Naman Shrestha
When a kidnapped woman managed to escape from her captive in September 2016, she informed the police about the situation. Little did they know that the kidnapping and rape case of this woman would lead them right to a serial rapist, who was responsible for the brutal killing of 29-year-old Candice Cunningham of Mansfield, Ohio, in June 2016. The interconnected cases of multiple women, including that of Candice, are covered in detail in the episode titled ‘Meet the Other Me’ of ABC’s ’20/20.’
Candice Cunningham’s Body Was Found Months After Her Sudden Disappearance
On February 5, 1987, in Canton, Ohio, Dianna Gardener welcomed a little bundle of joy into the world in the form of Candice Marie Cunningham. The latter was a middle child, with a brother named Chuckie Gardener II and a sister named Ashley Fowler, who graduated from Timken High School in 2007. At the time, she aspired to become a massage therapist. Being a loving and compassionate person, she liked making others smile and laugh. Before her graduation, she had already entered motherhood in 2005 when she brought a son named Devlin into the world.
After completing high school, she became a mother for the second time in March 2008, this time to a daughter named Kristina. However, within the next year, she started taking different kinds of drugs, resulting in the children’s services taking her children away. In order to start afresh, Candice relocated to Mansfield, Ohio. After a few years of residing in Mansfield, she vanished into thin air out of the blue. Despite her loved ones not being able to reach her, she was reportedly never reported missing by anyone. A few months later, on September 13, 2016, the police discovered her body in the woods behind a burned-out residence.
According to the police, the 29-year-old woman was killed inside a Park Avenue East house, and then her body was disposed of in the wooded area on June 12, 2016. By the time her body was discovered and identified, her family had already started making arrangements for her funeral by setting up a GoFundMe account. Candice Cunningham turned out to be the first of several women victims across Ohio of the same killer.
Someone Close to Candice Was Responsible For Her Cold-Blooded Murder
As the investigators delved deeper into the life of Candice Cunningham, they learned that soon after moving to Manfield, she shared a property on North Benton Street with at least three roommates. In April 2016, the authorities had reportedly charged her with possession of drug paraphernalia when they found a marijuana pipe in her purse. Before that, she had gotten in trouble with the law for misdemeanors unrelated to drugs, including driving without an operator’s license and not registering her dog. At the time of her murder, she reportedly resided at a West Second Street rental home with her boyfriend, Shawn Grate.
While many people described their relationship as quite loving and healthy, one of her neighbors claimed otherwise. She told the authorities that their relationship had eventually become volatile and even violent. Although they were boyfriend and girlfriend, Candice’s Facebook profile showed that she had been married since December 25, 2015. There were other hints of them being engaged or married on her profile. As per reports, their landlord kicked them out of the property in June 2016, the same month she went missing and got murdered. Several months later, on September 13, 2016, Shawn was arrested on an unrelated charge of kidnapping and sexual assault.
The Killer Made an Unexpected Confession and Revealed the Burial Site of Candice Cunningham
Not long after his arrest, he admitted to murdering Candice Cunningham in June 2016 at the vacant Madison Township house. Not only that, the killer also led the police to her body in the wooded area behind the burned property. Moreover, he was linked to the murders of two other women. Consequently, Shawn was charged with the brutal killing of his former girlfriend, Candice, and another woman named Rebekah Leicy, in Richland County. A couple of years later, on March 1, 2019, he pleaded guilty to the murders of the two women. While he was already sentenced to death for another crime, he was sentenced to life in prison for being involved in the killing of Rebekah and an additional 17 years to life in prison for the murder charges related to Candice.
During the trial, one of Candice’s sisters, Ashley Fowler, expressed how she regretted not being there to help her sister. She addressed the court, “I’m sad, I’m hurt, but I’m more angry.” She continued, “I wonder what were her last thoughts? We don’t know. I will never forgive Shawn Grate. He took someone away that meant so much to so many people.” She even said that she did not care what happened to him. Meanwhile, Candice’s mother, Dianna Gardener, also stated, “I personally could not look at him. He has no remorse for what he’s done.”
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