Ten bodies found at rapist's Ohio home
Posted: 04 November 2009 1439 hrs

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WASHINGTON: Investigators unearthed four more bodies at the Ohio home of a convicted rapist bringing the total number of corpses found in the grisly discovery to 10, local media reported.

As police dug into the night, Cleveland police chief Michael McGrath said Anthony Sowell had been charged with five counts of aggravated murder after women's bodies were dug up at his home last week, the Cleveland Plain Dealer said.

Sowell, 50, has also been charged with rape, assault and kidnapping, CNN television added, quoting police.

Police detained Sowell Saturday, two days after discovering the decomposing bodies of five African-American women inside his home and another woman's body outside the house. The Plain Dealer daily said a skull belonging to another person had also now been found.

Sowell was set for arraignment on Wednesday. AFP's calls to Cleveland police were not immediately returned.

McGrath said investigators are trying to determine the identities of the dead. "We will not know until we identify the victims and how they lived in the community," McGrath said, quoted by the local Plain Dealer daily.

"He had an insatiable appetite to fill," he said, adding it was believed that Sowell often knew the women he attacked.

"I have to believe all these victims voluntarily went to the residence," McGrath added.

Police have asked members of the community who may have loved ones missing to come forward with photographs of the relatives in a bid to help the identification process.

Released in 2005 after spending years in prison for a 1989 rape, Sowell was arrested in his Cleveland neighbourhood after a local resident recognised him and notified police.

He had been walking down a street and did not resist arrest, police said.

- AFP/yb