Case Number BO-09-1099AF THE STATE OF OHIO vs. ANTHONY E SOWELL Proceeding Date Filing Date Side Type Description 11/04/2009 11/04/2009 N/A BN REMANDED WITH OUT BOND 11/04/2009 11/04/2009 N/A CS CLEVELAND MUNI COURT COST, CASE 09CRA039358 11/04/2009 11/04/2009 N/A GP REMANDED W/O BOND BOND SET , AMOUNT $.00 11/04/2009 11/04/2009 N/A CR TRANSCRIPT FILED 11/04/2009 11/04/2009 N/A CR BINDOVER CIF#CI091099AF 11/04/2009 11/04/2009 N/A CR CIF ENTERED 10/31/2009 11/04/2009 N/A CR ARRESTED 10/31/2009 09/22/2009 11/04/2009 N/A CR DATE OF OFFENSE 09/22/2009 http://cpdocket.cp.cuyahogacounty.us/p_CR_Docket.aspx

Police Chief: Cleveland Serial Killings 'Impact the Nation' CLEVELAND - CLEVELAND -- Nancy Cobbs, 43, has been identified by Cleveland Police as the fourth victim found inside Anthony Sowell's house. Cobbs' family was notified around one o'clock on Friday afternoon. She was last seen on April 24th when she left her house to got to the store on E. 116th and Continental. Cobbs' family reported her disappearance to the Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority Police Department, but Cleveland Police say they weren't made aware of her status until November 2nd. "She knew him, that's the thing. The fact that she knew him his playing a big role in this," said Nancy's daughter Kyana Hunt. "But there's still questions left to be answered like, 'Why?' What did she do to make this, what did any of them, what did any of these women do to deserve this?" Others already identified are Tonia Carmichael, 52, of Warrensville Heights; Telacia Fortson, 31, of Cleveland; and Tishana Culver, 31, also of Cleveland. The city coroner's office is combing through DNA samples from the families of missing women to identify more remains. So far, police confirm 11 bodies have been found at Sowell's Imperial Ave. home. At a press conference Friday, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson stressed the importance of "informing the families of victims first, before anyone else knows." Jackson said he told Cleveland Police to "stay focused" on the investigation. Chief Michael McGrath also had a message he expressed to the families of victims identified at Sowell's home, and of other missing women, "To the families -- we know you're going through a difficult, painful time. We will continue to handle this investigation in a respectful, professional manner." Anthony Sowell's bond is set at $5,000,000.

Sowell's House of Horrors; Women Speak Out CLEVELAND - Two women feel extremely lucky to be alive. Both women believe that 50-year-old Anthony Sowell would have killed them. "He was gonna kill me. I have scars on my neck and nerve damage," said one of the victims. That woman, who asked not be identified, said, "I couldn't leave the house for months. I was afraid to go to the store. I could not sleep." According to a police report, the woman was walking on Imperial Avenue, toward the bus stop, on Dec. 8, 2008, when she saw Sowell. He said, "Merry Christmas" and she replied, "same to you." The woman claims Sowell asked her to "drink beer" with him and when she refused he "punched her in the face and dragged her to his house." The woman fought back, "gouging his eyes" and "grabbing his genitals." She fell down several flights of stairs and then crawled outside to the driveway. Eventually, she flagged down a Cleveland Police cruiser. Sowell was arrested for rape, kidnapping and robbery, but the case was dropped. The victim believes that happened because she had a pending assault case against her at the time, and because Sowell claimed she assaulted him. Ten months later, on Sept. 22, 2009, another woman was raped and strangled inside the house on Imperial. The victim told police she passed out and woke up in her own urine and feces. Sowell let that victim leave. She contacted authorities and on Thursday, Oct. 29, officers went to the house with a warrant for Sowell's arrest. Sowell had fled the home, but inside investigators found six decaying bodies. The victims who survived feel blessed, but also angry. One of the women attacked said, "They let that man go and look what happened." On Saturday, the Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office confirmed that all six bodies appear to be women, and most had died of strangulation. Cleveland Police Lt. Tom Stacho says that in an attempt to identify the bodies, they are focusing their missing persons search on women in the immediate area. Police are urging anyone who might know of a missing person in the area, to please call their command post at (216) 310-4366 or (216) 310-4370. http://www.FOX8.com

Niece of Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson lived with suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell By Henry J. Gomez, The Plain Dealer CLEVELAND, Ohio -- As he visited the East Side neighborhood devastated by serial killings, Mayor Frank Jackson told residents Friday that he felt a personal bond with the victims’ families. The remarks were genuine. Jackson’s niece lived with murder suspect Anthony Sowell in the Imperial Avenue home where the bodies of 11 women have been found. A spokeswoman for the mayor confirmed the revelation that came the same day that Jackson, under fire from citizens who have criticized the police, carved out a more visible role in the ongoing investigation. "When I was out there, it became apparent ... that we shared something in common, that we have people in our families who fit the profiles of people who became the victims," Jackson said in a City Hall interview. WOIO Channel 19 first reported that Lori Frazier, Jackson’s niece, moved in with Sowell in 2005 about a month after he was released from a 15-year prison sentence for attempted rape. She moved out last year. Frazier said she was a drug addict and used drugs with Sowell. But she had no idea he could have been a serial killer. "I want to know why, why would he do this," she told the station. "He took care of me. Good care of me." He told her the stench in the house was his step mother downstairs. And then the next-door sausage shop. Sowell, a registered sex offender, was arrested this week and remains in jail on a $5 million bond set Friday. The mayor’s public push came after days of complaints that police somehow should have known sooner about the horrors hidden at Sowell’s home. Besides conversations with residents and reporters, Jackson held a community meeting at a church near the crime scene. Jackson stressed that increased criticism of his safety forces threatens to disrupt authorities as they search for clues and work to identify bodies. He acknowledged assertions that better police work might have saved lives and pledged to examine procedures, but not until the investigation is done. "When this is all over with and all wrapped up, you can bet the police chief will be evaluating what has happened ... what we did that was right, what we did that was wrong," he said. The mayor, elected to a second-term this week, added that he expects an evaluation will lead to new policies "to make it less likely that a tragedy like this would happen." Jackson praised Police Chief Michael McGrath, as well as the performance of the police force. "I think they’re doing a very good job," he said. "A very good job." Jackson instead directed flak at those "working a personal agenda or some professional ambition." He offered a blunt response when asked if the words were meant for Councilman Zack Reed, who has called for an investigation into why the bodies were not detected earlier. "If the shoe fits, wear it," said Jackson, who did not confirm that Reed was his target. Reed made no apologies when told of the mayor’s remark. "The bottom line is that the community is well aware of the fact that a number of opportunities were given to bring this to closure early on," he said. Reed has joined a chorus of residents in second-guessing city officials and police whom they believe ignored warning signs at Sowell’s home. There also are concerns about how police handle missing persons cases in which the missing had a history of drug use or criminal records. The victims identified so far fought drug addiction, according to relatives and court records. Jackson, who campaigned to look out for "the least of us," dismissed suggestions that police consider certain victims as low priorities. Police were aware of at least two complaints from women who said that Sowell attacked them. Last month, Sowell’s neighbors called 9-1-1 to report a naked woman falling from a second-floor window, but she did not cooperate with police. Neighbors also had long complained about a stench on their street, but health officials investigated and reported that they were unable to identify the source. Many believed the odor came from a nearby sausage shop, but today it seems like a possibly missed clue. Jackson downplayed that notion. "The real question is if in fact one call to the Health Department or two calls to the Health Department in three years is enough to say that you should known that there was a dead body," he said. "Well, the answer to that is absolutely no." Jackson did not offer specifics about what results his promised evaluation might yield. "Part of the evaluation is an entire community evaluation because this is a healing process that’s going to ... really take a complete look at how we address these issues," he said. "I imagine that there were plenty of warning signs everywhere that all of us should have been aware of." http://www.clevleand.com

Three more victims identified from Anthony Sowell's house By Gabriel Baird, The Plain Dealer November 07, 2009, 6:04PM Michelle Mason was one of 11 women found in the house, buried in the basement and backyard of a house on Cleveland's East Side. Mason was a 45-year-old mother of two. Anthony Sowell, a known sex offender lived in the house on Imperial Avenue. He is charged with five counts of rape and murder. More charges are likely, authorities say. CLEVELAND, Ohio — Police have identified three more of the 11 women removed from the house and yard of suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell. The dead are Amelda Hunter, 46, of East 137th Street; Michelle Mason, 45, of East 121st Street and Crystal Dozier, 38, of Kinsman Avenue. Court documents from 2003 list Hunter's address as being a few doors down from the home on Imperial Avenue where Sowell moved in 2005, after getting out of prison for a sexual assault. Another woman found dead at Sowell's home also lived on that street. Authorities have now identified seven of the bodies found at Sowell's home. Sowell, 50, remains in City Jail, unable to post a $5 million bond. Members of the FBI's behavioral analysis team are in Cleveland today researching the background of the suspected serial killer. Mason was last seen Oct. 4, 2008, according to a missing person report filed by her mother, Adlean Atterberry, with Cleveland police Oct. 12, 2008. Mason, a mother of two, was living with a cousin in the 2900 block of East 121st Street, half a mile from the Imperial Avenue house where authorities say Sowell strangled, killed and buried his victims. The other victims whom authorities have identified are Tonia Carmichael, 52; Telacia Fortson, 31; Tishana Culver, 31; Nancy Cobbs, 43. All of the women identified struggled with drug addiction at some point in their lives, according to relatives and court records. All had criminal records, including drug-related convictions. Relatives stressed today that the dead women should not be defined solely by their struggles. Dozier was not reported missing, police said, but was last seen in October 2007. Hunter was reported missing Tuesday. Police said relatives told them Hunter was last seen in April. Family members never gave up hope of finding Mason. Her mother, two sons and sister searched extensively. They asked local media to publicize her disappearance in hopes of finding her. Notice of a vigil held for her on Dec. 1 with the help of Cleveland activists Judy Martin and Art McKoy was posted on Cleveland.com. Mason's family had grown worried after not seeing her for days. Their concern was compounded by the fact that she suffered from bi-polar disorder and had apparently not been taking the medication, according to the police report. Without the medication, Mason risked cycling between bouts of clinical depression and episodes of mania, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. The Search for Michelle Mason Police checked Mason's home and a relative's home with no success in locating the woman who had last been seen wearing blue jeans and a cream-colored, waist-length fur coat. Officers looked for her in the areas she was known to frequent: East 131st Street and Miles Avenue, East 134th Street and Kinsman Avenue, other locations between East 123rd and East 116th Street, according to the police report. Police checked with officials in Garfield Heights. They contacted hospitals and the Cuyahoga County Coroner's morgue, according to the report. Police then alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigation's National Crime Information Center of Mason's disappearance, according to the report. Cleveland police policy requires NCIC to be alerted of missing people under the following circumstances: the missing person is a juvenile, the disappearance occurs after a catastrophe, when evidence suggests the person may be in danger, or when there is proof that they suffer from mental illness, physical disability or senility because those people could be dangerous to themselves or others, according to the department's General Police Orders. Mason's mother refused to give police DNA that could have used to identify Sowell had she been listed as Jane Doe in a hospital or morgue elsewhere across the country, according to the report. Atterberry also told police several places she frequented and that she sometimes hung around with men known as "World" and "Bruce." It is now clear that DNA and consistent information about Mason's appearance would not have helped as her body was not found at Sowell's until sometime between Oct. 29 and Tuesday. Authorities would not say whether Mason was one of the bodies buried in the basement or backyard. According to the flier, Mason had recently met with a registered sexual predator. Although the report does not name the sex offender, Sowell is known to be registered as a Tier III sex offender — the most serious of three levels. Court records show that Mason had a lengthy criminal record dating back at least 16 years and was sentenced to prison at least three times. Her record includes multiple convictions for drug abuse. Those who suffer from bi-polar disorder frequently use alcohol drugs to self-medicate themselves, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. In 2000, she pleaded guilty to offering sex for money even though she knew she was HIV positive. Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Lillian J. Greene, who is now the Cuyahoga County recorder sentenced Mason to a year in prison. http://www.cleveland.com

Anthony Sowell timeline By Plain Dealer staff November 08, 2009, 2:30AM Anthony Sowell is in City Jail awaiting trial on charges of aggravated murder after police found the bodies of 11 women at his home on Imperial Avenue. Below are key dates in his life, his dealings with the criminal justice system and the various investigations into Sowell: Aug. 19, 1959: Sowell is born. He is raised in East Cleveland. Jan. 24, 1978: Sowell enlists in the Marine Corps. He serves eight years, in North Carolina, California and Okinawa. Jan. 18, 1985: Sowell is discharged from the Marines and returns to East Cleveland. May 27, 1988: Rosalind Garner is found strangled in her home on Hayden Avenue in East Cleveland. The case has not been solved. Feb. 27, 1989: Carmella Prater is found dead in an abandoned building on First Avenue in East Cleveland. Prater lived on Page Avenue, the same street as Sowell. She had been beaten but the coroner was unable to pinpoint how she was killed. The case has not been solved. March, 28, 1989: Mary Thomas is found strangled near an abandoned building on First Avenue, the same street where Prater was found. The case has not been solved. July 28, 1989: A woman tells police that Sowell took her into his home on Page Avenue, bound and gagged her and raped her. June 24, 1990: A Cleveland woman tells police that Sowell choked and raped her inside her home on East 71st Street. Police arrest him but no charges were filed because, police said, they were unable to get the woman to testify. Sept. 12, 1990: Sowell is sentenced to five to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted rape for the 1989 assault in his home on Page Avenue. Plain Dealer fileAnthony Sowell in 1998.June 20, 2005: Sowell, after repeatedly being denied parole, is released from prison. He moves in with his father and stepmother at 12205 Imperial Avenue. He registers with the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office as a sex offender and is required to check in with them once a year. June 29, 2007: A woman who lives across the street from Sowell calls City Hall to complain about a foul odor in the neighborhood, which she said smells like a dead person or animal. January 2008: The Adam Walsh Act passes and Sowell is now required to report to the Sheriff's Office every 90 days. Nov. 10, 2008: Barbara Carmichael sees her daughter Tonia, 52, for what would be the last time. Tonia Carmichael's car is found near East 115th Street and Kinsman Road a few days later, but there is no sign of her. Dec. 2, 2008: Barbara Carmichael files a missing-persons report in Warrensville Heights. She tells police her daughter had a drug problem and sometimes disappeared between three and five days, but in this case she has not seen her daughter in three weeks and is worried something bad had happened. Dec. 8, 2008: A bleeding woman runs up to a police car at East 116th Street and Kinsman. She tells police that Anthony Sowell asked her if she wanted to drink beer with him. When she said no, he punched her, choked her and tried to rip off her clothes. Police went to Sowell's home, went to the third floor and arrested him. Police later said no charges were filed because the woman did not want to talk to detectives. Feb. 10, 2009: Warrensville Heights police check several houses between East 116th Street and East 120th Street near Kinsman Road and Oakfield Avenue, looking for Carmichael. No one recognizes photos of her, as was the case when they made other checks. They also check at bars and motels in Cleveland and East Cleveland, but no one has information on Carmichael. Sept. 2, 2009: Sowell checks in at the Sheriff's Office, as he is required to do as a sex offender. Sept. 22, 2009: Sheriff's deputies pay a surprise visit to Sowell's home to verify that he lives at the address he had given them. He answers the door and, as is standard, deputies do not enter. Several hours later, Sowell persuades a woman to come to his house and drink malt liquor with him. She later tells police he got angry, choked her with an extension cord and raped her until she passed out. She was able to get away after promising Sowell she would bring him $50 and not tell police about the incident, according to a police report. She went to police. Plain Dealer fileAnthony Sowell in Nov. 2009Sept. 24, 2009: The case is assigned to a sex-crimes detective, who has difficulty reaching the victim. The woman's mother tells police she is difficult to contact. Oct. 11, 2009: The victim in that case does not show up for an interview with detectives. Oct. 20, 2009: An ambulance is sent to Sowell's house after neighbors call 9-1-1 to report a naked woman falling or being thrown from a second-floor window. Sowell tells rescue workers he and the woman had been doing drugs all day and that she accidentally fell out the window. EMS takes the woman to MetroHealth Medical Center and calls police, who go to Sowell's home but don't find anyone there. Police then go to Metro, where the woman refuses to talk to investigators. Oct. 27, 2009: The woman from the Sept. 22. attack meets with sex-crimes detectives, who one day later get an arrest warrant for Sowell and a search warrant for his home. Oct. 29, 2009: Police go to arrest Sowell but he is not home. They enter the house and find two decomposing bodies. Oct. 30, 2009: Police find three more bodies -- two in a crawl space in the house and one buried in the basement's dirt floor. Oct. 31, 2009: Sowell is arrested walking down Mount Auburn Avenue, about one mile from his home. Nov. 3, 2009: Prosecutors charge Sowell with five counts of aggravated murder. Police find six more bodies at his home, most of them buried in the back yard. Nov. 4, 2009: The Cuyahoga County coroner announces that all 11 victims are black women. At least eight of them were strangled, the coroner says. He makes the first identification of a victim: Tonia Carmichael. Nov. 5, 2009: Police identify a second and third victim: Telacia Fortson and Tishana Culver. Both would have been 31 and both struggled with drug addictions, their families say. Fortson was last seen in June. Culver lived four houses down from Sowell and was last seen in 2008. Members of her family say they assumed she was in jail or living with a boyfriend in Akron. Nov. 6, 2009: East Cleveland police announce they are reopening the investigations into the strangulations of Garner and Thomas and the killing of Prater. Cleveland police identify a fourth woman found at Sowell's home as Nancy Cobbs, 43. Nov. 7, 2009: Police identified three more victims: Michelle Mason, Crystal Dozier and Amelda Hunter. http://www.cleveland.com

Family of missing woman waits, prays she's not among 11 dead By Robert L. Smith, The Plain Dealer November 08, 2009, 1:48AM Cleveland ministers urge prayer, unity as serial killings rock community Next to the Missing board that hangs from a fence on Imperial Avenue -- a desperate collage of people not seen in months and years -- someone had taped a poster that read "RIP Janice Webb." The 49-year-old woman disappeared in June. The sudden memorial on the haunted street infuriated her sister, Audrey Webb, who tore it down Thursday afternoon. She and others who love Janice have given identifying information to the coroner, but they pray it won't be needed. They still hope to hear her voice when she calls to explain her whereabouts, when she apologizes for causing them so much pain. "All we do right now is pass out the fliers and pray for the best and hope they don't find her on that street," said Audrey Webb, Janice's older sister. She and her family belong to a grim and chosen few -- the people waiting to learn if they, too, are victims of an atrocity. Since authorities aired their belief that a serial killer had enticed wayward women into his home in southeast Cleveland and raped and strangled them one after the other, families of missing persons have feared the worst. Many stood outside the house of accused killer Anthony Sowell this week and passed out fliers bearing pictures of lost loved ones, hoping maybe someone had seen them in a different, safer place. They also wait for the Cuyahoga County coroner's office to identify victims left to rot. At least 11 women went into the pleasant-looking duplex near East 123rd Street -- the one with a front-porch placard announcing "The Sowell's" in friendly script -- and never came out alive. Could their sister or daughter or mother be one of them? By Saturday, authorities had identified seven victims: Tonia Carmichael, 52, of Warrensville Heights; Telacia Fortson, 31, of East Cleveland; Tishana Culver, 31, who lived a few houses down from Sowell on Imperial Avenue; and Nancy Cobbs, 43; Amelda Hunter, 46; Crystal Dozier, 38; and Michelle Mason, 45, all of Cleveland. "We stay hopeful, prayerful," Audrey Webb said, as she and her grandmother, Mary Hendricks, sat in their Cleveland home six blocks from the crime scene. "My grandmother's stronger than I am. It helps to pray and to put your trust in God." Janice Webb vanished June 3, a Wednesday. She had left her boyfriend's house in Lakewood, where she was living, and was assumed to be heading for the old neighborhood. She had lots of friends in the area of East 116th Street and Buckeye Road. Her cousin works at a beauty salon there. On days that she did not drop in to her grandmother's house on Manor Avenue, she almost always called. Her mother died years ago and the three daughters -- Janice, Audrey and Joanne -- were close. Joshua Gunter, The Plain DealerAudrey Webb, accompanied by her niece Malika Grant, on Thursday removes a sign that reads “RIP Janice Webb.” Someone taped it to the wall of a building across the street from the home of suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell.Still, family members waited a month and a half to alert police to possible foul play. Janice Webb, the mother of a 28-year-old son and a grandmother to three, had a drug problem, her sister acknowledged. Sometimes she was not heard from for a day or two. "I was just hoping and praying she showed up and came home. I didn't want to think the worst," Audrey Webb said. "I thought maybe she went to rehab," she added softly. Last Saturday, Audrey Webb and her second sister, Joanne Moore, went to the coroner's office and gave a sample of their DNA, the genetic fingerprint present in the body's cells. Their worries mounted as they supplied dental and medical information for Janice as well. On Thursday, grandmother and granddaughter shook their heads to hear that Sowell, the suspected murderer, complains of a heart condition that requires a pacemaker. "No one with a heart could do such things," Mary Hendricks said. Audrey Webb nervously eyed a ringing phone before answering, then sighed to hear a familiar voice. "We haven't heard anything yet," she told the caller. She worries people will think the worst of her sister because of her personal problems. "She was more than a drug addict," she said. "She was a mother, a cousin, a sister. She was a good person -- and still is, I hope and pray." http://www.cleveland.com

'Wall of the missing' another focal point on Imperial Avenue Some are drawn to the whitewashed plywood wall to look at a loved one's face or caress it with a finger. Others, tourists of a grim sort, park and amble over to the wall of the missing, holding their cameras steady long enough to capture the image of another community's grief. When some cannot stare any longer at the plain three-story Imperial Avenue duplex where police say serial murder suspect Anthony Sowell killed and kept the bodies of 11 women, they gravitate to the wall just steps across the street. The house represents death, decomposition and a broken promise to protect the downtrodden. The wall symbolizes a sliver of hope. Hope that some women staring back from there will be found alive. Hope that if they didn't know they were loved before, they do now. Many of the women and girls will not be found in Sowell's house. They went missing while he was serving a 15-year sentence for attempted rape, before he lived in the home filled with bodies, amid a stench he blamed on a next-door sausage shop. Some posted on the wall, like 43-year-old Nancy Cobbs, will become one of the 11, and move from the realm of the missing to that of the memorialized. Naticia Duncan hovered at the wall Thursday afternoon, shivering in her pajama pants. She pointed to her high school friend Kimberly Sharp. Sharp's minimal flier explained that the 18-year-old disappeared last year from Parma. But Duncan, 20, said Sharp sometimes hung out around the same streets of Mount Pleasant that many of the women have vanished from. "I don't really know what happened," Duncan said. "I just hope they don't find her in there," she said, motioning across the street to Sowell's duplex, where police cars remained parked and a blue tarp, flapping in the wind, was visible from the driveway. The wall, attached to a chain-link fence, is a source of debate -- a place where people argue, sometimes fervently, about pivotal questions yet to be answered. Who will share in the blame? Families for not reporting the missing? Police for not listening when they did? Drugs for being so addictive they lured women to their deaths? Patrice Linen, 48, stood this week, looking from Sowell's house to the wall. For years, she marched into houses like Sowell's in search of a little dingy rock -- crack cocaine -- that seemed to solve all her problems. "You don't think about the danger, you think about the high," Linen said. She said she was beaten and violated many times in those years. She was so ashamed and too embarrassed to go to the police, and frankly, Linen said, it was easier to get high and push it from her mind. Now, three years sober, Linen is grateful. That she didn't end up dead in a house like Sowell's. And that there's a renewed chance to save others from the same fate. http://www.cleveland.com

Imperial Avenue strangler a stereotypical sexually sadistic serial killer, experts say By Tony Brown, The Plain Dealer November 09, 2009, 4:00AM The Imperial Avenue strangler lured easy prey into his deadly spider web with alcohol and drugs. He raped them to assert power over them, put cords around their throats to control them and asphyxiated them one at a time in a thrill-quest that lasted for years. He got away with it for so long by living and hunting in society's margins, by lying and manipulating with pathological precision, and by hiding an intense hatred for women behind a "mask of sanity." That is the opinion of five crime experts, who said the mounting evidence in Cleveland's serial-killer case suggests a stereotypical sexual sadist. And, they said, if suspect Anthony Sowell is found guilty of killing the 11 women whose bodies were found in and around his home, law enforcement officials elsewhere should open their cold-case files as far back as Sowell's days in the Marine Corps in the 1970s and '80s. "I can guarantee you, every place lived, you're going to find cases of women just like these being raped and killed just like this," said John E. Douglas, the retired agent behind the FBI's Criminal Profiling Program, which extrapolates killer profiles from forensic evidence. Larry W. StoneRetired FBI agent John E. Douglas created the FBI's criminal-profiling program."There is no way he only started killing a few years ago," said Douglas, who interviewed serial killers David Berkowitz, Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy for the book "Sexual Homicide: Patterns and Motives." Police are looking at three homicides in East Cleveland and a rape in Coronado, Calif., unsolved crimes that took place when Sowell lived in those areas. And FBI agents are expected in North Carolina today to look for evidence linking Sowell to crimes near Cherry Point Marine Air Base. The National Institutes of Justice defines serial killing as a series of two or more homicides committed over a period of time in which "the offender's behavior and the physical evidence . . . reflect sadistic, sexual overtones." The sadistic sexuality, the chronic pattern and the lack of an immediately obvious motive separate serial killing from mass murder (2007's Virginia Tech massacre), terrorist attacks (1995's Oklahoma City bombing) and other kinds of "multicide." Police say 30 to 50 serial killers stalk the United States at any one time, but Douglas believes that to be a conservative estimate, in part because the country's 17,000 law-enforcement agencies can't share data easily. Ohio ranks sixth in the nation among states with geographical ties to serial killers, University of Akron criminologist Mary Myers said. The Imperial Avenue strangler is Cleveland's grisliest serial killer since the unidentified Torso Murderer (or Kingsbury Run Butcher) littered the city with 12 to 13 dismembered and decapitated bodies in 1935-38. Sexual urges drove Cleveland's "geographically stable" 2009 killer in a typical "heating up, cooling off" pattern, said City University of New York crime historian Harold Schechter. Just as some men fantasize about sex, the serial killer -- almost always male -- obsesses about "dominance, torture and murder," Schechter wrote in the book "The Serial Killer Files," and fulfills his irresistible lust by taking lives. The killer usually trolls for victims of his race because they are more likely to trust him. They tend to be hitchhikers, prostitutes, runaways, drifters and drug-users, people more likely to be lured by intoxicants and shelter and less likely to be reported missing to police or the media because they go missing often. "These are society's 'throwaways,' but no one deserves this," Douglas said. "They are the vulnerable. It's like a lion on the Serengeti Plain of Africa. The lion runs at the herd and focuses on the young, the weak, the crippled and the old." Rape often precedes the killing -- sometimes beginning as a consensual act in exchange for drugs or money -- but sex is rarely the point, said Stephen T. Holmes, a criminologist at Orlando's University of Central Florida. "Sex is a weapon, to put the rapist in power and to cause humiliation," Holmes said. The Imperial Avenue strangler at first might have killed accidentally or to avoid arrest, said Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox. "Sometimes the first kill is a mistake, or he wants to silence her," Fox said from Boston. "Some will stop after that because they find murder repulsive. For others, it's stimulating and fun, and will repeat it, frequently growing more and more brutal." Strangulation is the preferred modus operandi. "They like putting hands on the victim," Holmes said. "Ropes or cords are often used to kill, but also to control, so they can force the victim to have eye contact." Serial killers, especially those without cars or with constricted "comfort zones," might keep the corpses as an expedient, but they sometimes get additional gratification from their "trophies," Schechter said. In extreme cases, that could mean necrophilia or cannibalism. Neighbors often do not react to the stench of decomposition because the idea of corpses next door is unimaginable compared to the leaking sewer or other excuses the killer so convincingly offers. The heavily populated Imperial Avenue area, with its small lots crowded together, is "set up for this crime," said Myers. "When people are put so close, they have to socially withdraw to protect themselves." A killer often goes unnoticed -- by police, prison psychologists, parole officers, friends, neighbors and spouses -- because he tends to be psychopathic, not psychotic, and a practiced liar and manipulator. "If the police come to me and ask where I was on the night of the 14th, I stammer around and look guilty," Fox said. "They go to a serial killer, and he's calm and practiced. He says, 'That was a Tuesday,' and pulls out a ticket stub to a Cavs game." Serial-killing patterns would be easier to track with a central registry of adults. But Americans resist it. "This is the 'Land of the Free,' " Myers said. "It's OK for retail outlets to track you with the discount cards on your key chain, but not the government." And, Schechter said, we worry more about terrorism. The experts said they are waiting for more details to pinpoint what events -- in his childhood and young adulthood -- set the killer off. "But the general motive is a hatred of womanhood, getting payback for a deep psychological wrong he feels," Schechter said. And they're waiting for more killings to be attributed to the Imperial Avenue strangler. "We're going to find more," Holmes said. "And we're going to find out a lot more about just how strange this killer is." http://www.cleveland.com

Rally set for this evening on Imperial Avenue, where 11 women were found dead John Kuntz, The PDA teddy bear is tied to a utility pole in the Anthony Sowell neighborhood. CLEVELAND, Ohio — There will be a rally this evening to show support for the families of missing people, those found dead and those still missing. Black on Black Crime and Survivors/Victims of Tragedy are organizing the event and are asking residents to gather at 7 p.m. at East 123rd Street and Imperial Avenue, near the house where 11 women were found dead. The activists will be tying yellow ribbons around trees and poles in memory of murdered and missing people. "We invite everyone to join us in support of each other and to denounce such unmitigated and horrendous violence," activist Judy Martin said in a news release. http://www.cleveland.com

Authorities search abandoned Cleveland school near Anthony Sowell's house By John Caniglia, The Plain Dealer November 09, 2009, 12:09PM Ohio — Cleveland police and fire investigators converged on the old Lafayette Elementary School shortly after noon today. The property is about two blocks away from Anthony Sowell's house on Imperial Avenue. Officers led at least two dogs into the property with the assistance of the Ohio Search Dog Association. The school closed in 1995 and the fenced-in property is overgrown with weeds. The building is boarded up but the front door was partially open when officers arrived today. Officials said they would bring cadaver dogs to the school and possibly back to Sowell's house today. Sowell has been charged with five counts of aggravated murder. Ten bodies and a head were recovered from his property late last month. Police suspect he is a serial killer who lured women to his house with drugs and alcohol, then strangled them. http://www.cleveland.com

Ninth body from Anthony Sowell's house identified as Kim Yvette Smith 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. (<a>Post your condolences to the families of the victims here.</a>) Like the other seven women who police say were victims of Sowell's, Smith had a criminal record and a history of drug abuse. The other women are identified as Tonia Carmichael, 52; Nancy Cobbs, 45; Tishana Culver, 31; Crystal Dozier, 38; Telacia Fortson, 31; Amelda Hunter, 47; Michelle Mason, 45, and Janice Webb, 49. Sowell, 49, is in jail with bond set at $5 million. He has been charged with five counts of aggravated murder and rape in connection with the bodies. Sowell also faces charges of kidnaping, rape and attempted murder in connections with an attack on a 36-year-old woman on Sept. 22. Sowell lured a 36-year-old woman to his house on Cleveland's East Side to drink malt liquor with him, then used an extension cord to choke the women until she passed out and raped her, authorities say. Authorities suspect that Sowell is responsible for the deaths of all 11 women found dead in his home on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland. Investigators outside the city also are looking at Sowell as in connection with other crimes, including in East Cleveland, where police are trying to connect Sowell to three unsolved murders. 　 http://www.cleveland.com

Authorities identify Janice Webb as another victim from Anthony Sowell's house By Karl Turner, The Plain Dealer November 09, 2009, 4:43PM CLEVELAND, Ohio — Officials have identified another woman found dead at Anthony Sowell's house on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland. Janice Webb, 49, was last seen June 3 when she left the Lakewood house where she was living with her boyfriend. For days now, her family has been awaiting word on whether she was one of the 11 women removed from the Imperial Avenue house of suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell, 49. Like the other women police suspect Sowell of killing, Webb had a criminal record, a history of drug abuse and ties to the neighborhood where Sowell lived. The other women are identified as Tonia Carmichael, 52; Nancy Cobbs, 45; Tishana Culver, 31; Crystal Dozier, 38; Telacia Fortson, 31; Amelda Hunter, 47; Michelle Mason, 45. Sowell, 50, is in jail with bond set at $5 million. He has been charged with five counts of aggravated murder and rape in connection with the bodies removed from his house. Sowell also faces charges of kidnaping, rape and attempted murder in connections with an attack on a 36-year-old woman on Sept. 22. Sowell lured a 36-year-old woman to his house on Cleveland's East Side to drink malt liquor with him, then used an extension cord to choke the women until she passed out and raped her, authorities say. Authorities suspect that Sowell is responsible for the deaths of all 11 women found dead in his home on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland. Investigators outside the city also are looking at Sowell as in connection with other crimes, including in East Cleveland, where police are trying to connect Sowell to three unsolved murders. http://www.cleveland.com

Anthony Sowell indicted in rape By Gabriel Baird, The Plain Dealer November 09, 2009, 3:46PM CLEVELAND, Ohio — A Cuyahoga County grand jury on Monday indicted Anthony Sowell on charges of kidnapping to engage in a sex act, rape, felonious assault and attempted murder. The charges come with violent offender and sexual predator specifications. The charges stem from Sept. 22 when Sowell lured a 36-year-old woman to his house on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland to drink malt liquor with him. Sowell later used an extension cord to choke the women until she passed out and raped her. Sowell already is facing rape charges and five counts of aggravated murder in connection with 11 bodies police found in and around his house. Authorities suspect Sowell is responsible for the deaths of all of the women and expect to bring more charges against him. Sowell, who served 15 years for attempted rape, is in jail with bond set at $5 million. 　 http://www.cleveland.com