EAST CLEVELAND — 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 searching through a poor Ohio neighborhood for more victims, officials said yesterday.
One body was found Friday in a garage. Two others were found Saturday, one in a back yard and the other in the basement of a vacant house. The three female bodies were wrapped in plastic bags. Authorities believe the victims, found 100 to 200 yards apart, were killed in the last six to 10 days.
East Cleveland Police Chief Ralph Spotts had cautioned searchers to be prepared to find more victims, but after a daylong search none was found.
Spotts identified the suspect, who was arrested on Friday after a police standoff, as 35-year-old Michael Madison, who is expected to be formally charged today.
East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton said Madison indicated he might have been influenced by Cleveland serial killer Anthony Sowell, who was convicted in 2011 of murdering 11 women.