Cleveland police say two young girls were found dead in suitcases

The girls, believed to be 8 to 14 years old, were found buried in shallow graves, and neither has been identified.

The bodies of two young Black girls were found stuffed inside suitcases and buried in shallow graves on the east side of Cleveland, police said Tuesday.

One was believed to be between age 8 to 13, and the other was 10 to 14 years old. And so far, neither has been identified.

“We are hoping to find answers,” Cleveland Police Chief Dorothy Todd said Tuesday at a news conference. “This is a terrible, tragic situation.”

The bodies are in the custody of the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office.

“At this time, there are no clear indicators of the cause of death of the two young females,” Todd said. “We don’t know how long the juveniles had been at this location. It was some time, so it’s not just something that was recent.”

The girls have not been linked to any active missing persons cases in the area, Todd said.

A dog walker stumbled across the first body in the vicinity of East 162nd Street and Midland Avenue and notified police around 6 p.m. Monday, Todd said.

As they were searching the area, Cleveland homicide detectives found a second shallow grave with a suitcase that contained another body.

Todd said the girls were in an area that does not get a lot of foot traffic.

“Detectives have been actively canvassing the area, but the problem is the timeline,” she said.

Todd said authorities have no leads or suspects and asked anybody with information to call the Cleveland Police Department’s homicide unit at 216-623-5464.

She said tipsters can also call Crime Stoppers at 216-252-7463.