OH - 2 Juvenile Black Females Found Deceased (Homicide) in Ohio Park, Cleveland, 3/2/2026

[Sticksandspades]

questions I look forward to answers on:

are the girls genetically linked/related?
what is the approximate time of death and are they around the same timeframe or different time periods?
Any missing children or families in the geographical area that might align with one or both bodies?

The article says half sisters

 

[Sticksandspades]

Police Trying To Identify Two Young Girls Found Dead In Suitcases | NewsRadio 630 WLAP

The suitcases were found buried in shallow graves in Cleveland, Ohio.

wlap.iheart.com

This article had a few more facts:
The bodies of two young Black girls were discovered stuffed inside suitcases and buried in shallow graves on Cleveland's east side, authorities announced Tuesday (March 3), setting off a homicide investigation with no identified victims and no suspects.

Cleveland Police Chief Dorothy Todd said officers were first called to a field near East 162nd Street and Midland Avenue around 6 p.m. on Monday (March 2), after a man walking his dog noticed something alarming. The dog picked up a scent, and the man immediately called 911. When homicide detectives arrived, they found two bodies in separate suitcases, each partially buried in a shallow grave.

Investigators believe the girls had been at the location for a significant period of time. One victim is believed to be between 8 and 13 years old, and the other is estimated to be between 10 and 14 years old. Neither girl has been identified.

"We are hoping to find answers," Chief Todd said at a Tuesday news conference. "This is a terrible, tragic situation."

Todd said the area does not see a lot of foot traffic, which may have made it easier for the bodies to go undetected. "We don't know how long the juveniles had been at this location," she said. "It was some time, so it's not just something that was recent."

The bodies are now in the custody of the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office. Todd said there are "no clear indicators of the cause of death" at this time.

Detectives have been canvassing the area and working with state and federal partners to identify the victims. So far, neither girl has been connected to any active missing persons cases in the region.

Authorities have no leads or suspects. Anyone with information is urged to call the Cleveland Police Department's Homicide unit at 216-623-5464, or Crime Stoppers at 216-252-7463.

 

[DetectiveDoreau]

I wonder how long the girls have been deceased. In order to fit into suitcases, they must’ve been incredibly small or already started decomposing elsewhere. In the video I posted above, Chris Stewart mentioned the recent Jaqueline Torres (spelling?) case, where a mother, aunt, and boyfriend hid the child’s body at the home for a year before dumping it behind an abandoned building in a storage container.

I’m sorry to be graphic, but I’m curious if anyone here knows the answer. How long does it take for skin/tissue to fully decompose and a body to become skeletal? I find it interesting there’s a large gap in their estimated ages, but they were able to determine race so quickly. From my understanding, if remains are skeletal, testing is used to determine race. I imagine if there was enough tissue left to determine race immediately then the timeline around their deaths should be easier to determine; it should also explain if the girls have been there since their deaths, or if their remains have been moved at some point. I could be completely wrong though.

JMO

While decomposition is one plausible explanation for why the remains were small enough to fit in the suitcases, I would not be surprised if the girls were badly malnourished when they were alive. I live in Wisconsin, and in late 2025 a teenage girl who had been starved nearly to death was discovered living in squalid conditions in the Green Bay area with her father and 2 adult women. The grownups refused to give this girl food, and the authorities reported that she weighed only about 70 lbs. when finally rescued. She was the size of a child half her age. Chronic starvation can result in the disintegration of muscle tissue and the stunting of growth, especially during puberty.

 

[Caylee Advocate]

Person of interest detained in case of 2 young girls found in suitcases near Cleveland school

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner released new information about the bodies of 2 young girls found in suitcases in Cleveland’s South Collinwood neighborhood.

www.cleveland19.com

 

[diggndeeperstill]

Person of interest detained in case of 2 young girls found in suitcases near Cleveland school

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner released new information about the bodies of 2 young girls found in suitcases in Cleveland’s South Collinwood neighborhood.

www.cleveland19.com

Person of interest detained in case of 2 young girls found in suitcases near Cleveland school​

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - A person of interest has been detained by Cleveland Police in the case of the bodies of two young girls found in suitcases near a Cleveland school Monday night.

Cleveland Police SGT. Freddie Diaz said that during a search warrant at an address near the area of East 162nd and Midland Avenue on Wednesday, they were able to identify the person of interest.

 

[Gemmie]

Wow! That was sure quick! I hope they got the guy!

Weird the someone would bury them so close to where they lived.

 

[diggndeeperstill]

This report shows the house they are at associated with person of interest.

2 young girls found dead in suitcases in Cleveland: Person of interest taken into custody

According to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office, DNA testing revealed the girls are half-siblings.

www.wkyc.com

 

[EphemerallyAya]

Thank you @EphemerallyAya
Could you please provide the link to this image? We require that when you post any picture you need to link back to it's origin.
Thank you.
Tricia

Yeah, it's google earth. I originally deleted the link because its insanely long, my bad. This should work.

 

[Megnut]

If they have a POI, IMO it won't take long to identify these girls.

May justice come quickly.

 

[truecrimel]

I really hope this is the right guy and this development gives these girls their names back. If it’s the right guy, I will be very impressed with the police work in this case. To identify and detain someone this quickly before even identifying the victims is pretty remarkable.

JMO

 

[iamshadow21]

I really hope this is the right guy and this development gives these girls their names back. If it’s the right guy, I will be very impressed with the police work in this case. To identify and detain someone this quickly before even identifying the victims is pretty remarkable.

JMO

I'm guessing that if this turns out to be connected, they had a tip. Someone who noticed the girls were missing and was already suspicious.

MOO

 

[diggndeeperstill]

According to Sgt. Freddy Diaz, public information officer for the Cleveland Division of Police, the department's homicide unit conducted a search warrant Wednesday evening in the area of East 162nd Street and Midland Avenue — where the girls' bodies were found buried in suitcases in shallow graves 48 hours earlier.Investigators identified and detained a person of interest. Diaz emphasized that the person is not under arrest at the moment.

 

[MassGuy]

According to Sgt. Freddy Diaz, public information officer for the Cleveland Division of Police, the department's homicide unit conducted a search warrant Wednesday evening in the area of East 162nd Street and Midland Avenue — where the girls' bodies were found buried in suitcases in shallow graves 48 hours earlier.Investigators identified and detained a person of interest. Diaz emphasized that the person is not under arrest at the moment.

I imagine we'll see preliminary charges first, likely related to the concealment of their bodies and failing to report them missing.

 

[emigrate]

How horrific. I walk my dog every day, and if I ever found a child's severed head, I'd be in therapy for life.

I have so many questions (of course!). The NY Post article says, "...a dog-walker stumbled on one of the luggage pieces and spotted a head inside."

But if you watch the video, the man who had been walking his dog says: "I had been walking past that for at least a week, that pile of dirt, for at least a week, before I even just, you know, went across my mind that I would check it."

Interviewer: "Was it buried?"

Man: "Yeah, yeah, it was buried pretty much, uh, you could just see like the very top of it sticking out of the dirt."

The article quotes the Police Chief as saying, "We don't know how long the juveniles had been at this location. It was some time."

Obviously, this case is brand new, so it's not surprising that things are confusing right now... but the article saying the man "stumbled on" the suitcase makes it sound spontaneous, whereas he's on camera saying he's been aware of that mound of dirt for at least a week. If he walks his dog in that area on a regular basis and has been seeing the dirt pile for at least a week, I'm wondering if the dog had been sniffing/pulling towards/showing interest in the dirt pile every day and it was only this particular day that the man "gave in" and unburied the suitcase enough to look inside. Or did the dog not alert to the dirt pile until this particular walk? And if that's so, why?

How did someone manage to bury bodies in these two presumably LARGE suitcases, since the children were estimated to be possibly as old as 13 and 14, without anyone noticing? This doesn't seem like a very isolated area, given that at least one man and his dog walk there on a regular basis. When were the suitcases buried? Did this man only start noticing the dirt pile about a week ago because that's when they were buried, or was it because A) that's when he started walking his dogs there, B) that's when the weather changed enough, or something else changed in the environment to make the dirt pile more noticeable, or C) some other reason? A quick online search shows that a week before the bodies were found, the weather in Cleveland was mid-20s and lightly snowing. It would have been quite difficult for someone to bury two large, heavy suitcases in those conditions. An online search also indicates that Cleveland has had an unusually snowy winter. So I wonder if perhaps the snow just recently melted, causing this dirt pile with the bit of the suitcase sticking out of it to become visible, and maybe the suitcase had been buried at least a couple months ago before the snow came.

We have had a ton of snow the past few months (lake effect adds up) and it finally melted

 

[clevelandsparkle]

A local FB group (The Cleveland, Ohio Remembrance Page) has learned the identity of the girls and their mother, whom has reportedly been arrested for their homicides. Neither the names of the girls or their mother have been officially released through the media, so I'm not sharing them here other than providing the name of that FB page.

 

[emigrate]

DBM, omg no that is so messed, they did not ask to be born

 

[airportwoman]

If she is indeed their mother, they'd have to be pre-teens, almost certainly.

Whatever happened to them, or by whom, they deserved better than this. RIP, sweet angels.

 

[clevelandsparkle]

If she is indeed their mother, they'd have to be pre-teens, almost certainly.

Whatever happened to them, or by whom, they deserved better than this. RIP, sweet angels.

The mother/suspect is 28 and the girls are 8 & 10 (if my math is correct)

 

[Mack the Knife]

I wonder if investigators were able to identify them on Wednesday morning, after officials said they hadn’t made an ID, and that is what lead them to the POI, or if they found the POI through other means, and that lead to a (possible) identification of the victims.

If it’s the latter, I’ll be interested to hear what evidence lead LE to the POI. Here’s a dumb hypothesis spurned by late-night thinking: luggage tags on the suitcases