The man suspected in the deaths of at least five women and the rape of at least one more has entered a guilty plea in Ashland County Common Pleas Court Thursday morning. 

Shawn Michael Grate, 40, is accused of killing Stacey Stanley and Elizabeth Griffith and kidnapping and raping another woman whose name has not been released. Ashland authorities were alerted to Grate, who had been staying at an abandoned home on Covert Court, when the woman he allegedly kidnapped called police from his cell phone while he slept on September 13. At the home is where they found the bodies of Stanley and Griffith.

According to police, while in custody Grate admitted to killing at least three more women dating back to 2007. He then reportedly lead authorities to a burned out home along State Route 430 in Mansfield where they found the remains of a third, still unidentified victim. 

Grate is scheduled for another hearing on October 31.