CLEVELAND - - The Cuyahoga County Coroner's office is working to identify the 6 bodies found at a Cleveland home.

A spokesperson for the Coroner's office tells Fox 8 News, all six bodies found on Anthony Sowell's property, appear to be women. The coroner's office also confirms that most of the women appear to have been strangled.

The Cuyahoga coroner's office says it could take days, weeks, even months to identify the victims.

A city-wide search came to an end Saturday as Cleveland's most wanted man is in police custody.

Police arrested 50-year-old Anthony Sowell just before noon on Saturday, near the intersection of East 97th and Mount Auburn. They say Sowell was just walking down the street when a passer-by spotted him and called police.

Moments after Cleveland police wrapped up a press conference Saturday, the announcement came from Cleveland's chief of police.

"Just want to announce that in the last half hour the suspect has been arrested in the 4th district, it has been confirmed," said Chief Michael McGrath.

In all, investigators say they have uncovered six decomposing bodies on Sowell's Imperial Avenue property. Two of them are identified as African-American women. Mayor Frank Jackson was quick to respond to this morning's arrest.

"Any time there's an incident of this sort of heinous crime, the public steps up. so I am not surprised, but we are grateful," the mayor explains.

Chief McGrath says the coroner's investigation at the scene is complete. Now he says the focus lies on identifying the victims.

"We have dedicated personnel checking all our missing person reports from June 2005 -- that is when this particular suspect was released from prison," McGrath explains.

Word of the arrest spread so quickly, people from all over the area came to Sowell's eastside neighborhood, many in search of their own lost loved ones.

Felix Dejesus' daughter Gina has been missing since 2004. He tells Fox 8 it was important for him to drive out to the scene.

"Look at the turmoil and what's going on with these families here. I don't know how to express what they're going through. As a father of a missing child, there's a void in the heart. There's emptiness, when you lose a loved one," says Dejesus.

Cleveland Police Lt. Tom Stacho says in an attempt to identify the bodies, they are focusing their missing persons search on women in the immediate area.

Anyone who has a relative or friend missing from 2005 to the present can go to the 4th District Police Headquarters at 9333 Kinsman Ave everyday from 7am-7pm.

Stacho tells Fox 8 News, "A detective will be on scene to interview citizens. They are encouraged to take a photo and biographical information related to the missing person to the 4th District."

Stay with Fox 8 News and Fox8.com for updates on this developing story.
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CNN) -- A search has been launched for a 50-year-old convicted rapist and suspect in the killings of six people whose bodies were found in and around a house in Cleveland, Ohio, police said Friday.

The incident began unfolding a month ago, when a woman accused Anthony Sowell of rape and felonious assault, Cleveland Police spokesman Lt. Thomas Stacho told CNN.

"Once we were able to get the cooperation of the victim, we secured an arrest warrant for Mr. Sowell and subsequently a search warrant for his premises," Stacho said.

On Thursday, detectives from the department's sex-crimes unit and members of its SWAT team went to Sowell's home to execute the warrant and to arrest the suspect, but he was nowhere to be found, Stacho said.

What they did find were the badly decomposed remains of two bodies on the third floor of the house, which is owned by an elderly relative of Sowell who did not live there, Stacho said.

A subsequent search on Thursday revealed what appeared to be a freshly dug grave under the stairs in the basement, he said.

On Friday, investigators returned to the house, dug up the grave and found a third body, he said.

A further search of the house and property found two more bodies in a crawl space and a sixth body was found in a shallow grave outside the home, Stacho said.









[Edited 11/1/09 12:26pm]
[Edited 11/1/09 12:26pm]
[Edited 11/1/09 12:27pm]

kewl

Cuddles said:

i'll bite..what's kewl about this?

this guy had no sense of smell, or sense of… anything

Sick son of a bitch!

When things like these happen, I wish hell really did exist and these mother fuckers would spend all eternity there. Death is simply not enough for them.

This person is not a complete human.

Cuddles said:

Happy Sunday, everyone!!