Defendant may have been to Byler home weeks before Amish woman's murder, husband says
MEADVILLE — Weeks before Andy Byler returned to his eastern Crawford County home from scouting roofing jobs to find his young, pregnant wife murdered on the early afternoon of Feb. 26, he said his family had an unusual encounter with a stranger who came to the house late one night.
Byler, 24, said he and his wife, 23-year-old Rebekah, were already in bed when a vehicle pulled onto their Fish Flats Road property with its lights off, and he heard someone running into the door. Byler said he grabbed his flashlight and went to see what the person wanted, and encountered a man who said he wanted to buy Byler's house.
The man said he would be back the next day, but he never showed up, Byler said.
When asked in a Crawford County courtroom Friday afternoon if he saw that man in court, Byler said yes, but not 100%. He then pointed across the room to where 52-year-old Corry resident Shawn C. Cranston was seated, wearing a protective vest over his dark blue prison uniform.
The Pennsylvania State Police have charged Cranston with killing Rebekah Byler, who is Amish, by shooting her in the head and stabbing and cutting her neck sometime on the morning of Feb. 26. Her husband's tale of the strange man who wanted to buy their house, which Andy Byler recounted during Cranston's preliminary hearing inside the Crawford County Judicial Center, was the closest indication of a possible motive that Crawford County District Attorney Paula DiGiacomo presented during the five-hour hearing.
Cranston, who remains in the Crawford County Correctional Facility without bond, is now facing trial on criminal homicide, criminal homicide of an unborn child, burglary and criminal trespass after Titusville District Judge Amy Nicols bound over all charges following Friday's hearing.
Motive elusive as case centers on red Jeep
How Cranston came to encounter Rebekah Byler before killing her, as state police allege, remains unclear. State police filed no affidavit of probable cause with the criminal complaint filed against Cranston on March 2, and affidavits filed with search warrants investigators served on the Byler home immediately after the discovery of Rebekah Byler's body did not stray beyond a description of the scene on Feb. 26.
Much of the testimony DiGiacomo presented from 15 witnesses and investigators and through nearly 40 exhibits at Friday's hearing centered on a red Jeep that authorities say Cranston owned.
Testimony started with Andy Byler, a neighbor and a woman who drives for Byler. According to their testimony, the three left the Byler home sometime after 8 a.m. on Feb. 26 and traveled to Saegertown and the Utica area to check on possible roofing jobs. When they returned home, the driver dropped off the neighbor first before she and Andy Byler arrived at the Byler residence.
Once there, according to Julie Warner, the driver, Andy Byler went into the house and she went into the barn. She said she then heard Andy yelling that his wife was dead, and she told him she would get the children who were inside the house and call 911.
The children, ages 3 and 2, were playing with their toys in the home's dining room, Warner said. She said she touched Rebekah Byler, and she was cold.
A neighbor of the Bylers testified that she had seen a red Jeep pass her house at about 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 26. Another woman testified that she was driving a horse and buggy to pick up her sister when she saw a red car, which she identified as a Jeep from a photo DiGiacomo showed her, parked in front of the Byler home around 10 or 10:15 a.m. on Feb. 26.
A man who said he was in the area of Sparta Township where the Bylers live while trying to sell a buggy testified that he also saw a red Jeep in the Bylers' driveway on the morning of Feb. 26.
Connection to the community
DiGiacomo then presented testimony from a woman who said that, in early December, Cranston provided a ride to herself and to her parents. Cranston was driving a black pickup truck that day, she said, adding that Cranston talked about speaking to someone about hunting on that person's property.
The woman testified that Cranston returned to her family's home in January, driving a red Jeep. She said Cranston, who was wearing black clothing and sunglasses and had a gun by his side, said he wanted to go to church and asked when her church held services. Cranston then said if he was not there by Sunday morning, he wouldn't be going to church, the woman testified.
A neighbor of Cranston's testified that Cranston had recently been driving a red Jeep belonging to Cranston's wife. He said on Feb. 28, Cranston asked the neighbor about some tires the neighbor had that Cranston wanted to put on the Jeep. The neighbor said the tires were dry-rotted and were too big for the Jeep, but the neighbor said he could have them.
The neighbor said when he later viewed the Jeep after state police impounded the vehicle, the Jeep's two rear tires were the tires that Cranston had taken from his place.
Connection to Cranston
The testimony presented at Friday's hearing did not provide an answer to how state police came upon Cranston as a suspect. However, a state police trooper testified that he had interviewed the father of the woman who said Cranston had given the family a ride in December, and the father was asked if he knew anyone named Shawn. The father said he did, and gave the trooper contact information for Shawn, Trooper Michael Brenot testified.
State police determined Shawn was Cranston, and when troopers drove by Cranston's house they noticed a red Jeep, according to Brenot. The Jeep drove off as troopers were speaking to Cranston's neighbors, and troopers followed it and took photographs of it, he said.
DiGiacomo also presented testimony from a state police trooper with the agency's Forensic Services Unit who testified about finding distinctive shoe prints inside the Byler home that were suspected of being made by a Nike-style sneaker, and a piece of a glove in a trash can in the Bylers' kitchen. The trooper said a pair of Nike shoes with a similar tread pattern were found in a camper, under a mattress and a plywood door, at Cranston's residence. Police said a box of gloves and a glove found in the trash at Cranston's residence were similar to the piece of glove found in the Byler trash.
Another state police trooper testified that tire tracks found outside of the Byler home were distinctive in that the tires that left them appeared to be balding on one side. A state police trooper who took photos of the tire treads on Cranston's Jeep testified that the treads were worn on the inside of the tires he photographed.
A state police lieutenant who was asked to analyze cellular and GPS data testified that evidence from a cell tower and from a GPS system on Cranston's Jeep placed the vehicle and Cranston's cell phone at and near the Byler home around the time Rebekah Byler was believed to have been killed.
The final testimony presented by DiGiacomo was from state police Trooper Samuel Hubbard, who charged Cranston in the homicide. He said an autopsy on Rebekah Byler determined she died of multiple sharp force injuries to her neck and a gunshot wound to the head, and that her death was estimated to have occurred between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Feb. 26.
The age of the baby she was carrying was estimated to be between 21 and 25 weeks, Hubbard said.
Hubbard narrated a series of surveillance video clips that were played in court that showed a red Jeep traveling in the area of the Byler home around the time of the killing and at Cranston's residence. One series of videos, from a car wash, showed a red Jeep being washed.
It appeared in one clip that Cranston was vacuuming himself while cleaning the vehicle, Hubbard testified. He also said that Cranston is seen in the video wearing shoes that matched the Nike shoes state police later found at his residence.
Video showed Cranston returning to his Corry home at about 2 p.m. on Feb. 26. He is seen continuing to clean his vehicle and appeared to be removing items from it, Hubbard said.
Gary Kern, an assistant Crawford County public defender who is representing Cranston, asked Hubbard under cross-examination if state police had recovered any firearms connected to the homicide. Hubbard replied that state police are still in the process of trying to locate the firearm.
When asked by Kern if authorities had recovered any cutting instruments, Hubbard replied that state police are still in the process of looking for them as well.
Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNhahn.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Jeep tied to defendant offered as key evidence in Amish woman's murder
