Ohio coroner: 6 bodies found were homicide victims

CLEVELAND — Six women whose badly decomposed bodies were found at the home of a convicted rapist were all victims of homicide, the coroner’s office said Sunday.

At least five of the women apparently had been strangled, said Powell Caesar, a spokesman for the Cuyahoga County coroner. Decomposition made it difficult to determine how the sixth died, he said.

The bodies “could have been there anywhere from weeks to months to years,” Caesar said.

None of the victims has been identified, Caesar said. Two were black, but the race of the others hadn’t been determined, he said.

Anthony Sowell, a 50-year-old registered sex offender, was arrested Saturday when officers spotted him walking down the street of his east-side neighborhood. Court records and jail officials had no information about whether he had an attorney. No charges have been filed regarding the bodies.

The gruesome discovery left some in the community concerned about women who they had not seen in a long time. Ida Garrett, 72, remembered a friend who was reported missing in April. “I think one of them is her,” Garrett said.

The first bodies were found Thursday night when police went to Sowell’s home to arrest him on new charges of rape and felonious assault, but he wasn’t there. The woman in that alleged attack survived. She said she knew Sowell and was raped at the house.

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

As a registered sex offender, Sowell was required to check in regularly at the sheriff’s office, which said he complied. Officers also visited his home, most recently on Sept. 22, just hours before the woman reported being raped there.

But since Sowell wasn’t on parole or probation, they didn’t have the right to enter his house — until Thursday when they had search and arrest warrants.

The 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.

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

Garrett, the neighbor, 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.

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.”

Sowell often walked around his neighborhood asking for money and looking for scrap metal to sell, neighbors said.

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

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.