Cleveland police arrested a 35-year-old man after a standoff when the body of a woman wrapped in a plastic bag was found in his garage. East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton said that police were called to the home Friday after someone complained of a foul odor. Police found three bodies total at the scene and are continuing to look for more.
The suspect, Michael Madison, allegedly made comments to police indicating that he was mimicking the deeds of Ohio serial killer Anthony Sowell, according to Norton. Sowell was sentenced to death in 2011 after being found guilty of strangling 11 women and hiding their bodies in his home, CBS News reported. All three bodies found on Madison's property were in the fetal position and wrapped in layers of plastic garbage bags, hidding 100 to 200 feet apart. The two bodies other than the one found in the garage were in the backyard and the basement.
The identities of the victims are not yet known, but early reports indicate that they are all young, black women. They are believed to have been killed within the past six to 10 days. Police are planning to expand their search into empty homes and vacant lots surrounding Madison's home. Madison lived with his mother in the East Ohio home, 10 miles away from where alleged kidnapper Ariel Castro kept his victims trapped indoors for nearly a decade before their escape in May.
Neighbors told the Associated Press that Madison was known in the neighborhood and often seen with young women. Nathenia Crosby, 48, said she had confronted Madison twice for his behavior with women. She asked him to stop speaking with her daughter and warned him a second time when he began talking to her cousin.
"It's very scary, especially when he used to be talking to my daughter," Crosby said. "But I told him he was too old to be talking to my daughter because she was only 19. When I found out how old he was, I said, 'You need to move on, she's too young.'"
Madison is a suspect in all three deaths but has yet to be charged, Norton told reporters.
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