Emailer provided key evidence to get Amanda Dean's killer

Attorney General Dave Yost won't talk about police accountability after tips solved case

NORWALK — The entire court case against Fred Reer Jr. appears built upon a series of emails an advocate provided to BCI Special Agent John Saraya beginning in January 2023.

Saraya had just taken over the murder investigation when he received the first of about two dozen emails sent from January into early March, providing him a roadmap to evidence in Amanda Dean’s homicide.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has refused to release records related to the long-delayed investigation except for a PowerPoint presented at Fred Reer Jr.’s sentencing hearing Jan. 5 for killing Dean in 2017.

Yost, Assistant Attorney General Daniel Kasaris and Saraya all have refused to answer questions about the investigation, which was derailed for almost six years because Huron County Sheriff Todd Corbin refused to investigate it.

StayTunedSandusky obtained the emails sent to Saraya through a confidential source. The information in the emails matches the case presented in the PowerPoint, pointing to how Saraya was able to get enough evidence to convince Fred Reer to take a plea deal. Reer cooperated, according to Assistant Attorney General Daniel Kasaris, but only after he was provided discovery showing him the evidence that had been collected.