Other high-profile cases
Here is a look at recent high-profile cases involving the disappearances of women from the Cleveland area:
— Anthony Sowell was arrested Oct. 31, 2009, after police investigating a woman’s report that she had been raped at his house began finding bodies. Eventually, the remains of 11 troubled women were discovered. Prosecutors say that the victims began disappearing in 2007 and that Sowell lured them to his home with the promise of alcohol or drugs. The victims were disposed of in garbage bags and plastic sheets, then dumped in various parts of the house and yard. Sowell was convicted in 2011 and sentenced to death in the women’s murders. He now sits on death row.
— In May, a woman missing for a decade escaped from a run-down Cleveland home, saying she and two other women had been held captive there for years. Former school bus driver Ariel Castro was later charged with nearly 1,000 counts of kidnapping, rape and other crimes. The three women disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old. Each said she had accepted a ride from Castro, who fathered a daughter, now 6, with one of the women. He has pleaded not guilty and is jailed on $8 million bond.
— On Friday, a report of a foul odor at an East Cleveland home led police to the discovery of one body and the arrest of a suspect, who engaged authorities in a standoff. Two other bodies were found in the same neighborhood Saturday — one in a backyard and the other in the basement of a vacant house. The three bodies, all female, were wrapped in trash bags. A 35-year-old registered sex offender was in custody Sunday but hasn’t been charged. Mayor Gary Norton said the suspect made comments that he might have been influenced by Sowell. Police Chief Ralph Spotts says he believes searchers could uncover one or two more bodies.
Associated Press
Authorities responding to a report of a foul odor from a home discovered a body and arrested a registered sex offender who sent police and volunteers through a poor Ohio neighborhood in a search for more victims, officials said Sunday.
East Cleveland Police Chief Ralph Spotts said Sunday that searchers should be prepared to find one or two more victims, but he declined to elaborate. Mayor Gary Norton said the suspect 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.
One body was found Friday in a garage. Two others were found Saturday — one in a backyard and the other in the basement of a vacant house. The three female bodies, 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. He declined to elaborate on his comments about the possible additional victims.
Norton said authorities have “lots of reasons” to suspect there are more victims, but he refused to say why.
A 35-year-old registered sex offender in custody is a suspect in the deaths, Norton said. The suspect, who was arrested Friday after a police standoff, has indicated to authorities he might have been influenced by Sowell.
“He said some things that led us to believe that in some way, shape, or form, Sowell might be an influence,” Norton said.
Police did not release the suspect’s name. The man hasn’t been charged.
A report of a foul odor emanating from a home led police to the discovery of the first body, found in a garage, and to the suspect. Two other bodies were found nearby Saturday.
The bodies were each in the fetal position, wrapped in several layers of trash bags, Norton said. He said detectives continue to interview the suspect, who used his mother’s address in Cleveland in registering as a sex offender, the mayor said.
“The person in custody, some of the things he said to investigators made us go back today, ” the mayor said Saturday.
Cuyahoga County medical examiner Dr. Thomas P. Gilson said Sunday that the bodies were in advanced stages of decomposition and that it would take several days to identify them and how they died.
About three dozen volunteers, including community anti-crime activists, fanned out Sunday morning across yards, through vacant houses and along a railroad to help police search. The chief advised them to watch for missing floor boards as they looked inside houses. One young searcher crawled under a board screwed across a door to go inside a house to search.
“The MO of each body we’ve found so far was wrapped up in a lot of garbage bags, so if you see anything …. and it might not look like it’s a body, but it could be — because each bag, the way he had each person was in a fetal position,” Spotts told searchers before they began. “It didn’t look like a person could actually fit in the bag.”
Pam Butcher, 55, said she came out to help search her neighborhood because she was disturbed by the death and said she knew other volunteers were, too.
“They are concerned because it could have been one of their family members,” she said. “It could have been one of their kids. It could have been one of their nieces. It could have been one of their aunts.”
One neighbor, Nathenia Crosby, said she was familiar with the suspect and had seen him walking through the neighborhood. She said she had told him to stop chatting with her daughter and warned him after seeing him talk to her cousin.
“It’s very scary, especially when he used to be talking to my daughter,” said Crosby, 48. “But I told him he was too old to be talking to my daughter because she was only 19. When I found out how old he was, I said, ‘You need to move on, she’s too young.’ “
The police, FBI, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department went through yards and abandoned houses over about three blocks Saturday and used dogs trained to find cadavers.
The neighborhood in East Cleveland, which has about 17,000 residents, has many abandoned houses and authorities want to be thorough, the mayor said.
“Hopefully, we pray to God, this is it,” he said.
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