Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 3 Disturbing Clues in Murder of Ohio Mom Whose Body Has Never Been Found

Episode Date: February 15, 2024

Amanda Dean, a mother of four from northeast Ohio, vanished in July 2017 and was never seen again. Her family hoped she'd someday return but feared the worst. This week, Dean's boyfriend, Frederick Greer, pleaded not guilty to her murder along with charges of gross abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy talks with Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Sylvia Colon, advocate for Dean's family, in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show that delves into the biggest stories in crime. HOST:Angenette Levy: twitter.com/Angenette5CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoAudio Editing - Brad MaybeGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@LawandCrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple podcasts or Spotify. They're grateful that an arrest has been made. An arrest in the murder of a mother of four in Ohio nearly seven years after she vanished. We have three shocking details from the indictment in Amanda Dean's murder with Ohio's Attorney General and the advocate for Amanda's family. I'm Anjanette Levy. It's Thursday and this is Crime Fix. Amanda Dean's family hadn't heard from her since July of 2017. They long suspected that her then boyfriend, Frederick Rear, had something to do with her disappearance. Rear pleaded something to do with her disappearance.

Rear pleaded not guilty this week to several charges related to Dean's murder at his home in Collins, southwest of Cleveland. The Ohio Attorney General's office took over the investigation into Amanda Dean's disappearance in late 2022. Here's Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. It was a year-long, a little bit more, about 13 month investigation. And we put a lot of effort into it. We had to interview scores of witnesses. There were out of state trips. There was a lot of work to do. And this is why BCI exists. Amanda's body has never been found. Cases without the body do get tried and you can get a conviction. But in terms of the actual evidence, we're going to present that at trial. We're not going to try our case in the media and dribble it out bit by bit. There's a lot to this case and candidly,

the investigation is still working. The details in the indictment charging Rear with Dean's murder, gross abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence are gruesome. The indictment says state agents found evidence last year that Rear dismembered Dean shortly after he killed her. The indictment also says agents found evidence that Rear burned the mattress that Dean died on. In the search late last year of Rear's property, the indictment goes on to say the agents found Rear cleaned up a bloody scene with towels and rags and disposed of the bloody sheets from the bed near the shack where Rear had been living with Dean. Amanda Dean's family has been waiting years for answers in her disappearance. They say her relationship with Rear was abusive.

Sylvia Colon is an advocate for Amanda Dean's family and is here to speak on their behalf. Sylvia, how is the family doing, first off? I think it's fair to say they are running the gamut on emotion. They're grateful that an arrest has been made. They're grateful that the person that they believe murdered, Amanda, is in jail. I think they're relieved. And they're still grieving.

I think it runs the gamut of emotions, I would say, on any given day, any given minute. I think they're going to be grieving for a very long time. Yeah. You know, it never really ends. You know, I think what makes this case a lot worse is the fact that the family's concerns, according to everything I've read, were not taken seriously in the very beginning. They reported her missing pretty much immediately. And they were told, according to everything I've read, that the sheriff said,

oh, I talked to a women's shelter. She was there and then she walked off. She's fine. And the family's like, no, she's not fine. And we know she's not fine. And they suspected that Fred Greer, Fred Greer murdered her. So they suspected that he killed her since the very beginning. Well, I think there was always hope. So, yes, they reported her missing pretty quickly. And when they were out by the rear property, making a search, they received

a phone call from the sheriff's department saying, come to the sheriff's department. And at that point in time, they were told that the sheriff was able to make contact with, quote unquote, a safe house, which is another word for women's shelter, and that she was safe and that when she was ready, she'd reach out. But, you know, he couldn't give any information to them. And initially, the family said, OK, as long as she's safe, that's what most people would do. But after a while, the family, they were like, well, she's got four children, four boys. She would never not be in touch with her family. Something is wrong. And so the mom, Caroline, would go pretty regularly to the police station asking, did she reach out?

Can she get information about her? Will they make a missing persons report? And she would also leave birthday cards and Christmas cards. And we know at least a couple of times she did that. And each and every time he, the sheriff or whomever worked for the sheriff took the card or cards that were left for Amanda. And each time they went there, they were told, well, she's grown. And if she wants to be found, she'll, you know, or reach out, she will reach out. But pretty consistently, they did not make a missing persons report because they said she wasn't missing. Colon's organization, the Cleveland Family Center for Missing Children and Adults,

had reached out to the Ohio Attorney General's Office and its Bureau of Criminal Investigation after not getting any answers about Amanda's disappearance from officials in Huron County. Our organization was contacted by the Dean family and before we met them we kind of did our own research, you know, looked at some of the information that we had, which was minimal and just thought, okay, it's been this long. There's been no missing persons report. So our hands were going to be tied to some degree because we didn't have a missing person's number. We really couldn't make a missing person's flyer. We couldn't even put it out on social media because we didn't know if somebody knew where Amanda Dean was, what law enforcement agency did they go to, right?

Because there was no missing persons report made officially in all that time, we don't impede the investigation. We don't do investigations at our organization. We assist the family. That's all we do. We support the family. And we are a conduit between law enforcement and the family. That's all we do. We support the family. And we are a conduit between law enforcement and the family. So we knew we were at a disadvantage as soon as we talked to the Dean family. We didn't have that information, which is why our board president reached out to the Bureau of Criminal Investigation. We have a great relationship with the Ohio Attorney

General's Office and Bureau of Criminal Investigation and thought, well, maybe they could get involved. And that's really why, because, you know, Huron County had never made an official missing persons report. So we thought, OK, we need to start somewhere that probably would be the best place. Interesting. So it doesn't seem like, according to the indictment, that it took very long for them to really get to the bottom of this. I mean, according to the indictment, they found evidence of a burned mattress that they believe that Amanda was killed on, on this property. I mean, they go searching for it and it's still there. And they also found other evidence.

I don't want to get too gruesome, but the facts are the facts that she had been dismembered. So, I mean, it seems like it was all there on the property for so many years? One would assume that definitely all that information was there. You know, the Bureau of Criminal Investigation took the case over in December of 2022. And here we are just a little over a year later, what, 400 and some days later, an indictment was, an arrest was made. So I think considering all the information they had to sift through, when you think about all the folks that they had to interview, and I cannot say a whole lot because it's very active and, you know, this goes to court,

but these kinds of things take time. And when you think about this was a very brand new case for BCI and they had to go, you know, they had to sift through information. I think a year's time is pretty incredible. I know I've looked on social media and some of these pages that exist, um, to help find Amanda and, and really it's disheartening to me because it seems like the family has taken some heat in some respects. So do you have a response to that?

I will say overall, the family has gotten a great deal of support. If you've never been in that position, then you don't know what it feels like to search high and low for a missing loved one. Our organization, I know what that feels like for nine long years. You know, the grit that you go through to keep that person's name out there. And they're, you know, it's not cookie cutter.

One missing person is one missing person. And so it's easy for people to sit and be keyboard warriors in basements. And they think they know. And yes, there are some, you know, there's no other way to say it. Just real jerks out there that think that, you know, they know what's going on and they don't. And they won't know because things can't be released to the general public or it would hurt the integrity of the case. The family's aware of those fools that are out there. And, you know, I swear like a sailor, so I won't say anything else except call them a fool or fools. But, you know, the family has

stayed really strong. They love and support one another. We've asked them to not go on social media. It's ridiculous. You know, we say stay by BCI, make sure you're talking to the special prosecutor. The courts, you know, they've already appointed legal advocates for them out of the court systems. Those are the people they need to be focused on and they need to rely on one another through this most horrible experience that they're enduring. Because you never people say closure. And I'm like, no, that's not the right word. You will never have closure. You will grieve for the rest of your life. Each day brings a new day. and what that grief looks like who knows you know as as the

years go on the grief will feel like the grief but they might be able to smile a little bit more and talk about their memories about the person amanda dean that they love so well so i don't i think closure is never the right word and when people people say that, I said, no, no, no, it's not closure. You'll never have closure. I agree with you 100%. There's really never closure. You know, this is what, unfortunately, this is the best we can offer as a society, is this trip through the justice system, the accountability and justice. I want to ask about her children. You know, you mentioned she had four

children. You know, we talked collectively about the family, but how are the children specifically doing? They're pretty devastated. Her oldest son, Josh, he's such a pillar of strength. He's such a great young man. And he's really taken the three other kids that are younger. She has four boys under his wing. And he really wants to be the man in this situation and lead them. And it's such a wonderful thing to see when we're there. And Josh really takes that role seriously. But Josh knew his mother the best because he's the oldest. And it has affected Josh in a whole other way that probably it hasn't affected the other three.

And I worry about Josh because he's such a great soul. He is such a great soul and a great person to be around. And I can't imagine that his mom isn't looking at him from up above just smiling and just being so proud. No doubt. I'm sure she is. Well, Sylvia Colon, thank you so much for joining us from Cleveland Missing. We really appreciate it. Advocate for Amanda Dean's family, and we hope to talk to you again. Thank you so much. That's it for Crime Fix on this Thursday, February 15th, 2024. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with us. We'll see you back here tomorrow night. Until then, have a great night.