CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – Cleveland Police Chief Dorothy Todd on Tuesday confirmed the bodies of two young girls were found in suitcases on the city’s East Side Monday evening.

Cleveland police were called just after 6 p.m. to a field in the area of East 163rd and Midland Avenue for a suspected dead body.

According to police sources, a man was walking his dog in the area, for the first time in awhile due to the snow, and the dog hit on the scent.

The man immediately called 911.

“The officers responded out and located a deceased individual that was in a shallow grave inside of a suitcase,” said Chief Todd.

When officers and homicide detectives got to the scene, Todd said they found the second body nearby.

According to the chief, both suitcases were partially buried in shallow graves. She said the victims had been there quite some time.

“It is traumatic for everyone. It is traumatic for those who live in the area to know that this was right there at their door step,” said Todd.

Authorities said one victim is believed to be 8-and-a-half to 13 years old and the other is believed to be 10-and-a-half to 14 years old.

There is no indication at this time on their identities, according to police.

“locally we have no reports of missing children to match these identifications. We are checking statewide as well. We have assistance from our state federal and local partners,” said Todd.

Detectives are checking with state and federal partners as well.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner has taken custody of the bodies and will conduct further examination to determine the cause of death.

This crime scene is located near Ginn Academy in the city’s South Collinwood neighborhood.

Police said the investigation remains in its very early stages and there is no indication of an ongoing threat to public safety.

If anyone has any information, they are asked to call the Cleveland Police Homicide Unit at 216-623-5464.

Tips can remain anonymous.

Copyright 2026 WOIO. All rights reserved.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) – A long-standing mural honoring Robert E. Smith on the side of a building at Campbell and Walnut has been covered up, prompting community backlash against the building’s new owner.

David Pere, owner of FMTM LLC, purchased the building in downtown Springfield and said he intended it to reflect his business, which focuses on helping veterans with financial strategies and goals. Covering the mural was part of that plan.

Pere said he was out of town in Tennessee when painting began and learned about the community reaction through messages on his phone.

“I’m like, I was in Tennessee running an event. I didn’t even know he’d started painting until I got a bunch of really nasty messages on my phone,” Pere said. “And I go, oh, look, that’s our building getting painted. I guess he started.”

Pere said he did not anticipate the response. “You know, we didn’t. I didn’t know how much of an impact this was going to make,” he said.

Jesse Tyler, co-owner of SGFCO, said he wanted the mural to stay and expressed concern about the lack of safeguards for publicly recognized works of art.

“To paint over that is to say, like, could be interpreted as saying that his work is no longer relevant or that his story is no longer relevant. I don’t think that’s true,” Tyler said. “Robert’s artwork needs to be part of downtown for as long as we can maintain that memory and maintain that legacy.”

Tyler said the community had hoped protections would be in place for the mural. “Maybe we didn’t have those protections that we hope there would be, that maybe the sort of legacy and awareness of Robert’s work that we hope there would be wasn’t there,” he said.

The City of Springfield posted online, acknowledging the artwork held deep meaning for many residents. Because the building is privately owned, however, Pere is within his rights to make changes to its exterior.

Pere said he hopes to help relocate the mural to a more permanent location. “We want to help migrate that mural to a wall where it could be more permanent,” he said. “I’d love to help them find a space for it. I’d love to help. I’d love to see the city get involved to the point where that space could be a permanent space where it’s actually maintained because it is obvious now that it is very important to the city of Springfield.”

Pere is already working with an artist on a new mural for the side of the building, intended to represent veterans. That mural is expected to begin going up at the end of the month.

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Copyright 2026 KY3. All rights reserved.

On Iran, as on everything else, Gov. Mike Braun is letting Trump think for him.

Gov. Mike Braun might end up being the last person in MAGAland to realize it, but he and his copartisans are adrift. Braun will be a one-term governor unless he can think for himself and start serving Indiana without regard for what’s best for President Donald Trump.

Braun doesn’t get it yet. His robotic support for Trump’s war with Iran — “decisive leadership on the world stage,” he told reporters March 2 — shows his brain is cryogenically frozen in 2018 even as the world turns toward an unsettling future with a worsening economy and artificial intelligence-guided military operations.

You can almost sympathize with Braun’s unwillingness to put down the MAGA playbook. Braun is among countless political figures who’ve risen to power over the past decade by genuflecting to Trump and embracing his shamelessness.

Amoral populism launched careers, but it won’t sustain weak leaders through tumultuous times.

Iran is dividing MAGA

Voters are looking for substance — and, in Indiana, they’re seeing vacuous men who’ve let go of principles so they can cling to Trump like a talisman for their political careers. That goes for Braun, chief among them, but also for a host of other Republicans, including Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, Sen. Jim Banks, Attorney General Todd Rokita and Secretary of State Diego Morales, whose temporary claims to power will be forgotten by the next generation.

Briggs: MAGA peaked in 2025. Here’s what the crash looks like in Indiana.

This MAGA cast of characters achieved success by outsourcing their thinking to a political nerve center. For years, they’ve only had to agree with whatever Trump happened to say today, even if it contradicted what Trump said the day before. Trump’s popularity among conservative voters rewarded groupthink and punished independence.

But Trump’s Iran war adds a critical layer to Americans’ anxieties — including overaggressive immigration enforcement, affordability and a softening job market — which are scrambling U.S. politics and severing the connection between Trump’s stream of consciousness and voter approval.

Some of the savviest MAGA influencers are hedging their bets. Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson and other voices whose personal wealth depends on harnessing the hearts and minds of the right are breaking with Trump on Iran — or, perhaps, using Iran as an opportune moment to create distance from a president whose popularity is falling.

MAGA is a declining brand

It’s too soon to say with certainty what’s signal and what’s noise. But we have increasing evidence that the American public (though not necessarily Republican primary voters) are breaking with Trump-aligned Republicans.

Democrats have been out-performing Kamala Harris’ 2024 results by double digits and they have a 7-point lead over Republicans in congressional midterm polling. Most Americans disapprove of Trump’s military strikes on Iran, per Politico.

Briggs: Jim Banks would let Trump commit any crime you can imagine

The winds of change are blowing in Indiana. Republicans who carried water for Trump’s early redistricting push suffered an embarrassing loss in December. Braun, the Indiana face of early redistricting, has a 25% approval rating, according to a Public Policy Polling survey.

Braun’s path out of office runs in multiple directions: He could simply decline to run again, as he did in the Senate; a primary challenger could exploit his 43% approval rating among Republicans; or a Democrat could capitalize on the kind of hometown unpopularity that produces a 16% approval rating in Jasper.

Morales faces the same reckoning. His reelection bid for secretary of state is in deep trouble.

Some Indiana Republicans are more adaptable than others. Banks, for example, is an adept shape-shifter who could likely adopt a sober, statesmanlike persona if he perceived an evolving market demand.