Oct 31, 2009 5:30 pm US/Eastern
Police Arrest Convicted Rapist, 6 Bodies Found
More Bodies May Have Been Discovered
CLEVELAND (AP) ―
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Police in Cleveland say at least three bodies have been found at the home of a convicted rapist, and they expect to confirm three more. (File)
CBS
Authorities in Ohio now confirm six bodies were found in the home of a rape suspect arrested Saturday.
Coroner's spokesman Powell Caesar in Cleveland says the three additional decomposing bodies were confirmed Saturday and autopsies have been done on all six. No cause of death was announced.
Earlier Saturday police arrested the suspect several blocks from his home. Charges are pending.
Police found the first two of six bodies Thursday night when they went to the home of 50-year-old Anthony Sowell, who was convicted in a 1989 rape.
A convicted rapist who fled before police arrived to arrest him on new rape charges was arrested Saturday in his inner-city neighborhood after police found as many as six bodies at his home.
Police spokesman Lt. Thomas Stacho said Anthony Sowell was walking down the street in the east side of Cleveland when authorities spotted him and took him into custody.
Sowell initially denied he was the man authorities were looking for but admitted his identity as officers began checking his fingerprints, Stacho said.
Officers have found three bodies and believe they have discovered three more but are awaiting confirmation from the coroner, Stacho said.
The first two bodies were found Thursday night when police went to Sowell's home to arrest him on charges of felonious assault and rape. Police say he had spent 15 years in prison for a 1989 rape.
Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller identified two bodies as black females and said one had died of a violent death ruled a homicide. No race or gender was determined for the third.
The identities and matter of death for the three had not yet been determined. The decomposition of the bodies meant it would take awhile to determine how they died.
Police established a command post in the neighborhood to take missing-person reports and additional information on outstanding missing persons in the neighborhood.
Minutes before the arrest was made, police Chief Michael McGrath tried to reassure parents that it was safe for their children to go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood if they followed standard precautions like avoiding strangers and staying in a group.
Detectives with a search warrant found two bodies Thursday on the third floor of a duplex and began checking a fresh grave dug in the basement. The bodies were in an advanced state of decomposition, suggesting they'd been in the home a long time.
Police were checking missing-person reports back to June 2005, when Sowell was released from prison.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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