John Jefferson
Inset, left to right: Sean Goe, Raychel Sheridan (Canton County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Mother Goose Land park (YouTube/Near and Far Explorers).
A judge in Ohio threw the book at a 27-year-old man who savagely killed his 24-year-old girlfriend, beating her head in with a hammer, wrapping her body in plastic, and dumping her in a trash can at a local park named after an iconic fictional voice behind countless children’s stories.
Stark County Common Pleas Court Judge Frank Forchione ordered Sean Goe to serve the maximum sentence of 29 years to life in a state correctional facility for the slaying of Raychel Sheridan.
A jury in Stark County last week found Goe guilty on charges of murder, felonious assault, gross abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show. He was also convicted on charges of burglary and grand theft when the property is a firearm or dangerous ordinance.
The sentencing hearing
Prior to announcing the sentence, Forchione launched into a diatribe against Goe, who beat Sheridan to death with a hammer and then dumped her body in a trash bin at Mother Goose Land park in Canton, Ohio. Forchione reiterated the sentiment of Dennis E. Barr, the head of the criminal division for the Stark County Prosecutor’s Office, who told jurors in his closing argument that he had tried 78 different murder cases, and had a “hard time thinking of anything that was this brutal and savage.”
Images from Mother Goose Land park (YouTube/Near and Far Explorers).
“I’ve been on this bench for 17 years and I agree with Mr. Barr — this is without a doubt the most brutal murder that I’ve seen,” Forchione said, per footage of the hearing posted by Cleveland, Ohio ABC affiliate WEWS. “It’s appalling. It’s heartbreaking. Raychel Sheridan was beaten so severely that the sheriff’s deputy who saw her body couldn’t identify her based on her own photo.”
Forchione also noted that Goe used a hammer to “crush a 3-by-2-inch hole in her skull” and her cranial cavity was collapsed into her brain tissue.
“The coroner described that a portion of her face virtually exploded,” Forchione said.
After formally handing down the sentence, Forchione went at Goe again.
“Mr. Goe, you sold your soul to the devil,” he said, “I’ve ordered you to receive the maximum sentence on every count due to the fact that you deserve the maximum sentence. The reason the maximum consecutive sentences are being imposed is because you have committed the worst form of the offense and there’s a great likelihood you will commit a future crime. I can’t help you.”
The murder
As previously reported by Law&Crime, deputies with the Stark County Sheriff’s Office at about 12:32 p.m. on July 2, 2024, responded to a home in the 4100 block of Orchard Dale Drive NW in Plain Township in reference to a missing woman identified as Sheridan. She was quickly entered into the national database as a missing person.
“While at the scene, Deputies observed a maroon Jeep Liberty, known to be registered to Raychel, traveling on Guilford Ave NW in Plain Township,” the release states. “Deputies initiated a traffic stop and made contact with the driver, 26-year-old Sean Goe of Plain Township who then fled on foot.”
In the early morning hours of July 3, Officers with the Canton Police Department located Goe at a homeless shelter on active warrants for burglary, grand theft of a firearm, and domestic violence involving the victim.
According to a news release from the Stark County Sheriff’s Office, deputies at about 12:32 p.m. on Tuesday, July 2, 2024, responded to a home in the 4100 block of Orchard Dale Drive NW in Plain Township in reference to a missing woman identified as Sheridan. She was quickly entered into the national database as a missing person.
“While at the scene, Deputies observed a maroon Jeep Liberty, known to be registered to Raychel, traveling on Guilford Ave NW in Plain Township,” the release states. “Deputies initiated a traffic stop and made contact with the driver, 26-year-old Sean Goe of Plain Township who then fled on foot.”
In the early morning hours of July 3, Officers with the Canton Police Department located Goe at a homeless shelter on active warrants for burglary, grand theft of a firearm, and domestic violence involving the victim.
“As a result of the search warrant executed at the apartment of Raychel Sheridan and Sean Goe, evidence was recovered indicating foul play,” police said. “Detectives have determined that Sheridan was murdered inside the apartment. At approximately 9:24 a.m. on Wednesday, July 3, 2024, a body believed to be that of Raychel Sheridan was discovered by Canton sanitation workers in a park in a Southwest area of the city of Canton.”
Specifically, the body was discovered at Mother Goose Land, an abandoned theme park in the 400 block of Schroyer Avenue SW that opened in 1956 before being shuttered in the ’80s. The area was revitalized about 10 years ago and reopened as a public park. An employee with the Canton Parks Department was emptying garbage when they found Sheridan’s body wrapped in plastic inside of trash bin and called 911, Shaker Heights, Ohio, CBS affiliate WOIO reported.
According to a report from the Canton Repository, prosecutors told jurors that Sheridan suffered at least 10 blows to the head with the blunt end of a hammer and was beaten so badly that her remains could not be identified when compared with a headshot of the victim. The hammer was reportedly recovered from inside the apartment Goe and Sheridan shared.
A bucket and gloves containing DNA from Goe and Sheridan was also reportedly found inside the apartment.
“The only person that had a reason to dump Raychel’s body like a piece of trash in that dumpster in Mother Goose Land is the person who killed her,” Criminal Division Chief Prosecutor Dennis Barr reportedly said during closing arguments. “That person is Sean Goe, the person who is sitting right here.”
Goe’s defense attorney reportedly argued that investigators immediately assumed Goe was the culprit and used the investigation “to prove the assumption, to prove the conclusion, not the other way around.”
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