‘Crazy’ rapist arrested after cops find 6 bodies

[jimmy olsen]

Fucked up.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33572130/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

'Crazy' rapist arrested after cops find 6 bodies
Police say 'makeshift grave' was found under basement stairs at Ohio home

NBC News and news services
updated 5:03 p.m. ET Nov. 1, 2009
CLEVELAND - Six badly decomposed bodies found at the home of a convicted rapist facing a new rape allegation were females and all were homicide victims, the coroner's office said Sunday.

Powell Caesar, a spokesman for Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller, said at least five of the victims apparently had been strangled. Decomposition made it difficult to determine how the sixth victim died, he said.

None of the victims has been identified, Caesar said. Two victims were black, but race hadn't yet been determined in the other four bodies, he said.

Police found the first two bodies Thursday night when they went to the home of 50-year-old Anthony Sowell to arrest him on charges of rape and felonious assault, but he wasn't there. He was arrested Saturday when officers spotted him walking down the street of his east-side neighborhood.

On Friday, police found a third body and remains that were later confirmed to be three additional bodies. It wasn't determined how long the bodies were at the house, but "they could have been there anywhere from weeks to months to years," Caesar said.

Spent 15 years in prison
People who knew Sowell didn't think he had a job and said he often walked around his neighborhood looking for scrap metal to sell and asking for money. He spent 15 years in prison for choking and raping a 21-year-old woman who was lured to his bedroom in 1989, police said.

Online court records do not show an attorney for Sowell, and the jail staff said no information was available.

Sowell's three-story house with neat white siding sits in a crowded inner-city neighborhood of mostly older homes, some boarded up, and small corner stores.

Police spokesman Lt. Thomas Stacho told NBC News on Sunday that officers had found a "makeshift grave under the stairs in the basement" of the home.

Speaking to NBC's TODAY, Stacho alleged Sowell would "befriend ... women on the street, many times talked about drinking a beer with him, sometimes took them back to his home, sometimes forced them back to his home where he attacked them and we believe probably killed them."

Police established a command post in the neighborhood to take missing-person reports and additional information on outstanding missing persons in the neighborhood.

Teresa Hicks, 48, was among the neighbors who said they were relieved about the arrest but left with a heightened fear of crime. She said she has known Sowell since high school.

"He was crazy," she said from her porch. "Sometimes he would just go off if he didn't have his way."

'I think one of them was her'

Ida Garrett, 72, walked to church services Sunday just one block from Sowell's home. She said the neighborhood was relieved by the arrest but worried about those missing, including one of her friends who disappeared six months ago, just after Garrett wished her a happy 43rd birthday.

The friend, Nancy Cobbs, lived one street away from the Sowell home. She was reported missing in April, and her family told police they fear she is among the victims.

"She seemed to be a very nice, quiet girl. I've known her since she was a teenager," Garrett said, adding: "I think one of them is her."

Clovice Ramsey, minister at All Nations Deliverance Ministries in nearby Maple Heights, held a "PEACE" sign on a corner within sight of the Sowell home and said the discovery of the bodies had damaged people's trust in law enforcement.

"They don't see the system working for them," Ramsey said. Sowell "is not being rehabilitated. They are not keeping a watch on him. I just feel that when the systems fails, the people give up. They give up on the system, and they give up on the God they can't see."

As a convicted sex offender, Sowell was required to report regularly to the sheriff's office, which said he had complied.

Rape allegation led to discovery
The most recent visit to his home by deputies to confirm where he lived came Sept. 22, but deputies didn't have a warrant and didn't walk inside. Hours later, a woman told police she had been raped at the house by Sowell, whom she knew. That allegation led to Thursday's search and the discovery of the bodies.

The home was still cordoned off with police tape Sunday and officers monitored it from two patrol cars.

The windows of the third floor, where the first two bodies were found, were wide open Sunday as a slight breeze blew through the neighborhood. Some neighbors said a bad smell came from the house several months ago, but they thought then that it might be natural gas.

Sowell returned to the family home in 2005 after his release from prison. The home was owned by two of Sowell's relatives, including a woman — described by neighbors as either Sowell's stepmother or aunt — who kept up the house.

Neighbors said the woman moved into a nursing home after Sowell was released from prison. Teresa Hicks, a neighbor, said people feared that she might be dead. Police were looking into her status.

Police were checking unsolved crime reports for similarities to the 1989 rape or the recent allegation against Sowell.

On Sunday, police urged the public for help in identifying missing people who may have been victims.

The Associated Press and NBC News contributed to this report.

[Ed Anger]

Hot

[Caliga]

He spent 15 years in prison for choking and raping a 21-year-old woman who was lured to his bedroom in 1989, police said.

Why would someone like this EVER be released from prison?  Like that Garrido feller, guys like that WILL offend again.  Their brains are, like, broken.

[Barrister]

He spent 15 years in prison for choking and raping a 21-year-old woman who was lured to his bedroom in 1989, police said.

Why would someone like this EVER be released from prison?  Like that Garrido feller, guys like that WILL offend again.  Their brains are, like, broken.

The problem is Cal, is that there is no such guarantee.

If we could guarantee the people who would re-offend, they wouldn't get out.  However in particular people who reach 40+years of age, the odds are they don't re-ofend, even if their brain is broken.

[CountDeMoney]

The problem is Cal, is that there is no such guarantee.

Yes there is, you mountie faggit.  Sex offenders have a recidivism rate approaching more than 50% over a 25 year timeline.  That's more than enough to keep them locked up forever.

[Tonitrus]

They should be executed after the first offense anyway, so ideally recidivism would be a non-issue.

[Martinus]

Languish once again shows its demographics is similar to that of the "Sun" readers.

[Jaron]

The problem is Cal, is that there is no such guarantee.

Yes there is, you mountie faggit.  Sex offenders have a recidivism rate approaching more than 50% over a 25 year timeline.  That's more than enough to keep them locked up forever.

What about the other 50%?

[syk]

Languish once again shows its demographics is similar to that of the "Sun" readers.

The problem is Cal, is that there is no such guarantee.

Yes there is, you mountie faggit.  Sex offenders have a recidivism rate approaching more than 50% over a 25 year timeline.  That's more than enough to keep them locked up forever.

What about the other 50%?

Those aren't as good as the other half.

[Brazen]

Two victims were black, but race hadn't yet been determined in the other four bodies, he said.

This seems an odd fact to have so high up compared with the overall gravity of the story.

[CountDeMoney]

Two victims were black, but race hadn't yet been determined in the other four bodies, he said.

This seems an odd fact to have so high up compared with the overall gravity of the story.

Seeds the populace for phone calls for more missing people in the area.

"Hey, hasn't Towanda been missing for a few months?"
"Yeah.  I wonder..."

[grumbler]

They should be executed after the first offense anyway, so ideally recidivism would be a non-issue.

If you execute them before their first offense, you have an even more "ideal" situation.

[DisturbedPervert]

He spent 15 years in prison for choking and raping a 21-year-old woman who was lured to his bedroom in 1989, police said.

Why would someone like this EVER be released from prison?  Like that Garrido feller, guys like that WILL offend again.  Their brains are, like, broken.

It's a failure of the prison system that this guy wasn't murdered and raped behind bars.

[ulmont]

'Crazy' rapist arrested after cops find 6 bodies

After you find six bodies, shouldn't this guy get moved from the "'crazy' rapist" into the "'crazy' serial killer" category?

[DGuller]

Seeds the populace for phone calls for more missing people in the area.

"Hey, hasn't Towanda been missing for a few months?"
"Yeah.  I wonder..."