State police seize broken knife pieces, spent casings in search of dead Amish woman's home

Tim Hahn, Erie Times-News
·3 min read
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Searches of the rural Crawford County home where a 23-year-old pregnant Amish woman was found murdered on Feb. 26 yielded the Pennsylvania State Police evidence including spent shell casings, firearms and broken pieces of at least one knife, according to inventory records released by state court officials on Tuesday.

The state police are not commenting on any of the evidence collected during the searches at 21845 Fish Flats Road in Sparta Township, including whether they believe any of the spent casings or other weapons collected were used to kill Rebekah A. Byler, Lt. Mark Weindorf, crime section supervisor for state police Troop E in Lawrence Park Township, said Tuesday.

The Pennsylvania State Police seized evidence including broken knife pieces, firearms and spent shell casings in their search of a Fish Flats Road home in Sparta Township, Crawford County, where a 23-year-old pregnant Amish woman was killed on Feb. 26, according to inventory lists released on Tuesday.
The Pennsylvania State Police seized evidence including broken knife pieces, firearms and spent shell casings in their search of a Fish Flats Road home in Sparta Township, Crawford County, where a 23-year-old pregnant Amish woman was killed on Feb. 26, according to inventory lists released on Tuesday.

Byler was found dead inside of her home, with two uninjured toddlers also present, when Byler's husband and a family friend returned to the residence following an outing earlier in the day on Feb. 26.

Byler was found with a "scalping type" wound to her head, and she had a laceration on the front side of her neck, according to information in the search warrants.

State police early Saturday morning charged Corry resident Shawn C. Cranston, 52, with shooting Byler and slashing her throat. Authorities have not released a possible motive in the killing, but said Cranston was known to some in the Amish community around Spartansburg where Byler lived with her family.

Wealth of evidence from victim's home

State police have not commented on any of the evidence they collected during searches of the Byler home on Feb. 26-27 and of Cranston's home in the 400 block of East Main Street in Corry on Friday night and Saturday morning.

But the inventory lists of seized property that state police returned following two searches of the Fish Flats Road home, which the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts released late Tuesday morning, contain a variety of items of potentially evidentiary value that troopers removed from the residence.

The 32 items listed on the inventory include a broken orange knife handle and a broken knife blade; muzzleloader projectile; a discharged "F" .22-caliber LR cartridge case; a discharged 6.5 Creedmoor casing; a bone-handled knife; and an Outdoor Edge knife sheath.

Also listed as seized on the inventory were a Henry Repeating Arms rifle; a Break Action shotgun; a Forehand Arms Co. shotgun; and a variety of ammunition, including undischarged .22LR and 6.5 Creedmoor ammunition.

State police also seized a partially smoked cigarette and an ashtray and its contents; a black hair of unknown origin; an empty Mountain Dew bottle; and a hand towel, paper towels, trash can contents, candy referred to as gummies and a white bonnet.

A cotton-tipped applicator used for a DNA swab containing possible DNA was included on the inventory list.

Both searches of the Byler residence began mid-afternoon on Feb. 26, less than three hours after authorities said the family friend who was with Byler's husband when he returned home and discovered Byler's body called 911.

Police continued to hold the Byler home and to search the residence and other areas of the property until Feb. 27.

Investigation ongoing as court date awaits

Weindorf said Tuesday that state police are still actively investigating the homicide. He said over the weekend that numerous interviews were conducted in the days after Byler's death, including interviews with members of the Amish community, and through those interviews and other evidence Cranston surfaced as a suspect in the crime.

State police took Cranston into custody in Corry on Friday night. He was arraigned early Saturday morning by Titusville District Judge Amy Nicols on charges of criminal homicide, criminal homicide of an unborn child, burglary and criminal trespass.

Cranston is in the Crawford County Correctional Facility without bond. He is tentatively scheduled to appear before Nicols for his preliminary hearing on March 15 at 2 p.m.

A lawyer for Cranston was not listed on his online court docket sheet Tuesday.

Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNhahn.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Knife pieces, other evidence seized at dead Amish woman's PA home