Terrorising Ohio with his "House of Horrors", Shawn Grate

A lady called Ashland police on September 13, 2016, whispering that she had been kidnapped and was tied up just feet away from her slumbering captor. All she could manage to say about the man who was keeping her hostage and the place she was in was that it was next to the laundromat on Fourth Street.

"Is there a way for you to exit the building?" inquired the 911 dispatcher.

"I'm afraid and I don't know without waking him," the woman retorted.

During the conversation between the caller and the 911 dispatcher, the lady unintentionally knocked over her captor's stun gun, causing him to wake up.

“Oh no. I just woke him up" she growled.

A moment later, the phone line abruptly went quiet, and 'Jane Doe' was just minutes away from being serial killer Shawn Grate's sixth victim. Police had to act quickly to save the defenceless woman. The horrific reign of one of the most heinous murderers in recent history came to an end when the authorities prevailed, saved the woman and arrested Shawn Grate.

Shawn Grate Was Known As A Laid-Back Charmer As A Child, But He Also Had A Dark Side

Shawn Grate was born on August 8, 1976, in Marion, Ohio, and had a typical upbringing. Grate was popular as a teenager, especially with females. His contagious grin and endearing demeanour effectively concealed his underlying anger, envy, and violent tendencies - at least temporarily.

He was taken into custody when he was eighteen for snatching his then-girlfriend by the throat. A few years later, he was imprisoned for forcing entry into his girlfriend's house and strangling her. She was just 17 at the time. He broke in again eight months later, this time by lurking behind her sofa until the perfect moment to strike. He was holding a butcher knife this time.

Nevertheless, Shawn Grate attracted women with his charisma and outward kindness; as a result, he had three children with three separate women. But according to his ex-wife Amber Nicole Bowman, he once said, "If I can't see my daughter, no one will."

As Grate approached his late 20s, his actions grew increasingly unpredictable. An ex-girlfriend said that he would occasionally get into profound depression moods and be unable to get off the sofa.

Grate's Horrible Abuses Start

Shawn Grate eventually moved on and started dating Christina Hildreth. At first, the two were satisfied and contented, but Grate was unable to keep his true nature hidden for too long. Besides his tendency to become aggressive, domineering, and envious, he also shown moments of coldness and indifference towards his confused lover.

Grate once repeatedly struck his partner in the face and held her firmly by the throat. This was noteworthy because Grate's favourite method of murder was strangling.

Grate spent 180 days in prison after being apprehended for the attack.

He had trouble with more than simply romantic relationships. Upon receiving a negative response to his loan request, Grate texted his erstwhile acquaintance, "Meet the other me."

Following this, Grate walked the streets of Mansfield, jumping from woman to woman, profiting off their generosity and good intentions. Grate viewed women as opportunities rather than people to be employed. It was about this time that he met Rebekah Leicy and Candice Cunningham, his first two victims.

Sex worker Rebekah's body was discovered in March 2015, and an overdose was determined to be the cause of death. Her sudden passing, however, was not at all coincidental.

Before going missing in 2015, Candice Cunningham shared a Mansfield residence with Shawn Grate. The cops at the time provided zero outcomes. Grate was the only person who was certain of Cunningham's whereabouts. On the day of his arrest, he would finally lead authorities to her body, which was lying behind a burned-out house in Richland County.

Shawn Grate's Depraved and Hateful Acts Reach New Heights of Abuse

With his next victim, Shawn Grate was going to take his depravity and cruelty to the next level. The police call her Jane Doe and have not released her identity.

Doe got to know Grate while they played badminton outside her apartment building. However, as soon as Grate earned her confidence, he turned into the violent monster that he'd exposed several other women to. He imprisoned her in his flat, subjecting her to days of sexual assault and torment.

The lady said she had been sexually attacked in "every way imaginable" while having her hands shackled and chained to the bed.

Grate hardly slept at all on the first night of Doe's incarceration, leaving her with no hope of escape. Grate finally passed out following yet another day of unrelenting abuse and humiliation. The kidnapper appeared to be too deep in slumber to notice his phone ringing, even though it was directly next to him.

Seeing her chance to get free, Jane Doe, still half tied, leaned over her sleeping captor and discreetly picked up the phone, dialling 911.

She talked as softly as possible so as not to wake Shawn Grate. "I've been kidnapped," she said. She said that she was unable to escape because she was afraid of waking up her attacker when the operator asked if she could.

The woman who was silent suddenly exclaimed, "Oh, s**t," and there was silence for a short while. The operator could only speculate as to what may be occurring to the woman who was trapped in her violent rapist's bedroom.

When the woman finally answered the phone, it must have seemed like an age when she had accidentally bumped Grate's taser, awakening him up. Fortunately, he sat up in bed, staring at the floor before falling back asleep. Little did he know that his victim had the police called and had told them where the hostage was located.

More corpses than anticipated were discovered when the police got to the scene: Shawn Grate had been murdering the ladies who had dared to trust him, and some of them were decaying within the house he was squatting in.

How Grate Got Arrested And Placed On Death Row

After that, Shawn Grate was detained and brought in for interrogation. The house contained the bodies of Elizabeth Griffith and Stacey Stanley. The two women had died from strangulation. Grate was suddenly untangling the complex web of deceit and murder that he had spent the rest of his adult life constructing.

Grate was first reluctant to provide any information to the police following his arrest; he would frequently clam up and provide replies that were illogical. But after being questioned nonstop, he admitted to his long list of transgressions. Grate directed authorities to Cunningham's body

in a Richland County burnt-out home. He claimed to authorities that after Rebekah Leicy stole $4 from him in a pub, he killed her by strangulation.

In addition, Shawn Grate asserts that he killed a different lady who was discovered dead in Marion County in 2007. He reported her name to the police as Dana. DNA testing was used in June 2019 to identify the victim as 23-year-old Dana Nicole Lowrey. At the time of her passing, Lowrey had two little girls who were less than five.

Grate acknowledged his fear of receiving the death penalty prior to sentencing. He said to the cops, "I really would like to stay alive through all of this." He added, very chillingly, "I know I wouldn't have been able to get away with it, but I would have loved to have been able to do a lot."

Shawn Grate was given a death sentence on June 1, 2018.

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