CLEVELAND — An arrest has been made in connection with the case of missing Huron County woman Amanda Dean, 3News has confirmed.
According to the Ohio Attorney General's office, Dean's boyfriend, 40-year-old Frederick Reer of Collins has been indicted in Huron County Common Pleas on charges of murder, gross abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence.
“So many memories won’t include Amanda, as her killer robbed these children of a life with their mother,” said Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. “Her family deserves justice.”
According to officials, the indictment comes from an investigation led by BCI at the request of the Huron County Sheriff’s Office. The Huron County Common Pleas Court has appointed the Attorney General’s Office as special assistant to the Huron County prosecutor in the case.
An arraignment hearing for Reer is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Feb. 12 in Huron County Common Pleas Court
Dean was 36 years old in July of 2017 when she was first reported missing. Her mother, Caroline Tokar, told 3News Investigates in 2020 that she believed her daughter had been abused by a boyfriend and that it was "out of character" for her to go so long without contacting her family.
"I've never heard from my daughter," Tokar said of Dean, a mother of four. "No one in my family has heard from her. We don't know if she is safe."
However, Huron County Sheriff Todd Corbin told WKYC that same year that Amanda had been living at a domestic violence shelter. He claimed staff members at the facility had spoken to him and said she was "in a good place" and "being cared for."
"It's at her discretion if she wants to contact her family," Corbin added at the time. "She is not being held against her will."
But that explanation didn't sit well with Dean's loved ones, and in 2022, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation took over the case. A $10,000 reward was offered for information, and just this past November, authorities executed the search warrant at a property on Wells Road outside of Collins in Huron County.
3News has reached out to BCI as well as the Huron County Sheriff's Office for further comment. In January of 2023, Tokar contended that one of Corbin's deputies had "denied" her from filing a missing persons report.
"They said we had to prove that she was in danger," Tokar said. "I had told the deputy that my daughter has been missing five and a half years. That's danger enough to me."
Per Cleveland Missing Board President and Newburgh Heights Police Chief John T. Majoy, Reer is currently being held in the Huron County Jail.