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

[MuffyBee]

http://www.news4jax.com/news/21583327/detail.html


Stench returns near Ohio house that had 11 bodies

By THOMAS J. SHEERAN
Associated Press Writer
Posted: 28 minutes ago
Updated: 25 minutes ago

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Nut44x4]

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/21589635/detail.html

10th Imperial Avenue Victim Identified

UPDATED: 9:01 pm EST November 11, 2009


CLEVELAND -- Police on Wednesday identified the 10th victim in the Imperial Avenue slayings.

Police identified 25-year-old Leshanda Long, of Cleveland, among the 11 victims found at the home of suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell.

Police said the skull discovered on Sowell's property belonged to Long. It was identified through a DNA analysis of the skull.

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.

[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.



Diane Turner  38, Cleveland was not reported missing. She was last seen in late September 2009.
*Photo pending.......

[Nut44x4]

Coroner Asking Public for Help in Identifying 11th Victim

CLEVELAND -- Anthony Sowell, 50, will be arraigned on rape and attempted murder charges on Friday, two weeks after police first went to house and discovered the bodies of 11 women.

Leshanda Long, 25, was the tenth woman identified late Wednesday night. Cleveland Police say Long's skull was found in a bucket in the house, but the rest of her body is still missing.

Police say Long was last seen in August of 2008, but was not reported missing.

There was no activity at Sowell's house on Thursday. On Wednesday, crews cleared debris from the backyard of the neighboring house where the FBI is going to assist in the investigation.

Authorities will be using an infrared camera to scan the vacant property to make sure nothing has been missed. They also want to find the rest of Leshanda Long's remains.

The coroner's office is now issuing another plea to the public to submit DNA samples. Powell Caesar said they've exhausted all their DNA samples as they worked to identify the 10 women whose families have already been notified.

"We are asking the loved ones of any missing African-American women to please come in and submit a sample," said Caesar. "Those samples will only be used to help identify the remaining body. It would be illegal to use them for anything else."

To submit a DNA sample, please call the Cuyahoga County Cororner's Office Investigative Unit at (216) 721-5610.
http://www.fox8.com/news/wjw-coroner-asks-for-help-imperial-victim-txt,0,2374739.story

[cw618]

nut44 there is a pic in this link for ya

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The father of the tenth victim found in Anthony Sowell’s house says his daughter was a loving mother who didn’t deserve to die in such a heinous manner.

Jim Allen learned Wednesday night that his 25-year-old daughter, Leshanda Long, was found dead in Sowell’s home on Imperial Avenue.
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/11/father_of_leshanda_long_speaks.html

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/11/csi_clevelands_swift_identific.html

Editorial »
CSI: Cleveland's swift identifications of 10 victims in the Anthony Sowell case offers some closure -- editorial
By The Plain Dealer Editorial Board
November 14, 2009, 3:59AM
A charnel house on Imperial Avenue challenges us to find meaning where there is none. The unremarkable, white, three-story duplex on a street of duplexes was the kill zone and burial site of at least 11 women, most of them strangled. Their discarded bodies were found only recently, decomposing in a crawl space at Anthony Sowell's home and hastily dug graves in the back yard and the dirt basement. The hunt for remains continues.

It is a case of far too many missed opportunities. Questions this city and its residents still need to pursue include the cavalier way in which police reportedly handled some missing-person reports; the decision not to prosecute earlier complaints against Sowell; the blind eyes turned to other bizarre goings-on around that dwelling.

But one arm of justice has worked well.
As soon as authorities threw open the door of this slaughterhouse on Oct. 29, detectives, forensic experts hired by the city and the Cuyahoga Couny coroner's office have performed like a highly rated TV series.

Call it "CSI: Cleveland."

Police tracked down, arrested and charged registered sex offender Anthony Sowell, who has lived in the house since 2005. They used cadaver dogs to search for bodies. They set up a command post and urged people to come forward with information on missing relatives and friends. They erected a heated tent so crews could work into the night, digging for more evidence of the indescribable.

Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller and his staff of pathologists and forensic scientists tucked fabric-softener sheets inside their surgical masks and worked tirelessly to determine the race and identity of these women. To add more detail, Miller brought in a scientist from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History to help estimate when the women were killed.

In a remarkable two-week marathon, the coroner has, as of this writing, identified 10 of the women.

As Plain Dealer reporter Stan Donaldson points out, Miller was up against formidable odds: The quantity of bodies, their advanced decomposition and the initial lack of DNA samples from potential family members.

The authorities can't change what happened, but in their efficient and compassionate response to this tragedy, they are doing all they can to offer family and friends closure. It may be cold comfort, and it is far from a happy ending, but it provides merciful finality for families who until now had to live with the pain of unexplained loss.

[Nut44x4]

THANKS CW!! 

[cw618]

nut44x4 another pic for ya,  your welcome
Kim Yvette Smith, pic at the link
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/11/eighth_body_from_anthony_sowel.html

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Authorities have identified 44-year-old Kim Yvette Smith as the ninth of 11 women whose bodies were found in and around the house of suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell. Post your condolences to the families of the victims here.

[Nut44x4]

THANKS CW!! 

BUMP!! YEAH!!

[Nut44x4]

FBI Search Back Yard, Under Porch At Sowell Home

UPDATED: 2:04 pm EST November 15, 2009

CLEVELAND -- The home of suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell remains an active crime scene this weekend.

The FBI spent Saturday combing through the back yard and under the porch, searching for more evidence and human remains.

Police already uncovered the remains of 11 women at the Imperial Avenue home.

FBI technicians finished high-tech testing and turned their results over to Cleveland police. Based on those results, Cleveland police could be back out searching for more evidence.

Police previously found a skull of one of the victim's in Sowell's basement, but investigators are not saying whether they found the rest of the victim's body.

But an entire FBI evidence recovery team spent a lot of time focusing on Sowell's back yard Saturday and under the front steps, crawling, digging and scanning.

A young girl found some small bones in a vacant lot four door's down from Sowell's house. Police taped off the area but quickly took down the crime tape when it turned out that the bones were not human.

Even before this horrific crime, neighbors say violence is nothing new on Imperial. But with police out here 16 days straight for this ongoing investigation neighbors say they've never felt safer.
http://www.newsnet5.com/news/21621603/detail.html

[Nut44x4]

Paint left on Sowell property could prompt more digging
Posted: Nov 16, 2009 8:10 AM EST

After authorities used thermal-imaging equipment and ground-penetrating radar to search outside murder suspect Anthony Sowell's home in Cleveland, Ohio, and a property next door, FBI agents marked areas outside the home with spray paint, CNN has learned.

The high-tech search could mean police plan to dig for more possible victims this week, but police will not reveal their plans. The remains of 11 women have been found inside and outside Sowell's home. The registered sex offender, who served 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted rape, now faces five counts of aggravated murder, rape, felonious assault and kidnapping in connection with the deaths.

Asked Sunday whether any evidence was found in the search Friday night and Saturday, Cleveland police Lt. Thomas Stacho told CNN, "We will evaluate yesterday's examination and determine how to proceed in the coming days." He added, "No evidence was taken from either Sowell's home or the home next door."

"We're finished using the high tech equipment and the results of those searches have been provided to the Cleveland police department for review," said FBI Spokesman Scott Wilson.

On Friday night and Saturday, FBI agents used sophisticated thermal-imaging equipment and ground-penetrating radar to search both properties at the request of Cleveland police. Wilson told CNN the radar "can determine whether there are certain structures under the soil."

Areas singled out with paint outside Sowell's home appear to indicate police found something worth pursuing.

Further investigation could require additional search warrants and help from the Cleveland coroner's office. Both were used to find the previous remains, which included a skull hidden inside Sowell's home.

http://www.wxix.com/Global/story.asp?S=11511444

[cw618]

pics house
http://www.cbsnews.com/elements/2009/11/02/crimesider/photoessay5498171_1_20_photo.shtml?tag=page

pics victims
http://www.cbsnews.com/elements/2009/11/13/crimesider/photoessay5635305.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody

arrogant S O B

[Nut44x4]

Police Begin New Search On Imperial Ave.

UPDATED: 8:19 am EST November 18, 2009

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/21647168/detail.html
CLEVELAND -- Cleveland police returned to the scene of the Imperial Avenue slayings on Wednesday to continue their search for more evidence.

Police said that investigators were back at the scene digging at 8 a.m.

Police are resuming the search based on information the FBI collected. Last week, FBI technicians used thermal imaging and ground-penetrating radar to search Anthony Sowell's property and the property next door, marking several spots where police should look.

Cleveland police will be joined by the Cuyahoga County Coroner’s Office, the FBI and the city of Cleveland’s Department of Building and Housing in conducting the searches. The searches will consist of a hand dig of suspect areas identified.

[cw618]

Anthony Sowell not in court as lawyers hold first pretrial hearing

By Leila Atassi, The Plain Dealer
November 19, 2009, 11:24AM
 — Prosecutors met for the first time this morning with
 the attorney representing Anthony Sowell in the rape case that drew police to his Imperial Avenue home, where
they found the remains of 11 women last month.

Sowell, who is suspected of being a serial killer, was arraigned last week in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court
 and pleaded not guilty to two counts each of felonious assault, kidnapping and rape and one count of attempted
murder in connection with a September assault.

No evidence was exchanged during the brief meeting this morning, which took place in the chambers of Common Pleas
Judge John Sutula. And Sowell did not appear in the courtroom.

But Sowell likely will be present for his next pretrial hearing scheduled for 9 a.m. on Dec. 2, during which lawyers
might discuss referring him for a psychiatric evaluation, said Sowell's attorney Brian McGraw.

McGraw declined to speculate as to whether he would seek a change of venue for the case. The Sowell investigation
has garnered local, national and international attention during the past two weeks.

Investigators continue searching for evidence at Sowell's home using thermal-imaging equipment and radar
technology. Police went to arrest Sowell last month, after a woman reported that he choked her with an extension
cord and raped her inside the house. Police did not find Sowell in the home but found the bodies of three dead
 women. Subsequent searches uncovered eight more corpses.

Sowell was charged by city prosecutors with five counts of aggravated murder and is being held on a $6 million
 bond. But he has only been indicted on the rape case.

Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Rick Bombik said more charges are expected in county court and affirmed that
the state would seek the death penalty for Sowell.

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

[cw618]

Digging finished for today at Anthony Sowell's home

By Donna J. Miller, Plain Dealer reporter
November 18, 2009, 1:10PM

 
Metro - cleveland.com
Breaking local news for Cleveland and Northeast OhioAnthony Sowell, Breaking News, Crime, Death, Real Time News »
Digging finished for today at Anthony Sowell's home
By Donna J. Miller, Plain Dealer reporter
November 18, 2009, 1:10PM
 
UPDATED: 2:30 p.m.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Authorities have finished for the day digging at the Imperial Avenue home of suspected serial
killer Anthony Sowell, although police continue to search the home.

Investigators used an X-ray machine and miniature cameras to examine the spaces between the walls and floors of
Sowell's home.

Detectives received new search warrants Tuesday, Lt. Thomas Stacho said.

Cleveland detectives, FBI agents and housing inspectors will "hand dig suspect areas" identified last week, when
 thermal imaging and radar was used to examine the ground near Sowell's house.

"We do not want to disturb other possible evidence," Stacho said. "And for trial purposes, we want to preserve
the house as close to the way it was when we discovered it. We have the technology and equipment that allows us
to conduct this search with minimal structural disturbance."

Six members of the Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office arrived at 8 a.m., followed by FBI agents. A  bomb squad
arrived at 8:45 a.m. with the x-ray equipment.

Investigators removed the lattice around the front porch and crawled underneath the porch to begin digging there
.

At 10 a.m., investigators walked out of Sowell's back yard carrying eight large brown bags and placed them in
the coroner's van.

Plain Dealer reporter Mark Puente contributed to this story.

[Nut44x4]

Police: No additional victims found in search of Ohio properties From Susan Candiotti, CNN
November 18, 2009 8:51 p.m. EST
<a href="http://www.cnn.com/video/crime/2009/11/18/vo.cleveland.bodies.wkyc.576x324.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.cnn.com/video/crime/2009/11/18/vo.cleveland.bodies.wkyc.576x324.jpg</a>

A police search at a Cleveland, Ohio, property where the remains of 11 women were found, as well as an adjoining property, turned up no additional human remains, authorities said Wednesday.

Six members of the Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office's office were on standby Wednesday as investigators returned to the home to dig by hand, according to a coroner's spokesman. The digging focused on areas on the property of Anthony Sowell, a registered sex offender who served 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted rape, as well as a property next door.

"Investigators removed various items that will be examined for investigative value," Cleveland police Lt. Thomas Stacho said in a statement. No more remains were found, he said, and no further search of either home or yard is planned.

Federal agents, meanwhile, have nearly completed a timeline tracing Sowell's whereabouts from his days in the military and beyond, Scott Wilson, spokesman for the FBI's Cleveland office, told CNN.

Cleveland homicide detectives asked the FBI to trace Sowell's life from the time he joined the Marines at age 18 to his life in Ohio. In the military, Sowell was based in California, North Carolina and even Japan before moving back to Ohio after spending eight years in the Marines.

"We're looking for any unsolved crimes to match what happened here," Wilson said.

Given the number of bodies found at Sowell's home, crime experts have told CNN, it wouldn't be uncommon for authorities to look for links to other unsolved cases.

Police and the FBI have said they're looking at the unsolved murders of three women in East Cleveland to determine if they share any similarities with the remains of 11 women found at Sowell's home between October 29 and November 3. Sowell faces five counts of aggravated murder, rape, felonious assault and kidnapping in connection with the deaths.

In addition, police in Coronado, California, are attempting to determine if Sowell is linked to a 1979 rape there. Sowell's DNA will be entered into a national database to see whether it can be linked to any unsolved crimes.

The timeline is just a start, Wilson said. "We'll take several weeks to a month before we get all these leads out to our other offices for them to take a look at."

Investigators returned to Sowell's home to search it and the adjacent property on Friday and Saturday. They used thermal-imaging equipment and ground-penetrating radar and marked several areas outside the home with spray paint.

The search Wednesday focused on areas identified during the recent use of thermal imaging equipment and radar technology, Stacho said.

Wednesday's search was conducted by Cleveland police and the Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office, the FBI and Cleveland's Department of Building and Housing.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/18/cleveland.bodies/

[cw618]

this is exclusive vid of inside sowells house
i would try to link vid here but lately, that hasnt been
working for me

http://www.woio.com/global/Category.asp?c=177485

http://www.woio.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?ClipID1=4317208&h1=Exclusive%3A%20Inside%20Sowell%27s%20Walls&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=108133&LaunchPageAdTag=News&activePane=info&rnd=71194170

[Sister]

this is exclusive vid of inside sowells house
i would try to link vid here but lately, that hasnt been
working for me

http://www.woio.com/global/Category.asp?c=177485

http://www.woio.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?ClipID1=4317208&h1=Exclusive%3A%20Inside%20Sowell%27s%20Walls&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=108133&LaunchPageAdTag=News&activePane=info&rnd=71194170

chilling, just chilling.

[cw618]

Would the Imperial Avenue killings have been prevented if extra steps were taken?
By John Horton, The Plain Dealer
November 22, 2009, 4:05AM

What if? The question must haunt anyone whose path intersected that of serial-killer suspect Anthony Sowell over
 the past two decades.

What if Cleveland police and prosecutors worked to charge Sowell when they had the chance in 2008? Or in 1990?
What if city officials kept looking until they found the reason behind a neighborhood stench in 2007? What if
East Cleveland detectives investigating three unsolved murders had labeled Sowell a suspect in 1989?

The story leading up to the Imperial Avenue killings includes points at which police, prosecutors, neighbors,
public officials and others faced decisions.

In every case, the decisions they made left Sowell on the street.

"I see a system that's completely broken," said Cleveland Councilman Zack Reed, who acknowledges his own role in
 the failed process. "How do we miss this guy? We need to figure out how that happened, or it can happen again."

Investigators found the remains of 11 women at Sowell's home once the system caught up to him a few weeks ago.
Sowell now sits in jail, held on a $6 million bond as a suspect in a mounting list of offenses.

So far, he has been charged by Cleveland prosecutors with five counts of aggravated murder. He also has been
indicted by a Cuyahoga County grand jury on two counts each of felonious assault, kidnapping and rape and one
count of attempted murder in a September attack that sent police to Imperial Avenue to unearth a horrible truth.

Among the lessons to be taken from the case is that complacency played a role in lives ending. People did not
take extra steps that might have stopped a trail of death. These are some of the critical crossroads involving
the accused killer.


Three homicides: Sowell ended 1990 in prison. The charge? Attempted rape.

Some wonder now if it should have been murder.

East Cleveland police found three dead bodies within a mile of Sowell's Page Avenue home in 1988 and 1989.
Detective Sgt. Ken Bolton said records show that investigators at the time never considered the accused rapist a
 suspect in the unsolved killings of Rosalind Garner, 36; Carmella Karen Prater, who was about 30; and Mary
Thomas, 27.

That opinion is being re-evaluated today, as the homicides show similarities to the Imperial Avenue cases or
connections to Sowell:


Garner was strangled in her home on Hayden Avenue in May 1988.


Prater lived down the street from Sowell. An anonymous phone tip led police to her beaten and frozen body in an
 abandoned home along First Avenue in February 1989. The coroner's office could not pinpoint the exact injury that
caused her death.


Thomas turned up dead a month later near another abandoned building on First Avenue. The pregnant woman had been
 strangled. Left around her neck was the red ribbon used to choke away her life. (Seven of the strangled women
discovered on Imperial Avenue had some sort of cord still around their necks.)

The Thomas case also invites comparison to the July 1989 sex crime that imprisoned Sowell. In that incident, a
pregnant woman survived Sowell's bruising chokehold and -- despite being bound around her wrists and
ankles -- escaped her rapist captor's apartment home by climbing out a third-story window.

Sowell pleaded guilty to attempted rape for the attack. A judge sentenced him in September 1990 to 15 years in
prison.


Another rape: The chilling tale a woman told Cleveland police in June 1990 would see sequels. Sowell choked her,
 she told officers. He raped her, too, right inside her East 71st Street home.

Police arrested Sowell on her words. Then the woman -- and the legal system -- fell silent.

The case unraveled with no charges filed as officials said the victim refused to testify and potentially add
another sex crime to Sowell's criminal record. Sowell dodged being branded a serial rapist and, perhaps, more
time incarcerated. He entered prison less than three months later with just a single sentence to serve.


Uncorrected: Sowell asked for help to curb his sexual deviancy.

Three years into his prison stay, Sowell told parole officials that he applied to enter a sexual offender
treatment program as part of his rehabilitation. A report said the inmate "does wish to participate" in the
specialized counseling.

But he never sat in on a sexual-offender session. Officials denied Sowell's request because -- despite his state
d desire to participate -- he denied committing a sex crime. He left prison in June 2005 untreated for his
carnal urges, though he took other courses designed to control rage and cage personal demons.

Upon his release, a court-ordered evaluation concluded that Sowell was unlikely to be a repeat offender.

On the date of his release, all of the Imperial Avenue victims were alive.


Scent of trouble: The odor hung over the Cleveland neighborhood.

A woman living across the street from Sowell on Imperial phoned Councilman Reed in June 2007 to complain about
the overpowering stench. It smelled like rotting remains, like something -- or someone -- had died. The city too
k action. Workers flushed nearby drain pipes in an attempt to clear the problem. Crews replaced a sewer line.

But the mystery smell remained, even as the search for answers stopped.

Many in the neighborhood simply eyed the meat-filled sausage shop on the corner as the source of the ongoing
stink. Employees at the 57-year-old business noticed the foul aroma, too, and took extra care to scrub equipment
. It's clear now that the smell didn't originate inside the shop. It wafted from the lot next door. From Sowell's
home.

When Reed's phone first rang, at least nine of the Imperial Avenue victims remained alive.


Caught . . . and released: The bloodied woman flagged down a passing police car on Cleveland's Kinsman Road. She
 described how she battled and fought off her attacker. Then she named him.

"Tone" on Imperial Avenue.

Police entered Sowell's home that night in December 2008 and found evidence of a hard-fought escape. Droplets of
 blood speckled the steps and wall leading into the house from an open side door. Officers arrested Sowell in
his third-floor room and drove away with him. The street cops then handed the case over to detectives.

Two days later, Sowell walked free with no charges filed. The reason? It depends on who's talking.

A city prosecutor said a detective claimed the woman wasn't credible and that it was then determined the case
lacked sufficient evidence. A police spokesman said the prosecutor -- not the detective -- deemed the accuser not
 credible. The police chief chalked up the decision to a lack of evidence and the "he said, she said" nature of
the case.

Several legal experts said they believe enough facts existed for a grand jury to indict Sowell. Nobody took that
 step.

When officials let Sowell go, at least five of the Imperial Avenue victims remained alive.


Daily contacts: How many people sensed peculiarities at 12205 Imperial Ave. but ignored that prickly feeling of
something horribly wrong? How many talked to Sowell and looked into his brown eyes without picking up on an
inner anger? How many visited the residence yet overlooked a growing and grisly secret?

A brother of Sowell's said he stopped by the house earlier this year in a search for his stepmother, who once
lived there but -- unbeknownst to him -- had been moved to a nursing home. He knocked on the door, but he never
made it inside nor talked to Sowell.

A woman who lived with Sowell until 2008 said she noticed the smell but just lived with it.

Neighbors raised little fuss. Neither did others.

Women vanished off nearby streets and nobody reported them gone for days . . . or months . . . or at all. Were
 there other women who may have survived encounters with Sowell who kept mum instead of sharing their pain with
 someone who might have been able to end a brutal pattern?'

 unbelievable this guy got this far

[cw618]

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

Coroner's office to use experts to help identify 11 victim
By Stan Donaldson
November 26, 2009, 8:11AM




The Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office will use an anthropologist and forensic artist to help identify the 11th
victim found on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland.

Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller said the office has contacted C. Owen Lovejoy, an internationally known
anthropology professor at Kent State University who specializes in human origins modeling, and Linda Spurlock, a
forensic reconstruction expert who directs the health department at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, to
help with the identification process.

Lovejoy will examine how the bones are connected on the victim's skull, which will help determine her age. The
sketch that Spurlock develops is not an exact likeness, but can illustrate facial features a family may recognize.
 

The coroner's office has identified 10 of the female bodies found at the home of the accused killer, Anthony Sowell,
 who is being held on $6 million bond.

But Miller said Wednesday the office has hit a few snags in identifying the final victim, who was the second body
found by police inside Sowell's home.

Unlike the other 10 bodies, Miller said this one has been tougher because of the lack of a positive DNA match
from a mother, child or siblings of the victim.

Miller said Lovejoy will conduct tests to determine the woman's age, and Spurlock will draw a facial reconstruction
sketch so the office can distribute a picture of what she may have looked like.

Miller said the office will give the skull of the victim and other test samples to Lovejoy and Spurlock in the next
 week or so.

"It is very rare that we do this because most people don't have this level of unknown information," Miller said.
"This will take a few weeks, but I am hoping the family of the missing person will see enough similarities and
will come forward to do a DNA test."

The coroner's office has collected DNA samples from about 40 volunteers who have come or been called into the age
ncy's Parentage Department. The office kept some samples for additional tests but concluded them this week, Miller
 said.

Miller said the office has also entered a profile of the victim into the National Missing and Unidentified Person
s System, a database for missing persons and unidentified records.

The corpse, which was both mummified and decomposed, was found by police covered with plastic and comforter sheets
 in a room inside of the duplex.

Miller said the victim appears to be in her 30s or 40s.

Both Lovejoy and Spurlock were part of the scientific team that helped characterize the fossils of Ardipithecus
ramidus, the 4.4 million-year-old human ancestor that shows the oldest unambiguous evidence of upright walking.

Spurlock said she will create a front view and profile sketch based on standards that include ethnicity, sex and
background--down to the clothing if available--of the victim.

The main instrument in the facial reconstruction will be tissue depth markers, which are used to determine muscle
s, fat and the way a persons face is shaped. The research also includes the measurements of eye sockets and
nostril openings on the skull.

"It is never going to be exact, but it will be just close enough," said Spurlock, who has worked with the Cuyahoga
 County coroner's office previously and with other agencies in Northeast Ohio. "The sketches tend to look more
realistic than the clay sculptures, so I will start with that first."

She said she has worked on about 20 cases where she has produced a sketch from a skull.

Miller said though the office will use this process to help identify the victim, nothing works better than DNA.

"We still need people who believe they may be family to contact us or the police," Miller said. "This is a high
priority for our office and as soon as we get information we work on it, but we are not getting new information
everyday anymore."