A jury has found Shawn Grate guilty in the aggravated murders of two women in Ashland County.

Shawn Grate was found guilty on all charges in the deaths of 29-year-old Elizabeth Griffith and 43-year-old Stacey Stanley.

He was arrested in September 2016 after police found the women's remains in what was supposed to be a vacant Ashland home, where another woman said she had been held captive.

The woman said she was lured into the house and raped repeatedly by Grate.

Once in custody, Grate, 41, told police that he had killed two other women but he has not been charged in those killings. Police also looked into whether he was connected to the 2015 death of a fifth woman.

Last week, Grate pleaded guilty to 15 counts that included rape and abuse of a corpse.

With the guilty conviction, Grate could be sentenced to death.

Previous Coverage:</s>The Court of Appeal has upheld serial killer Mark Nash's conviction for the “cold-case” killing of two women in Dublin, known as the 'Grangegorman murders'.

The Court of Appeal has upheld serial killer Mark Nash's conviction for the “cold-case” killing of two women in Dublin, known as the 'Grangegorman murders'.

The 44-year-old, who is originally from England but has last addresses at Prussia Street and Clonliffe Road in Dublin, had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to the murder of Sylvia Sheils (59) and Mary Callanan (61) between March 6 and March 7, 1997. A Central Criminal Court jury found Nash unanimously guilty after deliberating for four hours following a 48-day trial and he was accordingly given the mandatory life sentence by Mr Justice Carroll Moran on April 20, 2015.

Nash had already been serving life since October 1998 for murdering two people in Ballintober, Castlerea in Roscommon and leaving a woman seriously injured in mid-August 1997. The four murders were committed within the space of five months. Opening an appeal against his conviction for the Grangegorman murders, Nash's lead senior counsel, Hugh Hartnett SC, told the Court of Appeal that it was an “extraordinary and unusual case” because another man, the late Dean Lyons, had “confessed”.

A short time later, while Nash was in detention on foot of the Roscommon double killing, he admitted to having carried out the Grangegorman murders five months earlier. This sent a “tremor” through Garda Headquarters, the court heard, and various senior officers were tasked with examining how two people were confessing to the same double murder.

Dean Lyons died in 2000 and a jacket, which had been seized from Nash's home during the investigation in the 1990s, was tested and nothing of probative value was found. Nearly ten years later, and with advances in science, DNA was found around the button threads of Nash's jacket and the DPP decided to prosecute. Mr Hartnett said the two main planks to the prosecution's case were the admissions made by Nash and the DNA evidence.

Dismissing Nash’s appeal against conviction today, Mr Justice Alan Mahon said it had been a lengthy and complex trial, stretching over four months in 2015. The gruesome murder of two vulnerable and defenceless middle aged women had attracted enormous attention at the time and understandably so. It was not just the cruelty of the murder which attracted such attention but also the fact, as is so clear from the evidence, that the two women were brutally murdered and mutilated in circumstances where they presented absolutely no risk or threat to the killer or killers. The level of violence perpetrated on them was senseless, and perhaps thankfully, was so fierce that the victims own appreciation of their fate was short lived.

Mr Justice Mahon, who sat with Mr Justice John Edwards and Mr Justice Michael White, said the various appeal grounds had been considered in detail particularly issues relating to the admissions of Nash and the scientific/forensic evidence. However, he said no grounds of appeal were upheld by the court and “accordingly we must dismiss the appeal”</s>ASHLAND, Ohio -- Closing arguments will be held Monday as attorneys wrap up their case in the trial of accused serial killer Shawn Grate.

Grate is already facing decades in prison after pleading guilty to some of his charges. He did not plead guilty to the aggravated murder charges, so he could still face the death penalty if convicted.

He is accused of killing 29-year-old Elizabeth Griffith and 43-year-old Stacey Stanley.

Grate was arrested in September 2016 after police found the women's remains in what was supposed to be a vacant Ashland home, where another woman said she had been held captive.

Once in custody, Grate, 41, told police that he had killed two other women but he has not been charged in those killings. Police also looked into whether he was connected to the 2015 death of a fifth woman.</s>The case of suspected serial killer Shawn Grate went to a jury Monday after the prosecution gave its closing arguments and the defense waived their right to present one — as they did at the start of the trial.

Grate, 41, is charged with 23 counts, including the aggravated murder of Elizabeth Griffith, 29, and Stacey Stanley, 43, as well as the kidnapping and sexual assault of a woman who escaped from captivity and made the 911 call that led to Grate's arrest.

He pleaded guilty to 15 of the charges, including robbery and kidnapping — but eight charges remained, including aggravated murder.

If convicted, Grate could receive the death penalty or life without parole. The minimum sentence Grate already faces for his guilty pleas is 50 to 72 years behind bars.

Prosecutor Chris Tunnell began his closing arguments by replaying audio tapes of Grate being questioned by investigators and showing the jury pictures of the women when their bodies were found in an abandoned house in Ashland, Ohio. Both women were strangled, according to the autopsy.

In the audio recordings, Grate said he would "use" his victims and make it so they "won't have to cry anymore."

"This is not a spur of the moment killing," said Tunnell. "Take a broad view of the evidence. What do you know of this victim? Listen to what he says. Look at what he did."

Defense counsel Robert and Rolf Whitney filed a motion in 2016 asserting claims that Grate is not guilty by reason of insanity. Judge Ron Forsthoefel said the evaluations detected nothing to support his plea of "not guilty by reason of insanity."

Though this case concerned only the deaths of Griffith, Stanley and the rape and kidnap of Jane Doe, Grate has been linked to the deaths of at least three other women in neighboring counties.

The deaths include one unnamed woman killed around 2005, Rebekah Leicy in 2015, and Candice Cunningham in 2016. He is not being charged on these counts in this trial but is under investigation in connection with the deaths.</s>The probe into accused serial killer Bruce McArthur is hitting multi-jurisdictional overdrive as cops try to link the landscaper to unsolved homicides.

Some of the unsolved killings and missing person’s investigations date to the 1970s.

McArthur, 66, was arrested in January and has been charged with eight counts of first-degree murder in the grisly slayings of men who vanished from the city’s Gay Village.

Toronto detectives are calling it the biggest operation in the force’s history.

“Investigators need to know his precise movements [over the decades].”

Arntfield is a former cop well-known for his involvement in the Cold Case Society and the Murder Accountability Project.

He said that particularly vexing to cops is McArthur’s past as a longtime travelling salesman who sold socks for Stanfields around the province.

It’s believed his sales territory was at different times in northern and eastern Ontario.

But detectives are now also looking at the possibility that the suspected killer may have murdered women as well as men.

“Durham Regional are looking at a number of cases [McArthur lived with his family for years in Oshawa] and not just on young men,” Arntfield said, adding the victimology may be more variable than previously believed.

McArthur allegedly mainly targeted dark-skinned men who may have been vulnerable.

“When he was travelling, in a lot of smaller places at that time there might not be a plentiful supply of his preferred victims,” Arntfield suggested. “It’s very possible he crossed genders.”

Toronto detectives are now in the process of putting in requests for the list of missing and unsolved murders from smaller jurisdictions.

Arntfield said it’s believed many of the suspicious slayings and disappearances pre-date high-tech programs that can link similar crimes from multiple jurisdictions.

“In the old days, in a multi-jurisdictional case, nobody had any idea what the other guys [police services] were doing,” Arntfield said, adding that information can now be shared electronically.

In addition, a number of police services that may be affected by the McArthur probe didn’t exist in the 1960s and 1970s.

“It really is a very large … massive investigation with a lot of different pieces,” Arntfield said. “This is going to take years. And how these pieces might all fit together is anyone’s guess.”

Arntfield’s next book is Monster City: Murder, Music, and Mayhem in Nashville’s Dark Age. It will be released in September.
Indiana accused serial killer Shawn Grate is convicted of two murders. He has previously confessed to, but not been charged with, two more murders and entered guilty pleas to crimes including rape.