HURON COUNTY, Ohio — As murder suspect Frederick Reer waits for his trial to begin in the death of Amanda Dean, her family has now filed a civil lawsuit against Huron County Sheriff Todd Corbin and others connected to the department.
The lawsuit -- which was filed Monday by Dean’s mother, Caroline Tokar, her four sons and two sisters -- is seeking compensatory and punitive damages while alleging “the defendants in this case repeatedly and recklessly told the Dean family that Amanda Dean was alive and well and staying in a domestic violence shelter, persistently rebuffing all requests for additional information -- both from the Dean family and the media.”
As a result, the lawsuit says “the family was left in perpetual suspense, uncertain if Amanda was alive, but fearing that she was not, for years.”
CASE DETAILS
Dean, 36, was reported missing in July of 2017.
Within days of her disappearance, the lawsuit states the Huron County Sheriff’s Office “received an anonymous call reporting that Reer had made statements indicating he intended to commit these crimes against Amanda. And yet, no investigation into Amanda’s disappearance happened for more than five and a half years.”
3News talked with Huron County Sheriff Todd Corbin about the case back in 2020. He said it was initially treated as a missing persons investigation, but that changed after he talked with 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.’”
You can watch that coverage from March 3, 2020, in the video below:
Tokar previously told 3News she didn’t believe her daughter would go such a long time 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.
The family’s lawsuit expands on this as follows:
“Over the next several years, defendant Corbin and his HCSO staff repeatedly told both the Dean family and members of the public, including the press and media, that Amanda was safe and staying in a domestic violence shelter; that they could not divulge her location or pass messages to her; and that Amanda would contact her family when she was ready. The defendants did not provide the family with any evidence to support their claims and refused to take any additional steps to find Amanda Dean, to investigate her complete disappearance or investigate the Dean family’s concerns for her safety.”
In January 2023, Dean’s family held a press conference at the Cleveland Family Center for Missing Children and Adults with hopes that she was still alive and would answer their hopes of making contact.
“She’s a family person. I just want her home," Tokar said during the press conference. "This is out of character for Amanda. She’s never gone hardly any time without a phone call, without communication of some sort with her family. I love her. Love you, Amanda. I hope you’ll come home soon and meet the new additions to the family.”
OHIO BUREAU OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION GETS INVOLVED
Ohio BCI began investigating the case in 2022, ultimately executing search warrants at Reer’s property on Wells Road near Collins in Huron County.
Then, in February 2024, an indictment was issued against Reer on charges of murder, tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse. The indictment alleges it was on or about July 11, 2017, when Reer dismembered Dean and cleaned up the scene with towels and rags, disposing of bloody sheets and burning a mattress.
Her body, however, was not located.
Reer, 41, is currently set to stand trial in March.
The lawsuit filed by Dean’s family is seeking to hold Sheriff Corbin and involved staff “accountable for the years of uncertainty, worry, stress, damage to their reputation and distress that the defendants’ recklessly made false and misleading statements caused.”
The lawsuit also notes they are seeking accountability from the defendants “for justice delayed to them and for an egregious breach of public trust, as well as accountability for the HSCO’s decision to allow a murderer to walk free in their community for half a decade while falsely and recklessly telling the Dean family and the public that there was no crime to investigate.”
You can read the full 40-page lawsuit in the document below: