11 dead/ALL ID'd at Anthony Sowell's Ohio home (CONVICTED)

[cw618]

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/11/cleveland_va_employees_may_hav.html

Cleveland VA employees may have sneaked a peek at suspected serial killer's medical records
By Joan Mazzolini, The Plain Dealer
November 24, 2009, 12:00AM
CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Veterans Affairs hospital is investigating whether employees snooped in serial killing
suspect Anthony Sowell's private medical records.

A spokeswoman for the Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center confirmed that an investigation was under way. It was
unclear if it is an internal investigation or if federal VA authorities were called in.

Cleveland VA spokeswoman Ashley Trimble said she couldn't answer any questions beyond that an investigation was
taking place.

Sowell, who was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps in early 1985, would have been eligible for medical
care at the VA. It is unknown what, if any, medical or psychiatric care he received there or at VA clinics.

Sowell enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1978 and served eight years in North Carolina, California and Okinawa.

Sowell has been charged with killing five women, though more charges are expected. Eleven women were killed and
their remains were found in and around his Cleveland home.

Patient records are private and an unauthorized access would violate the federal Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act, also known as HIPAA.

Personal health care information may be shared with some agencies, such as law enforcement, but the access is, for
 the most part, limited to medical personnel directly involved in the medical care.

Individuals who "knowingly" obtain or disclose individual health information could face a fine of up to $50,000
as well as imprisonment of up to one year, according to U.S. Department of Justice.

Recently, a federal judge sentenced an Arkansas doctor and two former hospital employees to a year of probation
each after they admitted to looking at the medical records of a local TV reporter who was beaten and later died
of her injuries.

The doctor was fined $5,000 and ordered to perform community service. The two former employees, who were fired by
 St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center in Little Rock, were fined $2,500 and $1,500.

[Nut44x4]

Bugs don't lie......

A forensic study of human death through the life of insects

A Cleveland entomologist is studying insects collected from the bodies found in Anthony Sowell's duplex. 'I follow where the bugs lead me. Their lives tell a story about death.'

Reporting from Cleveland - Joe Keiper squinted into a microscope and pressed the dead maggot with a pair of surgical forceps to determine how much human flesh the fat white larva had eaten.

The forensic entomologist had plucked hundreds of them off a corpse found inside a Cleveland house the day before Halloween.

"Understand insects, and you can understand death," said Keiper, a slender, balding scientist of 40.

For nine years, Keiper has studied all things creepy-crawly as the Cleveland Museum of Natural History's director of science and curator of invertebrate zoology.

Local cops just call him the bug man. Now he's working on one of the most puzzling cases in the city's history: the discovery of 10 bodies in a duplex.

Keiper is one of fewer than 20 people in the U.S. who do this sort of forensic work on a regular basis. He tracks the life of insects to solve the mysteries of human death.

From his windowless museum lab here in northern Ohio, he has helped local police and federal investigators solve 32 cases since 2001.

The clues he finds from maggots, flies, beetles and other insects rarely paint the whole picture of death: They are only bits and pieces. But there are usually thousands upon thousands of pieces available, each contributing to the whole story.

"I follow where the bugs lead me," Keiper said. "Their lives tell a story about death. You just have to know how to read the story they're trying to tell."

This latest case is as mysterious as any he has ever handled.

The remains of 10 women have been found at the duplex on Imperial Avenue. And a skull was found in a bucket in the house's basement. The duplex's sole resident, Anthony Sowell, 50, has been arrested and charged with five counts of murder. Investigators continue to search for more bodies.

"Working with bugs, in a crime scene or in nature, I've learned that everything has a role to play in life," Keiper said. "Everything has its purpose."

Life and death are crammed onto every flat surface inside the Cleveland Museum of Natural History's laboratory where Keiper spends most days.

A glowing blue tank with spiny lake sturgeon fish sits near a table of brown snakes curled inside bottles of preserving liquid. Dragonflies grow inside refrigerated trays, while metal cabinets that stretch from floor to ceiling house more than a million animal and insect specimens -- a collection that dates to the 1700s.

Keiper leaned back in his squeaky office chair and pulled a cart filled with glass vials toward him.

Each vial is full of bugs from Sowell's home. Keiper bottled them by species, location and proximity to each body.

"Dead flies taken from sills of basement where body/corpse was concealed," reads one vial.

"Casings found inside body bag upstairs," reads another.

Minutes after someone dies, nature begins its cycle of life by sending flies. In the Midwest, as in most places, it is usually the blowfly -- small and metallic-green or -blue.

They're like the bloodhounds of the fly world. Drawn to the scent of blood and the gases released by the body, blowflies come to lay eggs on the corpse.

Those eggs are important because the passage of time between the laying of an egg (day one) to an adult fly's emergence from its cocoon-like shell (day 14) is usually predictable.

As time passes, other bugs appear. By determining the age and size of the larvae, and figuring out what insect species they are, Keiper can backtrack and estimate the period between death and the body's discovery.

In the lab, Keiper picked up one vial off his work cart and held it up to his eyes. A dozen maggots, each no longer than a pencil eraser, floated in golden liquid. So did a slip of paper inside the bottle.

Keiper read his own neat pen strokes: "Under body on basement."

He unscrewed the cap and reached for a pair of tweezers.

The discovery of the bodies at the home on Imperial Avenue was a fluke.

Police had arrived on Oct. 29 to serve Sowell with an arrest warrant after a woman said he had choked and tried to rape her inside the home a week earlier. Sowell, who had served 15 years in prison for attempted rape, wasn't home, but the smell of decay was so strong that the officers entered the building and walked upstairs.

There, they found the bodies of two women lying on the floor. Both had been dead long enough to be partially mummified.

They found two more stuffed into a crawl space inside the house. Another was buried in a shallow grave in the basement's dirt floor, while yet another was buried beneath an outdoor staircase. Four were buried in the backyard.

All were African American women, according to the Cuyahoga County coroner's office.

"It was an 'all hands on deck,' " Keiper said. "I dropped everything I was doing."

Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller called Keiper. Miller doesn't need to call very often. In a county with nearly 1.4 million residents, his office said it averages 100 homicides a year. Fewer than six of those cases involve mysterious circumstances and a body so decayed that investigators can't identify it.

Keiper, whose uniform is a cotton shirt and jeans faded from repeated washing to get rid of the smell of decaying flesh, inspected the bodies and the area around them.

There are details in death that aren't obvious to the untrained eye. Room temperature is one factor. A body decays faster and maggots grow quicker in warm air.

Location is another. Maggots no wider than a piece of thread can crawl inside body cavities and orifices. Insects can hide in the nearby soil or fall in the space between wooden floor planks.

Sometimes, the lack of bugs can be telling. Keiper found very few insects, and only one species, on the body of a 17-year-old boy found in a sewer drain in 2007.

Confused, he returned to the crime scene days later and crawled into the drain, ignoring his claustrophobia. He realized the teen had been killed outside and his body quickly dumped by his killer.

"Some flies would have landed while the body was being moved. But after that, the flies wouldn't travel that far down the tunnel on their own," said Keiper, whose findings were used to help refute the alibi of the man later convicted of the crime.

Keiper has yet to find anything so conclusive in the Cleveland case. After searching through the Imperial Avenue home, he has now settled in for the grueling laboratory work involved in analyzing all the bugs he collected.

Keiper turned back to the maggot under his microscope. A gentle press against its middle tilted the larva's back end into view.

Two eye-shaped vents appeared, showing where the insect breathes. Keiper zoomed in.

Even these tiny pieces can be telling. There should be tiny slits visible in these vents. One slit means the larva is very young, only a few days old when it was plucked off a body at Imperial Avenue. Three slits mean it is older and will soon stop eating, and form into a pupa.

In this case, Keiper has an idea of what he's seeing but won't elaborate since the investigation is ongoing.

He returned the maggot to its vial and reached for the next bug.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-bugman28-2009nov28,0,700401,full.story
November 27, 2009 | 5:14 p.m.

[Nut44x4]

12.1.09

An indictment by Cleveland authorities charges Anthony Sowell with being a "monster" who lured 14 homeless or addicted women into his house of horrors where he sexually attacked them and strangled 11 of them.

The indictment charges Sowell, a registered sex offender, with 11 murders, plus dozens of other counts, including kidnapping, abuse of a corpse, attempted murder, assault and rape. The bodies of his alleged victims were found buried in and around his three-story home. Included in the grisly discoveries was a head in a bucket in Sowell's basement.

County Prosecutor Bill Mason called Sowell "a monster" while announcing the indictment today.

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/anthony-sowell-indicted-monster-attacked-14-women/story?id=9219597

[Nut44x4]

Cleveland mass murder suspect indicted on 85 counts
December 1, 2009 5:27 p.m. EST

CNN -- A registered sex offender has been indicted on 85 counts -- including aggravated murder, rape and kidnapping -- in the deaths of 11 women whose bodies were found at his home, authorities said Tuesday.

In addition, Anthony Sowell, 50, is charged with "brutalizing" three women and raping two of them, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason said.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Sowell, Mason said. Sowell is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday.

Sowell is now charged with 11 counts of aggravated murder with a "mass murder specification," meaning multiple people were killed in a similar fashion, Mason said. He also is charged with abuse of a corpse, kidnapping and tampering with evidence.

The indictment also alleges that Sowell assaulted women on December 8, 2008, and on September 22 and October 20 of this year.

The September and October victims were raped, and the other woman was punched and choked before she escaped, Mason said. Sowell's charges in the incidents include attempted murder, rape or attempted rape, kidnapping, robbery and felonious assault.

Sowell already faced charges in the September 22 rape and has pleaded not guilty.

On October 20, neighbors reported seeing a naked woman fall from the second floor of his house. Firefighters responded and later notified police. But the woman told officers she fell off the roof while she was at the home "partying," police said earlier. No charges were filed at the time.

Mason said, however, that the 51-year-old woman had been invited to Sowell's home and left, but was lured back in. After being choked and raped, she attempted to escape out a second-floor window as Sowell tried to pull her back in. When he was unsuccessful, he pushed her out, and she lay unconscious in an alley for a while before he pulled her back in the house.

Sowell threatened his victims and warned them not to contact police, Mason said.

It's possible there are other victims, he said, and he urged anyone who has not come forward to do so.

Sowell "knew what he was doing was wrong at the time he was doing it," Mason said.

As of last month, Sowell was on suicide watch at the request of his public defender, Kathleen DeMetz. She had said a psychiatric evaluation of Sowell had been ordered but was unlikely to happen until after an indictment was filed.

Cuyahoga County Sheriff Bob Reid said Tuesday that Sowell has been a "model prisoner," is kept in an isolated unit and has declined visitation requests.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/12/01/sowell.cleveland.bodies/

[cw618]

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/12/grand_jury_indicts_anthony_sow.html

Grand jury indicts Anthony Sowell in 11 slayings; sets stage for death penalty trial
By Plain Dealer staff
December 01, 2009, 1:30PM

CLEVELAND, Ohio — A Cuyahoga County grand jury made a decision Tuesday that Cleveland police and city prosecutors fail
ed to make a year ago. A decision that might have saved five lives.

Woven into an 85-count indictment against suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell were six charges stemming from a 2008
 attack on a woman who said investigators did not take her report seriously. And they missed a chance to nab the man
prosecutors now say is responsible for one of the most heinous crimes in Cleveland's history.

Sowell is charged with killing 11 women -- five of whom went missing and turned up dead in his Imperial Avenue home
after the 2008 investigation. Prosecutor Bill Mason said his office will seek the death penalty for Sowell.

At a news conference Tuesday during which Mason unveiled the indictment, Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath would
not directly address questions on the way investigators handled the 2008 case. He offered only that new evidence was
discovered in the past year and that the decision to include the case now in the indictment was Mason's.

McGrath also emphasized that the victim in that case, 41-year-old Gladys Wade, was not sexually assaulted. However,
the indictment includes charges of attempted rape, felonious assault, attempted murder and kidnapping -- all with
sexual motivation, repeat violent offender and sexually oriented predator specifications.

On December 8, 2008, Wade, bleeding and screaming, flagged down police officers and reported that Sowell, 50, tried to
 rape and choke her in his house.

Police initially arrested Sowell, who was convicted of attempted rape in 1990, on suspicion of attempted rape and
robbery. But only a robbery charge was presented to a city prosecutor. Sowell was released two days after his arrest
 without being charged, and police and city prosecutors have since sparred over why.

Sowell was arrested again Oct. 31, two days after police arrived at his home to investigate another rape complaint and
 discovered two decomposing bodies. Investigators thoroughly searched the property during the following weeks and
eventually recovered 11 corpses -- buried in the backyard, stuffed in crawlspaces or under the basement stairs.

Many were still bound at the wrists and wore ligatures and the telltale signs of strangulation. Police found the skull
 of one victim in a bucket in the basement. Most of the victims were strangled, but the coroner's office could only
determine that the others died of homicidal violence because the bodies had decomposed.

Ten of the victims have been identified: Tonia Carmichael, 52; Nancy Cobbs, 45; Tishana Culver, 31; Crystal Dozier, 38
 Telacia Fortson, 31; Amelda Hunter, 47; Michelle Mason, 45; Kim Yvette Smith,44; Janice Webb, 49; and Leshanda Long, 25.

In addition to charges of aggravated murder with mass murder specifications and abuse of a corpse related to each of
the 11 dead women, Tuesday's indictment includes multiple counts of attempted murder, felonious assault, rape, attempt
ed rape, kidnapping, aggravated robbery and tampering with evidence.

Some of the charges were in connection with reported attacks on women at Sowell's house on Sept. 22 and Oct. 20.

Sowell, who is being held on $6 million bond, is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday at 8:30 a.m., and to appear
Wednesday before Common Pleas Judge John Sutula on a previous charge related to the September attack that drew
investigators to his home.

Sheriff Bob Reid said Tuesday that Sowell has been a model prisoner in the county jail. He is being held in an isolated
 unit and so far has received no visitors.

snipped from
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/12/01/sowell.cleveland.bodies/
Posted on: Today at 08:35:36 PMPosted by: Nut44x4
Cuyahoga County Sheriff Bob Reid said Tuesday that Sowell has been a "model prisoner," is kept in an isolated unit and has declined visitation requests.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/12/grand_jury_indicts_anthony_sow.html
Sheriff Bob Reid said Tuesday that Sowell has been a model prisoner in the county jail. He is being held in an isolated
 unit and so far has received no visitors.

one news source says and another says, geezzz which do ya belive

would some of these women have been spared
http://media.cleveland.com/metro/photo/sowell-graphicjpg-266b6ebe6808eef8.jpg





 

[Nut44x4]

That chart is fantastic.....thanks!

Cadaver dogs search previous home of mass murder suspect
December 2, 2009 2:25 p.m. EST

(CNN) -- Authorities in Cleveland, Ohio, brought in cadaver dogs Wednesday to search the childhood home of a registered sex offender accused in the deaths of 11 women.

"We're just trying to cover all our bases," said Scott Wilson, spokesman for the FBI, which is assisting local detectives in the case.

Anthony Sowell, 50, was arrested in October after authorities serving a search warrant in a rape case discovered six bodies in and around his current home. Subsequent searches turned up five more bodies, all African-American women.

Authorities have said they are looking at the unsolved murders of three women in East Cleveland to determine whether they share any similarities with the remains found at Sowell's home.

Wednesday's search comes a day after Sowell was indicted on 85 counts -- including aggravated murder, rape and kidnapping -- in the killings. In addition, Sowell is charged with "brutalizing" three other women and raping two of them, Cuyahoga County prosecutor Bill Mason said Tuesday.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Sowell, Mason said. He is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday.

Sowell is now charged with 11 counts of aggravated murder with a "mass murder specification," meaning multiple people were killed in a similar fashion, Mason said. He also is charged with abuse of a corpse, kidnapping and tampering with evidence.

The indictment also alleges that Sowell assaulted women on December 8, 2008, and on September 22 and October 20 of this year. The September and October victims were raped, and the other woman was punched and choked before she escaped, Mason said. Sowell's charges in those incidents include attempted murder, rape or attempted rape, kidnapping, robbery and felonious assault.

Sowell already faced charges in the September 22 rape and has pleaded not guilty.

On October 20, neighbors reported seeing a naked woman fall from the second floor of his house. Firefighters responded and later notified police.

But the woman told officers that she fell off the roof while she was at the home "partying," police said earlier. No charges were filed at the time.

Sowell threatened his victims and warned them not to contact police, Mason said. It's possible there are other victims, he added, and urged anyone who has not come forward to do so.

Sowell "knew what he was doing was wrong at the time he was doing it," the prosecutor said.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/12/02/cleveland.bodies/

[Lovinlife]

Man Up: Accused Cleveland Strangler Due In Court
Posted: Dec 03, 2009 4:14 AM EST Updated: Dec 03, 2009 6:20 AM EST

Posted by Web Staff - email | Facebook | Twitter

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) - It was a crime that rocked Cleveland. The bodies of eleven women found in and around a home on Imperial Avenue. Now, the man accused in the murders will face a judge this morning.

Anthony Sowell is facing an unprecedented 85-count indictment for allegedly murdering eleven females, raping two females and attempting to rape a third female.

The 50-year-old sex offender was indicted on charges of aggravated murder, kidnapping, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence for the murder of eleven females between June 2007 and June 2009.

Sowell faces the possibility of being sent to death row if convicted of the heinous crimes.

http://www.woio.com/Global/story.asp?S=11612005


So sad they have not identified the 11th victim.  Have they checked his step mother?

[Nut44x4]

Hey Lovin' GOOD IDEA!!

Ohio man pleads insanity in 11 deaths
 

December 3, 2009 11:26 a.m. EST

(CNN) -- A man charged with murder in the deaths of 11 women pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity Thursday, said Ryan Miday, a spokesman for the Cuyahoga County, Ohio, prosecutor.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/12/03/cleveland.bodies.sowell/

[cw618]

i keep having probs with embeding vids here,
here is

Anthony Sowell pleads not guilty by reason of insanity to killings

video
http://videos.cleveland.com/plain-dealer/2009/12/anthony_sowell_pleads_not_guil.html

[Nut44x4]

Last Imperial victim identified

Diane Turner last seen in late September.
Friday, December 4, 2009
(Cleveland) - They all have names now.

The Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office has made a positive identification on the 11th and final female victim found in the Anthony Sowell's home.

38-year-old Diane Turner was a black female whose last known address was 3600 East 144th St.

Turner's remains were found in the third floor bedroom. She was the second body found after the discovery of corpes in the Imperial Ave. home.

Manner of death has been ruled a homicide and the cause of death has not been released pending further tests and investigation by the Coroner's Office.

Turner was last seen the last week of September 2009...a month before the bodies were found

The coroner's office thanks the Cleveland Division of Police for their professionalism and ongoing cooperation surrounding these cases.
http://www.wtam.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=122520&article=6412355

[Nut44x4]

VICTIMS

Tonia Carmichael, 52, of Warrensville Heights, was the first woman identified. Her body was one of the first six discovered in the back yard of the home.



Telacia Fortson, 31, of East Cleveland. She was the mother of three young children and had been missing since May 31.



Tishana Culver, 31, lived on Imperial Avenue, was not reported as a missing person, police said. Culver was the mother to four children. The children live with their grandparents on Imperial Avenue. DNA was not used to identify Culver.
 


Nancy Cobbs 43, family reported her missing to the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority police in April, but did not file a report with Cleveland police until Monday. Cobbs is the mother of three children and many grandchildren.



Michelle Mason, 45, lived in the 2900 block of East 121st Street. She was reported missing in Cleveland on Oct. 12, 2008 by her mother, who stated that she last saw her daughter on or about Oct. 4, 2008. At that time, it was reported to Cleveland police that Mason suffered from bipolar disorder and that she was not taking her prescribed medications. Checks were made in Cleveland and in Garfield but the extensive investigative effort failed to provide any insight into her location.



Amelda Hunter, 47 lived in the 3200 block of East 137th Street. Her family reported her missing on Nov. 3, indicating that she was last seen on or about April 18, 2009.



Crystal Dozier, 38 of Kinsman Avenue, was not reported as a missing person at the time of the discovery of the victims' bodies. She was reportedly last seen in October 2007.



Janice Webb 49, was last seen June 3 when she left the Lakewood house where she was living with her boyfriend.



Kim Yvette Smith, 44 of Cleveland, was last seen Jan. 1, 2009. She was not reported missing to Cleveland police until Nov. 2, the day authorities finished removing bodies from the house.



Leshanda Long (skull only) 25, of Cleveland. The last known address for Long was on Denison Avenue. She was not reported as a missing person and family members said she was last seen in August 2008. She was previously reported missing at the age of 13 and again at 17.



LAST VICTIM ID'd
Diane Turner  38, Cleveland was not reported missing. She was last seen in late September 2009.



BUMP

[Nut44x4]

Investigators identify 11th victim found in Anthony Sowell's house

December 04, 2009, 4:53PM
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Investigators have identified the 11th body found in the house of suspected serial-killer Anthony Sowell as Diane Turner.

The 38-year-old Cleveland woman was last seen in late September, according to the Cuyahoga County coroner's office, which released the identification. Police said she was not reported missing.

Turner had a drug problem, an extinsive criminal record and lived a little more than a mile from Sowell's house on Imperial Avenue, court records show. All of the women whom prosecutors say Sowell killed fit this profile.

Sowell is charged with killing the 11 women whose bodies were found in or around his house. He was arraigned Thursday and pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. He is currently in jail with bond set at $6 million.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/12/identify_given_to_final_body_f.html

[cw618]

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/12/insanity_pleas_such_as_anthony.html

Insanity pleas such as Anthony Sowell's are rare here
By Jim Nichols, The Plain Dealer
December 04, 2009, 11:26AM

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Accused serial killer Anthony Sowell of Cleveland pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity on
Thursday. Insanity pleas are rare. Here are some prominent cases in which defendants pleaded not guilty by reason
of insanity.

Timothy Halton Jr., 29, of Cleveland Heights: A judge found that schizophrenia rendered this 2007 killer of Cleveland
Heights Patrolman Jason West incompetent to stand trial -- unable to understand charges or assist in his own defense.
But two months ago, after treatment had stabilized him, Halton admitted to aggravated murder. He will spend life in
prison

more at link

[cw618]

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/12/identify_given_to_final_body_f.html

Coroner identifies 11th victim found in Anthony Sowell's house
By Gabriel Baird, The Plain Dealer
December 04, 2009, 4:53PM

Updated at 11:20 p.m.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Her name was Diane Turner.


She was a 38-year-old Cleveland mother whose last address was on East 144th Street.

On Friday, the Cuyahoga County coroner's office identified her as the woman whose body was found decomposing in a
third-floor bedroom five weeks ago.

Now all 11 of the women whose bodies were discovered in and around the Imperial Avenue house of Anthony Sowell have
been identified.

Her identity remained a mystery until a daughter supplied DNA. She had never been reported missing to Cleveland Police
 

Coroner's officials said Turner had last been seen in late September -- 10 months after authorities had the chance to
get Sowell -- a registered sex offender – off the streets had they prosecuted him after a woman told police he attacked
her.

Besides Turner, five other women were killed after that Dec. 8, 2008, attack.

Sowell is in Cuyahoga County jail, charged with 11 counts of aggravated murder, plus charges of aggravated robbery, at
tempted murder, attempted rape, felonious assault, kidnapping, rape and tampering with evidence.

At his arraignment Thursday, he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity

Turner fit the profile of women authorities say Sowell preyed on: She had a drug problem, an extensive criminal record
 and an address less than two miles from Sowell's house. The 11 women either lived near his home or frequented the are
a.

A Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services official said Turner had lost custody of at least one
child.

Cleveland police knew her as a prostitute who would flag down cars on East Side streets looking for enough cash for
her next high, according to police reports.

The Plain Dealer interviewed Turner in 2000 while she was in a support group in the Cuyahoga County jail.

"They said I was never gonna be nothing, and I believed them. I been in and out of here my whole life," she said to
the group. "I never had no family. I always been by myself."

The Plain Dealer visited five previous addresses given for Turner, but no one could be found who knew her well enough
 to say any more than that she was a nice person.

Fox 8 interviewed Jasneth Groves, who has had custody of Turner's 8-year-old daughter, Denise Martin, since the girl
was just weeks old.

Groves said she believes Turner has seven other children.

Martin told Fox 8 that she missed her mother. She supplied the DNA.

Groves said, "Everybody was looking for her."

Ten of the victims were identified last month. In some cases, the bodies were so badly decomposed that they had to
use DNA volunteered by family members.

Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller planned to enlist the help of an anthropologist and a forensic artist to help
identify Turner.

It was not clear Friday whether Martin provided the DNA or whether Turner had other children.

Coroner's officials could not say Friday how Turner was killed. But at least eight of the women had been strangled.

Investigators in other cities where Sowell has lived or served in the military -- including North Carolina, California
 and possibly as far away as Japan -- are trying to determine whether other cases could be linked to Sowell.

diane turner
http://media.cleveland.com/metro/photo/mugturnerjpg-703f88c385c0de21.jpg

diane turner

[Nut44x4]

CW /
Thank you for the final photo to complete the Victim List. Let's hope there are no more victims to be found...I do have my doubts.

[cw618]

CW /
Thank you for the final photo to complete the Victim List. Let's hope there are no more victims to be found...I do have my doubts.

your welcome Nut44x4
i have doubts too

this is kinda unusual

http://www.cleveland.com/morris/index.ssf/2009/12/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxphillip_morris.html

Anthony Sowell's cousin apologizes for the horrifying effects of serial killings: Phillip Morris
By Phillip Morris
December 06, 2009, 6:25AM
 
A letter postmarked in Illinois arrived in the mail this week at Ray's Sausage Factory on Cleveland's Imperial Avenue,
 site of the city's infamous serial killings.

Inside was a remarkable apology by Martha McKenzie-Jones, a first cousin of Anthony Sowell, the man who is charged
with killing 11 women found at the Sowell family home next door to the sausage plant.

"Our family members across the country are horrified at what has happened in a house that was so welcoming and loving,
" the letter says. "I am so sorry for the effect it has had on your business and hope that you are able to continue in
that location."

Even more remarkable is McKenzie-Jones' relationship to one of the serial killer's victims:

"Janice Webb, who was one of his victims, was my daughter's babysitter in 1979."

That's right. In 1979, when Webb was 18 years old, she used to babysit for McKenzie-Jones, the accused killer's first
cousin.

Janice Webb disappeared in June. She was last seen heading to her old neighborhood in the area of East 116th Street
 and Buckeye Road. Webb was the mother of a 28-year-old son and the grandmother of three. And she was the 8th of the
11 victims found at the Sowell family home.

The Imperial Avenue case continues to astound.

The two-page handwritten note constitutes a breathtaking apology for the harm that Sowell's activities created for the
 community and for the meat company. Ray's has spent thousands of dollars in recent years to battling a stench that
enveloped the neighborhood. Everyone seemed to blame the sausage company, but we now know that the stench was the
rotting flesh of the serial killer's victims.

While reading the letter, Ray's CEO Renee Cash paused to reflect on her company's long history with the Sowell family
next door. She said she didn't know Anthony Sowell, But she did know his father and his father's father, men who lived
 in the house before they died, before Anthony moved in.

Both older Sowell men were carpenters and painters. They were semi-skilled in the industrial trades, she said. Both men
 had done work over the years in the building which her father, Ray Cash Sr., transformed from a grocery store into a
meat packing company.

McKenzie-Jones, too, had a relationship with the factory.

"Your family business is a very familiar part of my life. It was started the year that I was born," she wrote in the
letter. "Whenever I was in town, I'd stop by and buy a case or two of your sausage."

McKenzie-Jones is grieving for her hometown and mortified by the alleged crimes of a cousin that she knew as Pee Wee.
She last saw him 28 years ago.

"This whole thing has been so shocking and sad. If the justice system is lenient with Anthony, he still has to answer
to God and his ancestors," the letter concludes.

I placed several calls to McKenzie-Jones, who runs a home health care business in Rockford. She didn't respond. But
her letter speaks eloquently enough.

I did speak with Heather Mairer, who holds a senior level position with the United Way of Rock River Valley. She said
she knows McKenzie-Jones well. She described her as a highly visible community volunteer, who helps determine the
agency's funding priorities. She said McKenzie-Jones had recently spoken to her about her cousin and the furor
surrounding him Cleveland.

"It doesn't surprise me that she's reaching out. That's the type of person she is. She is someone who would give you
 the shirt off her back. She's motherly. That's why she's reaching out."

Renee Cash accepts the apology with grace yet uncertainty of one who doesn't quite know how to respond to the
anguished cousin of a serial killer.

"I appreciate her concern and her blessings. I don't know her, but she comes from a good family.

"Our business will survive."

[Lovinlife]

Imperial Murders Ignite Review of Missing Persons Policy

Danielle Frizzi Fox 8 Reporter

December 9, 2009



CLEVELAND -- Mayor Frank Jackson announced a three-person commission Wednesday that will examine the city's policies and practices on missing persons cases and sex crimes.

The commission was born out of the Imperial Avenue murders in which the bodies of 11 women were found inside Anthony Sowell's home.

Wednesday, Mayor Frank Jackson said a commission is now going to look at the city's practices on missing persons cases.

The commission is made up of the City of Cleveland Assistant Director of Public Safety Mary Bounds, Rape Crisis Center Executive Director Megan O'Bryan, and local attorney Teresa Beasley. Mayor Jackson says the three women bring expertise that will be critical in recommending changes in the policies.

"Victims often don't come forward because of fear of not being believed, fear of police, fear of retribution by the perpetrator so the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center is interested in is creating a society and community where rape victims feel comfortable coming forward and going to be believed and supported," commission member Megan O'Bryan said.

Jackson says the commission will examine the city's existing policies on missing persons and sex crimes, research policies used in other cities, and make recommendations for changes.

Jackson says they will not look at any of the cases involving Imperial Avenue. Once the case is sent through the courts he says the safety director and the police chief will examine those cases to find any flaws.

"There are some legitimate things that were raised by families, by some community people, by the community at large and that's what we're attempting to address here. We're not putting blame or pointing the finger, we're saying let's look at this," Jackson said.

Police Chief Michael McGrath says the police department has around 400 active missing persons cases, and since 1990 they have had 69,000 missing persons reports filed.

"We look forward to the commission looking at our policies and procedures make recommendations to make us better, make a better service to the community absolutely," McGrath said.

The commission will meet over the course of 90 days then report back to the mayor.

http://www.fox8.com/news/wjw-cleveland-missing-person-cases-reviewed-txt,0,5571111.story

Video at link...

Yes, lets not forget Gina Dejesus, Amanda Berry & Ashley Summers

[cw618]

timeline story

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/12/mayor_frank_jackson_creates_co.html

timeline
http://media.cleveland.com/metro/photo/10adtimelinebjpg-012a3e26952cdbc0.jpg

[cw618]

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/12/judge_in_anthony_sowell_case_s.html

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Timothy J. McGinty steps down from Anthony Sowell case, citing conflict
By Michael Scott
December 10, 2009, 9:18PM

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Timothy J. McGinty stepped down Thursday from hearing the multiple murder trial
of Anthony Sowell -- citing a potential conflict with his own well-known efforts to reform criminal justice practices.
McGinty said in a one-paragraph letter to Administrative Judge Eileen Gallagher that his own "public policy reform
efforts" might lead to a conflict in hearing the high-profile trial. 

Sowell had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to 11 counts of aggravated murder and other charges last week
after police investigators in October found the remains of 11 women at his Imperial Avenue home.

A new judge will get the case today, Gallagher said. She said she accepted McGinty's recusal from the case as
standard procedure when any judge claims a conflict.
McGinty would not comment further on the reform efforts noted in his letter, instead citing previous news coverage
of the matter.
The judge has long been an advocate for justice reform and a critic of the practice of "straight release" by
Cleveland police.
Straight release is the general custom of police arresting and processing a suspect, but then releasing him pending
indictment, often on the premise that jails are overcrowded. 
Sowell was not charged after being arrested and released in December 2008 after a woman flagged down police and told
officers he had attacked her. A city prosecutor said there was not enough evidence to charge him.
Six of the 11 women were killed after he was freed.

McGinty said he stepped aside Thursday after talking with an attorney earlier in the day -- and after spending time
thinking about his possible conflict while away on vacation in California.

"I had to think about it all weekend and when I came back Tuesday, I was fairly certain I would recuse myself,
" McGinty said. "Thankfully, we are fortunate to have a great bench -- a whole bank of qualified judges to hear
this case, even if one of us has a minor conflict.
The appearance of justice is very important. We cannot have any conflict in these cases."

The judge had already heard a handful of requests from defense attorneys on the Sowell case. He had said earlier this
 week that the trial would likely start in three to four months.

The newly appointed judge will likely revisit any motions heard by McGinty, Judge Gallagher said. The timeline for
 hearing the case, however, will likely remain the same unless the next judge has any scheduling conflicts with other
 upcoming cases, she said.

McGinty would not elaborate on the nature of his conflict, one he deemed substantial enough to take him off the case.

Plain Dealer Editor Susan Golberg, however, said the judge had expressed clear views on the Sowell case in a series
of e-mails he had sent to the newspaper before he was appointed to hear the murder trial.

"Those e-mails created an impossible ethical position," Goldberg said. "When he sent them, he wasn't appointed to
the case. But when he was the one among 34 judges in Cuyahoga County who was going to be the judge on the Sowell
 trial, it created a serious problem.

"We then knew the judge had strong feelings about not just any capital murder case -- but had strong views about
the one he was going to hear. We needed to reveal that."

Copies of McGinty's e-mails to the paper, however, include the words "off the record" at the top of the text.
The judge said Thursday evening that he would not comment when asked about the e-mails, nor whether he was at
any time on the record with reporters or editors.

But Goldberg said at least the initial contact by the judge did not qualify as off the record by the usual
journalistic standards of the practice.

"I believe that there needs to be a clear agreement up front -- before any communication," she said.
"You can't just give information and say it's 'off the record' if there is no agreement. In this case,
there wasn't -- at least not with me."

[cw618]

http://blog.cleveland.com/pdextra/2009/12/cleveland_sex-_crime_cases_neg.html

Cleveland sex- crime cases neglected Police division becomes target of internal investigation
By Plain Dealer staff
December 09, 2009, 10:19PM
This story was originally published May 26, 2002

Mike Tobin, The Plain Dealer

Nearly two summers have passed since 10-year-old Gloria told her father she was raped by a family friend in an East
Side home they were visiting.

Everybody at the house that June night knew whom the girl had accused.

At least four people saw the heated exchange that erupted after he was confronted.

But it was months before Cleveland sex- crimes detectives interviewed any of those witnesses, according to Gloria's
family, and some still have not been contacted. Investigators have routinely failed to return her mother's desperate
 phone calls.

For nearly a year, police now acknowledge, they couldn't even find her case file.

And so, 658 days after young Gloria says she was raped, no one has even been charged.

Her alleged attacker, a 50-year-old man with a history of sexual abuse, according to relatives, is still free.

And Gloria (not her real name) has joined the growing ranks of sexual assault victims whose complaints have been
ignored, botched or bungled by the troubled Sex Crimes Unit of the Cleveland Police Department.

Once considered elite, Cleveland's sex unit is now roundly scorned by prosecutors. Its investigators, they say,
are overworked, burned out, poorly trained and unsupervised - and the cases they have produced are weak.

"They're terrible," says one veteran prosecutor. "They're just not real solid."

The shoddy investigations, prosecutors say, have led to lost cases, reduced charges and lenient treatment
for sex offenders.

"They make you feel like you don't count," Gloria's mother said tearfully, "like your child just doesn't matter."

The unit's problems, hidden for years, have bubbled to the surface in the past year.

One of its detectives pleaded guilty to four misdemeanors in March and resigned after allegations that he took bribes
 and ignored more than 50 sexual-assault cases, leaving them uninvestigated in his desk drawer.

An Internal Affairs investigation, expanded from that one detective to the entire unit, has been under way for a year.


Sex- crimes supervisors, amid accusations that they had no idea what their detectives were doing, have been
reassigned - for unrelated reasons, according to officials.

Meanwhile, city records show that the unit hasn't been able to account for the cases it has handled, much less for
how those cases turned out.

The unit could not produce a complete set of records for any of the last four years. No accounting at all was
available for cases handled in 2000.

Police officials say unit supervisors were too busy that year to file logs. They say they have improved since then.

But critics say the unit's biggest problem is too many cases and too few detectives. Police officials say they hope
to increase staffing, but admit they have no plan in the works.

Unmanageable caseloads are the primary reason for the plummeting quality of Cleveland's sex- crimes investigations,
says Steve Dever, chief trial counsel for the Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office.

"They have an avalanche of cases," he said. "There's too few people to do the investigations."

Others are more pointed.

"My experience," said another prosecutor, "is that they suck."

Some sex- crimes detectives are smart, hard-working investigators who are simply overwhelmed, he said. But others
 are lazy, don't do the necessary legwork and have been allowed to get away with it for years.

"For a long time," the prosecutor said, " Cleveland's sex- crimes unit has been a dirty little secret."


Secret comes out

But with the downfall of Detective Gregory Wheeler, the secret is out.

kinda long rest of story at link


cleveland police have always had a problem and a history with corruption