ASHLAND - Kory Stanley described his mother as very loving, caring and a "fantastic cook."
"She was a wonderful person to be around," he testified Tuesday.
Prosecutors believe Stacey Stanley, 43, was the second Ashland victim of suspected serial killer Shawn Grate, whose capital murder trial continued Tuesday in Ashland County Common Pleas Court.
Kory Stanley was supposed to meet his mother for dinner at the Sandusky Applebee's on the night of Sept. 8, 2016, but he was tired from work and ended up canceling, though he did later change his mind and met his aunt.
Stanley said his mother, who had spent the day in Ashland, called him around 8:30 that night and said she had a flat tire. Her car was at the BP station at Main and Union streets.
Family friend Wayne Bright helped her change the tire, along with someone she had just met, reportedly Grate.
"She said she was getting coffee and going home," Kory Stanley said of their conversation.
He said he talked to his mother "multiple" times a day. There was no contact on Sept. 9, and Kory said he tried to call his mother "all day" on Sept. 10.
Family members broke into her Greenwich home, which she shared with two dogs and a cat, and found the dogs still in their cages. They had defecated and urinated, indicating they had been there some time.
The family filed a missing persons report and went to Ashland on Sept. 11 to look for Stacey. Police found her car on Ninth Street, but there were no signs of Stacey.
Kory said the driver's seat was all the way back — his mother was short — and Camel cigarettes, which were not her brand, were in the ashtray.
"Somebody had been driving her car," Kory said.
Police found Stacey's identification in the car and her key chain at 363 Covert Court, the vacant house where Grate had been staying.
Kory said his mom was a recovering addict and had been clean that entire year. He said she looked the best he had ever seen her.
"She was doing excellent," she said.
Prosecutors allege that Elizabeth Griffith, 29, was Grate's first victim on Aug. 16, 2016.
Tina Swartz, a therapist at Appleseed Community Mental Health, counseled Griffith and oversaw her day-to-day needs.
Swartz said Griffith suffered from paranoid schizophrenia with some mania. She would hear voices or see things that weren't there.
During one incident, Griffith put kerosene on her head and set her hair on fire, Swartz said.
Swartz said Griffith called Appleseed's help line about every other night. Her last call came on Aug. 15.
Griffith also had missed a couple of appointments. On Sept. 7, Swartz and a caseworker went to Griffith's apartment. There were no signs of her, but she had not done her laundry.
"Right then, I knew something was wrong," Swartz said, pointing out Griffith was very regimented.
Swartz did some checking around and discovered no one had seen Griffith in a couple of weeks.
Cindy Swanger, who offers peer-to-peer counseling, also worried about Griffith.
"Elizabeth was like a family member to me, a younger sister," Swanger said. "She could call me anytime."
Swanger said Griffith had been excited about something.
"I took it that she had met somebody," Swanger said. "She was in a real giddy mood."
Griffith called Swanger on Aug. 16, the last day anyone heard from her.
"She seemed to me to be anxious, like she really needed to talk to me about something," Swanger said.
Unfortunately, Swanger had a prior commitment and couldn't talk when Griffith called. She never saw Griffith again.
"I tried to find her," she said tearfully.
In the morning session, jurors saw pictures of the bodies of Griffith and Stanley.
Ed Staley, a special agent with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, identified dozens of photos taken at 363 Covert Court, the vacant house where Grate stayed in August and September of 2016.
Staley talked about stuffed animals and clothing stacked in a pile, with clothes hanging on the wall. The date was Sept. 13.
"It caused me to question what might be behind all that stuff on the wall," he said.
A closet door was what had been obscured. There was duct tape over the seams and a blanket across the bottom of the door.
When agents opened the door, they found maggots covering the inside, along with a pile of clothing.
"It doesn't make sense," Staley said.
Staley called the smell "deplorable." Underneath the clothes was the decomposing body of Griffith, who had been missing since Aug. 16
Her naked body was lying face down, with the top of her head resting against the wood trim.
Agents then went to the basement, where they encountered piles of trash and the odor of decomposition, Staley said.
Ashland County Prosecutor Chris Tunnell cautioned members of Stacey Stanley's family to leave the courtroom if they wanted to avoid the upcoming photos.
Under the trash, agents first noticed a human hand with bracelets. They found the body of Stanley, also known as Stacey Hicks, with binding around her neck.
She was naked from the waist down.
Staley also identified photos of items in the house, including two stun guns, brass knuckles, the keys to Stanley's car and her debit card.