国际英语新闻:Suspect in Ohio serial killings to be charged with murder

WASHINGTON, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. suspect who was involved in the killing of three women in East Cleveland, Ohio will be charged with aggravated murder, local authorities said Monday.

The suspect, identified as Michael Madison, will be charged with three accounts of aggravated murder after three female bodies wrapped in trash bags were found in a suburban neighborhood, East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton was quoted by local media as saying.

No more bodies were discovered on Sunday after local police and volunteer searchers combed about 50 vacant houses in the neighborhood in an attempt to find more possible victims.

The search was conducted after Madison, a registered sex offender, was taken into custody Friday for suspected killing of the three women, only one of whom has been identified so far.

Madison was detained Friday after a foul odor from a home led police to the discovery of the first body in a garage. Two other female bodies were discovered Saturday in a backyard and the basement of a vacant house. All three bodies were found in states of advanced decomposition. The victims were believed to be killed in the past six to 10 days, media reports said.

Norton said that Madison might have been influenced by Cleveland serial killer Anthony Sowell who was convicted in 2011 in the deaths of 11 women.

This was the third high-profile case in the Cleveland area involving missing women in the past years. Three women, who disappeared a decade ago, were found captive in a house in May, and a former school bus driver was detained as the suspect.

In 2009, Sowell was arrested after police investigating a rape victim's report discovered the remains of 11 women in his home. He was convicted of the murders in 2011 and sentenced to death.