East Cleveland: Did suspected serial killer also strike in 1989?

CLEVELAND -- It was a wave of violence that had East Cleveland detectives working overtime back in the late 80's. They called the cases the "Strawberry Murders." The victims were all women who were addicted to drugs and alcohol. Police believe they were easy targets for a predator.

Cynde Telford was living on the streets of East Cleveland at that time and knew several of the victims.

Telford said, "one of my friends was eight months pregnant when she was strangled in an abandoned building. And that's when they first started calling them the "Strawberry Killings."  

Now 20 years later, the East Cleveland detectives are dusting off those old files because they realize the unsolved murders stopped when suspected serial killer, Anthony Sowell, went to prison for raping an East Cleveland woman.

East Cleveland Chief of Police Ralph Spotts said, "Now this kind of modus operandi with the female victims who were possibly all involved in problems and situations with drugs and alcohol. So now we have a little more to go with and a little more to look at."

Many residents are already pointing at one prime suspect for the unsolved murders --- Anthony Sowell.

East Cleveland City Councilman Nathaniel Martin said, "there could be a connection between the "Strawberry Murders" and this particular person. I think that's a high probability."

Martin added,"it's obvious to me that this particular person, wherever he's been, he's killed. And I think he's gotten away with it for a long long time and it's finally come full circle."

East Cleveland community activist Art McCoy nodded his head in agreement. "When it's over you'll find out that this guy has killed many more women," said McCoy. "He's been doing this for quite some time, whether it's in East Cleveland or other places."

East Cleveland Police Chief Spotts has now assigned a team of detectives to review the cold case murder files.

Said Chief Spotts, "now that we do have that information, we can tie it together and hopefully get some closure to it."

For Cynde Telford, the search for answers to the murder of her friends is personal.

"I could have been one of them," said Telford, wiping away tears. "It's terrible. They need to check into whether Sowell killed all them women. It doesn't matter what they did. They didn't deserve to die like that."