November 2, 2009 1:12 PM

Anthony Sowell Cruised Sex Fetish Site While Dead Bodies Rotted in His Cleveland Home

By
Edecio Martinez
Topics
Daily Blotter
(Alt.com)
Photo: Anthony Sowell's Alt.com profile.

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) Crimesider has discovered that Anthony Sowell, the sex offender suspected of murdering six women, cruised a sex fetish Web site where he described himself as a "master" looking for a submissive person "to train."

PICTURES: Anthony Sowell's Home of Horror

Police say Sowell had six victims buried in his Cleveland home.

"If your [sic] submissive and like to please, then this master wants to talk to you," Sowell's profile on Alt.com reads. "So get you're (expletive) on over here NOW!"

(AP/The Plain Dealer, John Kuntz)
Photo: Janice Webb has been missing since June. She lives in Sowell's southeast Cleveland neighborhood.

On Oct. 27, when Cleveland police entered Sowell's home with search and arrest warrants relating to a recent rape accusation, they found badly decomposed bodies. Sowell wasn't there but was captured two days later.

On Sunday, authorities had determined there were six bodies in Sowell's home, all of them women who met a violent end.

(Alt.com/Personal Photo)
Photo: Alt.com profile picture of Anthony Sowell.

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.

Sowell appeared to have set up his Alt.com profile in July 2005, only one month after his release from a 15-year prison term for the attempted rape of a 21-year-old woman, who, police say, was lured to his bedroom in 1989.

The Web site says his last login was more than three months ago.

On his Alt.com profile, Sowell described his ideal partner as submissive and willing to "please… anytime, anyplace and anyway." He also describes himself as a "performer," someone who "loves to be around people."

Alt.com describes itself as an alternative lifestyles personals site. The site allows people to find each other based on shared sexual fetishes. Some of the options include "handcuffs/shackles," "knife play," and "blood." Sowell did not list an affinity for any particular fetish on his profile.

Thus far, police have not been able to determine how long the bodies found at Sowell's home had been rotting there, but officials say they could have been there anywhere from weeks to months to years.

Officers had last visited Sowell at home as part of his sex-offender monitoring on Sept. 22, just hours before a woman reported being raped there. But without warrants, police could not enter his home at that time.

PICTURES: Anthony Sowell's Home of Horror

MORE ON CRIMESIDER
November 2, 2009 - Six Died Violently at Anthony Sowell's Cleveland Home, Say Police

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Associated Press has withdrawn reports referring to Sowell as a "convicted rapist." The AP says that Sowell was only convicted of attempted rape, according to police.


Add a Comment See all 33 Comments
by missvixen77 November 9, 2009 10:27 AM EST
Need I remind everyone who is commenting against Alt.com, and who is making completely uneducated comments about BDSM, that Craigslist too has suffered from madmen using its services to find victims? The point is that sick individuals are a part of society and they can turn up anywhere from Bible Study to a sex dungeon. By the way the "S" in BDSM means both sadism and submission.
Reply to this comment
by mozartsfuneral November 9, 2009 12:42 AM EST
You all must be intelligent people yet you are blaming something probably the majority of you know NOTHING about. I am a PROUD member of the BDSM lifestyle community and I engage in activities that most of you would shudder at, however they are CONSENSUAL. I screen every single person I meet up with, I never go alone, and I leave someone with the date, time and the location of my whereabouts. These girls were foolish, and obviously didn't take the proper precaution that even the most vanilla girl should know!
The 'reporter' of this article is an idiot, he too doesn't have the proper details and doesn't know that the majority of people who are on these 'kinky' websites participate in S.S.C. and RACK. If you don't know what they are, I suggest you look them up and educuate yourself.
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by demonbuttercup77 November 8, 2009 10:47 PM EST
BDSM "communities", not BDSM websites, do sex offender background checks.

The internet is a free for all and any BDSM community cautions members about meeting anyone on sites like that.

You have no idea what you are talking about, but keep pretending like you do. Go have missionary sex with your pillow or whatever boring girl will have you (do you call her lefty or righty?).
Reply to this comment
by demonbuttercup77 November 8, 2009 10:42 PM EST
He could have just as easily been using MySpace, Facebook, CraigsList, Match or any other number of websites to hook up with women. What would you have to say then?

"Well people who use those sites are (insert stupid comment here) and that's why this is happening...but if they had just been thumping the bible, they wouldn't be dead. It's their own fault for being freaks."

Retarded.
Reply to this comment
by adored78 November 7, 2009 9:20 AM EST
Point is here kids...no one is going to protect you, so you have to protect yourselves. Do you think as many people would be using these sites if there was a criminal background check (as a saftey precaution) to join to keep other members safe?? I think not. Not that anyone deserves anything to happen to them because of this, but they should realize that if your making certain lifestyle choices, you are putting yourself MORE AT RISK...THAN SOMEONE WHO FOR EXAMPLE...GOES TO BIBLE STUDY...IT'S JUST A FACT OF LIFE. IF YOU CAN'T SWIM ARE YOU GOING TO GO SWIMMING...NO CUZ YOU MIGHT DROWN RIGHT?? POINT IS PEOPLE HAVE CHOICES, BY MAKING CHOICES THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES THAT MAY OR MAY NOT OCCUR FROM MAKING A CERTAIN CHOICE. WHEN IT COMES TO THE INTERNET...THERE REALLY IS NO WAY OF KNOWING...WHETHER THEY PUSH SAFE PRACTICES OR NOT...
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by drthvader November 5, 2009 3:05 PM EST
In the past serial killers have been mostly white thrty-ish or middle aged men.
There is actually a website for this weird sh*t?
Reply to this comment
by JonesTownMayor November 5, 2009 8:09 PM EST
That is a commonly repeated statistic but it would appear that maybe that is true by a thinner and thinner margin. There is a sizable representation in mass and serial killers by Blacks, Hispanics and a few are women. Just to name a few: Charles Ng, Marcus Wesson, Wayne Williams, Richard Ramirez, Juan Corona, Chester Turner, The Carr Brothers, Derrick Todd Lee, Coral Watts, Rafael Resendez. It would appear that, as with crime in general, the race of the serial killer generally matches that of the neighborhood they live in and that of their victims. There are notable exceptions, such as with Dahmer (his victims were Filipino/Black/Asian boys/men). John Floyd Thomas also raped and killed outside his race (elderly white women).
The internet is infested with websites fixated on deviant sexual practices. And they are coated with viruses and malicious scripts that can immediately start abusing your computer without you doing anything but landing on the site. So, proceed with great caution if you just have to go look for yourself.
by JonesTownMayor November 5, 2009 2:12 PM EST
I just read an update on the case. Apparently the city did try to investigate the odor but didn't get far.

I wonder if they took a cadaver sniffing dog with them?
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by adored78 November 4, 2009 7:10 PM EST
People are focusing on a stupid sex fetish websites?? Really? What is this world coming too? How about tracking the missing womens financial records to see if he robbed them too and used their credit cards? Or maybe putting in some energy into finding out why the cops overlooked this guy while 11 women lay dead in his house and yard? We already know he's a freak! He obviously has a criminal back ground with being sexually violent to women, he's on a sex offenders list! What's the point of tracking the jerks if you're not going to do anything when women are dropping like flies around him?? The police could've saved lives, instead they just brushed it off like he was just some normal urban BS that happens in all big cities. And the sad thing is people think that criminals are driving out to the country to drop bodies off! Maybe you city folks need to wake up and stop being so nonchalont(sp) get off the donuts, leave the street walkers alone, and go check out that stench on imperial avenue!
Reply to this comment
by JonesTownMayor November 4, 2009 10:44 PM EST
No, people are focusing on the undue influence of fetish websites and the fact that this monster used them to troll for victims, apparently. That is what is called an unintended consequence.

Really, if we would just execute these wastes of time, money and space the first time we had them in our hands, so much suffering would be avoided. The guilty would suffer instead of the innocent. Instead.

Fortunately, Ohio does have the death penalty but I don't know what the track record is for actually delivering that justice.
by JonesTownMayor November 4, 2009 5:56 PM EST
I just love all the defenders of the BDSM types insisting they engage in safe and consensual activity. ROFL! Look, either you are getting off because you *are* hurting each other (that would be the "S" in BDSM) or you are just BDM. Jeebus, it's like arguing with a monkey who insists he doesn't have a tail.

I'm astounded that the city didn't have several different inspectors hang out in the neighborhood over several dates so they could smell the odor that alarmed the neighbors. You would think some homicide detectives might have been able to tell it was human decay.

But for sure, if I kept getting told it was the sausage shop making the smell, I wouldn't shop there.
Reply to this comment
by adored78 November 7, 2009 9:00 AM EST
I agree with you there. The point is no matter what kind of sick behavior you participate in, IT'S STILL THAT...SICK! AND PEOPLE HAVE DIED MORE THAN ONCE FROM IT GOING TO FAR! Also I do like the point that you made about them even being able to have acess to the sights, because you are right...they are just looking for their next victim....unfortunately the website is perfect place to hide and justify what kind of monster they really are...I see your point...UNFORTUNATELY...they'd probably just have someone else sign up for the internet for them so it wasn't in their name...or go to the library right?! So there really isn't actually a way to stop them...I'm sure they'd say that it violated their rights some how...not like this guy deserves any...but, hey! that's America! We may be all high and mighty about how great we have it ect... but I bet in a third world country this guy already would have been dealt with...and not in the form of a court room and a judicial system either!!!!
by smart_girl99 November 4, 2009 5:34 PM EST
As a woman, a sexual assault survivor, and a person with a profile at alt dot com I am dismayed that CBS would choose to go for sheer shock value in a headline, though not at all surprised.
I thought it was particularly trashy to list some arbitrary fetishes, and of course include "Blood" even though "Sowell did not list an affinity for any particular fetish on his profile."

The BDSM community advocates Safe, Sane, and *Consensual* practices.

Chances are no woman from alt was foolish enough to meet with Sowell. That's because Sowell wasn't a "Master". Sowell was a predator.

Rape and murder by strangulation are hardly consensual. Rape isn't even about sex, it is about power over another person.

I hope that the families of these poor women will have some closure and that Sowell gets the maximum sentencing allowed by the state.
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