This Serial Killer Kept Bodies In His Closet

Homicide is widely considered the most profound and serious of human crimes, a violent rupture of the social contract. Yet, what happens when the perpetrator of such heinous acts doesn’t look like a monster? What happens when the man capable of unspeakable brutality looks like your friendly neighbor, the guy who plays badminton at the local community center, or the polite stranger who holds the door for you and your children at a restaurant? This is the chilling reality of Shawn Grate, an Ohio man who managed to hide his dark, murderous impulses behind a veil of ordinary charm for over a decade.

On September 13, 2016, a frantic, hushed 911 call from a woman in Ashland, Ohio, shattered the quiet facade of a seemingly normal neighborhood. The woman, trembling and terrified, whispered to the dispatcher that she had been abducted and tied up. By a stroke of unimaginable courage, she had managed to partially free herself while her captor slept in the same bed. If she woke him, she knew it would mean her immediate death. That desperate call for help not only saved her life but unraveled one of the most disturbing serial killer cases in modern American history, bringing an end to the reign of terror of a man who literally slept just feet away from the decomposing bodies of his victims.

To understand how a man can commit such atrocities and continue to seamlessly blend into society, one must look at the foundation of his psychology. Shawn Grate’s descent into darkness did not happen overnight; it was a slow, festering build-up of resentment, manipulation, and a profound desire for absolute control. Born on August 8, 1976, in Mansfield, Ohio, Grate was the youngest of three children in a highly dysfunctional family. From the very beginning, his home environment was devoid of the warmth and affection crucial for healthy emotional development.

According to psychological profilers and Grate’s own admissions, his relationship with his mother was deeply toxic. He felt intensely neglected. His mother was notoriously withholding of love and affection, often weaponizing her words to be brutally mean to him. Interestingly, Grate did not begin speaking until he was four years old. Experts suggest this wasn’t merely a developmental delay, but perhaps an early manifestation of his manipulative nature. He knew his mother desperately wanted him to speak, and by withholding his voice, he gained a perverse form of power and attention. He held out because he recognized it as a tool for control.

This toxic maternal dynamic laid a dangerous blueprint for his future interactions with women. Because his mother treated him with disdain, he internalized the belief that all women felt this way about him. This deep-seated resentment morphed into dark, violent fantasies. He initially fantasized about killing his mother, an urge he never physically acted upon, but those dark desires were eventually redirected toward the women he would later date and befriend.

Life outside the home offered no solace. Diagnosed with ADHD and placed in a school for children with learning difficulties, Grate found himself bullied and ostracized by his peers. The early developmental trauma compounded his internal rage. As he grew into adulthood, this rage began to seep into his romantic relationships. By the time he was eighteen, police were already receiving frequent reports of his involvement in domestic violence.

Grate was a control freak in the truest sense of the word. He required absolute dominance over the women in his life, dictating their every move and word. Violence became his preferred tool for enforcing this control. In 1999, his behavior escalated dramatically when he was accused of threatening to kill his then-girlfriend, who was pregnant with his child. This incident was a glaring red flag, demonstrating a terrifying callousness. The fact that he was willing to murder the mother of his unborn child proved that no one in his life was safe from his wrath. Although he was placed on probation for five years, the legal slap on the wrist did nothing to curb his violent tendencies. A few years later, in 2003, he was arrested again on multiple counts of domestic violence. Former partners described a suffocating, terrifying existence with him. One ex-girlfriend recalled how he would literally hide beneath the cushions of their sofa, waiting in silence for hours just to spy on her and monitor her daily activities.

The turning point from domestic abuser to serial killer occurred in 2006. Grate met Dana Lowrey, a 23-year-old mother of two who was selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door. Grate, living with his mother at the time, believed Lowrey was scamming them regarding a subscription. When he confronted her and brought her inside the house, his underlying rage finally boiled over into lethal violence. He physically overpowered her, and for the first time, he wrapped his hands around a victim’s throat.

Strangulation is a highly intimate, profoundly controlling method of murder. It is not just about ending a life; it is about holding the power of life and death directly in one’s hands, watching the life fade from the victim’s eyes. For Grate, it felt “right.” He enjoyed the dominance it provided. However, Lowrey woke up after he initially choked her out. Panicked, and shockingly casual about his reasoning, Grate grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed her in the neck. His justification? He had to “do it quick” because they had company coming over. He dumped her body on Victory Road in Marion County, Ohio, where she remained unidentified for years.

Killing Dana Lowrey flipped a switch in Grate’s mind. The murder empowered him. It fueled his rampant narcissism, cementing his belief that he was an invincible force, utterly above the law. He had taken a life, hidden the evidence, and the police were nowhere near catching him. This thrill of evasion became almost as intoxicating as the act of killing itself.

For nearly a decade after his first murder, Grate seemingly attempted to construct a normal life. He married in 2011, started a business making wooden signs, and had children. But the facade couldn’t hold. His inherent volatility made him an impossible partner. His wife left him within the first year of their marriage—a move that likely saved her life. As his marriage crumbled, his business failed, and he lost custody of his children, Grate began to spiral. Homeless and floating from town to town, his carefully constructed compartments began to bleed into one another.

In 2015, the monster resurfaced. Grate had befriended a 31-year-old woman named Rebecca Lacy. They were casually playing pool at a bar when Grate went to the restroom. Upon returning, he claimed he heard his wallet zip and noticed four dollars missing. Over a mere four dollars, Grate choked Lacy to death and dumped her body in the woods. When authorities found her, they initially ruled her death an overdose, a tragic mistake that only inflated Grate’s god-complex.

The following year, his killing pace accelerated in a horrifying manner. He began dating 29-year-old Candice Cunningham. After months of domestic abuse, an explosive three-day argument culminated in Grate strangling her to death. He callously stated that she was irritable and he had just “had enough,” so he “finished her.” He set the house on fire in a crude attempt to cover his tracks, later dragging her body out into the woods. To Grate, women were entirely disposable. If they did not conform perfectly to his whims, their lives were forfeit.

Fleeing to neighboring Ashland County, Grate quickly embedded himself in the community. He frequented a local soup kitchen and played badminton at the community center, projecting the image of a slightly down-on-his-luck but deeply religious and friendly man. Here, he met 29-year-old Elizabeth Griffith. Griffith was known to local police as a sweet, somewhat childlike, and highly trusting individual. Grate, a master manipulator, immediately identified her vulnerability. He bonded with her over religious discussions, drawing her into his web.

Their “friendship” soon devolved into Grate’s terrifying brand of physical dominance. During a twisted interaction where Griffith allegedly made a passing comment about wanting to die, Grate took it upon himself to “help.” He strangled her, holding on long after she stopped breathing, ensuring her death. The casual, mechanical way he later described this murder to detectives—as if he were discussing a mundane daily chore—left seasoned investigators deeply disturbed. He stripped her, hog-tied her body, and threw her into the bottom of a closet in the dilapidated house he was squatting in on Covert Court. In a grotesque display of self-preservation, he heavily duct-taped the edges of the closet door frame so the stench of her decomposing body would not ruin his living space.

Just weeks later, while police were frantically searching for Griffith, a 43-year-old woman named Stacy Stanley suffered a flat tire at a local gas station. Grate happened to be walking by. It was a terrifying crime of pure opportunity. He offered to help her change the tire, using his polite, helpful facade to gain her trust. Once they were back at the Covert Court house, the trap snapped shut. Stanley fought back fiercely, even managing to spray him with mace twice. But Grate’s sheer physical size and overpowering rage won out. He brutally strangled her, leaving her body in the basement of the same house where Griffith was rotting in the upstairs closet.

Grate was now living in a literal house of horrors, surrounded by the bodies of his victims. Yet, he continued his life as if nothing was wrong, even attempting to court a new woman—a friend of Elizabeth Griffith’s. He invited this deeply religious, caring woman back to his house. Though her intuition screamed that something was wrong, the polite trap had already been sprung. Grate locked the door, taking her hostage.

This brings us back to that harrowing morning of September 13, 2016. The kidnapped woman, knowing her life was hanging by a thread, managed to free herself from her restraints while Grate slept beside her. With unimaginable poise, she dialed 911. When police finally located the correct house, they saw her desperate hand outstretched against the glass of the window. The door handle had been removed; there was no way out. Officers burst in, rescuing the traumatized woman and apprehending a groggy Shawn Grate.

The arresting officers were utterly bewildered by his demeanor. Grate wasn’t angry or violent; he was super nice, cordial, and compliant. While handcuffed in the back of the cruiser, he casually slipped his legs through his arms to bring his cuffed hands to the front, sitting comfortably as if he were simply catching a ride.

It was during his initial interrogations that the true scope of his depravity came to light. Believing he was only caught for the kidnapping, police were stunned when Grate smoothly offered up a chilling trade. He informed them that if they searched the house, they would find the missing women they had been looking for. He directed them to the taped-up closet upstairs and the basement below. The discoveries devastated the local police force, many of whom knew Elizabeth Griffith personally.

But Grate wasn’t done. The narcissist inside him craved the spotlight. Realizing he was already going to prison for the Ashland murders, he decided to bolster his morbid resume. He voluntarily confessed to the murders of Dana Lowrey, Rebecca Lacy, and Candice Cunningham. He wanted the title; he wanted the notoriety of being recognized as a prolific serial killer. While sitting in his jail cell, he would eagerly wait for the evening news broadcasts, standing up to obsessively stare at the television screen as his crimes were announced to the world. He relished the terror he had inflicted on the community.

When a local journalist interviewed him in jail, she expected to see a terrifying monster. Instead, she was greeted by a man who looked like he had just rolled out of bed, sporting a casual, polite smile. Grate showed zero genuine remorse. He cold-heartedly stated he felt “50/50” about his crimes, believing some of the women deserved it, and that in some twisted way, he was “helping” others.

Despite his grandstanding, the reality of consequence finally pierced his arrogant armor as his trial approached. For all his bravado and casual confessions, Grate was deathly afraid of the ultimate punishment. He pleaded guilty to the additional murders, explicitly stating his desperate desire to avoid lethal injection. He wanted to sit in a cell and think about what he had done, rather than face the needle. The justice system, however, showed him the same mercy he showed his victims. On June 1, 2018, Shawn Grate was sentenced to death, alongside multiple sentences of life without the possibility of parole.

The case of Shawn Grate leaves behind a chilling, lingering unease. It shatters the comforting illusion that evil is easily recognizable, that predators always lurk in dark alleys wearing menacing scowls. Grate weaponized kindness, religion, and the fundamental human desire for connection to lure vulnerable women to their tragic ends. He compartmentalized his life so flawlessly that those closest to him never suspected the blood on his hands. As he sits on death row today, criminal profilers and investigators are left haunted by one final, unsettling question: For a man who operated with such ease for over ten years, are there more victims still waiting in the dark to be found?