CRIME

New tests could help identify alleged Shawn Grate victim in Marion County

A forensic artist with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation created this clay model of the woman whose skeletal remains were found in 2007 off Victory Road. Believed to be the first victim of suspected serial killer Shawn Grate, her identity remains unknown.

MARION - Investigators may be a step closer to naming the woman believed to have been killed in Marion County by suspected serial killer Shawn Grate.

While Grate's trial on aggravated murder charges gets underway this week in Ashland, the identity of the woman believed to be his first victim remains unknown.

The body of the woman, believed to be between the ages to 15 and 30, was found in 2007 off Victory Road. Grate, 41, reportedly confessed to killing the woman sometime between 2003 and 2005 and dumping her body at a site about 100 feet off the road, later returning to burn the evidence, Marion County Sheriff Tim Bailey has said.

Over the years, leads on the woman's identity have come and gone. But in January, investigators got back results from isotope testing, suggesting that the woman was from the southern United States and casting doubt on a previous theory that she may have been from outside the country, according to Bailey and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

Pieces of the woman's bones were sent to the University of South Florida for isotope analysis, testing that can tell where someone is probably from, said Samantha Molnar, a forensic artist with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

"You are what you eat," said Molnar, who was the artist behind a clay model of the woman's face that was released early last year in the hopes of identifying her.

Molnar said there are traces of what we eat and drink left behind in our bones, which can indicate what geographic region we are from.

Investigators decided to go forward with isotope testing, Molnar said, after questions arose about whether the woman was even from the United States.

"We were starting to get tips that she could be from another country, and one of the ways that we can rule that out is through isotope testing," Molnar said. "If we can lean on science to tell us a little bit more about this person, then that's what we want to do." 

The test results came back in January, she said, showing that the woman was likely from Florida, Texas or some other southern state.

Molnar said the results will help narrow the search down to a specific region. That will help investigators better find candidates for who the woman is, she said.

Molnar ended up pulling 15 photographs of missing persons fitting the woman's description who were from the southern U.S. from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System's website.

Investigators with the Marion County Sheriff's Office plan to present those photographs to Grate to see if he recognizes any of them, Bailey said. 

But Bailey said Grate's lawyers wanted to wait until after his trial to have the meeting with investigators.

"Once the case is over ... it's our intention to go up there, sit down, show him some pictures and go over this case," Bailey said.

The trial is expected to last through mid-May.

Bailey said it was a "long shot" that one of those 15 pictures is of the Marion County victim, but that he was hopeful.

"We're still hopeful that we can identify her and get her back to her family," he said.

In the meantime, Molnar said she is working to obtain more photos of missing women matching the Marion County victim's profile.

"This Jane Doe in particular was pretty young," Molnar said. "She's somebody's child that's missing."

Molnar said that creating the clay model of a victim's face is usually a "last-ditch effort" to identify a victim.

But she is optimistic that the Marion County victim will be identified eventually, pointing to her unique facial features.

"She just had kind of a unique skull," she said.

Jury selection began this week in Grate's trial. He is being tried on 23 counts, including aggravated murder, in connection with the deaths of Elizabeth Griffith, 29, and Stacey Stanley, 43, in Ashland County. He also faces charges in connection with the kidnapping and rape of a woman who escaped from him in 2016. If convicted of aggravated murder, he could receive the death penalty.

Grate is suspected in other deaths in the region. In Richland County, authorities said Grate confessed to killing Candice Cunningham in June 2016, whose body was found behind a burned-out house just outside Mansfield.

Anyone with information on who the woman found in Marion County was is encouraged to call 855-BCI-OHIO, or 855-224-6446.

Reporting by Mansfield News Journal Reporter Mark Caudill was included in this story.