The Hand in the Window: 'Follow the Flies'

Summary

20/20 Podcast Summary

Episode: The Hand in the Window – “Follow the Flies”

Date: November 26, 2025 | Host: ABC News (featuring Debra Roberts, Detective Brian Evans, Detective Kim Major)

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Brief Overview

This gripping episode of "The Hand in the Window" chronicles the unraveling investigation into notorious serial killer Shawn Grate, as Ashland detectives painstakingly piece together the fates of missing women in their small Ohio town. Through tense police interviews, emotional family accounts, and chilling on-the-scene discovery, listeners are taken deep inside a pivotal day—when Grate’s confessions led to the recovery of victims, the closure of multiple cases, and a community faced with incomprehensible loss.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Detectives’ Background and Dynamic

• Detectives Brian Evans and Kim Major’s History
  • Both started with the Ashland police force the same day in 1997 ([01:07]).
  • Developed deep trust and complemented each other's investigative skills.
  • Evans specialized in narcotics, Major excelled in interviewing suspects ([01:38]).

    “She’s a very good interviewer... she can be very relatable to the suspects and they find it very easy to talk with her.” — Detective Brian Evans [01:38]

2. Escalating Disappearances and Initial Search

• Unusual Pattern
  • Two adult females (Stacy Stanley and Elizabeth Griffith) disappeared within days ([02:08]).

    "I'd say it's very unusual to have two adult females missing... that doesn't happen." — Detective Evans [02:08]

• Evans at the Crime Scene
  • Tasked with securing and photographing the house, alert for signs of missing women ([02:16]).

3. Detective Major’s Interrogation of Shawn Grate

• The Interview Room
  • Major patiently draws confessions from Grate, starting with Jane Doe's case, then moving to other missing women ([04:19]).
• First Break: A New Name
  • Grate suddenly brings up another victim, Candace Cunningham, unreleased in the press ([08:04]-[08:24]).

    “She’s in the woods.” — Shawn Grate [08:04] “Candace Cunningham.” — Shawn Grate [08:24] “This came out of the blue.” — Detective Major [08:31]

• Confession to Murder
  • Grate details his relationship with Candace and describes her death by strangulation ([09:51]).

    “I just snapped.” — Shawn Grate [09:51]

  • Reveals body location:

    “Just follow the flies.” — Shawn Grate [10:30]

4. A Cascade of Confessions

• Number of Victims

  • Grate hints at his readiness for lethal injection, implying multiple murders ([10:39]).

    “I guess I'm ready to go ahead and get my lethal injection, but I'll tell you about it first, okay?” — Shawn Grate [10:39]

  • Major pushes for further details, describing the psychological push to confess ([11:16]).

    “It's like a sore that's festered inside that you have to rip a scab off to clean it... I'll be the conduit.” — Detective Major [11:16]

• Elizabeth Griffith’s Fate

  • Grate admits her body is in a closet upstairs, describes method of killing ([12:13]-[13:00]).

    “Upstairs.” — Shawn Grate [12:13] “The same way.” [13:00] (Referring to method—strangulation.)

5. The Physical Search and Horrific Discoveries

• Evans Finds the Hidden Closet ([18:17])
  • Clothing hid a taped-shut closet; telltale flies gave away the presence of decay.

    “As we started pulling away the clothes in that upstairs closet area, you could see the fly activity... you could start to get the odor of a decaying body.” — Detective Evans [18:47]

  • Elizabeth Griffith’s body described: bound, decomposed ([19:42]).

6. More Victims Surface: Stacy Stanley

• Major Extracts More Confessions
  • Grate reveals the presence of another victim in the basement ([22:40]).

    “One down in the basement.” — Shawn Grate [22:40]

  • Stacy Stanley identified through details matching the missing persons case ([22:55]).

    “She was a nice lady. He said he’d driven her car and still had her keys.” — Narrator [22:55]

• Crimes Described in Grate’s Words
  • He raped and killed Stacy, then hid her under trash in the basement ([24:10]-[25:01]).

    “Put her on the floor. Where? Where on the floor in the basement? Underneath all that stuff. Garbage.” — Shawn Grate [24:57]

  • Family and police heartbreak at recovery process and treatment of victims ([26:29], [26:44]).

7. Impact on the Community

• Family Recollection
  • "That's my mom's picture." — Curtis, Stacy Stanley’s son, after identifying rings and tattoos ([29:09]–[29:26]).
• Detective and Community Shock
  • Evans reflects on the magnitude of the case—beyond anything he’s experienced ([27:04]).

    “No. I've been on other homicides... not to this magnitude, no.” — Detective Evans [27:04]

8. Final Recovery: Candace Cunningham

• Route to the Scene
  • Major recounts how Grate led them to the location where he left Candace’s body ([30:38]–[32:17]).
• Personal Reflections
  • Major reflects on the lack of dignity and sense in the killings ([32:33], [32:52]).

    “She wasn’t killed because they were arguing...she was killed because he has a craving, a hunger...all it takes is you making a mistake, and you’re gone.” — Detective Major [32:52]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Grate’s Chilling Instructions:

  “Just follow the flies.” — Shawn Grate [10:30]

• On Facing His Crimes:

  “I guess I’m ready to go ahead and get my lethal injection, but I’ll tell you about it first, okay?” — Shawn Grate [10:39]

• Detective Major’s Empathy and Insight:

  “It’s like a sore that’s festered inside that you have to rip a scab off to clean it... I’ll be the conduit.” — Detective Kim Major [11:16]

• Grate’s Remorselessness:

  “She wasn’t killed because they were arguing... she was killed because he has a craving...all it takes is you making a mistake, and you’re gone.” — Detective Major [32:52]

• Family’s Heartbreak:

  “That was my mom.” — Curtis, Stacy Stanley’s son [29:26]

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Important Segment Timestamps

• Start of Investigation and Detective Insights: [01:07]–[02:16]
• Jane Doe Escape and Securing Crime Scene: [02:16]–[02:54]
• Initial Interrogation with Shawn Grate: [04:19]–[05:27]
• First Mention of Candace Cunningham: [08:04]–[08:24]
• Confession and Directions to Body: [10:30]
• Elizabeth Griffith’s Body in the Closet: [12:13], [13:00], [18:17]–[19:58]
• Stacy Stanley in the Basement: [22:40]–[25:01], [26:29], [26:44]
• Family Learning the Truth: [29:09]–[29:26]
• Candace Cunningham’s Recovery and Reflections: [30:38]–[32:52]
• Major’s Reflection on Evil and Loss: [34:02]

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Tone and Language

This episode is delivered in a sober, direct, and investigative tone, characteristic of ABC’s 20/20, interspersed with emotional first-person accounts by police and family members. The detectives’ humanity and fatigue, as well as the profound weight of violence and loss, are palpable throughout, giving both the facts and emotional aftershocks equal space.

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Conclusion

“Follow the Flies” provides a detailed, minute-by-minute account of the harrowing day when Shawn Grate’s grim confessions brought answers to families and upended an entire community. The episode captures the painstaking work of law enforcement, the chilling psychology of a serial killer, and the enduring pain for those left behind. It closes with Detective Major’s reflections on senseless evil and the indelible scars left on Ashland, now the home of an unexpected and dreadful infamy.

Transcript

[Debra Roberts]

This is Debra Roberts. I'm here with another weekly episode of our latest series from 2020 and ABC Audio, the Hand in the Window. Remember, you can get new episodes early if you follow the Hand in the Window for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or your favorite podcast app. Now, here's the episode. This episode is brought to you by cars.com on cars.com you can shop over 2 million cars that over 2 million new car possibilities. Like making space for your growing family, becoming the type of person who takes spontaneous weekend camping trips or upgrading your commute wherever life takes you next, or whoever you're looking to be. There's a car for that. On Cars.com, visit Cars.com to discover your next possibility.

[Narrator]

This episode contains graphic descriptions that may not be suitable for all listeners. Detective Brian Evans has known Detective Kim Major a long time.

[Detective Brian Evans]

I started actually the same day as Detective Major did. It was actually on my birthday. September 29, 1997 is the day we started.

[Narrator]

They had been rookies together on the Ashland police force, partnered up on a lot of cases. Over time they formed a close bond, the type where they could finish each other's sentences. They each had their specialties. Evans was a narcotics detective and Major.

[Detective Brian Evans]

She'S a very good interviewer. I think most of that comes from her drive to help. She can be very relatable to the suspects and they find it very easy to talk with her.

[Narrator]

Like Major, Evans had grown up in the area. He went to high school in Ashland. So when Stacy Stanley and Elizabeth Griffith disappeared in quick succession, it seemed strange.

[Detective Brian Evans]

I'd say it's very unusual to have two adult females missing for the city of Ashland. I would say that that doesn't happen.

[Narrator]

After Jane Doe escaped her kidnapper. Detective Evans was one of the first officers on the scene at that yellow house on Covert Court. His role was to secure the crime scene. That meant walk through the house, take pictures, don't disturb any evidence, and finally handle the paperwork needed for police to do a more detailed search.

[Detective Brian Evans]

Captain Lay has me in charge of the search warrant. Being a narcotics guy, I write the most house search warrants for drug houses, so that became my focus.

[Narrator]

Evans was looking for anything related to Shawn Grates kidnapping and assault on Jane Doe. But with two other women missing, he was on high alert as he moved through the house room by room. If there were more secrets to be found, Brian Evans would be there to find them. From 2020 and ABC Audio, this is the Hand in the Window Episode four, Follow the Flies. While the Crime scene buzzed with activity. In the interview room at the police department, it was quiet. Sean Grate sat shirtless at a small table, leaning back in his chair. Detective Kim Major sat to his right, about a foot away, leaning forward. Major had gotten Sean Gray to admit to his brutal attacks on Jane Doe. Now she pushed him carefully about the other missing women, Stacey Stanley and Elizabeth Griffith. She started with Elizabeth, the 29 year old who had last been seen a month before.

[Detective Kim Major]

Hey, do you know where Elizabeth is right now? I don't care what you told anybody else. I care what you tell me.

[Sean Grate]

Hey, I feel you already know. I can't answer your question. You already know.

[Narrator]

Grate kept telling Major that he felt she already knew where Elizabeth was. Detective Major wasn't sure what that meant. She tried a new question. Did Elizabeth Griffith ask Great to hurt her or kill her?

[Sean Grate]

No, she hasn't asked me to do nothing. She's mentioning it about not wanting to be alive before that one time, like within five minutes, I noticed. Oh, my goodness.

[Narrator]

According to Grate, Elizabeth had expressed suicidal tendencies. He told Major, Elizabeth said that quote within five minutes of knowing her.

[Detective Kim Major]

Oh, I tell you, I don't think she's alive. It's because that's what I think. I don't know what else to say. I don't know where she is. I would like for you to take me there if you're willing to do it. We'll go load up and go there. Will you take me there?

[Sean Grate]

I can take you to a place in Mansfield.

[Narrator]

Take you to a place in Mansfield. Great, said a city twice the size of Ashland in a neighboring county about 20 million minutes away. His demeanor was suddenly different. He looked uncomfortable, and his voice had dropped to almost a whisper.

[Detective Kim Major]

Where she is? Where are you gonna take me? A minute. Where there's another girl.

[Sean Grate]

Where there's a girl.

[Narrator]

Great seemed to be talking about a different woman, someone besides Elizabeth Griffith. Major wanted to know if this woman, whoever she was, was still alive.

[Detective Kim Major]

What happened to her? Hey, are you okay? What happened?

[Commercial Voice]

She gone?

[Sean Grate]

She's been gone.

[Narrator]

She's been gone. Great's voice was breaking. He began to cry. The circling questions about Elizabeth Griffith had broken through, but not in the way Major was expecting.

[Detective Kim Major]

He's not even telling me about what happened in my own county. He's not telling me about our missing ladies. So you don't know. Is he just making this up? Is anybody. I mean, has she been buried? Or did you just leave her somewhere? Is she missing?

[Sean Grate]

I don't know.

[Detective Kim Major]

You don't know?

[Sean Grate]

I know. I loved her.

[Narrator]

I loved her. He said.

[Detective Kim Major]

Is she in a house? What is she in. Sean, what is she in.

[Sean Grate]

In the woods.

[Detective Kim Major]

She's in the woods. Okay. How long has she been there? How long?

[Sean Grate]

June.

[Detective Kim Major]

June. Okay. What's her name?

[Sean Grate]

Candace.

[Detective Kim Major]

Candace Cunningham. Cunningham.

[Narrator]

This comes out of the blue, right?

[Detective Kim Major]

This came out out of the blue.

[Narrator]

A new name, a new county, a new possible victim of Sean Grate. Candace Cunningham. Great described how he met Candace in Mansfield in a house where he'd rented a room the previous winter.

[Detective Kim Major]

Candace had not been reported missing, and Candace had dated Shawn.

[Narrator]

Grateful detective Major would later learn that Candace was 29 years old. She was just 4 foot 9 with dark hair and high cheekbones. Candice's family later told a local newspaper that she had struggled with addiction and was in and out of touch with her family. Great said that he and Candace had been seeing each other for around seven months when they began squatting together in a white house on the road leading out of Mansfield. But Great claimed the relationship wasn't going well. Great said they argued a lot. He told Major that one morning Candace had woken him up by asking him to roll her a cigarette.

[Sean Grate]

3:00 clock in the morning, and I got hit in the face with a bag of tobacco. I just snapped.

[Narrator]

Gray told Major that they started physically fighting and that he strangled her to death. If this story was true, it was a confession of cold blooded murder. Not wanting to lose momentum, Major asked Grape if he'd show her the spot in the woods behind the house where he'd left Candace Cunningham's body. It will be easy to find, he said. Just follow the flies.

[Detective Kim Major]

So we're gonna go. We're gonna go find Candace, right? And go from there. Who else we gonna go find?

[Sean Grate]

I guess I'm ready to go ahead and get my lethal injection, but I'll tell you about it first, okay?

[Detective Kim Major]

He says, how many before I am lethally, lethally injected? So he's talking about how many people, how many victims before I get the death penalty, is what he's asking. And I'm saying, well, let's not worry about that right now. Let's just. Let's get the facts.

[Narrator]

Major sends that there might be more. That grade was on the verge of sharing.

[Detective Kim Major]

I do feel if you do something and it's in there, it needs to come out. It's like a. It's like a sore that is festered inside that you have to rip a scab off to clean it. It's in there and it wants to come out. So I'll be the conduit. Who else?

[Sean Grate]

The house where I came from.

[Detective Kim Major]

Yeah. There's somebody in there.

[Narrator]

Yeah. Great. Wasn't making eye contact. When he said there was someone in the house at Covert Court, he started squirming in his chair.

[Detective Kim Major]

Who is it? Is it Elizabeth? Where is she? In there. In the closet. Which closet?

[Sean Grate]

Upstairs.

[Detective Kim Major]

Upstairs. When he said that, I didn't know if she was alive or not. I just knew she was in a closet.

[Narrator]

Major wanted to confess whether Elizabeth Griffith was hidden in the house alive or dead. She returned to Gray's earlier allegations about Elizabeth being possibly suicidal.

[Detective Kim Major]

So with Elizabeth, you wanted to free her. How did you do that? Same way with Candace. Or another way? Same way.

[Narrator]

The same way. Strangulation. Detective Major told Grade she'd bring him something to eat and drink, making excuses to step out of the interview room. She was actually going to alert her colleagues at that house house on Culvert Court to tell them they should be looking for a body.

[Debra Roberts]

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Two rings surrounded by a steel cage.

You want to play games?

[Sean Grate]

We're going to play games. Oh my God. Are you kidding me? This is going to be a war stream.

[Narrator]

Survivor series War Games November 29th at Seven Eastern on the ESPN app.

[Commercial Voice]

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[Sean Grate]

What do you need me for?

[Commercial Voice]

We need a token white guy. Academy Award winner Brendan Fraser delivers a masterful performance.

[Narrator]

This girl needs a father.

[Detective Kim Major]

I hate you.

[Stacy Stanley's Son (Curtis)]

She hates me.

[Commercial Voice]

It's what being a parent is in this tender and funny film about the importance of connection.

[Narrator]

This is amazing.

[Detective Kim Major]

It's cool, but it's fake.

[Narrator]

Sometimes it's okay to pretend.

[Commercial Voice]

Rental Family, now playing only in theaters rated PG13, may be inappropriate for children under 13.

[Narrator]

In a few short minutes, Sean Grate had confessed to not one, but two murders. The case was rapidly evolving into one of the biggest that Ashland's police department had ever seen. By now, Ohio's Bureau of Criminal Investigation, or bci, had been called in to help. With every hour that passed, more BCI trucks pulled up to the house on Covert Court. Brian Evans was in the process of photographing every room in the house when.

[Detective Brian Evans]

I began to receive communication via phone calls and text messages from the interview that's taking place with Detective Major. And now that we know Mr. Great.

[Narrator]

The first call that Brian Evans got was about Candace Cunningham. That Great had admitted to killing her in a house in Richland County. Five minutes went by when Evans phone rang again.

[Detective Brian Evans]

And I get another communication that our missing female, Elizabeth is deceased and she's upstairs in a closet.

[Narrator]

Detective Evans was surprised. He had just walked through every room in the COVID courthouse and he didn't remember seeing any closets in the upstairs rooms. He went to look again. He climbed the stairs and entered a small bedroom on the second floor. Inside was a green sofa bed with rags tied to the frame. They looked like restraints.

[Detective Brian Evans]

Once you got upstairs, the rooms are in semi disarray. I mean, there was a bedroom and in that bedroom there was. You couldn't see the closet door at all.

[Narrator]

On one wall, clothing was everywhere, hanging from nails and stacked in piles on the floor. As Evans looked closer, he realized there was a door hidden behind all the mess. It Was sealed shut with duct tape.

[Detective Brian Evans]

As we started pulling away the clothes in that upstairs closet area, you could see the fly activity. A lot of the flies were dead at that point, Meaning that they've been there a while. Then you could start to get the odor of a decaying body.

[Narrator]

Evans and his fellow investigators pulled the clothes away from the closet doorway. A BCI agent peeled back the tape and opened the door. Inside, they found more mess. Another pile of clothing and bedding. The agents removed each layer of the pile one by one until they made a chilling discovery. A woman's dead body.

[Detective Brian Evans]

She was down basically on her stomach, chest area, with her hands tied behind her back and her legs tied up, and then hog tied to her hands, and her head and face was facing away from us to the back of the wall.

[Narrator]

Because of the tight space and the decomposition of the body, Evans couldn't tell immediately if it was Elizabeth. The body had clearly been in the closet for a while. It was there during the days that Jane Doe was trapped downstairs.

[Detective Kim Major]

All right, Shawn. I've been on the hunt for snacks. You got chips? Here's what I got so far.

[Narrator]

Detective Kim Major had left the interview room to make sure her colleagues were briefed on Shawn Grates confessions. She returned ready to ask Great for more details about Elizabeth's death. Major asked if Grate had sexually assaulted Elizabeth Griffith before her murder. Great said no. Major asked how Elizabeth had ended up at Gray's home.

[Sean Grate]

Everything all happened so fast.

[Narrator]

According to Grate, Elizabeth Griffith and Jane Doe lived in the same apartment complex. Grate said that it was Jane who had introduced Elizabeth to him earlier that summer. One day, when Grate had gone to Jane Doe's building to see her, she wasn't there. But Elizabeth Griffith was. So Great and Elizabeth spent the day together at her apartment playing card games. That night, Elizabeth had gone to Great's home. They hadn't been there long. Grate said when he attacked her, he strangled her, then tied her up in the closet. In the days that followed, he would periodically kill the flies that buzzed around the house. Major noticed that Great was very interested in flies. The life cycle from egg to maggot to adult. He also seemed drawn to specific parts of death and the decomposition of bodies.

[Detective Kim Major]

There are times during the interview if he would talk about what a woman's face does when you're killing her or what her body does, How a body decomposes the larva, or following the scent to find the body, or watching. Watching their bodies decompose. You know, there's lots of Things where you could tell he's interested in this.

[Narrator]

Major continued to press him.

[Detective Kim Major]

Are there any other girls in the house right now? Yeah.

[Sean Grate]

One down in the basement.

[Detective Kim Major]

Down the basement.

[Narrator]

Another body, this time in the basement of the yellow house.

[Detective Kim Major]

What's her name?

[Commercial Voice]

Stacy.

[Narrator]

Stacy Great described her as a dark haired woman in her 40s. A nice lady. He said he'd driven her car and still had her keys. All the details matched the Stacey Stanley case. The 43 year old mother and grandmother who had gone missing from a gas station the previous week. Her sons had been all over town putting up flyers with Stacy's picture on them, asking the public for any information about where she might be. Gray told Major that he'd seen Stacy standing at the gas station in the rain, waiting with a flat tire. He helped her and Great said he asked if Stacy would like to hang out sometime. Gray told Major that Stacy had agreed and they'd gone back to his house. According to Grate, they'd sat together talking. But then he said things turned sour.

[Detective Kim Major]

Did you have sex with her?

[Sean Grate]

Yeah.

[Narrator]

Great raped Stacy. Investigators would later find out that he filmed the attack on his phone. When Stacy fought back, Great strangled her.

[Sean Grate]

She wanted to play the innocent thing so that my son just snapped on her.

[Narrator]

Great shifted the blame onto Stacy. She wanted to play the innocent thing, he said. So I just snapped.

[Detective Kim Major]

Okay, so what did you put her in? In the basement. Put her on the floor. Where? Where on the floor in the basement?

[Sean Grate]

Underneath all that stuff. Garbage.

[Detective Kim Major]

Okay.

[Narrator]

Great said that Stacy's body was under the garbage in the basement. Soon, Brian Evans got another call from the station.

[Detective Brian Evans]

I'd say about within a half hour after finding Elizabeth upstairs, I received more information that Stacy should be in the basement under a bunch of trash bags.

[Narrator]

Evans and a couple of other officers went down to take a look downstairs. There was a large pile of bags. It looked like Grate had been using the basement to store all of his trash since he moved in.

[Detective Brian Evans]

And before we moved any trash bags, there was, I believe, a checkbook. There were some items that had Stacy Stanley's name on it.

[Narrator]

The officers also found a pink mace container on a keychain. Slowly and methodically, they photographed and removed bag after bag. As they cleared one of the last areas, they saw something startling. It was a hand sticking out from under a blanket. It had a small tattoo on it and rings on the fingers. The rest of the body was hidden under the bags.

[Detective Kim Major]

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

[Narrator]

In a town as small as Ashland, one murder would be shocking. Now police were dealing with three in a place where everybody knows everybody. It hit hard. Have you ever seen anything like this.

[Stacy Stanley's Son (Curtis)]

In all your years of police work?

[Detective Brian Evans]

No. I've been on other homicides and other tragic cases, but not to this magnitude, no.

[Narrator]

By the early afternoon, a crowd had gathered outside the house on Covert Court. Detective Evans recognized members of Stacy Stanley's.

[Stacy Stanley's Son (Curtis)]

Family in the day that they were found. I think we spent majority of the day sitting in the parking lot.

[Narrator]

Stacey Stanley's son Curtis waited, along with a growing number of journalists and Ashland residents.

[Stacy Stanley's Son (Curtis)]

Hundreds and hundreds of people standing there and a bunch of news channels and everybody else. And you could see them bringing things out, and they seen them bring the bodies out and they had all those tents and they. And that was it. They didn't tell us.

[Narrator]

Detective Evans couldn't reveal everything he knew just yet. The body in the basement was too decomposed to be recognizable. But the evidence that police had collected suggested that it was Stacy Stanley. Evans was close to one of Stacy's family members. He reached out to her.

[Detective Brian Evans]

I told the family member, I can't release any information, but I'd like to have you answer a few questions about some property of Stacy's. And she said that she would.

[Narrator]

Evans shared a picture of the pink mace keychain and a ring that been found on the body. Stacy's relative confirmed that Stacy owned those items.

[Detective Brian Evans]

That was hard. Yes.

[Narrator]

Evans couldn't confirm the ring, why he was asking these questions, but he knew what it looked like. Now the police were almost sure it was Stacy. The only thing left was for the family to officially confirm it. The Stanley family would have to wait for hours until late that night before they were called to a meeting at the police station.

[Stacy Stanley's Son (Curtis)]

Then. I remember that night. We sat in that room. There was probably about 15 or 20 of us. They pulled out a couple pictures, and one of them was her hand with a tattoo she had on her hand right there. And they're like, is that. Do you guys recognize that? So I went up there and I looked and said, yeah, that's my mom's picture. And that's what they told us.

[Narrator]

It was my mom.

[Stacy Stanley's Son (Curtis)]

Yeah, that was my mom.

[Narrator]

By the afternoon of September 13, Detective Kim Major was finishing up her interview with Great. She had asked him point blank if there were any other missing women in the area that he had information about. Great said no. Major pushed him. Are you a hundred percent on that? She asked. Yes. Great insisted. But Major Wasn't finished with Great yet. In a few short hours, Grate had confessed to killing three. Three women and directed the police to two of his victims bodies. But there was still one body left to find. Candace Cunningham's. It had been a long day, but Major knew that Great's openness might not last forever. She wanted him to show her where he had placed Candace's remains in the woods. When I met with Major in Ashland, I asked her to show me.

[Detective Kim Major]

This is the route that we traveled to go to the home where he murdered Candace Cunningham. This is the route we took. So lieutenant Scott smart was driving.

[Narrator]

Major took me to an empty lot on the edge of Mansfield next to a busy road. The house where Grayd and Candace had stayed is gone now, cleared away years ago. But you can still walk straight into the woods just beyond where the house once sat. Major described what Sean Grate said he did the day he turned on Candace.

[Detective Kim Major]

Cunningham after murdering her. He wrapped her body in a blanket, took her clothes off of her, took her into a ravine. He took her back there and left her out in the elements under a bush. Candace had been described as being so bubbly and laughing all the time and full of life. Full of life. And the small things make her so happy. And he took every bit of that away.

[Narrator]

Grate showed detective major and the other officers where Candice's body lay. It was next to a creek. Major knew that if Grate had not shown them, they may never have found the body. What was it like to finally find this woman and give it some closure?

[Detective Kim Major]

I felt this sense of urgency, but there was really nothing to run to. Like I wanted to go down to the ravine and rescue her. But she's gone.

[Narrator]

The feeling of looking down at Candace Cunningham's remains at the bottom of the creek has stayed with detective Major. The lack of dignity in her death in Great's descriptions of her, the lack of remorse that Great showed.

[Detective Kim Major]

Sometimes, only after you have time to think about it do you actually realize how absolutely senseless something can be. Absolutely senseless. She wasn't killed because they were arguing and she wanted him to roll a cigarette. She was killed because he has a craving that he has a hunger. And all it takes is you making a mistake, and you're gone. You're gone.

[Narrator]

Detective major. Ashland county, raised and proud, realized that in the course of one day, Grate's confessions had given her town a horrific claim to fame. It was now the home of a serial killer. Now she and the town would have to try to understand where did that hunger to kill come from and did it end?

[Detective Kim Major]

He started out absolutely charming, wonderful, and then little by little, he just turned.

[Commercial Voice]

We're evil.

[Narrator]

The hand in the window is a production of abc audio and 20 20, hosted by me, john quinyon produced by madeline wood, camille peterson, kiara powell edited by gianna palmer. Our supervising producer is susie lu. Music and mixing by evan viola. Special thanks to katie dendoss, janice johnston, michelle margulis, caitlin schiffer, rachel walker, annalisa linder, joseph, daniel diaz, jonathan balthaser, gail deutch, gary wynn, stephanie mcbee, natalie cardenas and samantha wanderer. Josh cohan is our director of podcast programming.

[Commercial Voice]

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Tis the season for all your holiday favorites like a Very Jonas Christmas movie and Home Alone on Disney.

[Sean Grate]

Burn down the joy?

[Detective Kim Major]

I don't think so.

[Commercial Voice]

Then Hulu has National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

[Sean Grate]

We're all in for a very big Christmas treat.

[Commercial Voice]

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