CHILLICOTHE, Ohio – Does prison rehabilitate people who are rapist and murderers, or are we setting up society for more tragedy? A convicted killer and rapist was released in July, nearly 24 years after the brutal murder of a young mother that shocked the region and drew national attention.
Thomas James McCray, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2006 for the rape, kidnapping, and killing of 21-year-old Stephanie Evans, is set to walk free this August 2025, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
McCray’s crime gripped the community and the nation. On April 2, 2001, Stephanie, a single mother from Richmond Dale, vanished along with her 2-year-old son Justin. The next day, fishermen found the toddler alone and crying in a car seat near the Scioto River. Nearby, police discovered Stephanie’s partially clothed body, her hands bound behind her back, with evidence of sexual assault and blunt force trauma. She had been tossed in the river, and rocks had covered her body in an attempt to destroy evidence. Her son was taken to the local hospital, where he was treated for hypothermia and dehydration along with other issues from being left in nature alone, strapped in a car seat.
Her car was later found in Columbus, burned from the inside in an apparent attempt to destroy evidence, but the killer had left some clues that survived.
The investigation stalled for months until a partial fingerprint and DNA from a cigarette butt at the scene linked McCray—an acquaintance of Stephanie’s—to the crime. By then, he had fled the country with a group known as the Rainbow Association, jumping trains that covered the countryside. He was eventually tracked down in Saskatchewan, Canada, after a tip to America’s Most Wanted revealed he was using the alias Jason Williams and serving time there for breaking and entering crimes.
After his extradition, McCray struck a plea deal and was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, rape, kidnapping, and child endangerment. Despite the severity of the case, the agreement allowed for a 20-year sentence. By the time he was convicted in 2006, McCray had already spent a year in jail, which was subtracted from his prison sentence.
Stephanie’s family and community members are expressing concern over McCray’s pending release, fearing that justice has not been fully served for a crime that left a child motherless and a county forever marked by the brutality of the act.
McCray is still a person of interest in another unsolved murder in Ross County, a woman named Ella Mae Grant, who was killed in what police describe as a burglary gone wrong.
McCray had been incarcerated at Richland Correctional Institution in London, Ohio. He was released in July to APA Supervision, which will help him transition back into the community.
