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

[trimmonthelake]

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/11/sowell_held_without_bond.html
Anthony Sowell held without bond today
By Mark Puente, The Plain Dealer
November 04, 2009, 9:06AM

Anthony Sowell, right, stands behind Public Defender Kathleen DeMetz during his court appearance today in Cleveland. Sowell, 50, has been charged with five counts of aggravated murder and held without bond after 10 bodies were discovered in his home over the past few days.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A judge ordered Anthony Sowell to be held without bond this morning on five counts of aggravated murder in an ongoing investigation into the discovery of at least 10 bodies in his house and yard on Imperial Avenue.

Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Ronald Adrine said that the charges were the most serious allegations he had ever seen.

Assistant County Prosecutor Brian Murphy said "the state believes [Sowell] is an incredibly dangerous threat to the public, not only in Cleveland, but beyond the city's limits."

Murphy said that Sowell is facing the death penalty.

Police said there would be a briefing at noon at which time they would discuss what's next in the investigation. Police have a warrant to thoroughly search the house where 10 bodies and a skull have been found.

In asking that bond be set, Public Defender Kathleen DeMetz noted that Sowell is on a pacemaker and has a heart condition.

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jGQmSQzOVfHOMgQ6cXJ1eqhsCS-QD9BOOGU04
No bond for rapist who had 10 bodies at Ohio home

(AP) – 32 minutes ago

CLEVELAND — A rapist who lived at a Cleveland house where 10 bodies were found has been ordered held without bond.

Anthony Sowell appeared Wednesday before Municipal Court Judge Ronald Adrine (AY'-dreen) on five counts of aggravated murder.

The 50-year-old Sowell looked straight at the judge as a prosecutor asked that he be held without bond and described him as an "incredibly dangerous threat to the public."

Sowell has been in jail since last week after police recovered the bodies of six women from his home.

Authorities dug up four more bodies Tuesday and found a skull in his basement.

Police plan to resume a search of the house Wednesday and expand their search of vacant homes in the neighborhood.

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/04/earlyshow/main5522335.shtml
CLEVELAND, Nov. 4, 2009
Finger-pointing at Police in Ohio Murders
Kin of Possible Victim of Alleged Cleveland Serial Killer Say Cops Were Callous; Was Stench from Suspect's Home Ignored?
(CBS)   Criticism of Cleveland police is intensifying, even as the search for victims of an alleged serial killer expands.

Police say they've found four more decomposing bodies -- and a skull -- at the home of convicted rapist Anthony Sowell, bringing to ten the number of bodies discovered there.

Authorities say they'll start knocking down walls in the house seeking more, as well as starting to look in nearby vacant homes in the low-income neighborhood, reports CBS News Correspondent Randall Pinkston.

For months, says Pinkston, there were complaints about a foul smell in the neighborhood, but many residents thought the odor was from a sausage factory there.

Police were led to Sowell late last month when a woman came forward with allegations of rape.
Because Sowell was a registered sex offender, police would drop by his house to check on him, Pinkston explains.

But, officials insist, before last week, there was never any reason to suspect Sowell of murder. "At that address over the last three years," Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath told reporters, "including the call we just had on Oct. 20, there was only one other call to that address."

Relatives of missing women are watching anxiously, wondering if their loved ones are among the victims, Pinkston points out.

Among them, the daughter and mother of Tonia Carmichael, who vanished almost a year ago. Her car was found soon after, just blocks from Sowell's home. Carmichael, a heavy drug user, used to go to the neighborhood to buy drugs, her family tells CBS News.

Carmichael's daughter, Donnita Carmichael, and mother, Barbara Carmichael, complained about police conduct to "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith. Wednesday. They said just because Tonia was a drug user doesn't mean she wasn't a person, or that her disappearance deserved to go unanswered for the last year, as the family begged authorities for help finding her.

Now, police have asked for Tonia's dental records (to help them identify Tonia's body, if she is one of the victims) and, Donnita told Smith, that makes her "very concerned, and even almost for certain that she is, indeed, gonna come back as one of these victims from this heinous crime. It has been a year. And ironically, her one-year anniversary is on the 10th of this month, which is Tuesday. And by them asking us for the information that they asked for, it's a gut feeling that this is gonna be the end of it for this family.”
Smith read a statement from a woman who escaped from Sowell's house after, the woman says, Sowell started to try to choke her. The woman said Sowell remarked, "You're just another crack (blank) from the street. No one will know if you're missing."

Asked by Smith if she thinks "that's part of what happened here? Is it possible that people just didn't care about people like your mother?," Donnita replied, "I think it is very much possible. And, in fact, I think that is exactly the case. Not just my mother being missing, but all of the women that went missing from this area, I think they were stereotyped, I think, because they had a drug addiction, whether it was crack, alcohol, heroin, or whatever drug of their choice, or just having to fall on hard times and relying on the streets to be their home and their comfort. I believe he preyed on them. And I believe, from the time that we initially tried to report my mother missing in Cleveland, they did nothing as far as looking for her. So, yes, I indeed strongly believe that, not just my mother, but a lot of these cases out here with these women being missing, their age didn't make a difference, her being on the street, and living the lifestyle that she did very well made a difference in them not looking for her or for anybody else that was missing, for that matter."

Tonia's mother and Donnita's grandmother, Barbara, told Smith, "If she's (Tonia's) in there, I'd like for her to be identified, because it's agony not knowing what happened to her.

"What upset me so bad, when I went to the police to try to report her missing, the Fourth District would not take the report, because she lived in (a nearby police district), (even though) she disappeared right around the corner from them, we found the car there. We went to (the other police district) after she was gone three weeks. They belittled it. They made jokes, (such as) 'Oh, go home, she'll show up by Christmas, after the drugs are all gone.' And they wouldn't even take the report. I had to go back up and demand to see the officer in charge. That's the only way I got her reported missing."

Cleveland police have refused repeated requests from CBS News for a response to the Carmichaels' allegations

[penny for your thoughts]

screw his pacemaker... they have a lot of nerve even asking for bail... innocent until proven guilty my ass for this guy... how else could you explain 10 dead bodies.... jackass scumbag i hope he loses a couple of appendages in jail and never makes it to trial... save the money for the trial and hire yourselves a new police department

[Fanny Mae]

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.

I am glad you brought this up, because I had heard of the elderly step mother in her 80's who was trying to evict him because he wouldn't pay his rent and utilities, and then she disappeared. I am guessing they have been unable to find her in a nursing home. 

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.newser.com/article/d9bouk100/detectives-prepare-to-tear-apart-walls-of-ohio-rapists-home-looking-for-evidence-more-bodies.html
 Detectives prepare to tear apart walls of Ohio rapist's home looking for evidence, more bodies
Detectives set to tear down walls of rapist's home   9 minutes ago in   US   
A convicted rapist who lived among 10 corpses was ordered held without bond Wednesday as investigators prepared to begin tearing apart walls inside the house in search of more evidence or bodies.
Anthony Sowell appeared in court under tight security, wearing a blue paper jumpsuit typically used when an inmate might be a suicide risk. His wrists and ankles were manacled, and he walked into court staggering slightly.

Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Brian Murphy called Sowell "an incredibly dangerous threat to the public" and said he could face the death penalty if convicted of the charges _ five aggravated murder counts for the victims whose cause of death has been ruled strangulation. In addition, he faces charges of rape, felonious assault and kidnapping for a Sept. 22 attack on a woman at his home.

Public defender Kathleen DeMetz told the judge that Sowell has medical problems, including a heart pacemaker and cardiac medication. He was laid off two years ago and receives unemployment compensation.

The case now goes before the county grand jury.

Police discovered the first six bodies Thursday and Friday after a woman reported being raped at Sowell's home. 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.

They found four more bodies Tuesday in Sowell's backyard, as well as a skull wrapped in paper inside a bucket in his basement.
After Sowell's court appearance, Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba said investigators have finished digging through the backyard and will begin tearing apart walls inside the house Wednesday in search of more evidence or bodies.

"We're going to go bit by bit, piece by piece," he said.

The Cuyahoga County coroner hasn't identified any of the bodies but is trying to do so through DNA and dental records. The six found last week were black, and five of them were strangled.

Sowell served 15 years in prison for a 1989 rape. On Tuesday, Police Chief Michael McGrath said: "It appears that this man had an insatiable appetite that he had to fill."

A crowd of around 100 people milled about and chatted near the home Tuesday evening. A short while later, around 50 people joined hands and put their arms around one another in the middle of the street and prayed aloud.

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.

"I didn't think he was that sick," she said.
As a registered sex offender, Sowell was 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.

(This version CORRECTS police chief's last name to McGrath, not Grath.)

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/usworld/news-article.aspx?storyid=147637&catid=6
Four More Bodies Found at Ohio Home, Six Found Last Week
 Taren Reed     Created: 11/4/2009 3:26:15 PM    Updated: 11/4/2009 3:31:05 PM
CLEVELAND, OH -- The Cleveland man suspected in the murders of as many as ten people, all of who were found buried at his house, had a first court appearance Wednesday morning.

Anthony Sowell went before a municipal court judge in Cleveland.

It happened a day after authorities discovered at least four more bodies and a skull buried at his house.

The judge refused to let him out on bail.

"Mister Sowell in 28 years of being on this bench, this is without question the most serious set of allegations that I have ever faced," said Cleveland Municipal Judge Ronald Adrine.

Sowell has been in jail since last week after police recovered the bodies of six women from his property.
They're now done digging.

"We're finished with the excavation in the backyard, said Deputy Cleveland Police Chief Ed Tomba.

Investigators plan to now move their search inside Sowell's home.

Police were led to the home and all the buried bodies after a woman accused Sowell of raping her there.

None of the bodies have been identified yet.

That explains the steady stream of people with missing loved ones in the Cleveland area now approaching police.

"It's been a minimal we did have somebody come up to our command bus last night on imperial avenue but we've had probably about a half dozen or so," Tomba said.

Sowell stands charged of five counts of aggravated murder but many more charges are expected.

Anthony Sowell is a convicted rapist who served 15 years in prison before his release in 2005 and his move into the house where all the bodies have been found buried.

[Fanny Mae]

I watched video on HLN of Sowell's hearing today, and his female public defender look terrified throughout the hearing, and there were three police officers standing shoulder to shoulder and behind him.  He is the epitome of a MONSTER. 

One body has been identified through DNA, but not released publicly yet. 

[Nut44x4]

1 ID'd
The first of at least 10 victims found dead on the Cleveland property of a convicted rapist and former Marine was identified Wednesday as Tania Carmichael, a 52-year-old mother who battled drugs and disappeared a year ago.

Carmichael struggled with drug addiction and vanished in November 2008, her daughter Donita Carmichael told Fox News' Shepard Smith. Her car was found only four blocks from sex offender Anthony Sowell's home, where investigators say they've discovered nine other bodies in the past week.

"From what we understand, he preyed on women that fit my mother's profile, women that suffered from drug addiction, that frequented that area," Donita Carmichael said. "And he ultimately did what he felt like doing, which was taking her life from her."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,571588,00.html

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jGQmSQzOVfHOMgQ6cXJ1eqhsCS-QD9BP06DG0
STORY REMOVED: US--Rapist's Home-Bodies

(AP) – 19 minutes ago

CLEVELAND — The Associated Press has withdrawn its story about a sex offender who lived in a Cleveland house where several corpses were found. Authorities say that despite a police news release that described Anthony Sowell as a convicted rapist, he was convicted only of attempted rape. The story will be refiled as CLEVELAND-BODIES FOUND.

The AP

[penny for your thoughts]

hln is reporting 11 now found

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gomr1KG0RTt_F4GkAa0kkpqJE7OgD9BP07EG4
Authorities: At least 11 victims at Cleveland home

(AP) – 19 minutes ago

CLEVELAND — Authorities say they have confirmed a total of at least 11 victims whose remains were found in the Cleveland home of a sex offender.

The Cuyahoga County coroner's office said Wednesday that a skull found in a bucket in Anthony Sowell's basement belonged to a body they have not yet found.

Authorities also say they have identified one of the victims as 53-year-old Tonia Carmichael, who disappeared a year ago.

Police Chief Michael McGrath says her remains were buried in the back yard and had marks indicating she was strangled.

Carmichael's daughter Markiesha Carmichael-Jacobs says her mother struggled with drug addiction and frequented Sowell's neighborhood.

[trimmonthelake]

 

[Lovinlife]

RIP Tonia


http://www.newsnet5.com/news/21528381/detail.html

Women Lured To Sowell's Home Likely Drug Addicted

POSTED: 6:39 am EST November 5, 2009
UPDATED: 11:38 am EST November 5, 2009

CLEVELAND -- As the body of one woman found in a home on the city's southeast side was identified, some residents maintain that police didn't investigate missing persons reports because the women were believed to be drug addicts.

Ten bodies and a skull have been discovered in an Imperial Home where Anthony Sowell, 50, had been living since being released from prison in 2005 on a rape charge.

Sowell appeared in court Wednesday. He is now charged with five counts of aggravated murder as well as rape, felonious assault and kidnapping. He was not granted bond.

Cuyahoga County Coroner Dr. Frank Miller identified one of the bodies as Tonia Carmichael. Her remains were identified through DNA. She went missing in November 2008.

Cleveland police don't take missing-persons cases seriously if they involve people clinging to the lower rungs of society, said Judy Martin, a leading local anti-crime advocate.

Because of this alleged mindset, Councilman Zach Reed is demanding an investigation into how crime reports in the neighborhood have been handled. Reed also said that his office received reports of a strong odor in the area and he wants to know how the complaints should be handled.

Mayor Frank Jackson refused to second-guess officers, but said he expected the police chief would evaluate the situation and make adjustments if necessary.

Police Chief Michael McGrath said the city takes about 10 missing-person reports a day but typically clears at least 90 percent within 48 hours.

Chuck Cole, a landlord with rental homes in the area, said most of the women who disappeared went by nicknames. He said he sometimes saw them buying beer at the corner convenience store, or lounging on Sowell's front porch.

"He reeled them in like that with the money and, you know, promises," Cole said of Sowell.

[Lovinlife]

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/11/7_bodies_in_anthony_sowell_cas.html

7 bodies in Anthony Sowell case found with cords around necks
By Mark Puente, The Plain Dealer
November 04, 2009, 10:10PM

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Seven of the 11 black females found strangled to death at Anthony Sowell's house had some sort of cord around their necks when their bodies were recovered, officials said.

An eighth victim was strangled by the killer's hands. Two other bodies were too decomposed to determine the cause of death, but Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller believes they died from homicidal violence.

An autopsy on the 11th victim is incomplete, Miller said at a news conference Wednesday.

Six victims were found in Sowell's house on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland, and five were removed from graves in the back yard, Miller said.

He described the objects found around the women's necks as ligatures but declined to give details about them.

In earlier attacks, Sowell used an extension cord and a necktie, according to police reports.

[Lovinlife]

Second victim at Anthony Sowell's house identified
By Gabriel Baird
November 05, 2009, 2:43PM

CLEVELAND, Ohio — A person found dead at suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell's home has been identified as Telacia Fortson, police sources said.

Fortson, 31, lived in East Cleveland. She was last seen in June, according to a missing person's report.

Sowell remains in jail facing charges of aggravated murder. Police have found 11 bodies at his home at Imperial Avenue.

Crews are expected to soon begin searching the house again for more bodies.

Authorities said Wednesday that all 11 victims were black women; eight of them had been strangled.

Fortson is the second person identified. Tonia Carmichael was identified Wednesday. Coroner's staff continue working to determine the identities of the other dead women.

Fortson's mother called East Cleveland police Saturday after she read about the bodies as Sowell's home. She told police she last saw her daughter in June. She told police her daughter used crack cocaine and was last seen wearing blue jeans and a blue shirt.

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

Rest in Peace Telacia    You didn't deserve this, no one deserves this.

[Nut44x4]

Thanks LL ... once we get more ID's I'll post photos w/ names in order of the ID, then I'll keep adding to that post as more get ID'd. Like what I have done in the New mexico bodies thread.

[Mtnmom]

NG saying 3 Id' D and as many as 14 more besides the 11.     

[Fanny Mae]

NG saying 3 Id' D and as many as 14 more besides the 11.     

Oh, no!!

[Lovinlife]

http://www.cleveland.com/morris/index.ssf/2009/11/a_missing_black_woman_isnt_wor.html

A missing black woman isn't worth much on the streets of Cleveland: Phillip Morris
By Phillip Morris November 06, 2009, 4:01AM
 
The life of a missing black woman isn't worth that much on the streets of Cleveland. If I've done my math right, a black woman is worth roughly a $1.50 plus tax.

That nominal fee is the going rate for a 40-ounce bottle of King Cobra Malt Liquor, the reported beverage of choice of accused serial killer Anthony Sowell. Police say he routinely made his $1.50 investment at a Mount Pleasant carryout, then used it to lure desperate women into his Imperial Avenue home.

Once he got them behind his closed door, police say, he sadistically raped and killed them before burying them in his basement and backyard.

And as the unmistakable smell of rotting human flesh enveloped the neighborhood around Sowell's house, a community shut its eyes and held it's nose, while Sowell kept making his run to the beverage store.

The registered sexual predator in their midst made little effort to conceal the horrors that police say he perpetrated on women, but a neighborhood -- and a city -- blithely ignored the parade of women walking into Sowell's home without ever walking out.

It appears that a serial killer was able to kill with abandon and confidence in a congested neighborhood because he knew that no one would bother to come looking.

The killer knew that on his streets, a black woman can simply disappear. No questions will be asked. He arrogantly told one of his victims, who managed to escape, that no one would come looking for her because she was a "crack bitch."

A group of some of Cleveland's most influential black clergymen gathered Thursday at a church near the crime scene and prayed. The church is so beautifully reactive. So are police. So are politicians. So are the media. They prayed for the victims, for the families of the victims and for a neighborhood and a city that continues to reel from depravity.

While they offered consolation to the grieving and support to law enforcement, Sheila Henderson of East Cleveland listened attentively.

We should be listening to her. Her personal testimony offers us an answer to so many of our questions.

"I've been clean eleven years. But those dead women are my sisters. For seven years of my life, crack-cocaine had control of me," Henderson told me.

"I was in the streets. I was living from place to place, wherever I could find a room. I never sold my body, because I had too much respect for myself, but I panhandled to survive. To feed the habit."

"I was able to eventually get it together because I had friends and family that would not give up on me. That's why I did not end up in a place like Anthony Sowell's basement."

"If we're going to end this craziness, We have to stop throwing away our women. If someone in your family is hooked on drugs, don't turn your back on them. If they're stealing from you, hide your stuff and lock them in the basement if you have to. At least that way you will know that they're safe."

She's right. It starts with family. It should end with family.

An accused serial killer appears to have efficiently gone about his work because he knew that many families in this community are indifferent to their women, leaving them to suffocating isolation because of addictions or mental illnesses.

We don't go looking when they come up missing. And when their corpses start to stink to high heaven, this community simply pinches its nose and walks away.

Anthony Sowell is holding a mirror to our collective faces.

He's not the only monster I see.