The decomposed bodies of six women were found in the Cleveland, Ohio home of a convicted rapist who was arrested on Saturday, the coroner conducting the autopsies said.
"There is a total of six unidentified women," Cuyahoga County coroner Frank Miller told media, saying most of the victims found at the home of registered sex offender Anthony Sowell, 50, appeared to have been strangled.
Police earlier confirmed that three bodies were found at the home, and that the bodies of three more victims were believed to have been discovered.
Released in 2005 after spending years in prison for a 1989 rape, Sowell was arrested in his Cleveland neighborhood after a local resident recognized him and notified police.
He had been walking down a street and did not resist arrest, police said.
The first two bodies were found Thursday when a SWAT team entered the house with a search warrant, police chief Michael McGrath told reporters in a briefing aired by local media.
Further searches of the property led to the discovery of four more bodies for a total of six -- five in the home and one buried in a grave in the yard, Miller said.
"They were badly decomposed bodies," Miller added. Police, citing the coroner, earlier said some of the bodies may have been in the home up to six months.
