News 5’s Bob Jones will be featured on tonight’s 20/20 on the killer Shawn Grate

ASHLAND, Ohio – Tonight at 9 p.m., 20/20, airs an episode detailing the trial of convicted murderer Sean Grate. News 5’s Bob Jones, who covered the case, will be on the show.

Jones had a report looking back at the case and leading up to tonight’s episode of 20/20 on News 5 at 6 and 7. The episode is called Meet the Other Me. John Quinones is a correspondent.

“This is such a compelling story, one of the most fascinating cases I’ve ever covered,” Quinones said.

The investigation began in 2016 when a woman called 911 to say she had been kidnapped and was being held captive — a call that led police to an abandoned house in Ashland. He ultimately confessed to the murders of five women.

When police responded to the house, they made a horrific discovery. Inside, investigators found the decomposing body of a woman in the basement on the cold concrete floor, buried under a pile of trash and debris. The woman was naked from the waist down and had a cloth tied around her neck.

Upstairs, authorities made another gruesome discovery — a closet covered in duct tape with a “deplorable odor” emanating from it. Inside was another body, hidden under a pile of clothes. Both women had been tied up.

The women were later identified as Stacey Stanley Hicks and Liz Griffith. According to authorities, both Griffith and Hicks had been strangled to death.

Grate is now behind bars and on death row after being convicted in 2018. He also admitted to Rebecca Leicy in Ashland County and Candace Cunningham in Richland County.

Ashland County Sheriff’s Office/AP

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In 2019, a Jane Doe found dead in Marion County in 2007 was linked to Grate, and police confirmed she was another one of his victims. She was later identified as 23-year-old Dana Nicole Lowrey. Police said she killed in 2006.

Marion County ‘Jane Doe’ Identified; Convicted murderer Shawn Grate confessed to his murder

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Much of the 20/20 episode will focus on the work of Ashland Detective Kim Mager. She has written a book called A Hunger to Kill about the case.

Mager, now retired, is credited with forming a bond with Grate and getting him to confess to the murders.

“She has been compared to Clarice Starling, the character played by Jodie Foster in the movie The Silence of the Lambs,” Quinones said.