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 today.
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.
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.
Ida Garrett, 72, walked to church services today 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.”
As a convicted sex offender, Sowell was required to report regularly to the sheriff’s office, which said he had complied.
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.
Today, police urged the public for help in identifying missing people who may have been victims.
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