HURON COUNTY, Ohio — Frederick Reer, the 40-year-old man facing charges in the case of Amanda Dean, faced a judge in Huron County Common Pleas Court on Monday.
Reer, who has been identified as Dean's boyfriend, pleaded not guilty to the felony charges against him -- including murder, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence.
Bond for Reer was set at $1 million and he was ordered to have no contact with the Dean family. A pretrial hearing has been scheduled for March 11.
“Agents with the attorney general’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation arrested Reer on Friday following his indictment and transported him to the Huron County jail, where he remains in custody,” according to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.
The case dates back more than six years after Dean, a 36-year-old mother of four, went missing in July of 2017 in Collins, which is located just outside of Norwalk.
“So many memories won’t include Amanda, as her killer robbed these children of a life with their mother,” Yost said. “Her family deserves justice.”
You can watch Monday's arraignment in the player below.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation was brought in to handle the case in December 2022.
During a 2020 interview, Huron County Sheriff Todd Corbin told 3News the situation was initially treated as a missing persons investigation, but that changed after he talked to a domestic violence shelter and learned she was living there.
“They explained to me the protocols that they have in place that ‘we don’t normally relay that information, but for the purposes of what you’re doing we’re just going to say that she is fine. She is in a good place. She is OK. She is being cared for.’”
Tokar previously told 3News she doesn’t believe her daughter would go this long without contacting her family -- including her children.
“It’s at her discretion whether or not she wants to contact her family,” Sheriff Corbin said in our 2020 interview.
Dean's family held a press conference last January as they continued seeking answers in the case.