What don't they know about how Fred Reer killed Amanda Dean?
Cause for delays in accused killer's trial shrouded in secrecy; family frustrated
NORWALK —
Caroline Tokar’s family has felt the tragedy of their loss for more than eight years, and for most of that time, without any hope of getting justice for her daughter, Amanda Dean, who was murdered in July 2017.
Now, with another announced delay in the trial for the man they always knew had killed her, they’re feeling that same anxiousness as they did before.
“The trial has been pushed into next year,” Caroline said in a recent social networking post. “It will be 8½ years for our family. We are devastated again. This is not right. Is this Huron County justice?”
Apparently, it is
Fred Reer, 42, of Collins, Ohio, was arrested in February 2024, and charged with murdering Amanda, 36, in July 2017. After six years, Tokar and her family, were, for the first time, hopeful they would see the man who killed Amanda get what he deserves.
Reer’s trial was scheduled for May 1, 2024, and then delayed, until September 2024, and delayed again, to March 2025. Now, it’s been pushed back until next year, with a final pre-trial on Aug. 25.
It’s unknown why the court would schedule the final pre-trial and the start of the trial — Jan. 5, 2026 — four months apart. There’s been no explanation from the court, or prosecutors, why trial proceedings have been put on hold.
Reer has voluntarily given up his right to a speedy trial; it’s unknown why. He has been incarcerated in the Huron County Jail since his arrest in February 2024.
Hurry up
Waiting is something they're familiar with, but the gnawing ache from it is only slightly less unbearable now, than from how it was before.
From July 2017 until late December 2022 — Huron County Sheriff Todd Corbin refused to even talk to Caroline Tokar, about her missing daughter. The anxiety and stress that created for her, for her other daughters and for Amanda’s four young sons, at times, was all-consuming and overwhelming.
Amanda’s sons grew up not knowing what happened to their mother, and knowing that the sheriff would not help their family.
Amanda was involved in a troubled and abusive relationship with Fred Reer. They lived together in an outbuilding on the Reer family home property off Wells Road, in Collins, Ohio.
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Fearing the worse
Tokar and her middle daughter, Shanon Dean, went to the sheriff on July 11, 2017, and told him Amanda was missing and that they feared Reer had killed her. He had threatened to kill her before. The sheriff’s office also had another report, from a family member of Reer’s, who reported her suspicion, also, that Reer had killed Amanda.
Corbin, and his cousin, sheriff’s Deputy Shannon Lyons, were already familiar with the dangerous situation that Amanda was dealing with living with Reer. Fred punched Amanda in the face and left her with a black eye, just six months before she was reported missing. The sheriff’s office never talked with Reer at that time, and never charged him.
They never talked with him after Caroline and Shannon Dean told them they feared Reer killed Amanda, either. It’s unknown why they failed to interview Reer after he was named a suspect — the only suspect — in both incidents.
After the family filed the missing persons report, Corbin again refused to investigate. He told the family he spoke with a director at a local homeless shelter who told him Amanda was safe but did not want to have contact with her family, a claim Tokar and Shannon Dean never really believed.
No record of the director’s call has been released by the sheriff’s office and there’s been no explanation why someone would say Amanda was safe when she was, apparently, already dead. The sheriff refuses to identify the person who called him.
Stick to the story
After that, Corbin always maintained that Amanda had been “located,” and there was no investigation needed, even though she was never seen alive again, by anyone. Although he reported to have located her, he acknowledged he never spoke with Amanda or talked with her after she was reported missing.
But he maintained that same stance — that Amanda was alive and safe — right up until the end, and it’s unknown if that’s what’s complicating the prosecution.
“Nobody talked with us after that last hearing to help us understand why there is another delay,” Shannon Dean told StayTunedSandusky.com. “We don'‘t get told why or get any explanation.”
Don’t ask me nothing
The state attorney general’s office is handling the prosecution. Assistant attorney general Dan Kasaris is the lead prosecutor. Huron County Prosecutor James Sitterly is assisting.
Sitterly, by statute, represents the sheriff and the sheriff’s office as legal counsel. His continuing to assist in the prosecution of Reer suggests that Corbin is not being investigated. It all suggests that state agents are not seeking to get any explanation from the sheriff why he did not follow basic procedure when Amanda was reported missing, or follow any standard protocols that dictate what law enforcement should do when a person is reported missing.
Kasaris and Sitterly have declined to answer questions or comment on the case. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and the AG’s spokesman also have refused to respond to inquiries.
They also have refused to give any specific information for why the trial keeps being postponed. The court, in granting the delays, said the investigation is ongoing but it’s unknown what is being investigated.
It’s also unknown if Reer is still being investigated or if he is cooperating, if there are suspected accomplices, or people who knew what happen who could be charged for not coming forward, or if Corbin and Lyons are being investigated concerning why they upended the search for Amanda back in 2017, or didn’t arrest Fred after he assaulted Amanda in January that year.
Can’t talk about it
Corbin has refused to say why he never investigated Amanda’s disappearance. No legitimate investigation was ever conducted until after Tokar sent Corbin a “proof of life” demand in late 2022, stating that her family wanted him to get a current photo of Amanda that would prove she was alive.
The Sandusky Register published a series of news stories about the family’s growing frustration with Corbin and about the proof of life demand. Under growing public pressure Corbin agreed — in late December 2022 — to ask the state crime lab to take the lead on an investigation.
Fourteen months later, Reer was indicted by a Huron County grand jury and charged with homicide. State agents executed a search warrant at the Wells Road property using shovels and a backhoe, finding enough evidence to charge Reer.
He allegedly killed Amanda at the Wells Road property, according to court documents, dismembered her body and destroyed evidence.
He killed Amanda the very same day her family reported to Corbin that she was missing, and that they feared for her life, according to the indictment. She was killed one day before Corbin told Caroline Amanda was alive and safe, in the care of a domestic violence shelter.
Corbin has never offered an explanation for how he could have been so wrong in his conclusion that she was safe, and he’s never offered Caroline, or her family, an apology for refusing to help them.
‘Truth will come out’
“There are a lot of rumors, conjectures, and speculations about the facts of this case,” Corbin wrote at a sheriff’s office Facebook Page after Reer was arrested. “Through the coming months the truth will come out. We will not have any further comments while this case is adjudicated.”
But for Caroline Tokar and Shannon Dean, those are just empty words from an uncaring public official.
“Amanda deserves justice,” Shannon Dean said. “Fred deserves to be in a prison cell for the rest of his life. For murdering my sister, and for how he murdered my sister and what he did to her body after he killed her.”
And, yes, Shannon Dean said. Her family and the community deserve answers from Sheriff Corbin about why he allowed Fred Reer to remain free for all these years. State officials should be asking him.
Editor’s note: Amanda Dean had four sons. This story has been corrected to reflect that.