ASHLAND, Ohio (AP/WCMH) – Investigators continue to work around the clock after a third body was found and linked to a man who was taken into custody Tuesday during an abduction investigation in Ashland County.

The Richland County Prosecutor tells the Mansfield News Journal that 40-year-old Shawn Grate admitted to killing a woman at a home on Park Avenue East in Madison Township back in June. That body was found by investigators Tuesday.

Grate is being held at the Ashland County Jail on a charge of abduction.

An Ohio police chief says two bodies were found in a house where a woman was rescued after an abduction.

Ashland chief David Marcelli said a suspect in the Tuesday abduction was in custody and being questioned. Marcelli didn’t provide details about the bodies.

Ashland County coroner Dale Thomae said he didn’t know the gender of the victims and said he hadn’t been allowed into the scene yet.

Thomae said he’ll use whatever means necessary to identify the bodies, but that could take time.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation was processing the crime scene. BCI spokeswoman Jill Del Greco said eight agents were assisting in collecting evidence.

“This is home. Stuff like this don’t happen at home. I feels so bad for the families, so bad,” said resident Shawn Gifford.

On Tuesday evening, investigators collected evidence from two houses on Covert Court as crowds of people watched nearby.

Aaron Earles and Timothy Robinson said they had been watching for several hours.

“It’s weird for it to happen but it doesn’t surprise me,” Earles said.

Robinson said he was worried and wanted to find out if the bodies were linked to people who had been missing.

“I have two kids and a wife that I have to worry about,” Robinson said.

Among those gathered at the scene was Sandra Stanley. Her stepdaughter, Stacey Hicks Stanley, 42, has been missing since Thursday.

“This is totally unlike her,” Stanley said. “She doesn’t disappear. She doesn’t go anyplace. She doesn’t leave her dogs.”

Stanley said her family was called to a conference with investigators earlier in the day. There, they were told two bodies had been found.

“I would love to hear that that’s not [Stacey] and that she is out here somewhere still,” Stanley said. “But in all reality, that’s probably not the fact, so we’ll have to deal with that.”

Stanley said her stepdaughter, a mother of two, had had trouble in the past but had been doing well for the past six or eight months. She said that if Stacey’s body was found, she did not believe it was related to drugs.

Holding back tears, Stanley spoke directly to her stepdaughter.

“Stacey, if you’re out there, and you can see this, you come home,” Stanley said. “We need you and we love you.”