Focus shifts to Dean civil suit

NORWALK — After a Monday guilty plea from the suspect in Amanda Dean's murder, the focus shifts back to a pending federal lawsuit filed by Dean's family against the Huron County sheriff. Specifically, members of the Dean family allege that county Sheriff Todd Corbin and other sheriff's office personnel — including former Detective Sgt. Shannon Lyons, deputies Joshua Kaufman and Coty Bravo, along with three other unidentified sheriff's office employees known only as Jane Doe or John Doe — failed to properly investigate Dean's disappearance for more than five and a half years. Dean's family filed the lawsuit in federal court in December 2024 and is seeking more than $25,000 in compensatory and punitive damages. Corbin and co-defendants, by way of their attorney, responded to the suit in a filing this past February, and in their response, claimed multiple times that there was no confirmation that Dean, 36, of Collins, had been murdered. That claim came after the suspect, Fred Reer, 42, of the 1700 block of Wells Road, had already been indicted in February 2024 by a Huron County grand jury on six felony charges, including murder, gross abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. It wasn't clear why the defendants claimed a lack of proof of Dean's death as a defense while, simultaneously, authorities were prosecuting Reer on murder and other charges for Dean's death. It also wasn't clear, in light of Reer's guilty plea Monday, if the defendants would revise their arguments in the civil suit. Reer pleads guilty Reer pleaded guilty to one count of involuntary manslaughter — a charge amended from a count of murder — two counts of tampering with evidence and one count of gross abuse of a corpse, all felony-level charges. As part of Reer's plea, two additional counts of tampering with evidence, each a third-degree felony, were dismissed. Reer is scheduled to be sentenced at 12:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, according to court records. He faces a maximum of 18 years in prison, Huron County Common Pleas Court Judge James Conway said. Pending lawsuit Huron County authorities conducted an approximately one-day-long search for Dean in July 2017, before Corbin reported that he received a phone call from a domestic violence shelter confirming Dean was found safe. In their lawsuit, Dean's family contends the call did not occur. In the response to the suit, Corbin and the other defendants deny that claim. The family additionally claimed that the Huron County Sheriff's Office investigated an earlier domestic abuse complaint, in January 2017, in which Dean suffered a black eye, purportedly at the hands of Reer, her boyfriend. Regardless, Dean's family said they never saw or heard from Amanda again after the initial search conducted by the sheriff's office. Corbin and the sheriff's office maintained that Dean was alive until further investigation into her disappearance resumed, under the scope of Ohio's Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which eventually led to Reer's indictment in February 2024. In the complaint, the family alleges that under Corbin's leadership, the sheriff's office failed to properly investigate Dean's disappearance for over five and a half years and ignored their requests to further investigate Reer in relation to her disappearance. The complaint further claims that Corbin and members of the sheriff's office "repeatedly and recklessly" told the family that Dean was safe and staying at a domestic violence shelter, but refused to provide the family any additional information. In response to the family's claims, the sheriff's office asserted that Dean was not officially confirmed dead and that the sheriff's office had undertaken a missing persons investigation in July 2017 and determined that Dean was safe. "Defendants state that it has not been established that Amanda Dean is actually dead, that Frederick Reer murdered her, or if he did, where it happened (in Huron County or someplace else), when it happened and what became of her body," the February response by the defendants states. The defense filing continued: "Defendants have not allowed a murderer to 'walk free' in the community when, in fact, it has not been established that a murder of Amanda Dean occurred in Huron County or that the Huron County Sheriff's Office even knew — if it is true at all — that Amanda Dean once again went missing after she was discovered to have been safe in a shelter in July 2017." In a news release sent out Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost indicated that Dean's remains were never located. "Proving a homicide without a body is the ultimate test of investigative and legal skill," Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said. "I'm proud of our team for taking on such a complex case and securing justice for Amanda and her loved ones." Next steps While Reer awaits his sentencing in January, another hearing in the civil case is set to take place the same month. Since the defendants' response in February, there have been a handful of status hearings hosted over the video-call app Zoom, according to the court docket. The next hearing, another Zoom status conference, is planned for Jan. 15.