Odor leads Ohio officials to three bodies
Police think women were killed in last six to 10 days
EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio – Authorities responding to a report of a foul odor from a home ultimately discovered three bodies and arrested a registered sex offender who sent police and volunteers through a poor Ohio neighborhood in a search for more victims Sunday, officials said.
East Cleveland police Chief Ralph Spotts had cautioned searchers to be prepared to find one or two more victims. But after a daylong search that included 40 abandoned houses and other areas, no more bodies were found.
Spotts identified the suspect as Michael Madison, 35. He said Madison is expected to be formally charged today, but did not elaborate.
Mayor Gary Norton said the suspect, who was arrested Friday after a standoff with police, has indicated he might have been influenced by Cleveland serial killer Anthony Sowell, who was convicted in 2011 of murdering 11 women and sentenced to death.
The odor led to the discovery Friday of one body in a garage. Two others were found Saturday: one in a backyard and the other in the basement of a vacant house. The bodies of the three women, all wrapped in plastic bags, were found about 100 to 200 yards apart, and authorities believed the victims were killed in the last six to 10 days.
Searchers rummaging through vacant houses in the same neighborhood Sunday were warned by Spotts to brace themselves for the smell of rotting bodies and to look out for trash bags that might conceal a body.
Spotts indicated later Sunday that the suspect’s comments haven’t provided clarity on whether more bodies might be found.
“He really hasn’t stated that there’s any more, but he hasn’t said anything that would make us think that there’s not,” Spotts said.
Norton said authorities have “lots of reasons” to suspect there are more victims, but he refused to say why.