This weekend Cleveland police discovered the bodies of three women in close proximity to a vacant home. Police suspected that the murders were the work of a single serial killer who went on a week-long murder spree.
Police are still searching the East Cleveland area and say they expect to find one or two more bodies. All three victims were found in garbage bags, and today a suspect in custody has apparently confessed to at least one of the murders, Cleveland news station WKYC reports.
The women were all killed within the past six to 10 days, according to police. The first body was discovered on Friday and two more were found Saturday. Now, volunteers and cadaver dogs are searching the surrounding area for more remains.
The suspect, 35-year-old Michael Madison, reportedly hinted to police that there are more victims. Madison is a registered sex offender.
A neighbor who knew Madison told FOX 8 in Cleveland that Madison made references to Anthony Sowell, a Cleveland serial killer who was arrested in 2009 for the murders of 11 women. Sowell was recently sentenced to death.
"He would say, ‘I’m gonna Anthony Sowell somebody," said neighbor Eric Wilson. "He was using Anthony Sowell's name as an action word."
Madison also made references to Sowell in police interviews after his arrest.
"He said some things that led us to believe that in some way, shape, or form, Sowell might be an influence," East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton told the Associated Press.
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