A kidnapped woman in Ohio alerted authorities to two dead bodies as she phoned just inches away from her abductor’s bedroom, Ashland police announced this week.
“Please hurry,” the woman whispered to an emergency dispatcher, according to the 911 emergency phone call released by Ashland police on Tuesday. "I'm afraid he might hear me and catch me and he's strong.”
When authorities arrived at the scene 20 minutes later, 40-year-old Shawn M Grate was allegedly armed with a taser. He was arrested and later charged with kidnapping and two counts of murder. Police also found the remains of two separate victims when the search the abandoned home.
Authorities identified one of the bodies as 43-year-old Stacey Stanley, from Greenwich, Ohio, on Wednesday, the Mansfield News Journal reports. The victim’s family says she’d been missing since last Thursday. She was last seen at a local gas station attending a flat tire.
When Ms Stanley went missing, her family set up a fundraiser on GoFundMe to pay for her funeral costs. Her uncle recently explained that Ms Stanley was a recovering heroin addict and finally displaying signs of success.
“She had been off of the stuff the last six months and was living with her sister, going to work every day,” Stanley told People. “She was sober and was taking care of herself. She had reclaimed her life.”
Officials said that the unidentified woman had been killed between August 13 and September 13.
Mr Grate, who was described by investigators as homeless, has a lengthy arrest record in the Crawford and Mansfield Municipal Courts including a domestic violence charge against his former girlfriend, Cleveland 19 reports.
He is currently being held in Ashland County Jail. He’s scheduled in court for a bond hearing on Friday.
