How Many Victims Does Shawn Grate Have? – Celebrity
Matthew Elliott
Updated on January 18, 2026
Ahead of that special, here’s what you need to know about Grate’s five victims plus the one survivor who led to his arrest. Grate Killed Five Women; One Escaped Grate was arrested when a woman known only as “Jane Doe” managed to call 911 when he was sleeping after he kidnapped and raped her in 2016.
Suspected serial killer Shawn Michael Grate wrote two letters to News 5 Cleveland’s Megan Hickey acknowledging the murders of “all five victims” that he is connected to and providing what he said was the motive for killing them.
Shawn Michael Grate (born August 8, 1976) is an American convicted serial killer, rapist, and former drifter who murdered five young women from 2006 to September 2016 in and around northern Ohio.
Shawn Michael Grate (born August 8, 1976) is an American convicted serial killer who was convicted on two counts of aggravated murder on May 7, 2018, in Ashland County, Ohio, and who pleaded guilty to two additional murders on March 1, 2019 in Richland County, Ohio, and who pleaded guilty to an additional murder on September
Retrieved October 6, 2016. ^ Barbash, Fred (October 14, 2016). “The twisted confessions of Shawn Grate, who says he killed 5 women”. The Washington Post.
Retrieved September 20, 2016. ^ Volpenhein, Sarah (April 11, 2018). “New tests could help identify alleged Shawn Grate victim in Marion County”. Marion Star.
The Washington Post. Retrieved September 20, 2016. ^ Volpenhein, Sarah (April 11, 2018). “New tests could help identify alleged Shawn Grate victim in Marion County”. Marion Star. Retrieved April 12, 2018. ^ “Marion County Sheriff identifying remains believed to be Shawn Grate’s first victim”. WTTE. June 4, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
How many women did Shawn Grate kill?
Grate Killed Five Women; One Escaped. The Disturbing Case of Shawn Grate Shawn Grate was a serial killer active in Ohio for over a decade. He was, disturbingly, only caught, when a woman who he had kept captive managed to make a terrifying 911 call. But that was only the beginning.
Serial killer Shawn Grate is the subject of the first night of Investigation Discovery’s Serial Killer Week in Evil Lives Here on Sunday, August 30. “The fascination behind serial killers continues to be unmatched, with our viewers consistently asking for more,” said Henry Schleiff, Group President of Investigation Discovery, in a press release.
Grate was arrested when a woman known only as “Jane Doe” managed to call 911 when he was sleeping after he kidnapped and raped her in 2016. When he was arrested, the bodies of two women were found in his Ashland, Ohio, home — those belong to Stacey Stanley, 43, and Elizabeth Griffith, 29.
In Ohio, death penalty cases are automatically appealed to the Supreme Court, so he is in prison in the Chillicothe Correctional Institution while he awaits his appeal to be decided.
He further confessed to killing a woman named Rebekah Leicy, 31, whose death was originally ruled a drug overdose, and a woman in 2006 that Grate said was named either Dana or Diana.
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The victim from 2006 was identified in 2019 via the DNA Doe Project to be the remains of Dana Nicole Lowrey, 23, of Louisiana. All five women died by strangulation. Several were also beaten or stabbed.
How many murders did Michael Grate commit?
In a press interview Grate confessed to five murders. Grate’s attorneys later filed a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. His trial date was set for November 6, 2017, and was later delayed to April 9, 2018.
Grate was convicted on two counts of aggravated murder on May 7, 2018, in Ashland County, Ohio, pleaded guilty to two additional murders on March 1, 2019 in Richland County, Ohio, and pleaded guilty to an additional murder on September 11, 2019 in Marion County, Ohio .
Based on information supplied by Grate, police have reopened the investigation into Leicy’s death. Her body was found in March 2015, and her death was originally ruled a drug overdose. Grate says he strangled her after she stole $4.00 from him in a bar.
Background. Grate graduated from River Valley High School in 1995. A grand jury indicted Grate on two counts of aggravated murder in the deaths of two women, Stacey Stanley and Elizabeth Griffith, and the kidnapping and multiple sexual assaults of an unidentified woman whose 911 call to Ashland police led to Grate’s arrest on September 13, 2016. …
Griffith had been missing for about a month before Grate was arrested. Her body was found at the Ashland house where Grate was arrested. An autopsy concluded she was strangled to death.
Stanley’s family had reported her missing the week before Grate was arrested. Her body was found at the Ashland house where Grate was arrested. She is also known as Stacy Hicks. An autopsy concluded she was strangled to death.
Grate is scheduled to be executed on March 19, 2025.
Where did Shawn Grate store his bodies?
Shawn Grate stored bodies in his home. A search of Grate’s trash-filled decaying home began to reveal the extent of his depraved crimes. Investigators discovered the decomposing remains of Stacey Stanley, 43, and Elizabeth Griffiths, 29, in the house. An autopsy revealed they’d both been strangled.
Grate was a drifter who haunted rural Ohio, preying on vulnerable women who had fallen through the social cracks or were subject to drug abuse.
A woman who has not been identified and is known by law officials only as ‘Jane Doe’ was held by Grate for three days at his home, where she was sexually assaulted. While Grate was sleeping, she found a way to dial 911 and was safely rescued by the cops, who subsequently locked up her attacker.
Timothy Spencer, aka The Southside Slayer, embarked on a crime spree in the 1980s when he raped and murdered at least five women in Arlington County, Virginia. He is known as the first killer charged and convicted using DNA evidence. Evil Lives Here airs at 9/8c on Investigation Discovery.
What happened to Shawn Grate?
June 5, 2021. March 25, 2021 by mycrimelibrary.com. Shawn Grate was sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for a series of sexual murders. According to court documents Shawn Grate was responsible for a series of sexual assaults and murders in Ohio. This serial killer would be convicted of five murders and sentenced to death.
The Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously affirmed the convictions and death sentence for Shawn Grate in the murder of two women in Ashland County. Grate, who murdered at least five women in three Ohio counties, was convicted in 2018 of killing Stacey Stanley, 43, and Elizabeth Griffith, 29, after a lengthy jury trial in Ashland County Common …
Grate is housed at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution. Even if Grate appeals the decision upholding his death sentence, it’s not clear when he would face execution. Gov. Mike DeWine announced Tuesday that no more executions would be held in Ohio until state lawmakers pick an alternative to lethal injection.
DeWine said he still supports capital punishment as Ohio law. But he has come to question its value since the days he helped write the state’s current law — enacted in 1981 — because of the long delays between crime and punishment. …
The jury recommended the death penalty for Grate, and Judge Ron Forsthoefel agreed. Grate’s one-man crime spree ended after he kidnapped a woman prosecutors identified as Jane Doe. Grate raped her multiple times, but she managed to escape after calling 911 with Grate’s phone on Sept. 13, 2016.