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Ohio murder suspect on $1 million bail: ‘Sounds fair’

Posted at 10:43 PM, Sep 16, 2016
and last updated 2016-09-17 14:04:03-04

Bail for a homeless Ohio man facing kidnapping and murder charges has been set at $1 million.

After the bail amount was announced Friday, Shawn M. Grate, 40, could be heard replying to Judge Ronald Forsthoefel over video conference, "Sounds fair."

A frantic 911 call Tuesday from a woman who said she had been abducted led police to an abandoned home in Ashland, about 60 miles southwest of Cleveland.

The woman was rescued, Grate was arrested, and authorities found the bodies of two other women in and near the home.

The Ashland County prosecutor's office identified those bodies as Stacey Stanley, 43, and Elizabeth Griffith, 29.

Stanley, from Greenwich, near Ashland, was last seen September 8, police said. Griffith, who was last seen August 16, is from Ashland, the Ashland Times-Gazette reported.

Grate is charged with kidnapping and two counts of murder. He is due back in court Monday for a preliminary hearing.

Grate led police to a third body found near the rubble of a burned home in nearby Richland County, prosecutors said. It could take months to identify the body, authorities said, after which charges will be filed in that case.

CNN reached out to Grate's public defender and prosecutors but didn't get an immediate response.

Grate told the judge he had worked at a grocery store but currently has no financial means or a permanent address and is not collecting any financial help from the state.

Kurt Stanley, 24, remembered his mother as loving and always supportive of her family.

"She would make dinner for everybody. She'd give anybody anything, you know," he said.

Stacey Stanley was a nurse's aide before an injury forced her to retire about four years ago, Kurt Stanley told CNN.

She will be buried Saturday. She is also is survived by another son, Kory, 22.