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He tried to cover his tracks – but within days of the murder of a pregnant Amish woman in front of her other children, police were on his doorstep, according to search warrant returns unsealed over the weekend.
The documents, related to the murder of Rebekah Byler in her Sparta Township home, also reveal that she and her husband saw a suspicious man prowling their property two weeks before the brutal slaying.
Shawn Cranston, a 52-year-old trucker, appears to match the description of a man the Bylers encountered one night around 10 o’clock in early February.
Investigators in the death of 23-year-old Amish woman Rebekah Byler in Sparta Township, Crawford County, said she had neck and head wounds when her body was found inside of her Fish Flats Road residence, pictured. (Tim Hahn/Erie Times-News/USA Today Network)
Byler’s husband was gone for about four hours on the morning of the murder, taking measurements at construction sites around Crawford and Venango counties, according to the warrants.
He returned home with his driver, Julie Warner, around 12:30 p.m. and stumbled upon the grisly crime scene.
Responding officers found Byler stabbed in the neck with a “scalping type wound” that the forensic pathologist later determined had actually been caused by a gunshot to the head.
Police arrested Cranston on March 2. He faces charges of criminal homicide, criminal homicide of an unborn child, felony burglary and criminal trespassing. His prior criminal record includes guilty pleas to reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct.
He’s being held without bail.
