DA focuses on red Jeep as defendant held for trial in pregnant Amish woman's murder

MEADVILLE — Pennsylvania State Police built much of their investigation into the slaying of a 23-year-old pregnant Amish woman by tracking the red Jeep believed to belong to the Corry man charged with murdering her and her unborn child, according to testimony presented at a five-hour preliminary hearing on Friday.

Two witnesses saw a red Jeep in the driveway of the victim, Rebekah A. Byler, the morning she was shot and had her throat cut at her home on Fish Flats Road in the Crawford County hamlet of Sparta Township, south of the Amish enclave of Spartansburg, according to testimony.

The witnesses said state police used GPS, tire tracks, cellphone records and video surveillance footage to link the Jeep to Shawn C. Cranston, 52, who witnesses said was known to drive another Amish family in the area.

State police on March 2 charged Cranston with criminal homicide, criminal homicide of an unborn child, burglary and criminal trespass. Titusville District Judge Amy Nicols held Cranston for court on all the charges following the preliminary hearing, which ended shortly after 6:30 p.m. and had been moved from Nicols' Titusville court to the Crawford County Judicial Center in Meadville.

No motive disclosed as DA calls 15 witnesses

No motive for the slaying was disclosed at the hearing. Crawford County District Attorney Paula DiGiacomo called 15 witnesses and presented 40 exhibits as evidence to support the charges and move the case against Cranston to trial in Crawford County Common Pleas Court.

The witnesses, including state troopers, testified about what they saw before and after the slaying, and how Byler was killed. The cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head and multiple cutting wounds to the neck, according to testimony.

Cranston remains in the Crawford County Correctional Facility without bond.

Rebekah Byker was killed as 2 toddlers were at home

Byler's lifeless body was found inside her home at 21845 Fish Flats Road on the early afternoon of Feb. 26. Authorities said Byler's husband, Andy, and a family friend who had given the husband a ride to an outing earlier that day returned home to find Byler unresponsive, with what appeared to be a cut to her throat.

Andy Byler was one of the witnesses on Friday, and said he did not know Cranston.

Two toddler-age children were also inside the Byler home when she was found, but they were not injured, according to state police.

State police troopers who responded to the residence found Byler in a pool of blood in the home's living room with a laceration on the front side of her neck and a "scalping type wound" on her head, according to information in search warrants filed in the case.

Crawford County Coroner Eric Coston pronounced Byler dead at the scene at 1:45 p.m. on Feb. 26.

State police took Cranston into custody in Corry on March 1. He was charged and arraigned in the early morning of March 2.

This is a developing story. Return to GoErie.com for updates.

Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNhahn.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Jeep tied to defendant offered as key evidence in Amish woman's murder