A Pennsylvania man who killed a pregnant Amish woman in her home is probably going to be imprisoned for the next few decades.
Shawn Christopher Cranston, 53, was convicted earlier this month of one count each of first-degree criminal homicide, second-degree criminal homicide of an unborn child, first-degree burglary, and first-degree criminal trespass.
In April 2024, a burglary brutally killed 23-year-old Rebekah A. Byler and her unborn child. At the time of the murder, the expectant mother was six months along in her third pregnancy.
The home where the deceased woman’s husband, Andy Byler, returned home on February 26, 2024, is depicted in a particularly bleak light in a search warrant application that Law&Crime was able to obtain.
Police reported that Rebekah Byler was “lying on her back in a pool of blood in the living room of the residence” and that her “throat had been cut.” Additionally, there was what looked to be “a scalping type wound on her head” and a “evident laceration” on the front side of her neck.
“Rebekah Byler was discovered laying on her back in the living room of the residence,” according to the another affidavit. “A collection of blood was around and she displayed multiple sharp force wounds to the neck.”
When their mother was killed, the two Byler children, a 3-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl, were at home, but they were unharmed. Later, the boy would report to the police that he witnessed a man in trainers driving a green truck into the house and killing his mother.
Inside the Byer home on Fish Flats Road in Sparta Township, about 120 miles north of Pittsburgh, investigators later discovered a shoe print that resembled the design on the bottom of a Nike Air Force One.
Sneakers are not customarily worn by Amish people.
The distraught husband testified at a probable cause hearing last year that when he came home from evaluating possible roofing jobs, it was his kids who informed him about their mother’s murder.
“I didn’t really believe it,” Andy Byler testified. “I walked in and saw her cap laying inside the door.”
Prosecutors called twenty-four witnesses during the trial. One of those witnesses was a prisoner who described Cranston’s confession about the botched burglary in graphic detail.
The inmate told Crawford County jurors that the woman screamed when she saw the intruder in her living room. Cranston then launched an attack.
The prisoner said, “Spun her around and started choking her,” during the trial, which lasted two days. He cut her throat because she didn’t faint. He claimed that he shot her because she didn’t pass away quickly enough.
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Since the Amish community forbids the personal use of motor vehicles, the defendant, a truck driver, drove around for an Amish family that lived close to the Byers.
No witnesses were called by the defence.
However, Cranston’s defence lawyer made a final point about the absence of DNA evidence on the murderer’s shoes, clothes, or vehicle. Given how horrific the murder scene inside the Byler home was, the lawyer contended that the lack of evidence was a clear indication of his innocence.
Cranston’s defence team attempted to raise this fact at last year’s probable cause hearing, but the state chose not to present a formal motive argument for the murder. Additionally, prosecutors never produced a conclusive murder weapon.
The firearm that was used in the killing has never been found. Though it was missing both fingerprints and DNA, the knife may have been located—investigators found one along a nearby country road several months after Rebekah Byler was killed.
Ultimately, however, those differences were insignificant enough for Crawford County jurors to seriously doubt Cranston’s guilt. The defendant was found guilty of all charges against him after less than three hours of deliberation.
“It is hard to fathom conduct more heinous than brutally killing a young expectant mother and her unborn child in her home,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday stated. “Our homes are supposed to be our safe haven — this defendant violated the sanctity of home to commit these truly evil acts.”
On the morning of July 28, Cranston is scheduled to receive his sentence.
