Cleveland, Ohio — Six women were found strangled in their home, their bodies decomposing for an undetermined amount of time.  A coroner was quoted to have said that their bodies could have been lying in the home for “weeks, if not months or years.”

On Thursday, police had been following up with an arrest and search warrant at the house of convicted rapist Anthony Sowell, 50.  Sowell was being investigated for an instance of alleged sexual assault.  Five of the bodies were found inside the home, while the last female body was found outside.

Detectives from the sex-crimes unit of Cleveland police, along with members of its SWAT team went to the house to find Sowell, in an attempt to execute the arrest and search warrant.  When they arrived at the house, they could not find Sowell.  Instead, they found the 6 strangled female bodies in and around the home.

Each of the bodies were appeared to have been attacked and killed due to homicidal violence.  “They were mostly strangled, it appears,” said Coroner Frank Miller III from Cuyahoga County.  None of victims have been identified as of yet.

Sowell was eventually found on the streets near the District Police Headquarters, found through a tip given by an anonymous citizen.  Police arrested him on Saturday afternoon of an accused rape and assault.  Last month, a woman came to the police, accusing Sowell of rape and felonious assault.

On Thursday, officers found two very decomposed bodies on the third floor of the house.  Friday, when police returned to the house, they found another body in a grave dug in the basement.  Two more bodies were then found in a crawl space, while the last body was found in a grave outside of the home.

The condition of the bodies have made it hard to determine the age and time of death for the 6 women, let alone identify them.  Since there were 5 different burial methods used, coroners are having trouble determining how long they bodies have lain in their graves.

Sowell had previously been convicted of a rape in 1989, for which he served 15 years in prison, having been released in 2005.