The bodies of two young girls were found stuffed inside suitcases in an Ohio field by an individual walking their dog.
A spokesperson from the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office told Oxygen.com that the victims were half-siblings.
“This is a traumatic event for our officers, for the community,” Cleveland Police Chief Dorothy Dodd said in a televised press conference on March 3. “This is just such a tragic incident.”
A day earlier, the dog walker came across the suitcases near East 163rd and Midland Avenue, an area close to a school.
“The caller stated they had found what appeared to be a body inside of a suitcase,” Dodd said at the press conference. “The officers responded and located a deceased individual that was in a shallow grave inside of a suitcase.”
As officers searched the area, they found what appeared to be a second shallow grave with a second suitcase that contained another body.
Estimating their ages as anywhere between 8-and-a-half and 13 for the first victim and 10-and-a-half to 14 for the second, Dodd shared, “The only updates we have at this time are that the individuals are two juvenile Black females.”
While it’s unknown how long the bodies had been in the location, Dodd said, “It was some time. So, it’s not just something that was recent.”
Dodd asked the public to call the Cleveland Police Department with evidence that could help solve the case.
“Anything you see that’s out of the ordinary,” she said. “Did you see anyone spending a significant amount of time in that area? Someone who seems out of sorts to your neighborhood?”
The girls remain unidentified, said Dodd, noting that police have not connected any reports of local missing children to this case, although they are checking statewide reports.
Police are working with federal, state and local partners to solve the case, Dodd said in the press conference. She encouraged anyone with information to call the Cleveland Police Department’s Homicide Unit at 216-623-5464, a 24-7 hotline, or the Cuyahoga County Crime Stoppers line at 216-252-7463.
“The best thing is to find answers,” said Dodd. “It’s just a terrible, horrific situation.”
