Ohio police find 3 bodies in plastic bags, fear there are more

GlobalPost

Police in a Cleveland suburb are looking for more bodies after three women were found dead, wrapped in plastic trash bags. 

East Cleveland police arrested a 35-year-old man named by local media as Michael Madison, reports local CBS affiliate WOIO. 

Madison has been arrested but not yet charged in connection with the murders.

He reportedly is a registered sex offender who has spent time in prison including for a 2002 attempted rape, WOIO reports.

Police say it is likely the victims — all young black women —were killed within the last six to 10 days. The identities of the victims have not been released.

The first body was found in a carport of an East Cleveland home on Friday morning.

A second victim was discovered in a weedy lot about 150 feet from the carport, while a third woman was found in the basement of a vacant home adjacent to the lot. 

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East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton said it appeared the woman may have been thrown through a window into the basement.

"I don't know if there are anymore bodies out there," Norton told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "It is all tying back to the same guy."

According to the Associated Press, Madison may have been inspired by the convicted Ohio serial killer Anthony Sowell.

"He said some things that led us to believe that in some way, shape, or form, Sowell might be an influence," the mayor told AP.

Sowell was sentenced to death in 2011 for killing 11 women and hiding their bodies around his Cleveland home.

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