CLEVELAND - Investigators trying to identify the bodies of six women found in the home of a convicted rapist are focusing the inquiry on eight or nine missing women, the coroner said yesterday.
It could take days or weeks to identify the bodies using dental records or DNA mouth-swab samples from relatives. Cuyahoga County coroner Frank Miller said his office has started collecting materials from dentists and relatives.
The six women were black and five of them had been strangled, authorities said. The cause of death of the sixth hadn’t been determined.
The investigation will pay close attention to missing women who were living alone, were homeless, or had drug or alcohol problems, Miller said.
The bodies were discovered last week after a woman reported being raped at the home of Anthony Sowell.
Police went to the home Thursday to arrest Sowell on a rape and felonious assault warrant. He wasn’t there, but police found two bodies. Police found the other remains Friday and arrested Sowell Saturday.
Sowell, 50, hasn’t been charged in the rape investigation or in connection with the bodies.
Detectives will seek a warrant to take a DNA sample from Sowell in connection with the homicide investigation, Lieutenant Thomas Stacho, a police spokesman, said yesterday.
Sowell served 15 years in prison for choking and raping a 21-year-old woman in 1989.
He was a registered sex offender and, after his release from prison, was required to check in regularly at the sheriff’s office, which said he complied.
