OH OH - ANTHONY SOWELL, 11 bodies unearthed at his Cleveland home, 2007-09 *dies in prison 2021*

  • #441
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091107/ap_on_re_us/us_cleveland_bodies_found

Excerpt:

CLEVELAND (AP) -- 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 R. 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.

<<snip>>

read the rest here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091107/ap_on_re_us/us_cleveland_bodies_found
 
  • #442
I believe this guy has been killing for a long time. He wasn't always in a position to keep the bodies close after the kill, as he was usually living with someone else or in the service. But, once his step-mom had to go away, he had the 'opportunity' to keep his victims close. I KNOW what I THINK he did with them, AFTER death, I just can't bring myself to type the words.

JMHO
fran
:(
 
  • #443
Oh gosh, Fran, I certainly hope not!
 
  • #444
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/11/anthony_sowell_timeline.html

Anthony Sowell timeline

Aug. 19, 1959: Sowell is born. He is raised in East Cleveland.


Jan. 24, 1978: Sowell enlists in the Marine Corps. He serves eight years, in North Carolina, California and Okinawa.


Jan. 18, 1985: Sowell is discharged from the Marines and returns to East Cleveland.


May 27, 1988: Rosalind Garner is found strangled in her home on Hayden Avenue in East Cleveland. The case has not been solved.


Feb. 27, 1989: Carmella Prater is found dead in an abandoned building on First Avenue in East Cleveland. Prater lived on Page Avenue, the same street as Sowell. She had been beaten but the coroner was unable to pinpoint how she was killed. The case has not been solved.


March, 28, 1989: Mary Thomas is found strangled near an abandoned building on First Avenue, the same street where Prater was found. The case has not been solved.


July 28, 1989: A woman tells police that Sowell took her into his home on Page Avenue, bound and gagged her and raped her.


June 24, 1990: A Cleveland woman tells police that Sowell choked and raped her inside her home on East 71st Street. Police arrest him but no charges were filed because, police said, they were unable to get the woman to testify.


Sept. 12, 1990: Sowell is sentenced to five to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted rape for the 1989 assault in his home on Page Avenue.

<<<<<<<<<<complete timeline at link>>>>>>>>>>>
 
  • #445
Wow I'm betting all those women were killed by Sowell and there were probably more that were never reported missing as these recent ones were not. I bet he's been killing for a long time.
 
  • #446
  • #447
  • #448
  • #449
I don't remember which article I read it in, but the Mayor's niece lived with Sowell from early in '05 until '08. She noticed the smell then and he told her it was his stepmom downstairs and later said it was the sausage place next door. So...............it would seem he's been doing this all along.

This case gives me the creeps.

:(
fran
 
  • #450
  • #451
I don't remember which article I read it in, but the Mayor's niece lived with Sowell from early in '05 until '08. She noticed the smell then and he told her it was his stepmom downstairs and later said it was the sausage place next door. So...............it would seem he's been doing this all along.

This case gives me the creeps.

:(
fran

Hard to believe that she fell for it. She had to suspect something.

Yes, I saw that article the other day. It does appear there's more than one serial killer on the loose in Cleveland.

I'm just surprised the Cleveland PD wasn't working on this all along. Or, maybe they were and didn't want to alarm the citizens.

JMHO
fran

I think that one of the biggest problems is that a lot of these women were not reported missing. The families got so used to these people disappearing for periods of time. Maybe they had been reported in the past, only to turn up in a week, or month. Families felt like reporting them would not be taken seriously, or just embarrassed by the fact that they are known to disappear. Maybe they just thought, she will turn up.

He knew who he was preying on. He knew that nobody would be looking for them.
 
  • #452
  • #453
I have to sign off.

If anyone else would like to research the women on the list, please do the Second District and the last five names in the Third District.

I've done the other names in the Third District and again--except for Janice Webb, have found nothing at all. It's so sad.

Hoppy



Relatives of a missing Cleveland woman say they remain hopeful she is not among the 11 victims of a suspected serial killer in the city.

Audrey Webb, sister of Janice Webb, 49, who has been missing since June from the same Cleveland neighborhood where the female bodies were found in a man's house, told Sunday's (Cleveland) Plain Dealer she's not giving in to her worst fears that Janice is among the four remaining unidentified victims.


more here

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2009/11/08/Cleveland-womans-kin-holding-out-hope/UPI-26951257715582/
 
  • #454
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CLEVELAND_BODIES_FOUND?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

Onlookers flock to site of Cleveland killings

CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) -- 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.


<<<<<<<<full article at link>>>>>>>>>>>>
 
  • #455
  • #456
  • #457
I too question this list, but remember a lot of inner city women are not reported missing by the news....you do the math.

I went to see if they had IDed any more victims and ended up reading this...

"Hunter had been missing since April, but had not been reported to the police until November 3 after Anthony Sowell had been arrested and the media announced the bodies found in his house.
Dozier had been missing since October of 2007 and had never been reported missing."

Maybe its not just that a lot of inner city women are not being reported as missing persons by the NEWS yet these women are not being reported missing by their FAMILIES!

http://www.examiner.com/x-19632-Sal...ified-from-Anthony-Sowells-house-in-Cleveland

Sorry to butt in, remembered reading the quoted area earlier after reading the article this evening and found it odd that a woman would be missing for two years without being reported!
 
  • #458
I went to see if they had IDed any more victims and ended up reading this...

"Hunter had been missing since April, but had not been reported to the police until November 3 after Anthony Sowell had been arrested and the media announced the bodies found in his house.
Dozier had been missing since October of 2007 and had never been reported missing."

Maybe its not just that a lot of inner city women are not being reported as missing persons by the NEWS yet these women are not being reported missing by their FAMILIES!

http://www.examiner.com/x-19632-Sal...ified-from-Anthony-Sowells-house-in-Cleveland

Sorry to butt in, remembered reading the quoted area earlier after reading the article this evening and found it odd that a woman would be missing for two years without being reported!

At least some of the relatives complained they had trouble filing a missing person report with the police.

"After the third police station in a row refused to take a missing-person report about her niece two years ago, Sandy Drain took matters into her own hands."

"&#8220;They belittled it and made jokes,&#8221; said Barbara Carmichael about her repeated and failed efforts to file a missing-person report about her daughter Tonia, whose body was the first of the 11 found in Mr. Sowell&#8217;s house to be identified this week. &#8220;They told me to wait a while because she would return once all the drugs were gone.&#8221;'
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/06/us/06cleveland.html
 
  • #459
I think it's important to mention that the two women that finally did press charges against AS, the two that, ultimately, led to the discovery of these horrendous crimes, are heroes. I'm referring to the women from the incident on 9/22 and the other one on 10/20. I hope they realize that they truly are heroic. They need to know that they did the right thing. I know it was hard for them to come forward, as it took the one a month to finally meet with LE about it. If it hadn't been for them finally mustering the courage to not stand for this kind of abuse, AS would still be free to repeatedly brutalize women.

I hope they realize that they are worth more to this world than what AS considered them to be. I hope they can rise above the hardships of the streets. I hope they can one day hold their heads high for playing such a pivotal role in saving so many other women from such pain and suffering. They, undoubtedly, saved lives, possibly many.

I've seen reports of other victims since the terrible discovery. It's so maddening that he was able to do this, undetected and for so long. Sometimes, he let them live. Sometimes, he didn't. Such a sick piece of filth! These poor women, ALL of his victims. I hope nothing but good things for the one's that survived and am glad they are alive and able to tell their story. I wish the 11 (so far) had been able to do the same.
 
  • #460
http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=124966

Anthony Sowell: Profiling a serial killer

CLEVELAND -- If convicted of these murders Anthony Sowell could be labeled a "serial killer" and possibly one of the most notorious in Cleveland's history. But what does that mean?


"In this particular instance, there is a suspect in custody. The community is left to wonder how these killings happened," says Forensic Psychiatrist Dr. Sara West.

There's the shock that builds with the unfolding of details and patterns. And a sort of monstrous quality to the person and their actions. And in history they will be known as "serial killers".


<<<<<<<<<<<<<<more at link>>>>>>>>>>>>>
 

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