4 More Bodies Found at Home of Convicted Rapist

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Authorities say more remains have been discovered at the Cleveland home of a convicted rapist, raising to 10 the number of bodies that have been found there.

Police say four more bodies and a skull were found Tuesday at the home, where the remains of six women were removed last week. Police Lt. Thomas Stacho says the additional bodies were found Tuesday in the backyard of the home where 50-year-old Anthony Sowell lives. The skull was found in the basement.

Last week, investigators said they found one body in a shallow grave in the backyard. The rest were inside the house. Sowell is in jail and was charged Tuesday with five counts of aggravated murder and with rape, felonious assault, kidnapping.

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CLEVELAND -- NewsChannel5 in Cleveland is reporting that a seventh body was removed from the home of a convicted rapist where a forensic team started digging Tuesday morning.

The Cleveland street where the bodies were found has been closed since early Tuesday morning.

Officials brought in heavy machinery to start digging in the back yard of the Imperial Avenue home to search for the possibility of move victims.

Detectives are at the house looking for evidence to tie Anthony Sowell, 50, to the murders of at least six women found dead in the house he was living in, Sgt. Thomas Stacho said.

Detectives from the Homicide Unit are working with Crime Scene detectives and Cuyahoga County Coroner's staff in searching the home for evidence. Detectives are at the scene with cadaver dogs and digging equipment.

Sowell was arrested Saturday after the badly decomposing bodies were found in his home.

The Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office said six of the victims were female and five of the six were strangled. The decomposition has made it difficult to determine how one victim died, spokesman Powell Caesar said.

None of the victims has been identified but the coroner said they are all African-American.

On Monday, police announced that part of the investigation would be to search a 6-mile radius of the Imperial Avenue home.

Police have set a 6 p.m. news conference to discuss Tuesday's events.

WMAR's sister station, WEWS in Cleveland, is monitoring the story and will update it when there is more information.