Serial Murderer in Cleveland OH?

[BeastofBears]

Originally Posted by SaraSidle

yeah that was a very good show. I have seen that episode twice and both times I get nauseous in the end for just a minute. I like hutch,reid and garcia. I would love her job and computers.

Anyways this is so gross. I cannot believe no one knew. I have no idea what a meat and head cheese shop smells like but I cannot believe it is the same. IMO

If it smells the same you do not want that sausage.

How ominous is that bit Sam just posted about the dumpster that would smell once a month until it was taken away? How many women are missing in Cleveland, exactly???

[SaraSidle]

Originally Posted by BeastofBears

If it smells the same you do not want that sausage.

How ominous is that bit Sam just posted about the dumpster that would smell once a month until it was taken away? How many women are missing in Cleveland, exactly???

LE is investigating maybe 14 more on top of the ones from the house.

I am not sure I will ever eat sausage or meat for that matter again at this time.

[beemer]

Originally Posted by One2Snoop

Ohhhh gawd I think I'm going to be sick. I watch that show too but must of missed that episode. Did you watch the one last night with the eyeballs? Where do they come up with this stuff?

I did see it Snoop-I dunno where they come up with the storylines but man they are mindbenders. I never miss criminal Minds or House-unless i get run over by a mack truck or something lol

[samanthajane13]

Alleged Ohio serial killer rare among mass killers
By JOHN SEEWER and ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS, Associated Press Writers John Seewer And Andrew Welsh-huggins, Associated Press Writers – 6 mins ago

CLEVELAND – Authorities say Anthony Sowell lured women into his home in a busy neighborhood, killed them — most by strangulation — and scattered their remains throughout the inside and buried some in the backyard.

Such brazenness defies logic, but experts identify a narrow subcategory of serial killers, including the 1893 Chicago Fair killer and Milwaukee cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer, who hunt from home.

"These types are so rare that you can't make a summary estimation as to why or what went wrong or anything," said Robert Keppel, a national serial-killer expert who investigated serial killer Ted Bundy in Washington state in the 1970s.

"There's just not a whole lot of these folks running around the world," he said.

Sowell had the perfect lair.

His home and backyard — a burial site for five victims — were shielded by an empty home to the left and the windowless brick wall of a sausage company on the right.

Anytime the stench of decaying bodies blew over the street, neighbors blamed the meat processing next door.

His house stood out only because it was one of the nicest on a block dotted by homes with peeling paint and broken windows, some of them vacant.

It looked safe.

Sowell often sat on the front steps, sipping beer out of a bottle and greeting residents passing by on their way to the corner store that was just steps away for alcohol, snacks and cigarettes.

Neighbors say he'd offer a few the chance to get high.

Sowell's alleged approach reflects an obvious point, said forensic psychologist N.G. Berrill: the potential role of mental illness in such unusual behavior.

"The fact that they would dirty their own nest, as it were, is peculiar to me and suggests a level of mental illness or sickness," said Berrill, director of the New York Center for Neuropsychology and Forensic Behavioral Science.

Tanja Doss told The Associated Press that when she went up to Sowell's third-floor bedroom for a drink last April, he attacked her. "I'm sitting on the corner of the bed and he just leaped up and came over and started choking me," she said.

She said she escaped the next morning when he left for the store.

When people think of serial killers, they imagine predators like Bundy, who stalked women and killed women in Washington, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Colorado and finally Florida.

Or Gary Ridgway, dubbed the Green River killer, who pleaded guilty to the deaths of 48 women, many of them found in or near Washington State's Green River.

But some of history's most notorious serial killers literally worked close to home.

Holmes, born Herman Webster Mudgett, built a "World's Fair Hotel" he used to lure women to their death during the 1893 World's Fair, a series of crimes recounted in the 2004 best-seller, "Devil in the White City."

While Holmes confessed at one point to killing 27 people, the true number of victims is unknown; some authorities placed it as high as 200.

In Houston, Dean Corll, Elmer Wayne Henley and David Owen Brooks killed 27 boys and young men in a torture-murder ring in Houston from 1969 to 1971. Police found a plywood "torture board" in Corll's home used to torment many of his victims before they were killed.

In Illinois, John Wayne Gacy, a building contractor and amateur clown, was convicted of luring 33 young men and boys to his Chicago area home for sex and strangling them between 1972 and 1978. Most were buried in a crawl space under the home; four others were dumped in rivers. Gacy was executed in 1994.

In Milwaukee, Dahmer, a former candy factory worker, confessed to killing and dismembering 17 people since 1978, some of whom he mutilated and cannibalized. His victims included 11 males whose remains were found in his apartment.

Dahmer was serving a series of life sentences when he was killed by another inmate at a Wisconsin prison in 1994.

The crimes that Sowell is accused of put him in the same category as Gacy and Dahmer, said Jack Levin, a Northeastern University criminologist.

At the same time, the Cleveland murders resemble the more general portrait of a serial killer who doesn't stray far from his comfort zone.

"They never leave town. They never travel to another state. They stay close to home, where they're familiar with the victims and escape routes and dump sites," Levin said.

Hunting from home may have been easier because of the marginal lives led by Sowell's alleged victims. All four of the Cleveland women identified until now battled addiction in their lives.

It wasn't unusual for some of them to disappear for a week or two and then return.

Naticia Duncan, who lives a few houses away from Sowell, fears that her friend, Kimberly Sharp, may be one of the victims. Sharp would often stay at Duncan's house, do her laundry and then leave when she met a new man.

"I'd see her a month later, then she'd do it again," Duncan said. "Then I never saw her again."

Police remain at Sowell's house for now but investigators say they have no immediate plans to search for more remains.

Sowell, 50, remained in jail Saturday on a $5 million bond on charges of rape and aggravated murder.

Across the street Saturday, the number of fliers on a makeshift memorial wall with pictures of missing women continued to grow.

Dale Hunter taped a piece of paper with two photographs of his sister, Amy Hunter, on the missing person's board Saturday.

Hunter said she used to stay with friends in the area and knows that she drank beer with Sowell in his house. He fears the worst.

"She was real comfortable in this neighborhood," said Hunter. "I dropped her off here a few times."

___

Associated Press Writer Vicki Smith contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091107/...d_bodies_found

[samanthajane13]

Onlookers flock to site of Cleveland killings
By JOHN SEEWER and ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS, Associated Press Writers John Seewer And Andrew Welsh-huggins, Associated Press Writers – Sun Nov 8, 4:24 pm ET

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Reggie Turner stopped by a growing memorial to 11 victims of an alleged serial killer because he knew one of the women. Michelle Lee came to pay her respects as a mother and grandmother. Mark Mason and two buddies rode their motorcycles to just take a look.

The street corner opposite the home dubbed Cleveland's "House of Horrors" buzzes with visits from mourners, well-wishers, politicians and the curious.

"We wanted our children to understand what has occurred, to understand how people go missing," said Cliff Westwood, who brought his 9-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son by the house late Saturday afternoon.

Police discovered the first two bodies and a freshly dug grave Oct. 29 at the house on the city's east side. By Oct. 31 six bodies had been identified. The number grew to 11 by Tuesday.

In the first few days, there was no memorial, no outward expression of grief. Even after five bodies were unearthed from Anthony Sowell's backyard Tuesday, only a few candles flickered on the sidewalk across from the house.

The missing board went up late Wednesday afternoon. It stayed empty for a few hours. The next morning there were about a dozen names and faces, mostly women and mostly black. A few were white or Hispanic.

Some fliers carry the names of women — "Amy," "Nancy," — whose remains have been identified. Others beg for news about people long missing and unlikely to be among Sowell's alleged victims, all of whom were black. "Missing Person-Christina Adkins," one says. "Last Seen on January 10, 1995."

Many people wrote notes on the board. "God Bless," "R.I.P.," "We die young cause we living fast."

Yellow police tape stretches across Sowell's house and the abandoned house on the left. A police cruiser sat outside the house Sunday, part of an around the clock presence, though authorities say they have no immediate plans to go back inside and search.

City council members visited the corner Thursday. Mayor Frank Jackson was there Friday.

Lee made the 25-minute drive from suburban Highland Heights to the scene because she couldn't stop thinking about the victims.

"It could have been my mother. It could have been my sister. It could have been my grandma. It could have been my daughter," said the 47-year-old Lee, a caregiver. "I feel this connection to come down and just show my love and support."

Turner, a chef, said he knew victim Nancy Cobbs well and last saw her April 24, his 57th birthday. He came to see if he knew any other faces on the board.

All seven of the victims identified so far battled addictions with drugs or alcohol, according to their families and court records.

Two lived on the same street as Sowell. The rest either lived in the neighborhood or hung out there, often to get high.

The pile of mementos by the memorial board rose on Sunday — at least seven bouquets of flowers; more than two dozen stuffed animals, mostly bears, and a Raggedy Ann doll. The flames of several candles flickered weakly in the morning light.

Michael Beard, a 46-year-old Chicago factory worker with cousins in the area, drove six and a half hours Saturday to see the scene. "This is history, basically," he said Sunday.

Gary Goins, 44, a machinist who lives nearby, bought a $3 brown-and-white stuffed dog to put on the fence above the board. He said the news was hard because he has a female relative with a drug addiction whose behavior reminds him of Sowell's alleged victims. She's not among the missing.

Some visitors made no pretenses about their curiosity. Mason and two friends, trying to figure out where to ride on a beautiful day Saturday, decided on the Imperial Avenue crime scene.

"When you go for a motorcycle ride, you need a destination. We're like, where should we go to?" said Mason, 32, who knows the poor neighborhood well through his job repossessing houses.

"It's always more fun when you have somewhere to ride to."


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091108/...d_bodies_found

[samanthajane13]

Alleged Ohio Killer Likened to Dahmer
By JOHN SEEWER and ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS, AP

CLEVELAND (Nov. 7) -- Authorities say Anthony Sowell lured women into his home in a busy neighborhood, killed them — most by strangulation — and scattered their remains throughout the inside and buried some in the backyard.

Such brazenness defies logic, but experts identify a narrow subcategory of serial killers, including the 1893 Chicago Fair killer, Dr. H.H. Holmes, and Milwaukee cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer, who hunt from home.

"These types are so rare that you can't make a summary estimation as to why or what went wrong or anything," said Robert Keppel, a national serial-killer expert who investigated serial killer Ted Bundy in Washington state in the 1970s.

"There's just not a whole lot of these folks running around the world," he said.
Sowell had the perfect lair.

His home and backyard — a burial site for five victims — were shielded by an empty home to the left and the windowless brick wall of a sausage company on the right.

Anytime the stench of decaying bodies blew over the street, neighbors blamed the meat processing next door.

His house stood out only because it was one of the nicest on a block dotted by homes with peeling paint and broken windows, some of them vacant.

It looked safe.

Sowell often sat on the front steps, sipping beer out of a bottle and greeting residents passing by on their way to the corner store that was just steps away for alcohol, snacks and cigarettes.

Neighbors say he'd offer a few the chance to get high.

Sowell's alleged approach reflects an obvious point, said forensic psychologist N.G. Berrill: the potential role of mental illness in such unusual behavior.

"The fact that they would dirty their own nest, as it were, is peculiar to me and suggests a level of mental illness or sickness," said Berrill, director of the New York Center for Neuropsychology and Forensic Behavioral Science.

Tanja Doss told The Associated Press that when she went up to Sowell's third-floor bedroom for a drink last April, he attacked her. "I'm sitting on the corner of the bed and he just leaped up and came over and started choking me," she said.

She said she escaped the next morning when he left for the store.

When people think of serial killers, they imagine predators like Bundy, who stalked women and killed women in Washington, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Colorado and finally Florida.

Or Gary Ridgway, dubbed the Green River killer, who pleaded guilty to the deaths of 48 women, many of them found in or near Washington State's Green River.

But some of history's most notorious serial killers literally worked close to home.

Holmes, born Herman Webster Mudgett, built a "World's Fair Hotel" he used to lure women to their death during the 1893 World's Fair, a series of crimes recounted in the 2004 best-seller, "Devil in the White City."

While Holmes confessed at one point to killing 27 people, the true number of victims is unknown; some authorities placed it as high as 200.

In Houston, Dean Corll, Elmer Wayne Henley and David Owen Brooks killed 27 boys and young men in a torture-murder ring in Houston from 1969 to 1971.

Police found a plywood "torture board" in Corll's home used to torment many of his victims before they were killed.

In Illinois, John Wayne Gacy, a building contractor and amateur clown, was convicted of luring 33 young men and boys to his Chicago area home for sex and strangling them between 1972 and 1978. Most were buried in a crawl space under the home; four others were dumped in rivers. Gacy was executed in 1994.

In Milwaukee, Dahmer, a former candy factory worker, confessed to killing and dismembering 17 people since 1978, some of whom he mutilated and cannibalized. His victims included 11 males whose remains were found in his apartment.

Dahmer was serving a series of life sentences when he was killed by another inmate at a Wisconsin prison in 1994.

The crimes that Sowell is accused of put him in the same category as Gacy and Dahmer, said Jack Levin, a Northeastern University criminologist.

At the same time, the Cleveland murders resemble the more general portrait of a serial killer who doesn't stray far from his comfort zone.

"They never leave town. They never travel to another state. They stay close to home, where they're familiar with the victims and escape routes and dump sites," Levin said.

Hunting from home may have been easier because of the marginal lives led by Sowell's alleged victims. All four of the Cleveland women identified until now battled addiction in their lives.

It wasn't unusual for some of them to disappear for a week or two and then return.

Naticia Duncan, who lives a few houses away from Sowell, fears that her friend, Kimberly Sharp, may be one of the victims. Sharp would often stay at Duncan's house, do her laundry and then leave when she met a new man.

"I'd see her a month later, then she'd do it again," Duncan said. "Then I never saw her again."

Police remain at Sowell's house for now but investigators say they have no immediate plans to search for more remains.

Sowell, 50, remained in jail Saturday on a $5 million bond on charges of rape and aggravated murder.

Across the street Saturday, the number of fliers on a makeshift memorial wall with pictures of missing women continued to grow.

Police released the identities of three more victims Saturday, bringing the total to seven. Four others are still unknown. The latest are Amelda Hunter, 47, Crystal Dozier, 38 and Michelle Mason, 45, all of Cleveland.

Earlier in the day, Dale Hunter taped a piece of paper with two photographs of his sister on the missing person's board.

Hunter said she used to stay with friends in the area and knew that she drank beer with Sowell in his house. He said he was fearing the worst.

Like most of the victims, she battled drug and alcohol addictions, he said.

"She was real comfortable in this neighborhood," said Hunter. "I dropped her off here a few times."

Associated Press Writer Vicki Smith contributed to this report.


http://news.aol.com/article/alleged-...thony%2F753310

[BeastofBears]

"Sowell's alleged approach reflects an obvious point, said forensic psychologist N.G. Berrill: the potential role of mental illness in such unusual behavior.

"The fact that they would dirty their own nest, as it were, is peculiar to me and suggests a level of mental illness or sickness," said Berrill, director of the New York Center for Neuropsychology and Forensic Behavioral Science." (From Sam's post above...)

Sooooo, it wasn't killing women in large numbers that tipped him off...? It's where he worked from, not what he did? hooo-kay...

[SaraSidle]

Originally Posted by BeastofBears

"Sowell's alleged approach reflects an obvious point, said forensic psychologist N.G. Berrill: the potential role of mental illness in such unusual behavior.

"The fact that they would dirty their own nest, as it were, is peculiar to me and suggests a level of mental illness or sickness," said Berrill, director of the New York Center for Neuropsychology and Forensic Behavioral Science." (From Sam's post above...)

Sooooo, it wasn't killing women in large numbers that tipped him off...? It's where he worked from, not what he did? hooo-kay...

Right that down would ya???

[samanthajane13]

Case against Ohio bodies suspect expands overseas
By THOMAS J. SHEERAN, Associated Press Writer Thomas J. Sheeran, Associated Press Writer – 21 mins ago

CLEVELAND – Authorities are investigating whether a man whose home and yard harbored the remains of at least 11 people is connected to any killings in places he lived while in the military, including Japan, California and the Carolinas.

The FBI told Cleveland police that the agency will investigate any leads in the case against Anthony Sowell, 50, who served in the Marines from 1978 to 1985, said Scott Wilson, an FBI spokesman in Cleveland.

FBI behavioral specialists visited the Sowell property during the weekend and will try to develop a profile of the killings that could help determine whether investigations need to be opened or reopened elsewhere, Wilson said.

Sowell was stationed at various times at Parris Island, S.C.; Cherry Point, N.C.; Okinawa, Japan; and Camp Pendleton, Calif.

The city of East Cleveland is also reviewing three unsolved slayings in 1988 and 1989, after Sowell returned there from service in the Marines and before he went to prison for attempted rape, said Sgt. Ken Bolton, a detective for the police department in the Cleveland suburb.

Sowell has been charged in Cleveland with five counts of aggravated murder in connection with the bodies found at the home.

The FBI will review its national database of unsolved crimes for any clues to possible connections to Sowell, particularly at his military service locations, Wilson said. The first step is to get a detailed timeline of his service, Wilson said.

Police in Coronado, Calif., near Camp Pendleton, said a woman told them that she saw Sowell's mug shot on TV and was sure he had raped her in 1979.

Officers talked with the woman but were unable to confirm her story because rape investigation records from 30 years ago have been thrown out, said Jesus Ochoa, Coronado police commander.

"She seemed credible," he said.

The unsolved East Cleveland slayings of Rosalind Garner on May 27, 1988, Carmella Prater on Feb. 27, 1989, and Mary Thomas on March 28, 1989, will be checked against the autopsies of the bodies found at Sowell's home to check for similarities, Bolton said.

"It's for the family's closure," he said. "They are unsolved and they happened around the time that he was not in jail."

No connections had been made by Monday, he said.

Seven of the victims found at the Sowell home, all black women, have been identified. The Cuyahoga County coroner's office said Monday that it was working to identify the other four.

Police discovered the first two bodies and a freshly dug grave Oct. 29 at the house on the city's east side. The number grew to 11 by Tuesday.

The house remained cordoned off as a crime scene Monday under police guard, but authorities haven't indicated when they might resume searching.

___

Associated Press writer John Seewer contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091109/...d_bodies_found

DAMN!!!

This guy is ONE SICK PUKE!!!!

[samanthajane13]

Crews search next door to Ohio home with 11 bodies
By THOMAS J. SHEERAN, Associated Press Writer Thomas J. Sheeran, Associated Press Writer – 31 mins ago

CLEVELAND – Homicide detectives investigating the discovery of 11 bodies at a home expanded their search Wednesday to a neighbor's property as a precaution.

Police Lt. Thomas Stacho said the property next to murder suspect Anthony Sowell's house will be searched for more bodies or evidence. City crews are cleaning up debris at the next-door house and preparing for FBI agents to conduct a thermal-imaging search of the property, Stacho said.

The 50-year-old Sowell has been charged with five counts of aggravated murder. He was indicted Monday on one count of attempted murder, two counts of rape, two counts of kidnapping and two counts of felonious assault in an alleged attack Sept. 22 that led to the search of his home.

Police discovered the first two bodies and a freshly dug grave Oct. 29 at the house on Cleveland's east side. Sowell had fled the home and was arrested two days later.

All 11 were black women and most had been strangled, the coroner said. Nine have been identified through DNA and dental records.

Police said Sowell lured women — often those who were homeless or living alone and who abused drugs of alcohol — with liquor and attacked them in his home.

Sowell has asked for a court-appointed attorney, but court records don't reflect that one has been chosen.

Scott Wilson, an FBI spokesman in Cleveland, has said investigators are reviewing its national database of unsolved crimes for any clues to possible connections to Sowell, particularly at locations where he served in the military.

Sowell was in the Marines from 1978 to 1985 and spent time in California, the Carolinas and Japan.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091111/...d_bodies_found

[samanthajane13]

Stench returns near Ohio house that had 11 bodies
By THOMAS J. SHEERAN, Associated Press Writer Thomas J. Sheeran, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 2 mins ago

CLEVELAND – A stench around the home of a suspected serial killer returned stronger than ever Wednesday as police searched the house next door for more bodies and carried out bags of evidence.

"It's like it got worse," said 22-year-old neighbor Terrance Johnson. "It smells bad in the air, like death."

Four plainclothes officers carried bags of evidence from the house next door to Anthony Sowell's early Wednesday afternoon, but police did not indicate what had been removed. The red-painted house next to Sowell's appeared to be abandoned but in good shape, aside from a broken porch railing.

The 50-year-old Sowell has been charged with five counts of aggravated murder. He was indicted Monday on one count of attempted murder, two counts of rape, two counts of kidnapping and two counts of felonious assault in an alleged attack Sept. 22 that led to the search of his home.

The east-side neighborhood had reeked off and on for several years, and residents had blamed the odor on a broken sewer or a nearby sausage shop. Now most think the smell came from decomposing bodies.

Neighbors blamed Wednesday's renewed odor on increased activity near Sowell's house. FBI agents planned to conduct a thermal-energy search of the property next door later Wednesday. Makers of thermal-imaging devices say they can help police find buried bodies because dirt that has been turned over radiates heat differently than compacted soil.

Police discovered the first two bodies and a freshly dug grave Oct. 29 at Sowell's house after officers came to investigate a woman's report that she had been raped there. Sowell had fled the home and was arrested two days later.

In all, the remains of 11 women have been found in Sowell's home or yard. All of the women were black and most had been strangled, the coroner said. Nine have been identified through DNA and dental records.

Police said Sowell lured women — often those who were homeless or living alone and who abused drugs or alcohol — with liquor and attacked them in his home.

Sowell has asked for a court-appointed attorney, but court records don't reflect that one has been chosen for him.

Scott Wilson, an FBI spokesman in Cleveland, has said investigators are reviewing its national database of unsolved crimes for any clues to possible connections to Sowell, particularly at locations where he served in the military.

Sowell was in the Marines from 1978 to 1985 and spent time in California, the Carolinas and Japan.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091111/...d_bodies_found

[samanthajane13]

Funerals begin for those found dead in Ohio house

CLEVELAND – Funerals are getting under way for some of the 11 victims whose bodies were found on the Cleveland property of a registered sex offender.

The service for 31-year-old Telacia (tuh-LAY'-shuh) Fortson of East Cleveland is scheduled for Thursday at Grace Missionary Baptist Church. Hers was the second body identified at the home of Anthony Sowell, who is charged with five counts of aggravated murder.

Services will continue Saturday and next week.

Police suspect that Sowell lured women to his home with liquor and attacked them there. Ten of the 11 victims have been identified.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091112/...VyYWxzYmVnaQ--

[samanthajane13]

Man pleads not guilty in case that led to bodies

CLEVELAND – A registered sex offender from Cleveland has pleaded not guilty to an alleged attack that prompted a search and the discovery of 11 bodies at his home.

Fifty-year-old Anthony Sowell appeared in court Friday and entered not guilty pleas to charges of rape, kidnapping, attempted murder and felonious assault. The charges are from Sowell's arrest last month in a Sept. 22 sexual attack. The report of the attack led to the search of his home.

Cuyahoga (ky-uh-HOH'-guh) County Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell set bond at $1 million on the charges and continued Sowell's $5 million bond from last week, when he was charged with five counts of aggravated murder.

The judge appointed a lawyer for Sowell. The attorney, Brian McGraw, had no immediate comment.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091113/...d_bodies_found

[samanthajane13]

'House of horrors' suspect pleads not guilty to rape charges
November 13, 2009 1:10 p.m. EST

(CNN) -- The suspect in the September attack on a woman that led to the discovery of 11 bodies at his Ohio home pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that he raped and choked the woman.

Bail for registered sex offender Anthony Sowell was set at $1 million on the rape charges. Bail had already been set at $5 million on five murder charges related to the grisly discovery of the bodies at his home in Cleveland.

"I don't think a $1 million bond is unfair under the circumstances," Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell said at Friday's hearing.

Sowell was arraigned Friday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court on multiple charges, -- including attempted murder, rape and kidnapping -- connected to the September 22 assault on the 36-year-old woman.

Sowell said he could not afford a lawyer, and O'Donnell appointed one.

The victim encountered Sowell while walking in his Cleveland neighborhood, and he took her back to his home, where he became violent and raped her, Cuyahoga County prosecutors said.

"While raping her, he strangled her with a cord until she lost consciousness," the prosecutors said in a written statement. "When she regained consciousness, he led her out of the house."

Police investigating that case searched Sowell's home and yard, finding the 11 bodies.

Sowell, 50, is charged with five counts of aggravated murder, rape, felonious assault and kidnapping in connection with those deaths.

He served 15 years in prison for a 1989 attempted rape. He was released in 2005.

Neighbors and police have told CNN that other women were seen at Sowell's home from time to time, and that he would offer them beer and other alcohol. Police say he also might have offered them drugs.

Neighbors on October 20 reported seeing a naked woman fall from the second floor of the home. Firefighters and police responded and later notified police. But the woman told officers she fell off the roof while she was at the home "partying," and no charges were filed.

CNN's Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.


http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/13/...ref=nancygrace

[samanthajane13]

Suspect in Ohio killings was arrested last year
By JOHN SEEWER, Associated Press Writer John Seewer, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 31 mins ago

CLEVELAND – A woman told authorities in December that a man now accused of killing 11 women had beaten her and tried to rape her, and police and prosecutors are giving conflicting explanations for why a case was abandoned that could have led them months earlier to the bodies scattered around the suspect's stench-filled house.

The woman's complaint, nearly 10 months before police started finding bodies in Anthony Sowell's home, adds to the questions about whether law enforcement, neighbors and victims did enough to catch a suspected serial killer. Five of the victims disappeared after the complaint was filed.

The woman had scratches around her neck and was bleeding from a deep gash in her thumb when she flagged down police near Sowell's home on Dec. 8, according to a police report obtained by The Associated Press.

Police said they found what appeared to be blood on a tissue in the driveway and footprints in the snow indicating a possible struggle.

The report shows that police went into the house and to a third-floor landing, where they saw a trash can containing broken glass, a sweater, pink sweat pants and panties.

They knocked on the door of a third-floor apartment, Sowell answered and they arrested him. They saw drops of blood inside the house and scratch marks on Sowell's face.

Police suggested that Sowell be charged with robbery, but he was released after two days, Cleveland Lt. Thomas Stacho said Friday. Stacho said a detective presented the information to a prosecutor.

The prosecutor decided the woman wasn't credible and wrote a note saying so "underneath a box that the prosecutor checked indicating that the complaint was unfounded," Stacho said.

City prosecutor Victor Perez told The Plain Dealer that the detective felt the woman was not credible. Perez was not in his office Friday morning. A message left for him at the mayor's press office wasn't immediately returned.

Stacho said the police department is not pointing fingers at prosecutors.

"We're not in position to judge them on making that decision," he said. "We simply give them the facts."

Meanwhile, the FBI returned to the neighborhood Friday to conduct two days of thermal imaging, X-ray and other tests on the house next door to Sowell's in the hunt for more evidence.

On Friday, Sowell, 50, appeared in court and entered not guilty pleas to rape, kidnapping, attempted murder and felonious assault in the separate report of an alleged Sept. 22 attack.

Police investigating that report searched his home beginning Oct. 29, and found the remains of 11 women. Authorities believe Sowell, who served 15 years for attempted rape and has been a registered sex offender since 2005, lured them into his house with the promise of getting high, then strangled them and left their bodies inside or buried in the backyard.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell set bond at $1 million on the charges and continued Sowell's $5 million bond from last week, when he was charged with five counts of aggravated murder.

Sowell nodded when the judge explained his rights and shook his head no when O'Donnell asked if he could afford an attorney. Wearing an orange jail jumpsuit with his hands cuffed in front of him, Sowell appeared engaged and alert, at times bouncing slightly on his feet.

Gayle Williams, assistant county prosecutor, said the woman who accused Sowell of rape remains very fearful of him and is concerned for her safety.

"She was only breaths away from becoming another victim of Mr. Sowell," Williams said.

O'Donnell appointed Brian McGraw to be Sowell's attorney. McGraw, who was not in court, said he met with Sowell later Friday at the county jail, but declined to comment on the case or describe his conversation with Sowell.

In the December police report, the woman told police she had bought a beer at a corner store near Sowell's home and that he had asked her to have a drink with him when she passed by his house.

When she refused, she says, he blocked her path, punched her and dragged her to the back of the home. He choked her and dragged her inside, where he told her to remove her clothes, the woman said.

She said she fought him off and escaped.

Based on a statement from the woman, Stacho said, police determined it was not a sex case, and requested the robbery charge because Sowell allegedly assaulted the woman and stole her property.

A phone number for the woman's sister was listed on the report but is not in service.

Some neighbors and family members of victims have accused Cleveland police of not taking missing-persons cases seriously in the downtrodden neighborhood. Another woman has said Sowell attacked her inside his house in April, but that she didn't tell police because she thought a drug conviction made it unlikely they would take her seriously.

Stacho said the community should know police are advocating for them and that questions about past law enforcement decisions could make potential victims reluctant to participate in the investigation.

"There's one person responsible for all this, and people aren't seeing it, and it's Anthony Sowell," he said.

Remains of 10 of the 11 victims found at Sowell's home have been identified, and funerals for the women are to continue this weekend.

Across the street from Sowell's house, a memorial that started out a week ago with just a few faces and names on a plywood panel now covers the board as well as the brick wall of a chicken and pizza restaurant. There are dozens of pictures of missing women as well as handwritten notes, some expressing condolences for the 10 women whose remains have been identified and others posted by people holding out hope that their loved ones are not among the victims.

___

Associated Press Writer JoAnne Viviano in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091114/...NwZWN0aW5vaGk-

[samanthajane13]

FBI digs into backyard of Ohio home with 11 bodies
By JOHN SEEWER, Associated Press Writer John Seewer, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 31 mins ago

CLEVELAND – FBI agents sifted through dirt with rakes and shovels Saturday in the backyard of a suspected serial killer's home and ran a thermal-imaging device across the ground near the area where the decomposing bodies of several women were found.

The agents worked for about four hours at the home of Anthony Sowell, crawling beneath the front porch and removing bricks and other debris. One agent had a tape measure, while another snapped pictures and a third marked locations with orange paint. They finished up around 1:30 p.m.

On Friday, the FBI worked at the red-painted house next door to Sowell's to do thermal imaging, X-rays and other tests. Makers of thermal-imaging devices say they can help police find buried bodies because dirt that has been turned over radiates heat differently than compacted soil.

Police discovered the first two bodies and a freshly dug grave Oct. 29 at Sowell's house after officers came to investigate a woman's report that she had been raped there. Sowell had fled the home and was arrested two days later.

In all, the remains of 11 women have been found in Sowell's home or yard. All of the women were black, the coroner said. Ten have been identified through DNA and dental records.

The 50-year-old Sowell has been accused of luring women to his home with the promise of alcohol or getting high. Authorities say he then strangled them and left their bodies in his house or buried in the backyard.

Sowell remains in jail on $6 million bond on five preliminary charges of aggravated murder. Sowell's lawyer, Brian McGraw, said he met with his client Friday at the county jail, but he declined to comment on the case or describe his conversation with Sowell.

Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath visited the scene Saturday and watched agents work in the backyard. He declined to comment.

Sowell's three-story house is cordoned off by yellow police tape and guarded by police around the clock. But onlookers appear drawn to it: 20 to 25 people stopped by Saturday morning to watch the agents work.

"I just wanted to see it once," said Antoinette Lash, 42, of Cleveland. "Thank God I didn't know anybody who'd been in there."


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091114/...d_bodies_found

[samanthajane13]

Hot line for those who fled Ohio bodies suspect
The Associated Press
Updated: November 16, 2009, 7:29 AM

The Cleveland Rape Crisis Center is launching a special hot line in hopes of hearing from those who survived encounters at the house where remains of 11 women were found.

Police say the women were lured to the home of registered sex offender Anthony Sowell with the promise of alcohol or getting high. Authorities say Sowell then strangled them and left their bodies in his house or buried in the backyard.

Sowell remains in jail on $6 million bond on five preliminary charges of aggravated murder.

The hot line, opening Monday, will be staffed 24 hours a day by a licensed therapist.

Sowell pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges in an alleged attack on a woman at his home in September. That case led to the discovery of the bodies.

Information from: The Plain Dealer, http://www.cleveland.com


http://www.buffalonews.com/260/story/863232.html

[samanthajane13]

Cleveland seeks survivors of 'house of horrors'
By THOMAS J. SHEERAN, Associated Press Writer Thomas J. Sheeran, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 1 min ago

CLEVELAND – Now that most of the bodies found at the home of a suspected serial killer have been identified, Cleveland is turning its attention to the living — to any women who might be reluctant to come forward after encounters with a man now charged with murder and rape.

The nonprofit Cleveland Rape Crisis Center has set up a hot line in hopes of hearing from any surviving victims of Anthony Sowell, who lived among the remains of at least 11 people, all black women, most of them disadvantaged, stashed around his house and yard.

Women who might have been attacked by Sowell need to hear that "it wasn't their fault that we were in the midst of a maniac, and it's just not their fault," was the message of Tammy Davis, 44, who lives two blocks away from Sowell's house.

Authorities have indicated they're searching around places where Sowell, a 50-year-old former Marine, previously lived for any evidence of earlier crimes. At least three women have come forward alleging that Sowell attacked them.

As of now, Sowell is charged with five counts of aggravated murder and, separately, two counts of rape in a Sept. 22 attack, and is jailed on $5 million bond.

Advocates fear that sensitivities including shame, checkered backgrounds and mistrust on the part of the women he tended to befriend might make it tricky to learn of more victims. In Sowell's neighborhood, some people said Tuesday that community and family attitudes toward so-called "throwaway" street addicts must change to make them feel comfortable reporting a rape.

Davis said she senses a change as the saga has unfolded — 10 bodies and a skull found at the Sowell home, most of the victims strangled, living alone or homeless, dealing with drug or alcohol addictions.

It soon emerged that a prosecutor declined to file charges after a woman fled Sowell's home last December, bleeding and injured, because she wasn't considered credible. Police argued that they handled the case properly and that it was up to the prosecutor whether to press charges. After the bodies were found, many people came forward, concerned that their long-missing but troubled loved ones might be among the dead — and some of them were right.

Another woman, 43-year-old Tanja Doss, told The Associated Press two weeks ago that she was attacked by Sowell in April at his home and escaped the next morning. She said she didn't tell police because she felt her past conviction on a drug charge made it unlikely they would take her seriously.

Any other survivors need to know "no matter what walk of life you chose, were actually pushed into, you're still a person. Don't give up on people that sometimes choose a different path of life, as they call them 'throwaways','" Davis said.

The rape crisis center, which has a 24-hour hot line, opened a second line Monday dedicated to handling calls about the Sowell case with the goal of getting help for any rape victim. The line has gotten calls, but the center won't disclose the number or whether any were related to the Sowell case, executive director Megan O'Bryan said Tuesday.

The center held a community forum on sexual assault last week in Sowell's neighborhood, and clergy members and elected officials have encouraged victims to come forward.

Cleveland police do not have any specific initiative to identify more possible Sowell rape victims, Lt. Thomas Stacho said. Chief Michael McGrath has addressed community gatherings to stress that any victim will get police help, no matter what their personal history.

Margaret Kanellis, who handles rape cases in Akron for the Summit County prosecutor, said rapes can be reported in nontraditional ways, including by a doctor or mental health counselor who treats the woman, by a clergy member, or through a support group.

Those avenues can be less traumatic than walking into a police station to report a rape, she said. "Lots of times we see people being convinced through other ways rather than right after it happens, we just walk into the police station," Kanellis said.

Perhaps 80 percent of rape victims never report it, in part out of shame, and the backgrounds of Sowell's alleged victims left them vulnerable because many had lost contact with families, according to Elizabeth Fokes-El, a social worker who visited the suspect's street on Tuesday to see a growing memorial of stuffed animals and mementoes for both the victims and people who remain missing.

Victims might come forward if they feel they won't be seen as worthless, she said. People "need to let her know that she's worthy," Fokes-El said. "She needs to know she's OK, that she didn't deserve to be raped."

Sherri Smith, who works with churches in the Sowell neighborhood and has encouraged rape victims to seek help, said some might be hesitant for fear of being seen as "a certain profile of the women" that he allegedly targeted.

"In our community, a lot of times it's best to just keep quiet and maybe it will go away. That's sometimes the thought: embarrassment, shame, all of that," she said.

Those barriers to reporting rape mean "there's a dire need to have multiple routes" for victims to use to get help, Smith said.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091117/...d_bodies_found