Cops to Tear Down Walls of Suspect's Home

Sex Offender Denied Bail on Five Murder Charges; 10 Corpses Were Found in and Around His Cleveland House

(CBS/ AP)  Updated 7:19 p.m. EST

A sex offender who lived among 10 corpses was ordered held without bond Wednesday as investigators prepared to begin tearing apart walls inside the house in search of more evidence or bodies.

Anthony Sowell appeared in court under tight security, wearing a blue paper jumpsuit typically used when an inmate might be a suicide risk. His wrists and ankles were manacled, and he walked into court staggering slightly.

Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Brian Murphy called Sowell "an incredibly dangerous threat to the public" and said he could face the death penalty if convicted of the charges - five aggravated murder counts for the victims whose cause of death has been ruled strangulation. In addition, he faces charges of rape, felonious assault and kidnapping for a Sept. 22 attack on a woman at his home.

Public defender Kathleen DeMetz told the judge that Sowell has medical problems, including a heart pacemaker and cardiac medication. He was laid off two years ago and receives unemployment compensation.

The case now goes before the county grand jury.

Police discovered the first six bodies Thursday and Friday after a woman reported being raped at Sowell's home. Investigators said they found one body in a shallow grave in the backyard. The rest were inside the house - one in the basement, two in the third-floor living room and two in an upstairs crawl space.

They found four more bodies Tuesday in Sowell's backyard, as well as a skull wrapped in paper inside a bucket in his basement.

Finger-pointing at Police in Ohio Murders
Crimesider: Home "Smelled Like a Dead Body" for Years
Crimesider: Identifying the Victims at Sowell's Home
PICTURES: Anthony Sowell's Home of Horror

Outraged local residents accuse authorities of ignoring their concerns about missing women for years, reports CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston. Six of Sowell's alleged victims are known to be African-American.

Tonia Carmichael was among the first victims to be identified with a DNA match. Her family says they tried to get Cleveland police to look for her when they found her car near Sowell's house a year ago. They believe police ignored them because Carmichael was a known drug user.

"Nobody looked," Carmichael's daughter, Donita Carmichael, told Pinkston. "Nobody took the time out to look for the missing women. My mother's life meant something beyond the drugs and alcohol."

Cleveland City Councilman Zack Reed is calling for an independent investigation, Pinkson reports. Reed believes authorities should have done more to trace the source of the stench of death; the smell was erroneously believed to be coming from a sausage factory next door to Sowell's home.

"Something went wrong here," Reed said. "You can't have 10 bodies in a residential neighborhood where the community is telling you about a foul smell."

After Sowell's court appearance, Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba said investigators have finished digging through the backyard and will begin tearing apart walls inside the house Wednesday in search of more evidence or bodies.

"We're going to go bit by bit, piece by piece," he said.

The Cuyahoga County coroner hasn't identified any of the bodies but is trying to do so through DNA and dental records. The six found last week were black, and five of them were strangled.

Sowell served 15 years in prison for a 1989 attempted rape. On Tuesday, Police Chief Michael McGrath said: "It appears that this man had an insatiable appetite that he had to fill."

A crowd of around 100 people milled about and chatted near the home Tuesday evening. A short while later, around 50 people joined hands and put their arms around one another in the middle of the street and prayed aloud.

One of those in the crowd, Antoinnette Dudley, 29, lives a few houses away. She said she could smell a terrible odor like something was dead all summer. She said she saw Sowell only a few times, mainly drinking beer while he sat on his porch.

"I didn't think he was that sick," she said.

As a registered sex offender, Sowell was required to check in regularly at the sheriff's office. Officers didn't have the right to enter his house, but they would stop by to make sure he was there. Their most recent visit was Sept. 22, just hours before the woman reported being raped.

For the past few years, Sowell's neighbors thought the foul smell enveloping their street corner had been coming from a brick building where workers churned out sausage and head cheese. It got so bad that the owners of Ray's Sausage replaced their sewer line and grease traps.

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.

[littleme55]

if the police and city would do their job instead of being afraid of these psycho people there would be less crime.....

[Texkat]

Okay....what is the point of having a Registered Sex Offender program if NO ONE checks to see what they are doing behind closed doors?!?!?!! Between this case and the Duggard horror, our system is CLEARLY flawed. Don't misled the public by saying we track Registered Sex Offenders when you clearly DO NOT!! I am sorry, but talking to one will NOT guarnentee the truth! Shouldn't these 2 extreme cases be a wake up call that these SEX OFFENDERS do not get cured and need to be better monitored?!?!? Sick....

[stryker54]

Blame the ACLU and Attorney's yell for the rights of the criminal. They have laws to keep police at bay or they break the scumbags constitional rights. It's absurd.

[bearkaz]

The point of having registered sex offenders is basically NIMBY. Sex offender laws exist so that the rich people can know confident that nobody nasty is living in their back yard.

Well, that and, plus, it provides additional punishment for sex offenders (cuz we're mad they haven't suffered enough, and/or because we're using them as scapegoats), but mostly I think those laws are there there to make us feel good, like everything is under control.

[pachin_haburashi]

Writing from Japan, I had a question about his house. (sorry for a minor interruption)
Since he served 15 years in prison and only 2 years working, how could he live the house like that? It looks like very nice condition and living by himself seemed like the house was his own..is that right?
If the house was provided by city or some organization, they might have visited to check when the neighbor's complain of smell was mentioned... right?

[jsd330]

It's his mothers house and she is in a nursing home, he lived there by himself.

[bearkaz]

Because Cleveland is one of the cities going through a sort of downsizing - it is happening in cities all over the so called "rust belt", the formerly prosperous area from Chicago to Pennsylvania, and from Michigan in the north to to the Ohio/WV/KY border.

In some parts of these cities, there are abandoned buildings. Prices are low, there are no buyers - nobody wants to live there, because there are no jobs. You can't even expect to buy one, fix it up, and rent it. Many sit empty and crime is high. It's very sad. Some cities (Akron, OH & Detroit, MI, I think) the city councils are relocating residents, so that the worst parts of town may be demolished. In other cities (Gary, IN) there are photos on the internet (see: urban blight, urban decay) that are just falling in, and nobody can stop it because there's no money.

Hope that answers your question.

[jsd330]

Yep the Cuyahoga county sheriffs department right on the ball, as usual. This man was a registered sex offender and they never went to his home to check on him. They allowed him to go to the sheriffs office and report in. Maybe had they checked him at home this would have been discovered earlier. Of course when you have almost every county office under investigation for corruption, including the former sheriff this is what happens.

[ffoulkes-2009]

The story says the police went to his home to verify he lived there and were just there hours before the woman who reported him was raped.

[armyoftwelve]

This story keeps getting worse and worse. Funny, you don't often hear about black serial killers.

[Nivlac_Skcaj]

It happens but seems to not be news worthy most of the time. Mental problems span all races and religions. A sick person is the hardest to spot for they hide their illness as a way of life. A bad person flaunts his badness but this crime is one of a sick mind.

[nycyndia]

My teenaged daughters and i have honestly decided the best way to stop this horror that keeps happening to our nations women is to give punishment (jail) first offense and then after that if it happens again then it is time to make the offender into a eunuch.
As a parent, i have always told my children if they didn't know how to be responsible with what they have been given then it should be taken away.
from what i understand, once a man is castrated a loss in libido occurs.
perfect.

[legacyABQ2]

heh. Dont get too cynical about men now.. There's plenty of nice men in this country! ;-)

I like how you allowed for jail for 1st time offenders before castrating them. That sounds fair.

[stryker54]

Castration will cause a loss of libido, but this guy is a killer. I'm sure if you start castrating men alot would probably do other crimes just as bad for revenge.

[tmittelstaed]

You would think that the court could have found some other public defender than a woman. (Kathleen DeMetz) I cannot imagine how any woman, even a lawyer, could possibly give a good defense for a convicted rapist on trial for murdering dozens of women who's bodies were found in his home. It's not that he -deserves- a good defense, it's more that whoever on the court selected DeMetz to represent him is a first-class creep.

[jclark7613]

by missme4

You are a very nasty and ignorant person...I've read your post for months now... please don't ever respond to my post because you are not on my level... I'm not a nasty degrading person as you are... you low life neo con thug...

[Skirtlifters]

I admit, missme4 is over-the-top rude. I despise political correctness as much as missme4. You, JClark, were having a fine debate, and may have been winning. But then you resort to name calling while saying missme4 is not on your level.

Sorry...missme4 wins the debate.

[OregonJames]

Tell me, why are rapists and pedophiles ever allowed to go free? They should instead be executed, every single one of them. They cannot be cured. Execute them.

[Skirtlifters]

If we made these capitol crimes, we'd also have to make a false accusation capital punishment. Only fair.

[Iamthemango]

Black male rapist + White female victim = compassion, outrage

Black male rapist + Black female victim = sarcasm, apathy

Test my theory. It holds up every time.

[Skirtlifters]

White male accused rapist + Black female accuser = massive community outrage from the likes of Al Sharpton and a Nifong witch hunt.

Dude. c'mon, please ... you can't stuff human behavior into little boxes of predictability based on race. Your theory is simple minded.