Ohio Bodies

East Cleveland residents watch the scene Sunday, July 21, 2013, close to where three bodies were recently found in East Cleveland, Ohio. The bodies, believed to be female, were found about 100 to 200 yards (90 to 180 meters) apart, and a 35-year-old man was arrested and is a suspect in all three deaths, though he has not yet been charged, East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton said Saturday.(AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

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Michael Madison

EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio — The search resumes today for more bodies in the neighborhood where three dead women, their bodies wrapped in plastic, have been found since Friday.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office has not yet identified the three black women found wrapped in multiple plastic bags near the intersection of Hayden and Shaw avenues.

Suspect Michael Madison, 35, of Cleveland, was arrested Friday night after a two-hour standoff at his mother's home on Chickasaw Avenue. He has not been charged.

In police interviews, Madison led investigators to believe he might have been influenced by Cleveland serial killer Anthony Sowell, East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton said Saturday in an interview with The Associated Press.

“He said some things that led us to believe that in some way, shape, or form, Sowell might be an influence,” Norton said.

Sowell is in prison on a death sentence after being found guilty in 2011 of killing 11 women and hiding their remains around his Cleveland home.

Authorities believe the women have been killed within the last 10 days. The first body, 5 feet three and 110 pounds, was found in a carport Friday morning near the corner of Hayden and Shaw avenues.

Police and FBI agents at the boarded-up home where bodies were found Saturday at Shaw and Hayden avenues in East Cleveland.

The other two bodies were found Saturday afternoon. One was in a weeded lot about 150 feet from the carport. She had a pink flower with green leaves tattooed on her left thigh. The third body was in the basement of a vacant home on East 139th Street, adjacent to the weedy lot. The body was near a broken window.

"I don't know if there are anymore bodies out there," Mayor Gary Norton said Saturday. "It is all tying back to the same guy.

East Cleveland police, the FBI, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office and Cleveland police are involved in the investigation. The law enforcement personnel is being aided dogs trained to find cadavers.

Residents told reporters Saturday that the suspect had been in the area talking aggressively to women.

Madison is a sexual offender who registered with the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office after being released from prison on an attempted rape conviction in 2002. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years. He was given the least serious offender status, which requires registration once a year for 10 years. His local criminal history otherwise includes drug possession and trafficking.