tell me some things that nobody would know, he said, I can.

[Kim Major]

Tell you the truth. Cause where I found the cross and stuff right now, she wasn't found there. She was found over by a tree.

[David Muir]

He said, you put the memorial in the wrong place.

[Deborah Roberts]

Yes, he was right. Nobody would have known that.

[David Muir]

With this new information, authorities reopened the Rebecca Lacey case, rule her death a homicide, and later charge Shawn Grate with her murder. Detective Major had formed a unique bond with Shawn gray. You spent 33 hours with Shawn gray?

[Deborah Roberts]

Yeah. Eight interviews. 33 hours over the course of over a month.

[David Muir]

So much so that they've been compared to Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter of the Silence of the Lambs.

[Deborah Roberts]

Starling.

[David Muir]

Well, Clarice, have the Lambs stopped screaming? What kind of toll does it take on you?

[Deborah Roberts]

It may have made me a little more hypersensitive. When the case was going on, our affair kicked off. I get a phone call, and it's a man. And he said, I have your daughter. I said, who is this? And he won't answer me. And then he hangs up. They contact a guy who made the phone call. It was just a coincidence. The case probably changed how I handled something like that. That was a rough one for me that night.

[David Muir]

A month after he's arrested, there's another chilling development. A fellow inmate tells you that Sean Gray is targeting you. That he wants to kill you.

[Deborah Roberts]

He said that Sean Gray told him he was trying to find my gun on my body. That he thought it would be the ultimate to kill me.

[David Muir]

This information did not lead to any additional charges against Gray. But future meetings between Detective Major and Sean Gray took place at the jail where no weapons are allowed. All along, do you think he was plotting to kill you?

[Deborah Roberts]

I didn't know that initially. I went into a later interview with him. I said, are you still having that hunger that you talk about? Can I ask you something? Will you be honest? Do you still have thoughts about that desire? Yeah.

[Kim Major]

Free desire probably grew when there wasn't no desire at first.

[Deborah Roberts]

But it might exist now. It's something that I had to do.

[Kim Major]

I'm feeling it now.

[David Muir]

He told you he still had that hunger to kill?

[Deborah Roberts]

Yes.

[David Muir]

Sean Grate says he had a hunger to kill. But Jane Doe and the victims families had a hunger for justice. And now in court, they come face to face with a man they say is a monster. It's April 2018, and Sean Gray goes on trial at this courthouse for crimes against three of his victims. Jane Doe, Elizabeth Griffith, and Stacy Stanley.

[Kim Major]

It was the trial that everybody was waiting for. They wanted to know if this community, if these families were going to get justice. This is not a whodunit case. This is a he did it case. The defendant subsequently, over the course of multiple interviews, confessed to every element of every crime with which he is charged.

[Deborah Roberts]

I ask that you consider that Shawn.

[David Muir]

Freely involuntarily gave information during several interviews which implicated himself in several serious offenses. Jane Doe comes face to face with her abductor, bravely taking the stand against Shawn Grate, detailing her horrifying ordeal.

[Kim Major]

It was probably the most crucial testimony in the case. How was he choked?

[Deborah Roberts]

With both hands around my neck.

[Kim Major]

Did he let go of your neck?

[Deborah Roberts]

I think when I stopped struggling and fighting, he asked me if I had enough. And I just. I think I just remained motionless. And so he released his hands.

[Kim Major]

She testified about the terror that she went through during the time that she was kidnapped and sexually assaulted.

[David Muir]

At the trial, they played the audio of your interview.

[Deborah Roberts]

They did with Shawn. Yes. I entered the interview room to interview Sean Grape. You can hear my heart beating at key times during the interview. Who was that that you were talking to on the phone? It made me realize that maybe it affects me physically more than I recognize. Prosecutors reveal gruesome details about the deaths of two of his alleged victims. People don't understand when you were in that trial, what you see and what you hear, you can't unsee or unhear ever. And those thoughts are always in your mind. You can't forget it.

[David Muir]

It was too gruesome. It hurt you that much?

[Deborah Roberts]

Yeah.

[David Muir]

Even talking about it today. Why?

[Kim Major]

Just what she went through, it wasn't fair.

[David Muir]

Sorry.

[Kim Major]

We, the jury being duly impaneled, find the defendant, Sean M. Grate, guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the offense of aggravated murder.

[David Muir]

Sean Grate, guilty on two counts of aggravated murder, as well as rape and kidnapping. But justice is bittersweet.

[Deborah Roberts]

He devastated so many people. He changed our lives. And he took away not only Elizabeth's innocence, but the innocence of all of us that believed we were safe.

[David Muir]

The day of his sentencing, Sean Grate addressed the court.

[Kim Major]

I ask you maybe forgive me.

[Deborah Roberts]

Find your heart someday.

[Kim Major]

I know. Not today.

[David Muir]

Someday. This mess.

[Kim Major]

I'm sorry. For all human beings to have to listen here lives.

[David Muir]

Okay.

[Kim Major]

I'm sorry. I can't. Can't change nothing.

[Deborah Roberts]

Believe me, I would.

[David Muir]

Not for me, but for you guys.

[Deborah Roberts]

He Asked us in court to forgive him. Not for him, but for us. And obviously, I haven't forgave him for what he did.

[Kim Major]

Real justice would be for you to come with me for about five minutes.

[Deborah Roberts]

Burning hell.

[Kim Major]

The victim impact statements were extremely emotional and very powerful. We heard from Stacey Stanley's son and two of her brothers.

[Deborah Roberts]

That doesn't affect just one person.

[Kim Major]

When you kill them, it affects everybody.

[Deborah Roberts]

You ever bury your mother? I did what? Pick a casket out. I didn't expect that this young.

[Kim Major]

The offender was found guilty. Any sentence of death by lethal injection shall be imposed on Mr. Grape.

[David Muir]

At the trial. You had justice for Stacey Balloons?

[Kim Major]

Yeah.

[David Muir]

And Stanley Strong. And you released him when he got the death penalty?

[Deborah Roberts]

Yes, we had. There was a quite a few people that showed up out there to show the support for the family and that we were glad that he got convicted and received the death penalty. I mean, that was what we were hoping for.

[David Muir]

Praise God. In March 2019, Shawn Gray pleads guilty to the murders of Rebecca Lacey and Candace Cunningham in Richland County. But his first victim remained unidentified.

[Deborah Roberts]

You are what you eat, so the different things you're exposed to in your environment all show up in your bones. We learned that she likely was from a southern state somewhere between Texas and Florida.

[David Muir]

Then finally, a match.

[Deborah Roberts]

Now this woman, a victim of serial killer Shawn Grate, has a face and a name.

[David Muir]

In June of 2018, the community of Ashland, Ohio, gathered at the site of Jane Doe's frantic 911 call.

[Kim Major]

Today, that house was finally demolished, bringing closure for residents and relatives of the victims. Many people felt like they needed to be here today.

[Deborah Roberts]

After we found out that Elizabeth was one of the people in the house. I would have nightmares about it, and I would see her in the window asking for help. I wanted them to tear it down so bad, and I was so happy the day that they did.

[David Muir]

You were there when you saw the house on Covert Court? Destroyed. Demolished.

[Deborah Roberts]

I was.

[David Muir]

What did that feel like?

[Deborah Roberts]

It was a tangible piece that was destroyed by the weight of the situation.

[Kim Major]

The still here, 2007, the remains of a female.

[David Muir]

One year later, another step forward. A new development in the search for the identity of Gray's first known victim.

[Deborah Roberts]

The preliminary results indicated that the victim was very likely Dana Nicole Lowry of Minden, Louisiana. So genetic genealogy was able to provide us a family and a potential identity of this person. And what we did next was go down and swab the daughter of Dana. We were able to directly compare the DNA from the daughter to the DNA from the remains to Be able to confirm that was Dana Lowry.

[David Muir]

Sean Gray pleaded guilty to Dana Lowry's murder. So now there are six known victims, and only one of them survived. Jane Doe. What would you say to that woman if you were able to talk to her today?

[Deborah Roberts]

Yeah. How brave she was. She saved so many people. If she hadn't been brave and did what she did, we wouldn't have caught him then. How many more women would have suffered?

[David Muir]

Kim Major has retired from the Ashland Police Department, and she now works as the safety services director at Ashland University. And she's written a book about the Shawn Grade case.

[Deborah Roberts]

I don't want to forget this case. I don't want anyone to forget it. These women could have been anyone.

[David Muir]

You titled the book A Hunger to Kill.

[Deborah Roberts]

Those are his words. He has a hunger to kill.

[David Muir]

Do you think there are other victims out there?

[Deborah Roberts]

I don't think this is a closed book situation. I think more information may come out.

[Kim Major]

We never get to say our goodbyes.

[David Muir]

As for the Stanley family, they're still dealing with the tremendous pain of losing Stacy. You miss her still?

[Deborah Roberts]

Oh, yeah.

[Kim Major]

It's been eight years.

[Deborah Roberts]

I haven't even opened a box of anything of hers. I just kinda put it behind like it doesn't exist to an extent.

[David Muir]

What keeps you going?

[Deborah Roberts]

I know she would want us to go on. And the boys.

[Kim Major]

It just breaks my heart to see what they go through every day. You ready, girlfriend?

[Deborah Roberts]

And you know, like, he just had a new baby.

[Kim Major]

Grandma's. You see Grandma's. And he took her out and set her out at mom's bench at the cemetery. Hello, dear. He's a grandma. I talked myself into going out there.

[David Muir]

Oh, that was so cute.

[Kim Major]

She was smiling so big.

[David Muir]

It's beautiful.

[Kim Major]

And that's hard for me to sit and see. My daughter. Never gonna meet my mom. Oh, she was a great grandmother to her first granddaughter. And I'm sure she would've loved mine just as much. My mom did not deserve that. Any of the women didn't deserve that.

[David Muir]

And even though Shawn Gray's execution was.

[Kim Major]

Originally scheduled for 2025, it is currently on hold until Ohio picks an alternative to lethal injection.

[David Muir]

His appeals have been denied.

[Deborah Roberts]

He also denied 2020's request for an interview. Meantime, Kim Major's new book about the case, A Hunger to Kill, is available now. That's our program for tonight. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Deborah Roberts.

[Kim Major]

And I'm David Muir. From all of us here at 2020 and ABC News, good night.

[Deborah Roberts]

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

[Kim Major]

It's Brad Milkey, host of ABC's Daily News podcast.

[Deborah Roberts]

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[Kim Major]

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[Deborah Roberts]

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[Kim Major]

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[Deborah Roberts]

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