Anthony Sowell: now we're up to 10 bodies found

Anthony Sowell: 10 bodies found now. AP Photo/police mugshot

There have now been 10 bodies found in the case of the convicted rapist and suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell.

Police have announced that in searching the house in Cleveland inhabited by Anthony Sowell they have found a further 4 bodies taking the total so far to 10.

Sowell was released from a 15 year sentence he was serving for rape in 2004. There were further allegations of rape more recently and when police went to his house with search and arrest warrants he was out. They searched the house and initially found three bodies last Thursday*. Then searching the house again with cadaver dogs on Saturday they found a further three. Yet more searching has now led to their finding the remains of another four people.

These further four bodies were found in the yard of the house.

The smell of decomposing human bodies is extremely strong and extremely distinctive. So it's something of a surprise that no alert was made. A surprise except for this:

For the past few years, Sowell's neighbors assumed 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."

A century ago it might well have been spotted for people were more aware of, as a result of greater exposure to, the smell of death and decomposition. In this age when the dead are whisked away and we have little experience of such things it may be less likely that we would note the distinctive smell.

*Thank you to the correction in comments.