Nation in brief: Women in rapist’s apartment were homicide victims

CLEVELAND – Six women whose badly decomposed bodies were found at the home of a convicted rapist were all victims of homicide, the coroner’s office said Sunday.

At least five of the women apparently had been strangled, said Powell Caesar, a spokesman for the Cuyahoga County coroner. Decomposition made it difficult to determine how the sixth died, he said.

The bodies “could have been there anywhere from weeks to months to years,” Caesar said.

None of the victims has been identified, Caesar said.

Anthony Sowell, a 50-year-old registered sex offender, was arrested Saturday when officers spotted him walking down the street of his east-side neighborhood. No charges have been filed regarding the bodies.

The first bodies were found Thursday night when police went to Sowell’s home to arrest him on new charges of rape and felonious assault, but he wasn’t there. The woman in that alleged attack survived. She said she knew Sowell and was raped at the house.

Crash search is now recovery

LOS ANGELES – The search for nine people missing when a U.S. Coast Guard plane collided with a Marine Corps helicopter over the Pacific Ocean is now a recovery mission, officials said Sunday.

Petty Officer First Class Allison Conroy said there was little chance of finding survivors among the seven military personnel aboard the Coast Guard C-130 and the two in the Marine Corps helicopter.

The two aircraft collided Thursday evening as the Coast Guard was searching for a missing boater. The Marine helicopter was flying in formation with another Cobra helicopter and two transports on a nighttime training exercise.

Kenneth Claiborne said Sunday that his son, Marine 1st Lt. Thomas Claiborne, who was on the helicopter, had been declared dead.

But the mother of Lt. Adam W. Bryant, 28, of Crewe, Va., who was a co-pilot on the Coast Guard plane, said she hadn’t given up hope despite the Coast Guard’s announcement.

Among the other missing crew members on the plane were Lt. Cmdr. Che Barnes, 35, of Capay, Calif.; Chief Petty Officer John F. Seidman, 43, of Carmichael, Calif.; Petty Officer 2nd Class Carl P. Grigonis, 35, of Mayfield Heights, Ohio; Petty Officer 2nd Class Monica L. Beacham, 29, of Decaturville, Tenn.; Petty Officer 2nd Class Jason S. Moletzsky, 26, of Norristown, Pa., and Petty Officer 3rd Class Danny R. Kreder II, 22, of Elm Mott, Texas.

Maj. Samuel Leigh, 35, of Belgrade, Maine, was the other helicopter crew member.