A Cleveland man was charged yesterday with the killing of three women whose bodies were found wrapped in plastic bags over the weekend.
The man, Michael Madison (35), faces three counts of aggravated murder and three counts of kidnapping. His bail was set at $6 million.
At a news conference yesterday morning, local officials described the killings in East Cleveland as “senseless” and said the suspect was “an individual who had no regard for human life”. Authorities said Mr Madison was a registered sex offender who had spent time in prison for attempted rape. He was arrested last Friday after a standoff at his mother’s home.
At the news conference, police identified one of the three victims as Angela Deskins (38) of Cleveland. The other two have not been identified. The county's medical examiner, Dr Thomas P Gilson, said his office had trouble identifying the bodies because they were badly decomposed. He asked for the public's help in identifying a woman who had several tattoos, including a red star on her thumb and a flower on her thigh with the name Gene beside it.
On Sunday, local and federal officers searched for other bodies near where the women were found. Police chief Ralph Spotts of the East Cleveland police yesterday said: "This is an ongoing investigation. We're nowhere near done."
Bodies discovered
The first body was found last Friday after a resident reported a foul smell, and the two others were found during a search on Saturday after interviewing the suspect, police said. The bodies were discovered near each another in an empty house, a garage and a backyard.
Police chief Spotts told local television reporters that he believed the women had been killed in the past six to 10 days, but that they could have been missing for longer. He said it was clear the killings were linked to Madison. "Everything was in about a 250ft proximity to where he lives," the police chief said. – (New York Times service)