The three-story home of Anthony Sowell with neat white siding was in a crowded inner-city neighborhood of mostly older houses, some boarded up, and small corner stores. The windows on the third floor, where the first two bodies were found, were wide open on Nov. 1, 2009, as a slight breeze blew. Some neighbors said a bad smell came from the house months before, but they thought then that it might be natural gas.

The gruesome discovery left some in the community concerned about women who hadn't been seen in a long time. Ida Garrett, 72, said she was worried that a friend who went missing in April 2009, Janice Webb, might be among the dead. Webb was later confirmed to be among Sowell's victims.

The discovery of at least 11 bodies in one Cleveland home raised questions about how such a gruesome scene could have gone unnoticed, maybe for years. Family of some of the victims argued that police ignored their missing person reports.

Cleveland police search the porch at the home of Anthony Sowell, where 11 bodies were discovered in 2009 in Cleveland. Police in Cleveland say officers who went to a home looking for a rape suspect found two decomposing bodies upstairs and what appeared to be a freshly dug grave in the basement.

The scene at a Cleveland home where 11 bodies were discovered, shocking the community.

A bedroom is shown at the home of Anthony Sowell Monday, June 27, 2011 in Cleveland.

The basement at the home of Anthony Sowell is seen during a tour by jurors Monday, June 27, 2011.

Authorities believe all of Sowell's victims were strangled. Decomposition made it difficult to determine how at least two died. The bodies "could have been there anywhere from weeks to months to years," said officials.

An investigator carries out bags of evidence from the home of Anthony Sowell Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009, in Cleveland. Investigators carried a sledgehammer and drills into the house and dug at the scene and an adjacent backyard as they pursued clues provided by an FBI high-tech sweep.

Anthony Sowell previously spent 15 years in prison for the choking and attempted rape of a 21-year-old woman who was lured to his bedroom in 1989, police said. The first bodies were found Oct. 29, 2009, when police went to arrest Sowell on new charges of rape and felonious assault, but he wasn't home. He was arrested on Oct. 31, 2009, when officers spotted him walking down the street in his neighborhood.

No one is sure how long Anthony Sowell, a registered sex offender who would offer free barbecue to the neighbors, had been living in his three-story house with corpses lying around, many of them black women who had been strangled. Police have recovered bodies in the living room, crawl spaces and backyard graves from the home on Imperial Avenue.

CBS Affiliate WOIO reported that two of Sowell's victims lived within several blocks of his home. Janice Webb, 49, went missing on June 3, 2009, and Nancy Cobbs, seen here, went missing on April 24, 2009.

Anthony Sowell, right, stands behind public defender Kathleen DeMetz during a court appearance Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009, in Cleveland. Two years later, he was convicted of killing 11 women and sentenced to death.

Cleveland police chief Michael McGrath talks about the four additional bodies and a skull found at Anthony Sowell's house Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009 in Cleveland. The gruesome discoveries raised to 11 the number of bodies found in and near the house, as police also searched boarded-up homes in the neighborhood where residents complained for years of a stench that one even said "smelled like a dead body."

Anthony Sowell, right, stands behind public defender Kathleen DeMetz during a court appearance Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009, in Cleveland. He was later convicted in the deaths of 11 women.

On the witness stand, Donald Laster holds up a photo of the home owned by Anthony Sowell during Sowell's trial in Cleveland on July 6, 2011.

A demolition crew dumps debris from serial killer Anthony Sowell's house into a truck Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011, in Cleveland. The city of Cleveland tore down the home where Sowell dumped the remains of the 11 women he murdered.

Nine-year old Ka'reema Abasiya walks past the demolished home of Anthony Sowell during a rally Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013, in Cleveland. The rally marked the four year anniversary since the first bodies were found at the home of Sowell on Imperial Ave.

In this Aug. 10, 2011 photo, Anthony Sowell, left, stands with his attorney Rufus Sims as the jury recommends the death penalty for Sowell in the murder of 11 women in Cleveland.

Barbara Carmichael, facing camera, hugs after the jury recommended the death penalty in the Anthony Sowell case Wednesday, August 10, 2011 in Cleveland. Sowell was convicted July 22 of aggravated murder in 11 women's deaths. Barbara is the mother of victim Tonia Carmichael.