On February 18th, 2001, friends arrived at the home of eighty-three-year-old Ella Mae Grant in Londonderry, Ohio, to pick her up for church services. When she did not answer the door, they entered and made a horrifying discovery: Grant had been shot to death inside her residence.
Authorities described the crime as an apparent attempted burglary that turned deadly. There were no immediate signs of a prolonged struggle or other complicating factors publicly detailed, but the shooting suggested a sudden, violent intrusion. Ross County investigators, with support from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, processed the scene, but no arrests followed in the immediate aftermath.
Ella Mae Grant was far from reclusive. As a longtime real estate professional in Ross County, she was well-known and well-loved in the area. Friends and neighbors spoke of her as kind, active, and reliable; someone who maintained strong ties to her church community.
The case quickly drew attention due to its brazen nature in a low-crime rural setting. Early suspicions pointed toward a burglary motive, with the killer possibly targeting the home for valuables but escalating to murder.
Over the years, one name has repeatedly surfaced in connection with the crime: Thomas James McCray. McCray, a convicted killer and rapist, was the primary suspect in the April 2001 murder of twenty-one-year-old Stephanie Evans in nearby Richmond Dale (also in Ross County). That brutal case— involving rape, kidnapping, and murder—led to McCray’s conviction and a twenty-year prison sentence. He was released in 2025 after serving his time.
Investigators long considered McCray a person of interest in Ella Mae’s death, given the proximity in time (just two months apart) and location within the same county. Reports from as early as 2002 noted him as a suspect in the Londonderry slaying. Despite this, law enforcement has been unable to link him definitively to Ella Mae’s murder through evidence such as DNA, fingerprints, or other forensics. McCray’s status as a person of interest persists even after his release.
More than a quarter century years on, the case remains open and unsolved.
Crime Immemorial 