ELYRIA TWP. — Lorain County Coroner Paul Matus said Tuesday that the woman whose severed limb was discovered March 29 has been identified, but her name won’t be released until a news conference today. The woman’s family still needs to be fully notified, he said.

The news conference will be streamed live hear at Chroniclet.com starting at 2 p.m.

DNA taken from the limb — a right foot attached to the lower calf — was compared with a sample from a 56-year-old Lorain woman who was last seen around 4 a.m. March 26.

The woman was last seen walking to work from her Lorain home.

The severed limb, still clad in a dark-colored sock, was found by four teenagers near the abandoned railroad trestle that crosses state Route 57 just south of state Route 254.

The teenagers spotted the foot while walking to a friend’s house and at first believed it to be fake.

When they passed the foot again on their way home, they took a closer look and poked it with sticks, which convinced them it was real. One of the teenager’s mothers called deputies.

County sheriff’s deputies investigating the limb have not found the rest of the woman’s body, despite using a helicopter and dogs to scour the area near where the limb was found. No other blood or tissue was found either.

Matus has said the limb appeared to have been severed by a traumatic impact with a car bumper, guardrail or road sign. It would have been a fatal injury without immediate medical attention, he has said.

Investigators have received numerous inquiries from around the country, but Matus said last week that the missing Lorain woman was the best lead. She was white, like the severed limb, and was about the right age and height he suspected the owner of the leg had been based on his examination of the limb.

Calls to sheriff’s deputies were not returned Tuesday.

EDIT:Unable to broadcast live, We will have video coverage soon.
Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

CT photo by Bruce Bishop.

Power has been restored in Sheffield and Sheffield Lake after problems at a substation in Lorain left some areas of the cities without power for a little under two hours this morning.

In all 2,178 homes and business were affected, according to a FirstEnergy spokesman.

Of those, 794 customers had their power back on by 11:30, and the remaining 1384 had power restored before noon.

Brookside High School sent students home at noon, just as police directing traffic were reporting that lights were coming back on.

Were you affected by the power outage? Leave us a comment and let us know how.

CLEVELAND — The Indians heard plenty of “boos” at their home opener Monday afternoon, but there also were quite a few fans chanting “Choo.”

Right fielder Shin-Soo Choo — the object of the sellout crowd’s affection — was the lone offensive bright spot for Cleveland as it lost 4-2 to the Texas Rangers in 10 innings.

The South Korean scored both Tribe runs in a perfect day at the plate, going 3-for-3 with a single, double and home run. He also walked and stole a base.

“There is a reason why he hits third in our lineup,” Indians manager Manny Acta said. “He is a guy that is one of the main keys to our team and he’s been swinging the bat much better the last couple of days.”

After starting the season in a 2-for-18 slump (.111), Choo’s bat has come alive in the Indians’ last two games. He belted a solo home run Sunday in Detroit, then ripped another in the team’s 2010 debut at Progressive Field.

The latter blast was especially impressive as the rest of the Wahoos went 4-for-31 against Rangers pitchers Rich Harden, Dustin Nippert, Darren Oliver, Frank Francisco and Neftali Perez.

“I had a really good spring training, but when the season started, I tried too hard,” said Choo, who hit .393 with 16 RBIs in Cactus League play. “Guys like (Mark) Grudzielanek and (Mike) Redmond gave me a lot of help, and I feel a lot better at the plate.

“Today is just one game, but I saw the ball better. I put my front foot down a little quicker and was able to find the fastballs, instead of starting late and fouling them off like I have been.”

The performance upped Choo’s season average to .250 and helped him take over the team lead in homers (two), on-base percentage (.419) and slugging percentage (.542).

Those numbers should have added up to a great day for the 27-year-old, but the Indians’ bad karma even prevented that from happening.

Choo made a major mental mistake in the third inning after working Harden for a one-out walk. Travis Hafner followed with a routine fly out to left field, but Choo never headed back to first base. In fact, he was standing at third when the ball was thrown back to the infield to complete the double play.

“Hopefully I’ll never make a play like that again,” he said sheepishly. “It was my mistake. I thought there were two outs. After the inning, I told (the team) it was my bad. I felt very bad about it.”

So did Acta, but not for the reason one might expect.

“The mistake he made, it happens in the game a lot,” the first-year Indians skipper said. “I feel bad for him because it happened here in our home opener, but it’s nothing to worry about. He’s a good player for us and he’ll continue to be all season.”

Contact Brian Dulik at brisports@hotmail.com.

CLEVELAND — There were plenty of fond memories from Monday’s home opener, but in the end, it was a day to forget for the Indians and the sellout crowd at Progressive Field.

Fausto Carmona offered up another positive performance, and rising star Shin-Soo Choo enjoyed a highlight-filled game, but Cleveland still lost, dropping a 4-2 decision to the Rangers in front of 42,061 fans.

Nelson Cruz’s two-run home run off reliever Jamey Wright with one out in the 10th inning broke a 2-all tie and sent the Indians to their fourth straight defeat.

It was the second straight day that Cleveland’s bullpen, a suspect group even before losing closer Kerry Wood to injury, had a hand in torching a potential victory.

“It’s nothing to be happy about, but we’re not the only team that’s had struggles at the back end (of the bullpen),” said Indians manager Manny Acta. “It’s going to get better as the season goes on.”

Cleveland’s bullpen actually staved off the defeat for an inning after Wood’s replacement, right-hander Chris Perez, struggled again in the ninth inning.

More photos below.

Perez, who allowed three runs in the ninth in a 9-8 loss to the Tigers on Sunday, entered with the game tied at 2, and while facing the bottom three hitters in Texas’ order, permitted all three to reach base — one on an ill-advised attempt from the pitcher to throw to third on a sacrifice bunt back to the mound.

Tony Sipp and Wright rode to the rescue, Sipp retiring former Indian Ryan Garko on a pop up, and Wright getting the dangerous Michael Young to bounce into an inning-ending double play.

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“My buddies picked me up big time but I still pitched like crap,” Perez said. “It was the bottom of the order and I let all three of them on base. That’s unacceptable.”

Choo, who appears poised to have a big year after batting .300 with 20 homers and 20 stolen bases last season, was pretty much all of Cleveland’s offense, going 3-for-3 with a double, a homer, a stolen base and one RBI.

He scored both of the Indians’ runs, giving them the early lead with a solo shot off Texas starter Rich Harden with two outs in the opening inning. Choo scored his second run on a sacrifice fly from Jhonny Peralta in the sixth.

The right fielder, who also produced a negative highlight by getting doubled up after forgetting how many outs there were in the third inning, had three of his team’s seven hits on the day.

“You have to give credit to Harden,” Acta said of the veteran right-hander, who allowed two runs on five hits over six innings. “It looked like we were going to get to him early but he made the adjustments and kept us in check.”

The same can be said for Carmona, who was effectively wild again — four walks — in his second start of the year.

The right-hander walked six in his season debut and struggled with location again, but he allowed just two runs on five hits, while striking out four over eight innings.

“He pitched himself out of it and gave us a quality start,” Acta said. “We wanted to see him carry it over from spring training and he’s done that in his first two outings.”

Carmona has moved to the other side of the pitching rubber for the first time this season and thinks the approach has paid off.

“I think it’s helped out a lot, keeping the ball down,” he said.

Carmona shut out the Rangers on two hits over the first four innings before Texas took its first lead with two runs in the fifth, both of them coming with two outs.

The first run scored on a groundball single up the middle from Young.

Cleveland second baseman Luis Valbuena had a chance to keep the ball in the infield and prevent the run, but chose to make a sliding attempt as the grounder skidded over his glove and into center.

“(Valbuena) was spoken to,” Acta said. “I don’t think you’ll see him do that again.”

Texas’ second run of the inning came on a wild pitch from Carmona, Cleveland’s seventh wild pitch in as many games.

After Peralta’s sacrifice fly tied it at 2, the teams went scoreless over the next three innings before the Rangers put it away against Wright.

Josh Hamilton led off the inning with a base hit and stole second before Wright got Vladimir Guerrero to fly to center for the first out, bringing Cruz to the plate.

After watching Wright’s first offering, Cruz hit the second well over the wall in left field.

“He’s hot right now,” Acta said of the Rangers’ right fielder, who is batting .458 (11-for-24) with five homers and 11 RBIs in seven games.

Wright, who was acquired this offseason and won a job out of spring training, said he got too much of the plate on the 1-0 fastball he grooved to Cruz.

“One bad pitch cost us,” Wright said. “I felt great and was excited about making a good first impression, which I didn’t.”

After making a positive first impression in the Indians’ season-opening series in Chicago, Cleveland’s relief corps is beginning to perform as expected.

“We’ve been in every game, so that’s a good thing,” Wright said. “We’ve got a great bullpen. Guys have good stuff, but these are games we need to win so we don’t fall too far behind.”

Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.