A kidnapping victim’s heartbreaking 911 call in 2016 launched an investigation that ended with the arrest of a serial killer who admitted to killing five women and left a veteran detective dead. ‘Ohio, a police officer and emergency call dispatcher with the case they will remember forever.

“I don’t want to forget this case. I don’t want anyone to forget it,” said Kim Mager, a now-retired Ashland police detective who worked the notorious case. “These women could have been anyone. It could have been me.”

The full “20/20” episode “Meet the Other Me” airs Friday, November 22 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC and streams the next day on Hulu.

The investigation began on September 13, 2016, when a kidnapping victim was rescued after making a disturbing 911 call.

“It’s scary,” mused Sara Miller, who worked as an emergency call dispatcher for 26 years, about the memorable call with ABC News’ John Quiñones during her first broadcast interview.

Miller said the caller, whom authorities called Jane Doe to protect her privacy, spoke in hushed tones, saying she was being held captive in a home near a laundromat and that her captor was sleeping next to her .

Miller dispatched officers to where she believed the caller was. “They can’t just break into a house in a group. What if he woke up with a gun and hurt her?” » Miller said.

Officer Curt Dorsey rushed to the scene, taking care to keep his patrol car’s siren off so as not to alert the attacker.

“We were trying to be stealthy,” Dorsey told Quiñones. “We were told the suspect was sleeping, so we wanted to get closer and not make a lot of noise.”

Once Dorsey and his partners arrived on scene, they saw two nearly identical homes on the property. Miller stayed on the phone with Jane Doe, asking questions about where she was being held so she could relay the information to officers and zero in on her exact location.

As Dorsey walked around the perimeter of the houses, he saw Jane Doe’s hand on a window. She had managed to undo her restraints. Police carried out a daring rescue 19 minutes after arriving on scene.

“I saw her hand outstretched through a window and I knew at that moment she was there,” Dorsey recalled. “I would have gone through the wall to get him.”

Authorities later learned that Jane Doe managed to get her captor’s phone back, but he removed the bedroom doorknob, making it impossible for her to leave the room without waking him. Once she heard police on the scene, she was able to flee the bedroom and go to a window.

The perpetrator, identified as Shawn Grate, 40, was arrested at the scene.

Mager was summoned to Ashland police headquarters to question Jane Doe and Grate.

Mager learned through his conversations that Jane Doe had met Grate at a local community center and the two became friends. Jane Doe was reading the Bible when Grate suddenly attacked her.

“I tried to push him away and get up. I was doing everything I wanted: trying to kick, punch. But everything I did, he did it much harder,” said Jane Doe said.

Mager then questioned Grate about what Jane Doe had reported. She would spend 33 hours over eight days speaking with him.

Through a less authoritarian approach and empathy, Mager was able to get Grate to speak openly.

He not only admitted to kidnapping and sexually assaulting Jane Doe, but Grate eventually confessed to the murders of five women: Candice Cunningham, Elizabeth Griffith, Stacy Stanley, Dana Lowrey, and Rebekah Leicy.

“You start to realize how prolific this is or could be,” Mager said of his confession.

The bodies of Griffith and Stanley were later found on the property where Jane Doe was being held captive.

Stanley’s family remembered her as very loving and fighting, in an interview with “20/20.”

“My mom didn’t deserve this,” said Kory Stanley, Stanley’s youngest son. “None of the women deserved this.”

“We just sobbed and sobbed because we had come to the conclusion that we weren’t going to see our friend again,” said Cindi Mathys, a friend of Elizabeth Griffith’s in the church.

Mager said she wrote a book about the investigation, “A Hunger to Kill,” in part to tell the truth about the impact the killings had on surviving family members.

“I’m going to try to make it real enough that people can recognize that it could have been anyone,” Mager said. “These things can’t happen and move us to the next scenario.”

The personal account, which recounted her chilling conversations with the serial killer, detailed how Mager said Grate may have even targeted her.

“Shawn Grate said (a fellow inmate) he was trying to find my gun on my body, and he thought it would be the ultimate to kill me,” Mager told “20/20.”

Grate was convicted of the murders of Stanley and Griffith, as well as the rape and kidnapping of Jane Doe, in May 2018. He was sentenced to death in that case. In 2019, Grate pleaded guilty to the murders of Cunningham, Leicy and Lowrey. Grate has not been charged in connection with the alleged plan to kill Mager.

Eight years after receiving the 911 call, Miller expressed his admiration for Jane Doe, calling her courageous.

“She did an incredible job of breaking free, picking up the phone, calling for help and helping us catch her,” Miller said. “Who knows how many other women he would have killed?”