ERIE CO., Pa. (EYT) – The three-year-old son of Rebecca Byler is a witness to his mother’s murder according to four previously sealed search warrant applications.
It was also noted that Byler’s two-year old daughter was present at the time of the incident.
The documents were released after a legal challenge by the Gannett-owned Erie Times-News in Erie County Common Pleas Court.
According to the search warrant applications, the toddler told police a green truck pulled into the family’s driveway “and a man wearing sneakers entered the home and killed his mother.”
The victim, 23-year-old Rebekah Byler, died from multiple sharp force wounds to her neck and a gunshot wound to her head. Her unborn baby died from intrauterine fetal demise because of Byler’s death, according to an autopsy performed by Dr. Eric Vey.
Within a day of Byler’s death, state police began to hone in on multiple leads pointing to the presence of a Red 2012 Jeep Patriot in the area of Byler’s farm. Video footage from a nearby sportsman club showed the Jeep traveling toward the farm at about 9:10 a.m. the day of the murder. Witnesses described a man they knew as Shawn, who would give them rides beginning in December of 2023, as a person owning a red Jeep with a white sticker on the back window.
Witnesses further described Shawn as acting unusual, stating that at least once he appeared walking around on their property “looking aimlessly” into their fields. His speech made no sense, the witness stated. They described him as being clad in all black with a black pistol in a holster on his belt.
Shawn, they said, was a tall, heavy-set man with gray facial hair, around 50 years old.
Police obtained a phone number for Shawn and used open-source queries to identify the man as 52-year-old Shawn Cranston, of Corry, Pa. Using NCIC, they found his address. Troopers drove past his residence and observed a red Jeep Patriot, the documents say.
According to the documents, neighbors shared Cranston’s nickname, Rumble, with police and added that he is a member of the Erie chapter of the War Dogs Motorcycle Club, serving as Sergeant at Arms. A neighbor told troopers that the Erie Chapter of the War Dogs is a “1 percent” outlaw group known to support the Hells Angels.
The search warrant applications mirror testimony given at Shawn Cranston’s preliminary hearing, held at the Crawford County Judicial Center on March 15, relating the process troopers followed to obtain more video footage of Cranston on the day of the murder.
Security footage from the business directly across from Cranston’s Corry home shows a heavy-set white bald male spending over three hours carrying items from a red Jeep Patriot parked behind the Cranston residence to a camper trailer parked on the property. At one point in the video, smoke is visible rolling into the air from behind the camper.
“In my training and experience as a Pennsylvania State Police Trooper, it is known that individuals who commit crimes either conceal or destroy evidence by means of fire or otherwise,” stated the search warrant affiant.
The warrant application describes other pieces of evidence, such as shoe prints from a Nike Air Force One sneaker being found at the crime scene. In testimony at the preliminary hearing, police stated they found a pair of Nike Air Force One sneakers hidden in a compartment beneath the mattress of the camper. The search warrant returns confirm the finding.
In all, state police were granted four warrants: one for Cranston’s home and property, one for Cranston’s person, and two for the Jeep Patriot.
Search warrant returns list more than 200 items removed from the Cranston residence, plus 14 swabs from the Jeep, and swabs and finger/palm prints from Cranston.
The unsealed documents do not allege a motive for the murder.
Cranston was held for court during a March 15th preliminary hearing on first-degree felony charges of Criminal Homicide, Criminal Homicide of an Unborn Child, and Burglary, and a third-degree felony charge of Criminal Trespass-Enter Structure related to the February 26th murder of Byler in the Sparta Township home she shared with her husband and their two toddlers.
