RSS
Home
Convicted rapist Anthony Sowells house of horrors
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
After being released from prison in 2005 and after serving more than 15 years in prison for the crime of assault and rape, Anthony Sowell is once again under arrest and this time it’s for murder.
Sowell appeared in court on Wednesday in Cleveland with his public defender, attorney Kathleen DeMetz. Anthony Sowell, a 50 year old non fictional “Freddy Krueger”, was arraigned on five counts of aggravated murder. The judge denied bail for Sowell.
Cleveland Police with the aid of police cadaver dogs have uncovered a total of 11 bodies and one skull in the house and on the premises that convicted rapist Anthony Sowell called home. The house on Imperial Ave that Sowell lived in was akin to living in a house of horrors. As if from a scene in a horror movie, police found bodies in the living room, in crawl spaces, buried in the back yard and in the house’s basement, a skull without a body was found.
Police authorities state that the majority of the decomposed bodies were bodies of Black women who appeared to have been strangled.
The house is located in a run-down neighborhood where it’s not uncommon for junkies and prostitutes to disappear. There are houses in the neighborhood that are boarded up and condemned that are next to houses that have tenants living in it. People pass by other people on the streets and purposely “see but don’t see” as they go about their business. This is precisely the type of environment that a predator like Anthony Sowell prefers to live in. He becomes another nameless and faceless neighbor that’s “from around the way”.
No one in the area seems to know how long the bodies have been in the house. However, many have described a foul and pungent odor that they say lingered for months on the street that Sowell’s house was located on. The odor according to neighbors was reminiscent to the smell of a dead dog.
Friends and relatives of the missing who reported their disappearance to the local police were told not to worry. They were told that sooner or later the individuals that were missing would eventually show up.
"They told us to go home, and as soon as the drugs are gone, she'll show up," said Markiesha Carmichael-Jacobs, whose 52-year-old mother Tonia, a drug addict, vanished Nov. 10, 2008. Police identified her Wednesday as one of the victims, saying her body was found buried in the backyard with marks indicating strangulation.
"It's hard to imagine," Carmichael-Jacobs said as she stood shivering on a street corner across from Sowell's home Wednesday, "but that's what they told us to our face: 'She'll turn up.'"
Many in the neighborhood feel that because their area is run-down and poor, police do not respond well or expeditiously to reported crimes and disappearances.
"There's this fear that the neighborhood has been forgotten," said the Reverend Rodney Maiden of Providence Baptist Church.
Questions in the community have been raised in regard to the police department’s seemingly lack of interest in launching an investigation into the rising number of women that were disappearing in the neighborhood.
Mayor Frank Jackson refused to second-guess officers or their handling of missing-person reports, 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.
As always Louisianans the Examiner.Com is interested in what you think. Does a person’s race and economic status play a role in how quickly the police respond to complaints? Inquiring minds want to know. Sound off.
Until next time Louisianans, Good Day, God Bless and Good Fishing.
Anthony Sowell
Related Articles:
Comments
