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Author Topic: 11 dead/ALL ID'd at Anthony Sowell's Ohio home (CONVICTED)  (Read 95028 times)
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trimmonthelake
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« Reply #20 on: November 03, 2009, 04:03:46 PM »

  Breaking News:More Body Bags Reportedly Taken From Home of Cleveland Sex Offender
http://www.foxnews.com/
Not article yet.
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« Reply #21 on: November 03, 2009, 04:45:08 PM »

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,571366,00.html?test=latestnews
More Body Bags Reportedly Taken From Rapist's Ohio House

Tuesday, November 03, 2009
 More body bags were taken from a backyard of the Ohio home of convicted sexual predator Anthony Sowell on Tuesday, Fox 8 Cleveland reported.

Cadaver dogs searched the backyard throughout the day for any additional remains, and authorities used a backhoe to dig up portions of the yard, the station reported.

"We hope they don't find anymore," said Renee Cash, whose family operates Ray's Sausage, across the street from Sowell's home.

Authorities reportedly plan to continue searching the property through the night.

Sowell's neighbors have said they complained for years about a foul smell coming from an area near his house, Fox 8 Cleveland reported.

Now a Cleveland city councilman wants to launch an investigation into whether police and health inspectors failed to pick up on any signs that could have led them to the six bodies around Sowell's house any sooner.

Councilman Zack Reed said he had previously alerted health inspectors about the odor. Reed said he couldn't understand how police officers could have missed the stench when they were called to the home over the years.

Someone "dropped the ball," said Reed, according to Fox 8.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the home of convicted Ohio sex offender Anthony Sowell for a candelight vigil on Monday night, Fox 8 Cleveland reported.

The vigil was held in honor of the six women whose remains were found on Sowell's property.

Families held up photographs of missing women who have disappeared since Sowell was released from prison in 2005.

"I believe my mother is going to be one of these women that's missing," a woman told the crowd gathered outside the house, Fox 8 reported.

"She went missing from 118th and Kinsman, right around the corner."

Relatives of Nancy Cobb's, who disappeared in April, also have questions for Sowell.

"Why? What did she do to make him do this? Any of them, what did any of them do to deserve this," Cobb's daughter Kyana Hunt said, according to Fox 8.
Gloria Walker's family members — she disappeared in April 2007 — are holding out hope that she was not one of Sowell's victims.

"It's been horrible for the entire family," said Sandy Drain, a relative of Gloria Walker's.

"We really would like to have closure and we still pray that she's alive but we're still looking for closure."

Michelle Mason was last seen one block away from Sowell's house when she vanished a year ago.

Her son, Franklin Williams, has mixed emotions.

"I been going back and forth, I think of it as closure...if it might be, if it does happen. But then it's like still again I want her to be found, and I still want her to be here," Williams said, according to Fox 8.

Telacia Fortson, 31, disappeared in May. She left behind her three young children.

"The last time I saw her, she kissed me on the forehead and said 'I'll be here next week', and I said 'Okay' but I never heard from her again," Fortson's mother Inez Fortson told Fox 8.

Janice Webb disappeared in June. Her sister, Joanne Moore, is afraid Webb might be a victim of Sowell's.

"(Sowell) doesn't exist as far as I'm concerned, he does not exist. Anybody that's that evil. He is evil," Moore said.

The families won't know if their loved ones fell victim to Sowell until the coroner's office completes the DNA testing.

Four families of missing women have submitted DNA samples to the coroner's office to help
identify the bodies. Authorities are seeking samples from Sowell as well.
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« Reply #22 on: November 03, 2009, 05:07:06 PM »

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,571366,00.html?test=latestnews
More Body Bags Reportedly Taken From Rapist's Ohio House

Tuesday, November 03, 2009
 More body bags were taken from a backyard of the Ohio home of convicted sexual predator Anthony Sowell on Tuesday, Fox 8 Cleveland reported.

Cadaver dogs searched the backyard throughout the day for any additional remains, and authorities used a backhoe to dig up portions of the yard, the station reported.

"We hope they don't find anymore," said Renee Cash, whose family operates Ray's Sausage, across the street from Sowell's home.

Authorities reportedly plan to continue searching the property through the night.

Sowell's neighbors have said they complained for years about a foul smell coming from an area near his house, Fox 8 Cleveland reported.

Now a Cleveland city councilman wants to launch an investigation into whether police and health inspectors failed to pick up on any signs that could have led them to the six bodies around Sowell's house any sooner.

Councilman Zack Reed said he had previously alerted health inspectors about the odor. Reed said he couldn't understand how police officers could have missed the stench when they were called to the home over the years.

Someone "dropped the ball," said Reed, according to Fox 8.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the home of convicted Ohio sex offender Anthony Sowell for a candelight vigil on Monday night, Fox 8 Cleveland reported.

The vigil was held in honor of the six women whose remains were found on Sowell's property.

Families held up photographs of missing women who have disappeared since Sowell was released from prison in 2005.

"I believe my mother is going to be one of these women that's missing," a woman told the crowd gathered outside the house, Fox 8 reported.

"She went missing from 118th and Kinsman, right around the corner."

Relatives of Nancy Cobb's, who disappeared in April, also have questions for Sowell.

"Why? What did she do to make him do this? Any of them, what did any of them do to deserve this," Cobb's daughter Kyana Hunt said, according to Fox 8.
Gloria Walker's family members — she disappeared in April 2007 — are holding out hope that she was not one of Sowell's victims.

"It's been horrible for the entire family," said Sandy Drain, a relative of Gloria Walker's.

"We really would like to have closure and we still pray that she's alive but we're still looking for closure."

Michelle Mason was last seen one block away from Sowell's house when she vanished a year ago.

Her son, Franklin Williams, has mixed emotions.

"I been going back and forth, I think of it as closure...if it might be, if it does happen. But then it's like still again I want her to be found, and I still want her to be here," Williams said, according to Fox 8.

Telacia Fortson, 31, disappeared in May. She left behind her three young children.

"The last time I saw her, she kissed me on the forehead and said 'I'll be here next week', and I said 'Okay' but I never heard from her again," Fortson's mother Inez Fortson told Fox 8.

Janice Webb disappeared in June. Her sister, Joanne Moore, is afraid Webb might be a victim of Sowell's.

"(Sowell) doesn't exist as far as I'm concerned, he does not exist. Anybody that's that evil. He is evil," Moore said.

The families won't know if their loved ones fell victim to Sowell until the coroner's office completes the DNA testing.

Four families of missing women have submitted DNA samples to the coroner's office to help
identify the bodies. Authorities are seeking samples from Sowell as well.

This is another case where the police failed.   Makes me sick that this monster did this to these women.
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« Reply #23 on: November 03, 2009, 05:37:33 PM »

Police discovered a seventh body at the Cleveland, Ohio, home of a convicted rapist arrested this weekend after the decomposing bodies of women were unearthed at his residence, a source close to the investigation told CNN.

The source, who was not authorized to speak on the record, did not give the gender of the seventh body found at the home of Anthony Sowell, 50. The source did not say exactly where the body was found at the residence.

Cleveland police have scheduled a news conference for 6 p.m. (ET) Tuesday to discuss the investigation.

http://www.wibw.com/nationalnews/headlines/68939802.html
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« Reply #24 on: November 03, 2009, 05:51:19 PM »

Cleveland police find 8th body at home
Published: Nov. 3, 2009 at 4:49 PM
CLEVELAND, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Police say they found two more bodies at the Cleveland home of accused serial killer Anthony Sowell.

That brings to eight the number of bodies found at the home of Sowell, 50, who was arrested Saturday after the discovery of the decomposing bodies of five women inside his house and another outside.

Workers resumed digging at the home Tuesday, and a tent is being put up in the back yard so crews can dig through the night, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported. The newspaper said authorities had stopped searching for bodies for two days .

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2009/11/03/Cleveland-police-find-8th-body-at-home/UPI-98491257282734/
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« Reply #25 on: November 03, 2009, 06:24:58 PM »

CLEVELAND -- Cleveland police Chief Michael McGrath said four more bodies have been discovered at a Cleveland home on Tuesday, bringing the total of bodies found there up to 10.  MORE>>>>>>>>>>
http://www.kypost.com/content/wcposhared/story/Four-More-Bodies-Removed-From-Ohio-Home/4w4YG_KMzE2KXmncmb66Ow.cspx
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« Reply #26 on: November 03, 2009, 06:46:04 PM »

CLEVELAND -- Cleveland police Chief Michael McGrath said four more bodies have been discovered at a Cleveland home on Tuesday, bringing the total of bodies found there up to 10.  MORE>>>>>>>>>>
http://www.kypost.com/content/wcposhared/story/Four-More-Bodies-Removed-From-Ohio-Home/4w4YG_KMzE2KXmncmb66Ow.cspx


The lives of at least 10 women have been taken by Anthony Sowell.  And I fear their deaths weren't quick or painless.  I pray all of his victims can be identified to help give the victims families and friends closure and each victim given  a proper burial.   an angelic monkey  And I pray there will be justice for the victims  with a  trial, sentencing and punishment of Anthony Sowell, but at the moment, I can't think of anything that would be adequate punishment for the lives he's taken and the crimes he's committed.   
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« Reply #27 on: November 03, 2009, 07:06:32 PM »

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/6701540.html
Police: 4 more bodies found at Ohio rapist's home
By JOHN SEEWER and THOMAS J. SHEERAN Associated Press Writers © 2009 The Associated Press
Nov. 3, 2009, 5:54PM
 CLEVELAND — More remains were discovered Tuesday at the Cleveland home of a convicted rapist, raising to 10 the number of bodies that have been found there, authorities said.

Four more bodies and a skull were found at the home, where the remains of six women were removed last week, said police Chief Michael McGrath. Fifty-year-old Anthony Sowell, who lives in the home, is in jail and was charged Tuesday with five counts of aggravated murder.

"It appears that this man had an insatiable appetite that he had to fill," McGrath said.

He said the additional bodies were found buried in the backyard of the home. The skull was found in a bucket in the basement.

Authorities do not know whether the skull belongs to an 11th victim, said police spokesman Lt. Thomas Stacho.


The search was to continue Wednesday, with fire department crews planning to search in the walls of the home, McGrath said.

Last week, investigators said they found one body in a shallow grave in the backyard. The rest were inside the house — one in the basement, two in the third-floor living room and two in an upstairs crawl space.

Police discovered the first six bodies Thursday and Friday after a woman reported being raped at Sowell's home, and Sowell also was charged Tuesday with rape, felonious assault and kidnapping related to her complaint.

Sowell is to be arraigned Wednesday, Stacho said.
The Cuyahoga County coroner is attempting to identify those women through DNA and dental records. All six were black, and five were strangled.

The bodies could have been there anywhere from weeks to months to years, said Powell Caesar, a spokesman for the coroner.

On Tuesday, detectives brought in cadaver dogs and digging equipment to scour the home and backyard, looking for evidence to connect Sowell to the bodies, Stacho said.

Police turned up nothing in a search of a quarter-mile swath of abandoned, boarded-up homes near Sowell's residence, which sits in a crowded inner-city neighborhood of mostly older houses.

They plan to scour another quarter-mile area Wednesday, McGrath said. He said Sowell did not have a car would have had to take a city bus to travel.

A crowd of about a hundred people milled about and chatted near the home Tuesday evening.

One of those in the crowd, Antoinnette Dudley, 29, lives a few houses away. She said she could smell a terrible odor like something was dead all summer. She said she saw Sowell only a few times, mainly drinking beer while he sat on his porch.

The discovery of more bodies Tuesday surprised Dudley. "I didn't think he was that sick," she said.

Sowell is a registered sex offender and required to check in regularly at the sheriff's office. Officers didn't have the right to enter his house, but they would stop by to make sure he was there. Their most recent visit was Sept. 22, just hours before the woman reported being raped.

For the past few years, Sowell's neighbors thought the foul smell enveloping their street corner had been coming from a brick building where workers churned out sausage and head cheese.

It got so bad that the owners of Ray's Sausage replaced their sewer line and grease traps.

City Councilman Zack Reed, whose mother lives a block from the area, said he called the city health department on more than one occasion.

"What happened from there, we don't know," he said. "It was no secret that there was a foul odor. We don't want to point fingers, but clearly something could have been done differently."
Reed said he and other community leaders want an investigation into whether police and health inspectors missed any signs that could have tipped them off to the bodies inside the house.
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« Reply #28 on: November 03, 2009, 07:07:48 PM »

This man is a monster.   
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« Reply #29 on: November 03, 2009, 08:07:48 PM »

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5A306S20091104
Ten corpses found at Cleveland home
Tue Nov 3, 2009 7:53pm EST
 By Kim Palmer

CLEVELAND, Ohio (Reuters) - A convicted rapist was charged with multiple murders on Tuesday after police dug up 10 corpses at his home, which produced a stench of death in the depressed Cleveland neighborhood.

Authorities searched the fetid property owned by Anthony Sowell with a backhoe, jackhammers, wall saws, and cadaver dogs. They planned to take the three-story house apart.

Four bodies were found in the back yard, while six others were discovered elsewhere on the property, including in the basement of the house. A skull wrapped in a paper bag in a bucket could be an eleventh victim.

Five of the victims were black women who had been strangled, according to the coroner.

Sowell, 50, was arrested over the weekend for rape. The victim said he had invited her in for a drink then became enraged and choked her with an extension cord.
When police entered Sowell's house they found two decomposing bodies lying on a floor upstairs.

A sausage store next door to Sowell's home was blamed for the rank smell wafting through the neighborhood, but an attempt at repairs failed to stop the odor.

Sowell, who served in the military in the 1970s and 1980s, was charged with five murders as well as five counts of rape, kidnapping and assault. Other charges are likely after more of the victims are identified.

Authorities were trying to match the victims' DNA to that of missing women. "In some cases, no missing person's report was made," said Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath.

He said Sowell cooperated with authorities initially but later requested a lawyer. "It appears he had an insatiable appetite he needed to fill," McGrath told reporters.

Neighborhood residents said they avoided Sowell, who was released from prison in 2005 after serving 15 years for raping a pregnant woman.
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« Reply #30 on: November 03, 2009, 08:18:18 PM »

Prayers for the victims and their families... an angelic monkey
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« Reply #31 on: November 03, 2009, 08:36:48 PM »

Prayers for the victims and their families... an angelic monkey

I cannot imagine how the people of missing loved ones feel as they stand there across the street watching these bodies being brought out. That is the saddest scene. I pray for them to be able to get through this awful thing.  an angelic monkey

 How can people like him live among society, no matter that they were in a poor neighborhood. There is no excuse for the police in this. None. How can this be? 
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« Reply #32 on: November 03, 2009, 08:50:48 PM »

The police really dropped the ball on this one!  They were probably too busy arresting kids with joints.  They didn't have time to investigate rape and murder!

 

I wouldn't want to be a woman in that city!  Obviously, the police there are a bunch of male chauvinist pigs.
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« Reply #33 on: November 03, 2009, 09:21:48 PM »

This man is a monster.   

an evil despicable sonofabitch comes to mind... i hope every police officer that responded to this house is brought up on administrative or criminal charges for neglecting the obvious stench that was so obvious to the neighbors...
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« Reply #34 on: November 03, 2009, 09:23:56 PM »

Prayers for the victims and their families... an angelic monkey
prayers that they can even figure out who the victims are... sounds disgusting but at least he strangled them as opposed to stabbing them... open wounds further the decomp and who knows how long they have been there to begin with...
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« Reply #35 on: November 04, 2009, 07:07:54 AM »

http://www2.counton2.com/cbd/news/crime/article/10_bodies_discovered_at_ohio_rapists_home_and_search_for_more_victims_will_/81624/

10 bodies discovered at Ohio rapist’s home and search for more victims will continue
CNN
Published: November 4, 2009
Updated: November 4, 2009
Investigators will continue their grisly dig Wednesday after finding that the Cleveland, Ohio home of a convicted rapist had been turned into a tomb holding at least 10 bodies.

Fire officials were scheduled to help in the search inside the house of Anthony Sowell, with plans to tear into walls and floors of the three-story home for more remains.

“I like to believe there is nothing else more there, but we will not know until we finish the search,“ said Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath. “It appears that this man had an insatiable appetite that he had to fill.“

Authorities charged Sowell, 50, with five counts of aggravated murder Tuesday afternoon, police said. He was also charged with rape, felonious assault and kidnapping, police said. His arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday morning.

He had been arrested Saturday, two days after police discovered the decomposing bodies of five females inside his home and another woman’s body outside the house.

Four more bodies were discovered Tuesday buried in the yard behind the home, police said. A skull wrapped in a bag was also found in a bucket in the basement.

Authorities had not yet identified any of the victims. Because of the conditions of the bodies, authorities would have to conduct the lengthy process of DNA tests, McGrath said.

The first six bodies found last week were all African-American women and five of them had been strangled, McGrath said.

“I can imagine how families feel who have reported a missing person, and the anxiety that they are going through,“ Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said. “And we want to assure them as soon as we know something they will be the first to know.“

And as investigators poured through missing person’s reports, some in the area wondered how long the home in their neighborhood had been turned into a graveyard.
“We never known about him,“ neighbor Mike Edwards, told CNN-affiliate WKYC. “Right there in the house. Right there and I lived here all of my life.“

Sowell was convicted for a 1989 rape and was imprisoned from 1990 to 2005, police said. Since his release from prison he was listed as living at the Cleveland home where the bodies were found, McGrath said.

Authorities from the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office checked on Sowell regularly and last checked on him September 22 to confirm his address and found no problems, McGrath said.

Police began to get suspicious of Sowell about a month ago, after a woman accused him of rape and assault, said Cleveland Lt. Thomas Stacho.

Investigators obtained the warrants that set off the search after getting the “cooperation of the victim,“ he said.

Stacho said Sowell makes his living as a “scrapper.“

“He walks around and picks up scrap metal and takes it to junk yards to make a few pennies,“ he said.

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« Reply #36 on: November 04, 2009, 08:06:09 AM »

November 4, 2009

Suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell to appear in court after more grisly finds

Rapist and suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell will appear in court today to answer five charges of aggravated murder, as police searching his home found a further four bodies and a human skull.

The latest discoveries bring the total number of human remains to emerge from Sowell's ramshackle inner city property in Cleveland, Ohio, to ten — with the skull suggesting a possible eleventh victim.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6902527.ece
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« Reply #37 on: November 04, 2009, 08:33:44 AM »

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

Anthony Sowell's neighbors wonder how stench of rotting bodies went undetected for years
By Mark Puente, The Plain Dealer
November 03, 2009, 3:50AM


The crime scene around Anthony Sowell's home is still blocked off at the intersection of East 123rd Street and Imperial Avenue. People in the neighborhood believe the strong odor in the area came from a sausage shop on the corner.Read more: Six bodies on Cleveland's East Side draw attention from around the globe

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The stench in the air near East 123rd Street and Imperial Avenue left residents baffled for years.

Drain pipes were flushed. A sewer line was replaced. But the smell still lingered.

Some residents believed the overpowering odor came from a 57-year-old sausage shop on the corner. Others were still convinced it was the sewers.

Last week, police discovered the source of the odor -- it was beyond residents’ worst fears. At least six decomposing bodies lie in and around the house at 12205 Imperial Ave. The corpses could have been accumulating there for years, authorities said.

Anthony Sowell, 50, is being held in City Jail on a rape warrant as detectives try to determine if he killed the six women. All the bodies found inside the home Thursday and Friday have been identified as black females. Five died by strangulation, according to police. The last died of unknown causes.

The coroner’s office is trying to determine their identities. Officers entered the home Thursday night with an arrest warrant after a woman accused him of raping her and choking her with an extension cord, police said. Police arrested him Saturday about a mile from his house.

A man familiar with decomposing bodies said it takes someone familiar with rotting bodies to detect the odor. The smell is extremely pungent and hard to describe, said Albert Samuels, chief investigator for the Wayne County medical examiner in Detroit.

He compared the odor to a pile of rotting meat.

"Not many people know what a dead body smells like," he said. "It’s a very, very strong smell that is foul and indistinguishable. It’s the mixture of gas, flesh and blood. It’s rotting foul flesh. It’s the reason people are embalmed."

The foul odor eventually loses its edge until a body is disturbed, Samuels said. Still, he is amazed that people lived with the smell for years.

"Hindsight is 20-20," Samuels said, "but it should have alerted someone."

Cleveland Health Director Matt Carroll said the department has not had any recent complaints about foul smells in the neighborhood or at Sowell’s house.

Bystanders have milled around the intersection since Friday afternoon, wondering why nobody realized the root of the stench.

Ray’s Sausage sits next to Sowell’s house. The company makes and distributes pork products all over the region. Some residents in the neighborhood had accused the shop of emitting the overpowering odor.

"People used to think it was the sausage shop," said the owner of a pizza shop across the street. "We now realize what it was."

The owner of Ray’s Sausage always scoffed at the idea that her business stunk.

Renee Cash said the smell baffled her and other employees and that they always took extra steps to clean equipment because nobody knew the cause of the odor. State inspectors regularly visit the business and find no violations, she added.

"If we had any smells like that, we wouldn’t be in business for 57 years," Cash said. "That is wrong. This smell from here makes you want to eat."

Drains lines on the street have been cleaned and flushed in the last few years, but the odor still overpowered people in the second-floor offices of the sausage shop. Employees smelled the odor as soon as they walked up the steps, Cash said, and they kept the windows closed.

The windows sit six feet from Sowell’s house, and police removed a body from a shallow grave just below the windows. Cash never figured the smell to be rotting bodies. She believes the smell has lingered since at least 2006.

"We always thought it was the sewers," Cash said. "We’ve been smelling something for a long time."

Eli Tayeh manages a convenience store at the intersection and said Sowell frequented the business twice a day to buy King Cobra beer. He called Sowell a nice man but said he cringed when Sowell walked through the door.

"He smelled bad," Tayeh said. "I was always too embarrassed to ask him about it."
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« Reply #38 on: November 04, 2009, 08:37:56 AM »

I live about 35 miles from here.  It makes me absolutely sick.  The poor families and souls of those missing women, no one would listen or help.  This area is the poorest of the poor in Cleveland. 

I won't be surprised if one of the victims was his step mother, who owned the house.  Supposedly she transferred to a nursing home some years ago and they're trying to locate her.
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« Reply #39 on: November 04, 2009, 08:53:54 AM »

Breaking News  Man Who Lived in Ohio Home Where 10 Bodies Found Ordered Held Without Bond
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  ~241~ "The Longer You Love,The Longer You Live,The Stronger You Feel,The More You Can Give."
~ Peter Frampton
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