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ASHLAND COUNTY, OH (WOIO) –
“Oh yeah, I wanted to be caught. I thought about turning myself in,” Shawn Michael Grate said from inside jail walls Oct. 7. Now that he’s been arrested and charged for the death of two women with charges pending for three other victims, the suspected serial killer is telling the world about his crimes.
A conversation with the man who says he killed 5 women
Grate, 40, pleaded not guilty to charges related to multiple murders at the end of September, but during an interview Friday, he told us, “I admitted it. I told my attorney that if he said it again in court that I’d speak up.”
The following is a question and answer interview with Grate in the Ashland County Jail. Cleveland 19’s Senior Producer of Investigations Cassie Nist was not allowed to bring any recording devices into the interview. The following is a Q & A transcribed from Nist’s knowledge, but it is not verbatim.
19: Anything you would like to say before we get started?
Grate: I’m learning this was out of behavior for me. I had to cover everything up. It was tearing me up all those years … knowing what I’d done. I’d have these thoughts like, “Dang.” I had to face myself every day.
19: Were there any influences that you were exposed to like the show Dexter?
Grate: What’s that?
19: It’s a show about a forensic scientist for the Miami Police Department and when the bad guys get away, he is a vigilante and kills them.
Grate: I’ve never heard about it. I didn’t have any influences, it was all internalized. I feel like I always prayed to God. It’s hard to forgive yourself … you have your moments.
19: Let’s talk about these women … You confessed to murdering a woman in 2005 believed to be named Dana or Diane.
Grate: She was trying to sell me magazines. I remember her trying to sell them to me. Me and my mom would be on the porch and she’d try to sell them. My mom said she wasn’t getting her subscriptions delivered.
19: What was her name Dana or Diane? I know you admitted to Marion County Sheriff Tim Bailey that her name was Dana or Diane.
Grate: Dana … I would say Dana — 99 percent.
19: What happened with that?
Grate: She came to the house and tried to tell me that she would pay for half of the subscription and if I paid the other half. I could tell she was scheming me.
19: How did you kill her?
19: So there is a pretty big gap between Dana in 2005 and the next woman in 2015. What was going on during that time?
Grate: I was in jail for a child support case … in and out of jail.
19: How many kids do you have?
Grate: Three. One with Steph, a daughter named Kayle — she’s 18 or 19 now. She’s remarried. … a son named Dylan who lives with my mom. He plays football. He’s 17.
19: Oh really, what position?
Grate: They move him around to different positions a lot.
19: What about your third kid?
Grate: Violet. She’s 4.
19: That’s a great age. Have any of your kids visited you since all this all went down?
Grate: No.
19: What about Rebekah Leicy … the coroner ruled that to be drug related.
Grate: I knew Rebekah. One day we were out playing pool at a bar and I went to use the restroom and heard my money clip zip. She’d stolen $4 from me.
19: But the coroner rules it an overdose …
Grate: She was on something. She was a prostitute.
19: So did you kill her?
19: Let’s talk about Candice Cunningham. You two were dating? For how long? Was she pregnant?
Grate: No she wasn’t pregnant. We were seeing each other for about seven months. She was pretty violent and suicidal. I turned her into a psych ward for a week. Then we fought at the house in Richland for three to four days. Then the next day we’d get up and go for walks. She could have run off and told police at any time … She would take handfuls of pills at a time and I would give her the water.
19: How did you kill her?
Grate: In the house.
19: Then you burned down the house and went back for her body … why?
Grate: I had to hide her.
To read the rest of the interview, click here: Cleveland19.com
Article and Second through Fifth Picture Courtesy of WOIO Cleveland 19 News
First Picture Courtesy of Getty Images
