by Patrick H. Moore
Today’s big crime story takes us to East Cleveland, Ohio where a suspicious odor emanating from a trash bag on Friday led to the discovery of a dead body in a rundown neighborhood. This in turn led to the unearthing of two more bodies over the weekend. The East Cleveland Police have indicated that they expect to bring murder charges today against 35-year-old Michael Madison who is in custody. In what appears to be at least a partial confession, Madison told investigators that he might have been influenced by convicted serial killer, Anthony Sowell, who is now on Death Row for the 2009 serial murders of 11 women whose mostly nude bodies were found in garbage bags and plastic sheets in Sowell’s Cleveland home.
The dilapidated East Cleveland neighborhood — with its large overgrown yards and abandoned residences — provides ample opportunity for the disposing of dead bodies. Madison’s first apparent victim was found Friday in a neighborhood garage. Two other bodies were found Sunday — one in a backyard and one in a basement in an abandoned house. The three bodies had been folded into fetal positions and wrapped in plastic bags. On Sunday, East Cleveland Police Chief Ralph Spotts told local residents and neighborhood activists who had joined in the search for more bodies that the bags were so small that “it didn’t look like a person could actually fit in the bag.”
The Associate Press reported on Monday morning:
The victims were found about 100 to 200 yards apart, and authorities believed they were killed in the past six to 10 days.
Madison threatened about a month ago to attack women in the same fashion as Sowell, said Eric Wilson, a neighbor who saw Madison frequently. Mayor Gary Norton said Madison gave similar indications to authorities.
“He said some things that led us to believe that in some way, shape, or form, Sowell might be an influence,” Norton told The Associated Press.
Although it’s not yet clear whether the tips from neighborhood residents led directly to Madison being taken into custody on Friday, unlike in the case of Ariel Castro, there is little doubt that the neighborhood was suspicious of him and had been watching him closely.
Madison was arrested Friday after a police standoff. A woman at a small white house at an address for Madison said the family was shocked by the allegations. She identified herself as a family member and answered a few questions through the blinds of a window Sunday but refused to come out or give her name. It wasn’t clear whether Madison has an attorney.
Court records indicate that Madison was sentenced to four years in prison in 2002 for attempted rape and has been classified as a sex offender since then. He also has previous convictions for drug-related charges in 2000 and 2001.
Eric Wilson and other witnesses stated said Madison had high visibility in the neighborhood and was seen constantly walking up and down streets and generally making a nuisance of himself. Although the neighbors stopped short of stating that Madison was “prowling around” trolling for victims, it now appears that he was doing precisely that. A local teenager Daniqwa Martin came forward and stated that Madison had offered her rides on many occasions but that she had always declined.
A neighborhood mother, Nathenia Crosby, had also seen Madison wandering around the area. Crosby said that said she had warned him to stop talking to her daughter:
“It’s very scary, especially when he used to be talking to my daughter,” said Crosby, 48. “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.’”
Detectives are under the impression that there may be more victims and are continuing to interview Madison.
“He really hasn’t stated that there’s any more, but he hasn’t said anything that would make us think that there’s not,” said Police Chief Spotts.
According to Cuyahoga County medical examiner Dr. Thomas P. Gilson, all three bodies were in advanced stages of decomposition. It will take several days to identify them and determine the precise cause of death.
Daniqwa Martin, 16, said that she had smelled the foul odor as early as last Tuesday but had chosen to ignore it, believing it was a dead animal.
About three dozen volunteers, including community anti-crime activists, fanned out Sunday morning across yards, through vacant houses and along a railroad to help police search. The chief advised them to watch for missing floor boards as they looked inside houses. One young searcher crawled under a board screwed across a door to go inside a house.
Local motorcycle club member, Barbara Stirtmire, 31, and her fellow club members pitched in to search on Sunday:
“It doesn’t make the city look good, I know that. But as far as everybody coming together, it’s beautiful.”
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It’s not only heartwarming to see the neighborhood willingly joining together in the search for more victims, but it’s reassuring to realize that tips from neighbors may well have been instrumental in leading the authorities to Madison. This willingness to come forward with information is a huge help to law enforcement and — in this instance — may well have kept Madison for committing still more murders.