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Last year I went through many different life changes. I needed to take a pause and examine how I was feeling in the inside to better show up for the ones who need me to be my best version of myself.
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Living a busy life, navigating a long distance relationship, becoming a first stepfather, Talkspace made all of those journeys possible. I could speak with my therapist in the office. I could speak with my therapist in the comfort of my home. I was never alone.
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you
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now you better walk alive.
Real Life Real Crime Warning Narrator
Warning this episode of Real Life Real Crime. The podcast may contain descriptions of acts of violence or that of a sexual nature and should be for people that are 18 years or older. He my warning people, I do not
Cindy Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
get the facts of these cases off
Real Life Real Crime Warning Narrator
of the Internet or for some television show. The facts I'm retelling you were presented to me by the victims of the crimes or or the perpetrators who committed the crimes against the victims. My descriptions of the crime scenes, what I saw with my own two eyes. If you're going to get offended, please turn this podcast off now. Thank you.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
Hello everybody, and welcome to Real Life, Real Crime, a podcast by Woody Overton. But I am not Woody Overton. I'm Cindy Overton, and I am here to break the cycle. Usually Real Life, Real Crime episodes come on Saturdays, but this week we are doing part two of my Shawn Great series on Monday
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
so that Woody doesn't record today. And I don't mess up any stories
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
that he wants to talk about.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
So I just figured I would record a real life, Real crime, and
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
I
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
figured that I would record the second part of the series that I started on Saturday.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
So if you haven't listened to the first part, go back and do that before you come back here to listen to part two. But if you listen to part one
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
of our Shawn Great series, you know this story is about far more than a serial killer. I did that intentionally. I believe that the women need to be remembered for who they were and not simply for how they died. It was also about women whose lives intersected with a predator. And in part one, we talked about Shawn Gray's childhood and Marion, Ohio, his troubled path into adulthood, his criminal history and the years he spent drifting through Ohio. Well, basically hiding in plain sight. We talked about Dana Lowry, who was a young mother from Louisiana who traveled to Ohio, and she traveled there hoping to make a living selling magazine subscriptions.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
But she never made it home.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
And then we talked about Rebecca Lecy, whose death initially failed to reveal the truth about the man responsible. And unfortunately, that led into Candace Cunningham, who was a woman who had developed a very trusting relationship. And then she ultimately became one of his victims. And it's hard to say. But then we talked about Elizabeth Griffith and Stacy Stanley. And these two women will ultimately be discovered inside an abandoned house in Ashland, Ohio. And this house in Ashland, Ohio, it's a house that Shaun Great had turned to his own private hunting ground.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And so when we left off with part one, investigators were searching for answers. Families were searching for loved ones.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
And Shawn Great was still free. But what nobody knew was that his freedom was, thank goodness, only measured in days. Because the next woman, this woman that he targeted, would do something extraordinary, and she would survive.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
Now, before we get into her history, I want to talk about something that criminologists and behavioral experts and things that
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
I love because I have a psychology degree they've studied for decades.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And so one of the questions people
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
ask in serial killer cases. There's many, many questions that people ask in serial killer cases. Why don't they stop? Why isn't one victim enough with that? Why do they keep going? And, of course, everyone is different. So that answer is fairly complicated.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
But for serial offenders, the killing itself
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
isn't really the goal. The goal is that feeling. Whatever feeling they get from the kill is what keeps them going. That's dark. It's twisted. And that feeling comes from the control that they get, the feeling of having the domination and ultimately living out whatever fantasy they've been playing over and over in their head, and they're making it come to life. And so with the control, you know, it's deciding what happens to another human life.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And for some offenders, those fantasies begin
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
years before their first murder even occurs. But over time, that fantasy grows and it becomes more important and more consuming. And then, of course, eventually, fantasy alone no longer satisfies whatever psychological need is driving the behavior. And that's when the escalation occurs.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
So the first murder may satisfy the fantasy for years.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
And we saw that with Shawn.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
The next one may only satisfy for a few months.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
And again, we saw that with Shawn, and then we saw the weeks, and now we're leading into the days.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And investigators often refer to this as
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
the cooling off period. The emotional reward fades, the fantasy returns, and the offender begins chasing that feeling again. And it's very much an addiction now to say that we have an idea of what was going through Sean GR's mind or any other habitual offender. We have no idea, truly. Do they even know what's going through their head? Because their life is full of lies. So I, you know, to know, we. We can't even begin to. To guess, honestly. But when investigators later examined his timeline, something did stand out. And sometimes the patterns and sometimes the actions,
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
you can say, show what was going on inside someone's mind.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
But sometimes actions don't equal mindset. But the murders appeared to be getting closer together, which we. That's what this has been leading up to. The gaps were shrinking, the risk were increasing. He wasn't just killing, he was becoming more confident. But in that confidence is cockiness. And that cockiness leads to being reckless, and it also leads to being more dangerous. Elizabeth Griffith was murdered, then Stacy Stanley. And only days later, basically you could count that as hours, simple hours to. To count. Another woman would find herself inside the same house.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
A house where two murdered women were already hidden. A house where Shawn Gray seemed to believe he was untouchable. What he didn't know was that the
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
next woman he targeted would become the reason his entire world collapsed. And interestingly enough, this happened on September 11, 20, 2016. Again, it was two days after Stacy Stanley disappeared. A 38 year old woman who met Shaun Gray for what she believed would be an ordinary interaction.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
The two had met previously at the
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
Salvation Army Croc center in Ashland.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And they shared meals, he's grooming talk. They had taken walks, talked about life,
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
talked about faith, they talked about the Bible.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
To her, Shawn wasn't a romantic interest. Obviously, he wasn't someone he wanted to date. In later testimony, she described him more like a friend. Someone she trusted, someone she believed was safe.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
And that trust would almost cost her everything.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
At some point that day of September 11th, Shawn told her he had a
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
bag of clothes that she could have.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
She also wanted to show him some Bible passages.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
So they went together to the abandoned house on Covert Court. The same house where Elizabeth and Stacy were both hidden.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
The same house that Sean was living in. And she obviously had no idea. And she walked through the front door
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
and she was honestly entering a crime scene, a house of horrors.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And she sat on a bed and she opened her Bible and she began showing Sean passages of scripture. Then, without warning, everything changed.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
His demeanor changed, his expression changed.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And the man she thought she knew completely disappeared.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
That veil came off the mask.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
So he grabbed the Bible from her hands and told her she wasn't leaving. She wasn't leaving that day. She wasn't ever leaving.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
But she fought and she resisted and she tried to escape, but Sean overpowered her. He punched her, he choked her, he restrained her.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
Now, according to court testimony, over the next, the next two days, he repeatedly
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
sexually assaulted her while holding her captive inside the house for 48 hours. She lived with the knowledge that she might not ever leave that house alive.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And somewhere inside that same structure were the bodies of the two murdered women. What Shawn Gray didn't realize was that this victim hadn't given up. She didn't give up mentally, emotionally, physically. She was waiting. She continued to watch him.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
And she was looking for an opportunity to survive.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
it paid off. Eventually, that opportunity came.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And on the morning of September 13, Shawn Gray fell asleep beside her.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
He eventually got worn out. And what happened next would become one of the most remarkable 911 calls in modern criminal history.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
Now, the whole goal for this is,
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
as you're listening, you picture the scene, right?
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
We want you to be able to
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
feel it, see it. We don't want you to live it, but we want you to actually be able to picture it.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
So now the whole goal, as you're
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
listening to this, of course, is we want to invoke all of the senses, right?
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And so we want you to be
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
able, unfortunately, to picture it.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
We don't want to sensationalize it, and we don't want you to feel like
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
you're reliving what this woman went through,
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
but we want you to be able
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
to picture the scene.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And sometimes when we hear about a crime years later, we already know the ending. We know that this one survived, and we know that Shawn Gray was arrested. We know justice eventually came, but she didn't know any of that. So just for a moment, put yourself in that room. Don't put yourself in that place. Put yourself in the room. So It's September of 2016. She's in an abandoned house. The curtains are drawn. The house is quiet, eerily quiet. There's no television because there's no electricity. There's no neighbor stopping by, no family expected to stop by. No reason for anyone to come through that front door.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
No reason for hope that she might survive.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
It's the kind of house that most people would drive past without a second glance. But upstairs in a bedroom, there's a woman who's been held captive for two days. And she's exhausted. She's injured, and she's terrified. And somewhere else inside that house are two other women that didn't survive.
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Cindy Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
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that deal with the everyday life around here.
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Hey y'.
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All.
Cindy Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
You're listening to a show about the darkest corners of human behavior. And let's be Honest, it's probably 11pm you're in bed with the lights off, slightly more aware of every sound in your house than you were an hour ago. And here's what I know about you. You're not sleeping great. Not because of the show. Well, maybe because of the show, but because your bed is hot, you're restless, and your brain does not know how to turn off. The good news is that one of those things is completely fixable.
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Cindy Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
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This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. You know, may is Mental Health Awareness Month and it's a good reminder that whatever you're going through, you don't have to go through it alone. Life can get overwhelming. Some days feel manageable, some days don't. And a lot of times the things that keep you up at night are the things you don't talk about with anyone. It's easy to feel like you're supposed to figure it all out on your own, but the truth is, nobody has all the answers and you shouldn't have to carry everything by yourself. Having someone to talk to, someone who will listen and help you work through what's going on, can make a real difference.
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Cindy Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
B E T-T E R H E
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
L P.com she doesn't know where they are. She doesn't know the full horror of what happened there. But she knows one thing. If she doesn't find a way out,
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
she's not going to survive either.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
So then you're picturing that. Let's look across the room.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
Actually, maybe you don't want to, but she had to.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And right there was a man responsible
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
for all of this, right beside her, close enough to hear her breathe, close
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
enough to wake up at any moment,
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
and close enough to stop whatever she tries next.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
But somehow, despite all of that, I
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
guess she figured, I'm going to die either way, right? So despite all of that fear and despite all of what she had endured the last 48 hours, she made a decision. And that decision ultimately saved her life. And ultimately, she exposed a serial killer. Because Shawn Grate slept while she reached for a cell phone and she dialed 91 1.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
So she dialed 911 and the dispatcher answered. And for a moment, there was almost nothing. They couldn't hear anything.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
There was just some breathing going on.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
Fear, Silence.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
And then she whispered.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
She explained she had been kidnapped and
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
she was being held against her will
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
and that the man that took her
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
was asleep beside her. Now, think about the courage that that took.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
Now, we've all called.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
Not we've all, but a lot of
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
us have called 911 for emergencies.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
And I know that when I'm excited and I'm scared or whatever, my voice gets loud. So to control the volume, I cannot imagine. And I hope that none of you will ever experience what this woman was experiencing at that moment. And I know that some of you have. And to those of you that have, my heart goes out to y'. All. And I don't know you, but I
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
am very proud of you. And please tell your story
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
so that other women have hope. But let's get back to this story.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
Sorry, again, she wasn't calling from safety like she.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
She was.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
She wasn't even calling from another room. She wasn't calling after she escaped, running. I'm.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
You know, she was.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
She was still trapped. She was literally right beside him inside that house, within arm's reach of the man who held her captive for two days. And any wrong move and that call would be over, and she would be dead. So the dispatcher, trained as they are,
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
immediately understood the seriousness of the situation, and they began asking questions.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
What's your name?
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
Where are you? Can you see an address?
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
Who is holding you? But there was a problem. She didn't know where she was. She knew she was in a house, and she knew it was somewhere In Ashland. And she knew the man's name was Sean. But she couldn't simply just walk outside and check a mailbox. Every movement carried risk. Every sound mattered. So as the dispatcher continued speaking with
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
her, law enforcement began trying to identify the location of the cell phone. And somewhere deep inside, she remained remarkably calm during this whole situation. And I think that is one of the most incredible parts of this story. Not just that she called, but that she was able to think during this time and to focus and to answer the questions to stay composed enough to help save her own life. Because fear, ultimately, with a lot of
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
people, shuts them down.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
We have flight. Flight. Freeze, Fawn. Of course, terror can freeze people.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
But somehow, she kept going While officers
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
were working to locate her.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
Thank goodness Shawn Gray remained asleep, at least for the moment.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
And every minute that passed had to feel like an hour.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
Imagine staring at the person who had
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
kidnapped you, sitting on 91 1, trying to.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
One answer, trying to.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
To not let the dispatcher be heard through the phone.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
I know someone sitting next to me
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
oftentimes can hear what the person on
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
the other side of the phone is saying, you know, so trying not to
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
have the dispatcher heard, and you're wondering if that person's about to wake up. Wonder if actually help is coming. Wondering if you get out of there in time. And outside the house, police officers were quickly moving what they believed at that point was serious enough. They believed a woman was being held hostage. They believed a kidnapping victim was inside
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
that residence, and that alone would be explanation for an urgent response.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
But what they didn't know was they were about to walk in to something much bigger and much darker. And luckily, officers eventually arrived at the house on Covert Court. And as they approached, they had no way of knowing exactly what they would encounter. Of course, they didn't know who the suspect was, but they certainly didn't know if he was armed or if he would fight, if he would barricade himself inside and possibly kill the victim once he knew of their arrival.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And these were all the questions that
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
any officer faces in times of situations like this.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
But this call was different, because somewhere inside that house was a woman who
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
had managed to do the impossible. She had found a way to call for help, and now all she could do was wait. And I'm sure she had a glimmer of hope inside of her. And ultimately, police entered the residence, what she had been waiting for, and they located her, and she was alive, and she was finally safe. And Shawn Grate, he was finally taken into custody just like that, years of freedom ended in a matter of minutes. The drifter, the manipulator, the predator who believed he could control everything, was suddenly in handcuffs and had control of nothing. Well, I say nothing. He will control conversations. He will control the narrative, he thinks. But he couldn't kill. So officers did what officers do. They blocked off the area. Well, first they scoured the scene, right? They want to figure out what else is going on inside this house. And what was going on quickly became apparent that this wasn't just a kidnapping case. This wasn't just. And I say just lightly or not lightly. I don't say just for this next one lightly. This wasn't just a sexual assault investigation because there were signs of something far worse that happened inside that house. And then as investigators moved room to room through the abandoned residence, they were
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
about to uncover a reality that would shock even seasoned law enforcement officers.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
And they had not just captured a kidnapper. They found a serial killer.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
So Shawn Grates, now in custody, and investigators began processing the house.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
And inside the residence, they located Elizabeth Griffith and Stacey Stanley.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And they were the two missing women
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
investigators had been searching for. And at that point, detectives knew they weren't dealing with an isolated crime. And then they started to question, how
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
many others are there?
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
So then investigators began interviewing Great, and
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
they discovered something that would become a recurring theme throughout the case. Now, he wanted to talk.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
Not immediately and not all at once.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
But unlike many offenders who spent years denying anything, Great eventually began providing information. And over the course of multiple interviews,
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
detectives slowly pieced together a much larger picture. And as that picture developed, investigators began connecting him to other unsolved deaths and missing women. Cases that had previously seemed unrelated suddenly had a common denominator.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
One of the most significant developments involved
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
Dana Lowery, which is the young woman
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
from Louisiana who was a mother that
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
we talked about in part one. Remember, Dana's case had remained unsolved, but now investigators had a suspect. And then they had Rebecca Lecy, then Candace Cunningham. And with each new confession and each new piece of evidence, the scope of the investigation expanded. And finally, investigators were able to notify families. But unfortunately for those families, old wounds were reopened. And then the uncertainty ended. But that doesn't necessarily mean peace. It doesn't mean peace at all.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
It just replaces one kind of pain with another.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
Investigators would later describe Great as someone
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
who could be cooperative at one moment
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
and manipulative the next. And of course, that's not unusual. Even after they're caught, even after the
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
game is over, they still want to
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
Be the person deciding what others know and when they know it. Like I said, he was being controlled by his movements with those handcuffs and being in jail, but he would continue to try to control the narrative. Now investigators began working through what they called confessions, which I put in quotation marks like confessions.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
But they were building a case, and it was a strong case because they had a survivor, and of course, they had a crime scene and physical evidence and witness testimony.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
And then they began to increasingly get Great's own statements. By this point, there was little question about whether Grate would spend the rest of his life behind bars. The question was whether Ohio would seek the death penalty. And guess what? The answer was 100%, absolutely yes. The murders of Elizabeth Griffith and Stacy Stanley would ultimately become the centerpiece of the capitol murder case against him.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
But before a jury could hear the
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
evidence, the public was beginning to learn
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
details about a man behind the headlines. A man who for years had moved
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
through communities without drawing much attention. A man who looked ordinary again. A man who relied on trust, manipulation, and vulnerability. And now, for the first time, that full picture was coming into focus. Like I said, not just for investigators or prosecutors, but for those families who spent years searching for answers.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
As the case moved forward and toward
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
trial, prosecutors focused heavily on the murders of Elizabeth Griffith and Stacy Stanley, along with the kidnapping, rape, and attempted murder of the survivor.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And by this point, the evidence against
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
Shang Great was overwhelming because they had the survivor that had identified him. Police had found him inside that house where the bodies of Elizabeth and Stacy had been discovered. They gathered lots of physical evidence, and,
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
of course, Grate himself made numerous statements
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
connecting him to the crimes. The trial began in 2018 in Ashland County.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And over the course of the proceedings,
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
jurors heard testimony from investigators, forensic experts, witnesses, and the survivor herself. And they heard about the abandoned house on covert court.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
They heard about the women who disappeared
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
and the days the survivor spent in captivity.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
They heard about the 911 call that
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
ultimately brought everything to an end. And one of the things that stood out during the trial
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
was the courage shown by the survivor. Imagine sitting in a courtroom describing one of the most terrifying experiences in your life. You sit there and you relive it in front of the man that did it to you. You have to answer questions about it. Look at the person responsible sitting just a short distance away. But she did it. She did exactly that. Because without her testimony, this case would
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
have been very different. It would have looked very different.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And after hearing the evidence, the jury
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
found Sean Gray guilty as charged.
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Cindy Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
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Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
So then came the penalty phase.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And this is where the jurors had
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
to answer one final question. What's going to happen to him?
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
For the families of the victims, there
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
was no sentence, obviously, that could bring back the people they loved. No verdict would allow Stacey Stanley to return home.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
No sentence would allow Elizabeth Griffith another chance at life. And no punishment would give Dana Lowry's daughters their mom back but the legal
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
system still had a responsibility to act. And after deliberations, the jury did recommend the death penalty. And the judge agreed. So Shawn Grate was sentenced to death. Later, he would plead guilty to additional
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
murders, including the deaths of Dana Lowry,
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
Rebecca Lacey, and Candace Cunningham. Over time, the picture investigators had suspected became reality.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
This wasn't, as we know, a single
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
murder, wasn't a crime of passion, a one time loss of control like when he was arrested when he was 18. This was a serial killer.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
One whose victims crossed multiple counties, stretched
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
across many years, and targeted vulnerable women. And that's who I think about when I think about this case. I don't think about Shawn Gray. When I picture. When I'm telling you this story and I'm picturing it as I tell it,
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
I've never once in my head pictured
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
what Shawn Gray looks like. But I can tell you I've pictured what Dana Lowry looks like. I could picture her leaving Louisiana to make a better life for herself. I've literally pictured what Rebecca looked like. Candace Cunningham, Elizabeth Griffith,
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
Stacey Stanley.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
And our survivor. Because if she had not made that call, we would never know the full extent of what the nasty Sean Grate had done.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And to be honest, there's probably more victims, there's probably more disappearances that weren't connected, and there's probably still more families waiting for answers.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
And if he hadn't been arrested, there definitely would have been more.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
If the victim hadn't have stepped up
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
to do what she did, there definitely would have been more. And because of that, of what she did, a serial killer's freedom came to an end. That's the legacy of this case.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
So as the trial came to a close and the verdicts were returned, something interesting happened. Not the story. The story changed. The story didn't change in the courtroom or in the evidence or in the facts. The story changed because people started to
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
look backward instead of forward.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
So for years, Sean Gray had simply been another guy, you know, drifting around Ohio.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
He took up old jobs, he stayed
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
with friends, he moved from place to place. And he was a guy who most people wouldn't remember if they passed him in a grocery store. But now everyone was asking the same question. How?
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
How did this happen?
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
How did a serial killer operate for
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
years without being caught?
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
How did multiple women disappear before anyone connected the dots? And honestly, for those in law enforcement that are anywhere, the answer isn't simple. Part of it is because serial killers don't look the way people expect. It doesn't look like someone frightening or someone Obviously dangerous. But many predators survive because they are
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
ordinary looking and they can act ordinary. They just go on, just. They know how to have conversations. They know how to manipulate people to
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
make them feel comfortable and appear harmless.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
And Shawn Grade appears to have understood that very well.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
But there was also another reason he
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
got away with it.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
His victims, as I've said many times in this, were vulnerable. And that's not a criticism to them.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
It's part of life. We're all vulnerable in different parts of our day. Even like if I go to a gas station, if I'm distracted and my
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
head's not on a swivel, I'm vulnerable. Unfortunately, a woman in society is vulnerable. So this isn't victim shaming at all.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
I want to bring light to one. If you have someone that is would be considered in a high risk lifestyle,
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
don't let them be alone.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
Like, if you can't be the one to help them, you know, at least give them sources to where they can potentially get help.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And if you have to let them
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
go, you have to let them go.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
But anyway, I just want to make
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
it clear how easily at any given time, we are all vulnerable. And that vulnerability, in a split second can make us disappear from the public, from our families.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
So several of the women in the case struggled with difficult circumstances. And we just to review some of them, we had mental illness, housing instability, addiction, financial hardship, and isolation.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
And those are specific to this case.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
The very things that should make people more deserving of protection sometimes make them less visible instead. And predators know that. Predators count on that because they understand that when someone is living on the margins, they can disappear.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
They can go over that margin very quickly.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
This doesn't mean that their families don't care.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
But the system often responds differently.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And when investigators began reviewing Shaun Gray's victims together, they saw a pattern over and over again. Not women who looked alike, not women from the same neighborhood, not even from the same background. But they were women who were accessible to him. They were vulnerable to him, and he was able to control them. And that's one reason criminologists often place
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
Shawn Grate in the category of power control offender.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
His crimes weren't simply about killing. They were about domination, control, ownership, the
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
ability to decide what happened to another person. But that's exactly why the survivor's actions
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
were so significant, because she took that
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
control away from him.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
Now think about it. For years, he decided how every single one of these stories ended. He decided who lived, he decided who died, who disappeared, who got to tell their Story that one woman changed everything with a whisper. Not a weapon, not a fight, not a dramatic escape, a whisper, a phone call.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
Nine, one, one.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And that moment she made the call. Shawn Gray's control began slipping away.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
And by the time police officers arrived, it was over. And he didn't know it yet. And I find that very fascinating. Throughout history, some of the most significant moments have been incredibly small in what the overall scheme, when they happened,
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
could be a signature on a document.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
It could be a single decision, a vote, a single phone call. And in this case, a woman quietly speaking into a cell phone while the sleeper, while the serial killer slept nearby.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
That changed everything. Not just for her. It was a domino effect for every family connected to the case. I'm going to repeat them again because they are the people that are important here. For Dana Lowry's family, for Rebecca Lecy's family, for Candace Cunningham's family, for Elizabeth Griffith's family, for Stacy Stanley's family. Because once Shang Great was caught, answers finally started coming. Although painful, but they were answers. And they were answers that these families spent years hoping for. They allowed them to stop wondering. Not because Shawn Gray was unique. Unfortunately, history has seen serial killers before. But what makes this case remarkable is again, how it ended.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
Most serial killers get caught because of a mistake.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And he was getting there, he was getting close. It comes down to a traffic stop or DNA, a fingerprint. This one ended with a victim who
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
refused to become one. And there's a difference.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And one thing that always stayed with
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
me about this case is that we
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
know the names of the women Shaun Gray murdered. But the woman who stopped him remains
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
unknown to the public.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
Now, most court records identify her only as initials. Most media reports simply call her the survivor. And that's appropriate because Shawn Gray spent
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
years trying to take away other people's identities, reducing women to bodies, reducing lives
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
to secrets, reducing human beings to things he could control.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
He didn't get to do that to her. She wrote the final chapter for that segment of his life. She continues to write her own chapters. He didn't write that final chapter for her. And because she did that, the story ended very differently, much differently than what he intended.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
When people hear the name Shawn Graz
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
today, they think about a serial killer. I don't. I think about these women. I think about Dana, Stacy, Elizabeth. I think about the families.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
I think about one woman sitting in
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
a room, hiding a cell phone, holding a cell phone, deciding, I'm going to survive today. And in the end, that's what this story is about. And if I had this woman's name, I would have said it over and over and over again. But she doesn't need to hear it.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
She needs her anonymity.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
It took courage to do what she did. And sometimes courage is simply a whisper. And that's where we're going to leave the story. If you've listened to both parts of this series, thank you for joining me on my first, first real life real crime storytelling.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
And you probably heard me choke up
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
a couple times in this.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
Because cases like this are difficult. They're heartbreaking and frustrating, and sometimes they're hard to understand. But it's important to tell these stories not for the killers, but for the victims, because all of them deserve to be remembered. And I know their family remembers them every day. There's not a day that goes that none of these victims families don't think of them. And the survivor whose courage changed everything.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
I hope you're listening to this because
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
you are a strong, powerful woman, and
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
I can't imagine what you've gone through
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
with dealing with this in life.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
The PTSD you struggle with, I can't imagine what you deal with. But I thank you and other victims
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
out there that are trying to potentially
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
get out of just a hard lifestyle that I hope are listening to this. Just a whisper. It's all it takes. And that whisper is so hard.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
I hope this gives you a little bit of hope and strength, and I
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
encourage you to keep these families in
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
your thoughts and prayers.
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
And if there's anything that I hope that you take away from any of
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
this is please pay attention to people, check on people, and reach out to people, because sometimes the people who are struggling the most are the easiest to overlook. And this is just life in general. Like, sometimes the people struggling are the quiet ones. Someone reached out to me and told me that they suffered for in a domestic abuse relationship. This is a strong woman, a very giving woman, and she was getting to spend time with her best friend for
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
life since junior high school, and they've
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
been friends for over 20 years. And when the woman that was going through the domestic abuse relationship, she never once told even her best friend. She went through it in silence until
Woody Overton (Co-host, Real Life Real Crime)
she got the courage to get out of there.
Cindy Overton (Host, Real Life Real Crime)
But do you know what that best friend would have done to help her move mountains? But people don't want to bother anyone. They want to do what they've got to do. And I understand that you can't trust the person that you love. They're abusing you. You. You lose trust in humanity sometimes. But please keep reaching for help. Call 91 1, do the whisper. Thank you for spending time with me and I'm Cindy Overton and this has been real life, real crime and I truly love and appreciate each and every one of you and take care of yourselves, take care of each other and never ever stop seeking the truth and as always, see you next time.
Police/Legal Rights Voice
You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in accordance court of law. You got a right to an attorney prior to it during any question. If you can't afford one, the quarter point one for you. Do you understand your rights.
Unknown (Possibly a Rap or Spoken Word Segment)
When the wolf is at your. Running over that's for sure you
Police/Legal Rights Voice
already
Unknown (Possibly a Rap or Spoken Word Segment)
know all about you cut you down no matter by you now you better walk.
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Hosts: Cindy Overton (with Woody Overton)
Date: June 22, 2026
This gripping episode—part two of the Shawn Grate series—delves into the final days of the Ohio serial killer’s reign of terror, culminating in the extraordinary survival and rescue of his last intended victim. Cindy and Woody Overton guide listeners through the psychological build-up to Grate’s capture, the detailed timeline leading to the pivotal 911 call, and the profound impact of "the whisper that stopped a killer." Beyond recounting gruesome crimes, the hosts focus on honoring the victims, analyzing the psychology of control-driven serial offenders, and reflecting on the vulnerabilities that allowed such horrors to persist—and, ultimately, the remarkable act of courage that brought them to light.
Recap of Grate's Background: The episode opens with a summary of part one, recounting Shawn Grate’s troubled upbringing, criminal history, and the stories of previous victims: Dana Lowry, Rebecca Lecy, Candace Cunningham, Elizabeth Griffith, and Stacy Stanley. Grate’s method of operating "in plain sight" is emphasized.
The Final Victim’s Critical Role: Listeners are reminded the turning point comes with a woman who survived, an act which unraveled Grate's entire operation.
The Cycle of Violence and Control: The hosts explore why serial killers continue, focusing on the psychology of compulsion, fantasy, and the ever-shortening “cooling off periods.”
Power/Control Offender Profile: They discuss how Grate fits the "power-control offender" archetype, with killing serving the need for domination and fantasy fulfillment.
Establishing Trust: The soon-to-be survivor knew Grate from local community centers, had meals and conversations about faith with him, and trusted him (12:26–13:00).
The Attack: On September 11, 2016, Grate lures her to the abandoned house, attacks her, and holds her captive for 48 hours.
Imprisonment and Resilience: For two terrifying days, the woman endures repeated assault, forced captivity, and the foreboding knowledge that other women's bodies are hidden nearby—yet she “waited and watched,” searching for any chance to survive.
The Call: Grate eventually falls asleep, and the captive woman manages to quietly call 911, whispering her predicament while still lying beside her captor.
Critical Moments
Rapid Police Action and Shocking Scene: Police quickly respond and, upon entry, rescue the survivor and arrest Grate—unwittingly stepping into a house containing two other murdered women.
Unfolding Horror: As the investigation unfolds, police find the remains of Elizabeth Griffith and Stacy Stanley, realizing they are not dealing with an isolated kidnapping or assault.
Grate’s Manipulation: Grate initially withholds, then slowly divulges, information to investigators. His confessions help connect him to multiple unsolved cases.
Victim Identification and Expansion of Scope: Further investigation ties Grate to the murders of Dana Lowry, Rebecca Lecy, and Candace Cunningham. The survivor’s story is the key to opening these cases.
The Trial (2018): The trial focuses on the murders and the testimony of the survivor, whose courage in recounting her ordeal is repeatedly highlighted.
Death Penalty and Beyond: Grate is sentenced to death for the murder of Stacey Stanley and Elizabeth Griffith and later pleads guilty to other homicides.
Ordinary Monster, Invisible Victims: The hosts reflect on how Grate appeared ordinary, and how societal disregard for vulnerable women enabled his crimes to go undetected for so long.
Vulnerability and Power: Special attention is paid to Grate’s targeting of women who were marginalized by addiction, mental illness, homelessness, or poverty. The hosts urge listeners to remember the importance of supporting those living on the margins.
The Survivor’s Defining Act: Ultimately, the survivor’s refusal to surrender agency is celebrated as the act that halted Grate.
Quote, Woody (49:49): “His crimes weren’t simply about killing. They were about domination, control, ownership...But that’s exactly why the survivor’s actions were so significant, because she took that control away from him.”
Quote, Cindy (50:00): “For years, he decided how every single one of these stories ended...That one woman changed everything with a whisper. Not a weapon...a whisper, a phone call.”
Quote, Woody (52:27): “This one ended with a victim who refused to become one. And there’s a difference.”
Anonymity and Tribute: The survivor’s name is not public; she is known simply as “the survivor.” The hosts honor that, noting she rewrote the ending Grate had planned.
The episode closes with heartfelt messages of empowerment, remembrance, and a call to action: check on those who may be struggling, and remember that even the smallest act of courage—a whisper—can change lives. Cindy and Woody repeatedly center the victims, not the killer, urging listeners to honor those lost and to derive hope and vigilance from the example of the survivor.
Summary prepared for listeners who value in-depth true crime analysis, survivor-centered storytelling, and the complexities of seeking justice for the unseen and unheard.