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