On September 13, 2016, Ashland police received a phone call from a woman who whispered that shed been kidnapped and was tied up mere feet away from her sleeping abductor. She tried to describe the man who was holding her captive and the house she was in the best she could manage was that it was next to the Fourth Street laundromat.Is there any way you can get out of the building? the 911 dispatcher asked.I dont know without waking him, and Im scared, the woman replied.Ashland County Sheriffs OfficeBetween 2006 and 2016, Shawn Grate brutally raped and murdered at least five women in northern Ohio, ultimately landing him on death row in 2018.While the 911 dispatcher continued talking the caller through escaping, the woman accidentally knocked over her captors taser, waking him.No. Oh (expletive). Oh (expletive), I just woke him up, she murmured.The line went dead briefly, and Jane Doe was suddenly minutes away from being the sixth victim of serial killer Shawn Grate. In the end, the authorities prevailed and their rescue of the woman and arrest of Shawn Grate ended the bloody reign of one of modern historys most depraved killers.Growing Up, Shawn Grate Was Known As A Laid-Back Charmer With A Dark SideMansfield News JournalShawn Grate was described as friendly and charming by his peers.Born in Marion, Ohio on August 8, 1976, Shawn Grate had a normal childhood. As a teenager, Grate was well-liked, particularly by girls. He was charming and always had a smile on his face, which did a good job of masking his inner rage, jealousy and simmering violence for a while, at least.When he was 18, he was arrested for grabbing his then-girlfriend by the throat. A few years later, he was arrested for breaking into his 17-year-old girlfriends home and choking her. Just eight months after this, he broke in again, slipping underneath her couch and hiding until the time was right to pounce. This time, he had a butcher knife in hand.Still, Shawn Grates charm and apparent friendliness were welcoming to women, and he went on to have three children with three different women. His ex-wife Amber Nicole Bowman, however, recalls him saying, If I cant see my daughter, no one will.By his mid to late 20s, Grates behavior became more erratic. He would sink into deep depressive states, unable to get up off the couch at points, according to an ex-girlfriend. His Heinous Crimes BeginYouTubeShawn Grate with Christina Hildreth.Eventually, Shawn Grate moved on and began dating Christina Hildreth. The pair were happy and content in the beginning, but Grate couldnt hide his true colors for long. Not only did he become violent, controlling, and jealous, he would also show sides of being cold and indifferent towards his confused girlfriend.Once, Grate beat his partner in the face multiple times and grabbed her tightly by the throat notable, since strangulation was Grates preferred method of murder.Grate was arrested for the attack and jailed for 180 days.It wasnt just romantic relationships he struggled with. When Grate asked his friend for a loan, which was declined, he sent his former pal a chilling text: Meet the other me.After this, Grate floated around the city of Mansfield, hopping from woman to woman, taking advantage of their kind natures and offerings of goodwill. Instead of holding down a job, Grate saw women as opportunities. Around this time, he met his first two victims, Rebekah Leicy and Candice Cunningham. Rebekah was a sex worker and when her body was found in March 2015, her death was ruled an overdose. But her untimely death was far from accidental. Candice Cunningham lived with Shawn Grate in Mansfield before her disappearance in 2015. At the time, the police came up with nothing. There was one person who knew exactly where Cunningham was: Grate. He would eventually lead police to her body, lying behind a burned-down house in Richland county, on the day of his arrest.Shawn Grates Hateful Violence Escalates To New Heights Of DepravityYouTubeThe house in where Shawn Grate squatted and hid several dead bodies.Shawn Grates violence and depravity were to be turned up a notch with his next victim. Her name has not been identified by police, who refer to her as Jane Doe. Doe knew Grate as she played badminton with him around her apartment complex, but once Grate had gained her trust, he switched to the violent monster hed exposed dozens of other women to. He trapped her in his apartment and forced her to endure days of torture and rape.With her hands bound and tied to the bed, the woman said she was sexually assaulted in every way imaginable.The first night of Does captivity, Grate barely slept, giving her no chance of escape. After another day of incessant torture and assaults, Grate eventually passed out. His phone was right next to him, going off, but the kidnapper seemed to be in too deep of a sleep to acknowledge the phone ringing beside him.Jane Doe saw this as her opportunity to escape, and she reached over her sleeping captor as stealthily as she could to pick up the phone, and dialed 911, still partially bound. She spoke as quietly as she could to avoid waking Shawn Grate up. Ive been abducted, she whispered. The operator asked if she could escape, to which she replied that she couldnt because she was scared of waking her attacker up. Suddenly, the quiet woman said, Oh, s**t, and the line went quiet for a few minutes. The operator could only guess what might have been happening to the woman stuck in the bedroom with her violent rapist.After what mustve seemed like an eternity, the woman picked the phone back up; shed bumped Grates taser, waking him up. Luckily, he sat up in bed and stared at the floor before laying back down again, not realizing that his victim had the police on the line and had directed them to the house where she was being held hostage.When police arrived at the property, they were met with more bodies than theyd expected: Shawn Grate had been mercilessly killing the women whod dared to trust him, and some of them were decomposing in the house he was squatting in.How Grate Was Finally Caught And Put On Death RowRebekah Leicy was Shawn Grates fourth known victim.Shawn Grate was subsequently arrested and taken in for questioning.The bodies of Stacey Stanley and Elizabeth Griffith were found in the home. Both women had been strangled to death. The twisted web of manipulation and murder that Grate had spent most of his adult life weaving was abruptly unraveling.After his arrest, Grate was initially hesitant to give any information to police, often clamming up and being incoherent in his answers. However, under persistent questioning, he confessed his litany of crimes. Grate led police to Cunninghams body in a burned-out house in Richland County. He told police he strangled Rebekah Leicy to death after she stole $4 from him in a bar.Ashland County PoliceThe burned-out house where Shawn Grate left Candice Cunninghams body.Shawn Grate also claims to have killed another woman who was found dead in Marion County in 2007. He told police he thought her name was Dana. The victim was identified in June 2019 via DNA as Dana Nicole Lowrey, 23. Lowrey had two young daughters under the age of 5 at the time of her death.Prior to sentencing, Grate expressed his fear of facing the death penalty. I really would like to stay alive through all this, he told police officers. Chillingly, he also said, I would have loved to have been able to do a lot, but I know I wouldnt have been able to get away with it.On June 1, 2018, Shawn Grate was sentenced to death. Today, he sits on death row awaiting execution in Ohio.After reading about Shawn Grate, learn about the unsolved mystery of the redhead serial murders. Then, read about Vlado Taneski the serial killer journalist who reported on his own crimes.The post Shawn Grate, The House Of Horrors Killer Who Terrorized Ohio appeared first on All That's Interesting.