Police Searching For More Victims Following East Cleveland Murders
Three women have been found murdered in East Cleveland, Ohio, and police say they expect to find as many as two more bodies as they continue to search the vicinity.
East Cleveland resident Michael Madison, 35, was arrested Friday after the first woman’s body was found by police. Cleveland’s Sun News reports that police were involved in a two-hour standoff before the arrest, though no further details were provided. Madison is a registered sex offender and has served an unspecified amount of time in prison. He has not been charged with the killings at this writing.
The first woman’s body was discovered on Friday morning inside a carport. On Saturday, two more bodies were found in close vicinity to the carport, one in an an empty, overgrown lot adjacent to the carport, and another in a nearby abandoned house. East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton told Sun News that “it appeared the woman may have been thrown through a window into the basement.”
All three bodies were discovered around 100 to 200 yards from one another. Fox 8 Cleveland reports that police are continuing to search the area for more bodies, based on “new information” given to investigators after the suspect’s arrest.
Police believe that all three women were killed in the past six to 10 days, though it will be several days before coroners at the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office can determine a cause and time of death.
According to the mayor, Madison may have been influenced by convicted Cleveland serial killer Anthony Sowell, who was sentenced to death row in 2011.
"He said some things that led us to believe that in some way, shape, or form, Sowell might be an influence," Norton told the Associated Press.
Currently, the East Cleveland Police, the FBI, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office and Cleveland police are all aiding the investigation.
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