A Pennsylvania man is likely to spend the next several decades in prison for killing a pregnant Amish woman in her home.
Shawn Christopher Cranston, 53, was found guilty earlier this month of one count of first-degree criminal homicide, second-degree criminal homicide of an unborn child, first-degree burglary, and first-degree criminal trespassing.
Rebekah A. Byler, 23, and her unborn child were brutally murdered during an April 2024 burglary. The expectant mother was six months pregnant with her third child at the time of the murder.
An application for a search warrant obtained by Law&Crime paints a particularly bleak picture of the home that Andy Byler, the deceased woman’s husband, returned to on February 26, 2024.
Rebekah Byler’s “throat had been cut” and she was “laying on her back in a pool of blood in the living room of the residence,” according to police.
There was also a “evident laceration” on the front side of her neck, as well as what appeared to be “a scalping type wound on her head.”
“Rebekah Byler was discovered laying on her back in the living room of the residence,” states another affidavit filed in the case. “A collection of blood was around and she displayed multiple sharp force wounds to the neck.”
The two Byler children, a 2-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy, were home when their mother was killed, but they were unharmed. The boy later told authorities that he saw a man wearing sneakers driving a green truck into the house and killing his mother.
Investigators later discovered a shoe print resembling the design on the bottom of a Nike Air Force One inside the Byer home on Fish Flats Road in Sparta Township, approximately 120 miles north of Pittsburgh.
The Amish do not usually wear sneakers.
At a probable cause hearing last year, the grieving husband testified that his children informed him of their mother’s murder when he returned home from surveying potential roofing jobs.
“I didn’t really believe it,” Andy Byler testified, according to The Associated Press. “I walked in and saw her cap laying inside the door.”
Throughout the trial, prosecutors called 24 witnesses.
One of those witnesses was a prison inmate who testified in graphic detail about Cranston’s confession regarding the botched burglary.
The woman discovered the intruder in her living room and began screaming, the inmate told Crawford County jurors.
Then Cranston attacked.
“Spun her around and started choking her,” the inmate testified during the two-day trial. “She did not pass out, so he slit her throat. He claimed she didn’t die quickly enough, so he shot her.
The defendant, a truck driver, worked for an Amish family near the Byers, driving them around because the Amish community prohibits personal use of motor vehicles.
The defense didn’t call any witnesses.
Cranston’s defense attorney did, however, make a closing argument emphasizing the lack of DNA evidence on the killer’s clothing, shoes, and car.
Because of the gruesome nature of the murder scene inside the Byler house, the attorney contended that the lack of evidence was a telltale sign of his innocence.
The state declined to present a formal motive argument for the killing, which Cranston’s defense attempted to raise during last year’s probable cause hearing. Prosecutors also never provided a specific murder weapon.
The murder weapon has never been recovered. Investigators discovered a knife along a nearby country road several months after Rebekah Byler’s death, but it lacked fingerprints and DNA.
However, these discrepancies were not significant enough for Crawford County jurors to seriously question Cranston’s guilt. After less than three hours of deliberation, the defendant was found guilty of all charges against him.
“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 said in a press release.
“Our homes are supposed to be our safe haven — this defendant violated the sanctity of home to commit these truly evil acts.”
Cranston is scheduled to be sentenced on the morning of July 28.
