Savannah Keaton, a 31-year-old White woman, was killed on February 26, 2026, in Maysel, a community in Clay County, West Virginia. Although initial information connected her with Maysel, authorities identified Keaton as being from Massillon, Ohio. West Virginia State Police and Clay County sheriff’s deputies were called to a residence in the Maysel area after a shooting was reported through 911. When officers reached the home, they found Keaton inside with an apparent gunshot wound.
She was already dead when investigators arrived.
Investigators quickly focused on Richard Grad of Maysel as the suspect. Police said Grad and Keaton knew one another well and had been living together in the area. West Virginia State Police Capt. L.T. Goldie described the killing as a domestic-related incident and said the two shared a child. According to Goldie, the circumstances surrounding the shooting involved heightened emotions, and investigators learned that an argument had occurred before the gunfire.
A criminal complaint filed in Clay County Magistrate Court provided a more detailed account of what investigators alleged happened inside the residence. According to the complaint, Grad told investigators that he and Keaton became involved in a verbal argument. During that confrontation, he allegedly retrieved a shotgun and shot Keaton, causing the fatal wound. Authorities did not publicly disclose a more specific motive beyond the argument and the domestic nature of the dispute, and the investigation remained active after the arrest.
Grad apparently left the residence before law enforcement arrived, but the effort to locate him did not last long. Investigators received information from a local gas station employee who said Grad had come into the business and allegedly admitted that he had killed someone. Police also said Grad contacted authorities himself and arranged to meet investigators at a gas station or other alternate location. He subsequently surrendered and was taken into custody rather than being captured after a prolonged search or standoff.
Following his arrest, Grad was charged with first-degree murder in connection with Keaton’s death. He was arraigned and then transported to the Central Regional Jail in Sutton, West Virginia. State police announced that Keaton’s family had been notified and continued investigating the circumstances of the shooting. Multiple news organizations reported the same basic sequence: the reported shooting, Keaton being found dead inside the home, Grad leaving the scene, his later surrender, and the first-degree murder charge.
The available online reporting through August 2026 does not show a subsequent trial, guilty plea, conviction, acquittal, or sentencing in the case. Searches of later news coverage also did not identify another suspect or an additional arrest connected with Keaton’s killing. The publicly reported case therefore remains centered on Grad as the sole identified suspect, with the most recent substantiated status being that he had been arrested, charged with first-degree murder, arraigned, and placed in the Central Regional Jail while the homicide investigation continued. West Virginia’s judiciary provides statewide systems for searching magistrate and circuit court records, but the publicly accessible circuit-record portal was not returning usable case details during the search, leaving no verified later court disposition available from those records.
