Number Six: Cops Find Sixth Body at Sex Offenders Home while Suspect Remains On the Run

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) - Cleveland Police's grisly Thursday night discovery has spilled over into Friday.

Two badly decomposed bodies were discovered on the third flood of E. 122 and Imperial Thursday night.

Friday, they found another body in what appeared to be a shallow grave.

The homeowner is 50-year-old registered sex offender Anthony Sowell. Cops found bodies on the city's southeast side while serving a search warrant Thursday night.

Police tell 19 Action News that this is now officially a homicide investigation.

"It's to the point where our investigators can't tell if they're men, women, young, old, black or white. It's that bad," Lt. Thomas Stacho told 19 Action News.

"I just screamed all the way back home," said neighbor Debbie Madison as she choked back tears. "I could not believe this was happening."

A manhunt is now underway for Sowell. He is 6 feet tall and 155 pounds, wears eyeglasses and frequently sports a mustache and occasionally a beard.  He is known to walk the streets "scrapping" and frequents area scrap metal yards.

Sowell spent 15 years in an Ohio penitentiary in 1989 for rape.

Meantime if you know where Sowell is, a total of $12,000 could be waiting for you.

CrimeStoppers is offering a reward of up to $2,000 and the US Marshals Service is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to his capture.

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/21470969/detail.html

CLEVELAND –– Cleveland police said they have found 6 decomposing bodies in a home on Imperial Avenue.

Tonight the manhunt continues for a convicted rapist who lives there.

The U.S. Marshals Service joined the efforts on Friday to locate 50-year-old Anthony Sowell. Police are searching the neighborhood surrounding Sowell's Imperial Avenue home, and are looking in vacant homes and abandoned buildings.

CrimeStoppers is offering a reward of up to $2,000 for information leading to the capture of Anthony Sowell. Also, the US Marshals Service is offering a reward of up to $10,000 leading to his capture.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Cleveland Police Sex Crimes Unit at 216-623-5630 or the US Marshals Service Fugitive Hotlineat 1-866-5-WANTED

Police said the department's sex crime unit was serving a sexual assault warrant for Sowell at the home Thursday night when they discovered the bodies.

The badly decomposed bodies were found in the attic and there is also evidence of a freshly dug grave in the basement where the other bodies were found, police said.

The coroner's office is still attempting to establish age, race and gender of the decedents and to affix manner and cause of death.

Forensics teams and a cadaver dog were brought to the home and found signs of human remains in the basement, police said.

Police said Sowell is wanted in connection with an attack on a female that occurred at the Imperial Avenue home on Sept. 26.

Police said Sowell invited the victim over for beers and then tried to rape her.

Sowell is a registered sex offender and spent 15 years in prison for rape. He wears eyeglasses and frequently wears a mustache and occasionally a beard. He is known to walk the streets "scrapping" and frequents area scrap metal yards.

A neighbor told NewsChannel5 that she picked Sowell up from his sister's house Thursday night and was driving him back to his house when they noticed the police activity. The neighbor said Sowell told her to let him out of the vehicle at that point and then took off.

Another neighbor said that for several months he had noticed a strong odor in the neighborhood.

Anthony Sowell Found, In Custody

POSTED: 9:59 pm EDT October 29, 2009
UPDATED: 1:39 pm EDT October 31, 2009


CLEVELAND –– The manhunt for a convicted rapist is over. Police took Anthony Sowell in custoday just after noon Saturday.

A citizen called police after seeing Sowell on Manor Avenue.

Police responded and found Sowell walking a block away on Mt. Auburn. Sowell was arrested without incident.

Cleveland police said they found 6 decomposing bodies in his home on Imperial Avenue.

Police said the department's sex crime unit was serving a sexual assault warrant for Sowell at the home Thursday night when they discovered the bodies.

The coroner's office is still attempting to establish age, race and gender of the decedents and to affix manner and cause of death.

Forensics teams and a cadaver dog were brought to the home and found signs of human remains in the basement, police said.

Police said Sowell was wanted in connection with an attack on a female that occurred at the Imperial Avenue home on Sept. 26.

Police said Sowell invited the victim over for beers and then tried to rape her.

Sowell is a registered sex offender and spent 15 years in prison for rape. He wears eyeglasses and frequently wears a mustache and occasionally a beard. He is known to walk the streets "scrapping" and frequents area scrap metal yards.

A neighbor told NewsChannel5 that she picked Sowell up from his sister's house Thursday night and was driving him back to his house when they noticed the police activity. The neighbor said Sowell told her to let him out of the vehicle at that point and then took off.

Another neighbor said that for several months he had noticed a strong odor in the neighborhood.

Chief: 4 More Bodies, Skull Found At Imperial Avenue Home
Anthony Sowell Charged With 5 Counts Aggravated Murder

POSTED: 11:53 am EST November 3, 2009
UPDATED: 10:16 pm EST November 3, 2009


CLEVELAND –– Cleveland police Chief Michael McGrath said four more bodies and a skull have been discovered at a Cleveland home on Tuesday, bringing the total number of bodies found to 10.

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

During a news conference, McGrath said the bodies were discovered in the home's back yard. The skull was found wrapped in a paper bag in a bucket in the basement.

"I would like to believe there is nothing else at the house, but we just won't know until we finish searching," McGrath said.

McGrath said the body count won't be confirmed until they are taken to the coroner's office.

Six other bodies were discovered last week inside the home of 50-year-old Anthony Sowell. He will be arraigned in court Wednesday on five counts of aggravated murder, rape, felonious assault and kidnapping.

A forensic team and detectives started digging Tuesday morning at the Imperial Avenue home after the street had been closed down.

Detectives from the homicide unit are working with crime scene detectives and Cuyahoga County Coroner's staff in searching the home for evidence. Detectives have been at the scene with cadaver dogs and digging equipment.

McGrath said firefighters will go into the home Wednesday to check walls, floors and ceilings for more evidence.

Investigators searched abandoned structures Tuesday that were within a 1/4 mile of Sowell's Imperial Avenue home. The search will be expanded another 1/4 mile on Wednesday.

Sowell was arrested Saturday after the badly decomposing bodies were found in his home.

The Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office said six of the victims were female and five of the six were strangled. The decomposition has made it difficult to determine how one victim died, spokesman Powell Caesar said.

None of the victims has been identified, but the coroner said the six bodies are all African-American.

McGrath said there was a dedicated team of investigators going over missing persons reports. Once the bodies are identified, families will be notified.

"I would not be surprised that there weren’t missing persons on some of these people," McGrath said.

Quoted:
<COC Violation>

Quoted:
Jesus Christ

Quoted:


Thank goodness he was registered.

Sowell is a registered sex offender and spent 15 years in prison for rape.

Quoted:

Quoted:


I read on ARFCOM that such people have paid their debt to society and should be given back all the rights everybody else has.

Quoted:



Thank goodness he was registered.

Quoted:

Quoted:


Ummm, no. Your interpretation is cherry picking the sarcasm right out of such posts, which is obviously that they should not be let out to begin with.

I read on ARFCOM that such people have paid their debt to society and should be given back all the rights everybody else has.

Quoted:







Really? You know what I read do you?




Every thread about whether felons should have the right to own firearms, there will be some, even many, here who say exactly what I said they said. Same goes with threads about sex offender databases.



Stick around newb and read before you make such statements.

Quoted:

Quoted:














I think you're confused, or trolling.



Those of us who favor logical justice do not favor allowing people so dangerous that they need to be registered out on the streets.



If they're really that dangerous (as this guy clearly was), why is he free? Sexual predators don't become well.



But, if they are free, then they're free. Half-citizens is a sick joke, for all the reasons I just said above. If you can't be trusted to vote or carry a gun because of your criminal tendencies, then you should be back in the joint.



There, that's not so hard is it?

 

Quoted:


I really doubt that was ever said, much less seconded, regarding a violent sex crime.  

Quoted:







The problem with the above is simple: SPACE, and the premise that a life sentance for, say, burglary would be 'cruel and unusual'.



In reality, we can't trust *ANY* of them, nor can we keep them all in prison...



Therefore, you have the 'half-way' measure, of rights removal as a component of sentence.....

 

Quoted:


So then don't say a fucking word when your citizens get killed by rapists set free. It should come as no surprise, nor be a horror....just another perfectly reasonable outcome to a person willing to put sick & dangerous men back on the streets under the watchful eye of a "registration". Boy, that really helped.


 

Quoted:


Really? You know what I read do you?

Every thread about whether felons should have the right to own firearms, there will be some, even many, here who say exactly what I said they said. Same goes with threads about sex offender databases.

Stick around newb and read before you make such statements.

Quoted:


This.

Quoted:
If they are out they should have their rights back.

Quoted:
Tough question.  Rights should be restored after finishing sentence, either the punishment served and or debt to society is repaid or it isn't.

Perhaps though, with multiple violent convictions it should go away.

Quoted:



Yeah, this is pretty much where I stand.

Quoted:



I couldn't disagree less. The criminals will have guns whether it is legal for them or not. I'd much rather have a level playing field in that EVERYONE has a gun or at least the OPTION.

Just like I assume every gun is loaded, I should be able to safely assume that everyone is armed. Therefore they should be able to assume the same. And if they assume I have a weapon, are they more likely or less likely to attempt to hurt or rob me?

Hopefully they would decide to move on to easier prey. And if we are ALL armed, perhaps they may rethink wanting to attempt to do something bad knowing that any grandmother or young single female could possibly be the one that pops them in the dome with a .45 .


God made man, Sam Colt made him equal.

 

Quoted:
Your first statement, lacking a qualifier, implied that all ARFCOM members believe that sex offenders should have all the same rights once free as non-felons. You did not clarify your position that some, even many, would feel this way.

Quoted:







Almost sounds like these were pre-conviction...



So... Does the state of OH have the 'appropriate' punishment for multiple-murder?

Sowell spent 15 years in an Ohio penitentiary in 1989 for rape.

Quoted:







Exactly how does one spend 15 years in prison in a single year?

Quoted:
<COC Violation>

Quoted:





I think you're confused, or trolling.

Those of us who favor logical justice do not favor allowing people so dangerous that they need to be registered out on the streets.

If they're really that dangerous (as this guy clearly was), why is he free? Sexual predators don't become well.

But, if they are free, then they're free. Half-citizens are an abomination, for all the reasons I just said above. If you can't be trusted to vote or carry a gun because of your criminal tendencies, then you should be back in the joint.

There, that's not so hard is it?
 

Quoted:


I read on ARFCOM that such people have paid their debt to society and should be given back all the rights everybody else has.

Quoted:


Quick search guys. Where the hell have you been on these threads?







The kicker is, the system isn't properly geared to only let a person out if they are no longer a threat. Anybody that thinks otherwise is fucking dreaming.

And here is another...



Geez you guys are either really dense or have terrible memories. This was all from a quick 2 minute search.

Quoted:

I know a man that did major time over drug charges due to the quantity of the drugs. He told me he seen men convicted of rape come and go before he got out. Someone rapes and harms a Woman and gets out quicker than a guy that sells dope

Quoted:


Not pre-conviction.  He was sentenced  to "15 years in an Ohio penitentiary in 1989 for rape". He's been out for 5. Couple that with this statement: "and there is also evidence of a freshly dug grave in the basement where the other bodies were found"

However poorly written these two articles  were, his victims were badly composed, and not mummified or just skeletal remains from 20+ years ago.

Quoted:


I really doubt that was ever said, much less seconded, regarding a violent sex crime.  

Quoted:


Actually, yes it was. Quite often as a mattter of fact.

Quoted:
<COC Violation>