Afghan Election Challenger Likely to Pull Out of Run Off
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Next in THE CNN NEWSROOM, a gruesome discovery in the home of a convicted sex offender. At least six bodies were found there. Police are still looking for possibly more. Plus, the president, the troops and the families of fallen heroes. Tonight, we hear from the mother who made a passionate personal plea to the commander in chief as her son's body came home. Also, an SUV, rising flood water, a woman and her young son trapped. The reporter who broadcast it live, and the hero who jumped in the dangerous water to help. That woman and her young son all here live tonight with their frightening brush with death. Plus, cycling for freedom and democracy in Iran. They peddle thousands of miles in a unique way to change and save lives. And Dr. Cornell West is here. He has done something to change his ways. And he says it has transformed his life. What exactly is it? We will tell you. Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live in the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. We are going to start with some breaking news tonight. It is out of Cleveland. Boy, it is really gruesome. It is an arrest today in this very troubling discovery of multiple corpses at a home. Police had gone to a residence last night to arrest a suspect on a rape charge. But he was not there. Instead, they stumbled upon six bodies in and around that home.</s>CHIEF MICHAEL MCGRATH, CLEVELAND POLICE: Let me say this, we have confirmed from Dr. Miller, at the coroner's office, we have three bodies located. We also have removed from the scene what we believe to be three additional bodies. That has not yet been confirmed by Dr. Miller at the coroner's office.</s>LEMON: While holding that news conference, just a short time ago, the prime suspect, Anthony Sowell (ph), practically fell into their laps. Shannon O'Brien of Cleveland affiliate WOIO, she is covering this gruesome story for us. Shannon, this is really bizarre. Six bodies so far, and the possibility of more. Explain us to how this went down.</s>SHANNON O'BRIEN, WOIO: Now that they have Anthony Swell, they can question him about if there are any more bodies that could be found on this property or elsewhere. They actually picked him up just over a mile from his home, which is right here, which is where all of those bodies were found. He was just simply walking down the street. Somebody saw him, called police and said, hey, that guy you are looking for, I think he is walking down the street over here. Officers responded and he was arrested without incident. Now, he's, right now, downtown at the justice center being questioned by detectives. They were going to bring him by the scene. However, they decided not to do that because they need to get information from him there first before they bring him here, in case, there are any more bodies buried at the residence.</s>LEMON: So let's -- let me ask you this. They just happened to be going there for another reason, and they stumbled upon these six bodies, again, in crawl spaces, or what have you. These are -- we would assume, they are women. Some of them are -- their bodies are too decomposed right now to identify them. They have set up a command center, I understand. Talk to me about that.</s>O'BRIEN: Right. Now, there are six bodies. The coroner -- I just got off the phone with Cayaho (ph) County coroner's office. They said they have completed autopsies on two. They are still performing autopsies on the other four. Some of them, as you said, so badly decomposed they can't even tell if they are men or women, or the ages or anything like that. So they are still in the process of doing that. But in this neighborhood, there have been many missing persons. One woman who lives just a block away has been missing for seven months. The Cleveland police, as you said, have set up a command center around the corner. Anyone in this neighborhood, or in the area at all, who has a missing family member can come and register that missing family member with them. They will give that information to the coroner's office, and they will try to match up those bodies with those missing people.</s>LEMON: Shannon O'Brien of Cleveland affiliate WOIO, great job reporting this. Shannon, hopefully we can get you back later on if there are any updates. Thanks again. So we want to go to Lieutenant Thomas Stacho of the Cleveland Police Department. He joins us now by phone with more on the investigation.</s>LEMON: Thank you so much. We heard that six bodies. You believe that all of them are women? And these are women who have been -- I would imagine -- reported missing. Do you have enough to substantiate six or seven women who have been reported missing, to go with the identities of these bodies?</s>LT. THOMAS STACHO, CLEVELAND POLICE: Well, we don't right now. And to be clear, and I know you said it, very well may turn out that we have six bodies. But right now the coroner is telling us that we have three bodies. The remains we believe are of three additional bodies. We won't know that until they complete their autopsies. So we want to -- we don't want to jump the gun, if will you. It may turn out that it is going to be six. But right now we are only confirming three, with remains from what appears to be three additional bodies.</s>LEMON: It is fair to say as many as six. It could be as many as six.</s>STACHO: I would say that's accurate.</s>LEMON: Do we know the gender?</s>STACHO: We know the two -- they were able to identify to an extent are female. We don't have any other information. We don't have identifying information, name to put with these bodies yet.</s>LEMON: Talk to us about the background of this suspect, who we understand that he had been convicted before. I think he had to go to every week or every month -- Anthony Sowell, he had to go to visit parole officer and register as a sex offender. And he did that every time. So this time you -- why did the police go to the home this time?</s>STACHO: We were investigating a rape and a felonious assault matter in which Mr. Sowell was named as a suspect. Our sex crimes and child abuse unit investigated the matter, secured arrest warrants for Mr. Sowell for rape and felonious assault, also secured a search warrant to look inside the home for any evidence of this crime. It was two days ago that our sex crimes unit and a Swat team entered the home, and made the discovery on the third floor of two bodies in an advanced state of decomposition.</s>LEMON: He had spent 15 years in prison for rape in 1989. This is truly disturbing. When first heard about this, the first thing that came to my mind really was "Silence of the Lamb," and that movie, which was very similar to this, which is the truth. Can you -- you have been inside or I know your officers have been inside this awful scene. If you can, you know, in a respectful way, describe to us what the circumstances were inside that home.</s>STACHO: I can tell you I did not go inside the home. In fact, when I walked up, some of our homicide detective, sex crime detectives encouraged me not to go in the home because it was such a disgusting sight, unfortunately, with a lot of garbage strewn about. What they could only believe was the remains from rats and rat droppings. Not a pretty sight inside the home. I can tell you, I stood outside the home for about an hour yesterday. And the stench from inside was overwhelming.</s>LEMON: Nobody complained about that?</s>STACHO: Apparently not. That's something we will look into.</s>LEMON: OK. All right. Lieutenant Thomas Stacho of the Cleveland Police Department, thank you so much for joining us tonight. Any developments, please update us. OK?</s>STACHO: Will do.</s>LEMON: We will continue follow this very disturbing story for you and bring any new details as they come to us. Sad story happening on Halloween. Just frightening. Want to turn now to overseas. Plans for a run off election in Afghanistan are up in the air, with threats of a boycott. We want to go now to CNN's Elaine Quijano. She's at the White House. Elaine, the uncertainty about the run off elections could impact President Obama's considerations for troop levels in Afghanistan.</s>ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It could. But it is interesting, Don, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is traveling in the Middle East right now, says that even if Abdullah Abdullah, the challenger here to President Hamid Karzai, decides that he doesn't want to take part in the run off election slated for November 7th, that that's not going to affect the legitimacy of that run off. Again, the secretary, who is traveling in the Middle East, who is making these comments as she spoke at a news conference. She was asked about this. She was standing alongside Israel's prime minister. Take a listen to what she said.</s>HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: I do not think that that in any way affects the legitimacy. And I would just add that when President Karzai accepted the second round, without knowing what the consequences and outcome would be, that bestowed legitimacy from that moment forward. Dr. Abdullah's position does not take away from that.</s>LEMON: So as that political situation continues to unfold, in the meantime, President Obama had a chance yesterday to hear from the military's top brass on Afghanistan. The president and his senior advisers sat down with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And this is important because the Joint Chiefs are the heads of all the military services. And they are the ones ultimately responsible for providing the forces necessary for the fight in Afghanistan. The U.S. right now has some 68,000 troops in Afghanistan. The top commander there, General Stanley McChrystal, asked for an additional 40,000 troops. But there are concerns about that. It could put added strain on U.S. forces. Also, more U.S. troops could certainly fuel more violence in Afghanistan. Something to consider as well, the price tag for the requested troops could top 500,000 dollars a soldier. So don, those are just some of the weighty concerns that the president and his team are trying to work through as they go ahead with this Afghanistan strategy review.</s>LEMON: A decision I would -- I don't envy having to make that decision. Thank you so much for that, Elaine. More on the president's agenda, including Afghanistan, at the top of the hour in "THE SITUATION ROOM."</s>LEMON: On Sunday, hear from the first known administration figure to resign in protest over the war in Afghanistan, because he thinks the U.S. is wasting its time. That's "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS," Sunday, 1:00 pm Eastern, only here on CNN. To politics this weekend, where all eyes are on a handful of hot races, especially in New York and Virginia. We are there in Virginia with the contest for governor. It is crunch time for those candidates, McDonnell and Deeds. Let's find out what's going on. Deputy political director Paul Steinhauser is in Leesburg, Virginia. Paul, take us -- guide us through this. Hey, nice setting. What is that, little pumpkins? Are those pumpkins?</s>PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Don, they have an annual parade here for Halloween. And you can see some of the floats right behind me here. Both candidates are coming here tonight. That's really -- it really explains what's going on here, Don. We're three days away from the election. This is crunch time. That's why you are going to have both the Republican and the Democratic candidate marching in the parade tonight here. That's the whole idea. These candidates are going from morning until night, as many events as possible. They want to get out the vote. They want to make sure their supporters go to the polls on Tuesday. Also, if you live in these states that have elections, you are inundated with campaign commercials, because, in these last few days, it is all about getting your message out to your supporters, Don.</s>LEMON: Paul, what's the national significance of this race? Is this -- does this have the ability to sort of change the landscape in the country when it comes to politics?</s>STEINHAUSER: Great question. If you don't live in Virginia, why would you care about this story? Well, this is -- you know, this race has state issues and it's about the two candidates. It also has some national significance. Some people say, in a way, this is an early referendum and an early test on Barack Obama. National issues and the president himself have come up a lot in the debates and in this campaign. Democrats have done very well here in Virginia this decade. The Republicans say if they can win this contest back here, this for governor's seat, they are going to feel very good going to next year's big Congressional elections.</s>LEMON: It is interesting, too, with mayors and -- around the country as well. Similar things happening in Houston, also right here in Atlanta, where we are. Atlanta could have its first white mayor, to be honest, in decades. So it is going to be interesting to see what plays out on Election Day. I want to talk about New York as well here, Paul. Today, a moderate Republican is dropping out of the Congressional race. Why is this such a big deal?</s>STEINHAUSER: Well, Don, that story up there is a good one as well, because you had a conservative candidate and you also had the official Republican candidate. The Republican candidate dropped out today. It is like a real battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party, as they try to recoup from the losses in '06 and '08. Do they stay to the right or do they go to the middle? At least today, with that Republican moderate dropping out, it seems like the conservatives are having their day. Don?</s>LEMON: Paul Steinhauser. Thank you, Paul. Hope you get some pumpkin pie and enjoy the parade tonight. Let's talk -- Miley Cyrus has a stalker. The accused stalker, I should say, has a court date. We are going to update you on the case. Plus, a bus carrying Morehouse College students overturns on rainy interstate. Several students are injured. We will have the latest on their conditions. Also, weigh in. We want to hear from you, as always. Appreciate your feedback. And that's how you do it, right there on the screen.