What is the episode about?
The Hand in the Window (ABC Audio, 2025) opens with a reconstruction of the dramatic events in September 2016, where an anonymous woman, known as Jane Doe, displayed incredible courage in a life-threatening situation. While her kidnapper, the later identified serial killer Shawn Grate , slept in the same room, she managed to grab his mobile phone and whisper a plea for help to a 911 operator in Ashland, Ohio. This opening episode of the podcast, hosted by ABC News correspondent John Quiñones, presents listeners with the authentic audio recordings from the call that led police directly to a rundown house filled with dark secrets.
The case behind the episode
The case of Shawn Grate quickly escalated from a rescue operation to an extensive murder investigation. When police arrived at the property in Ashland to rescue Jane Doe, they found not only the surviving woman but also the bodies of Elizabeth Griffith and Stacey Stanley. During the subsequent interrogations, which are covered in detail in the podcast through recordings with Detective Kim Mager, Grate began to confess to additional crimes. It turned out that Grate had been hunting vulnerable women in Ohio for over a decade. He ultimately confessed to the murders of a total of five women, including Rebekah Leicy and Candice Cunningham, as well as an unidentified victim from 2006. The Ashland kidnapping thus became the starting point for the revelation of one of the state's most prolific serial killers in recent times.
About the podcast
The Hand in the Window is a limited six-part series produced by 20/20 and ABC Audio. The series stands out for having exclusive access to archival material, including the many hours of interrogation conducted by Kim Mager, an expert in sexual crimes. The podcast focuses on the psychological duel between Mager and Grate, where the detective managed to build a relationship with the killer that led him to open up about his crimes. Host John Quiñones guides the listener through the legal and human aspects of the case while highlighting the systemic failures that allowed Grate to remain at large for so many years.