Coroner: 6 bodies found at home; Ohioan
arrested
CLEVELAND – A convicted rapist who fled before police arrived to
arrest him on new rape charges was arrested Saturday in his
inner-city neighborhood after police found six decomposing bodies
at his home.
Police spokesman Lt. Thomas Stacho said Anthony Sowell was
walking down the street on the east side of Cleveland when
authorities spotted him and took him into custody.
Sowell initially denied he was the man authorities were looking
for but admitted his identity as officers began fingerprinting him,
Stacho said. Charges against him are pending.
Officers initially identified three bodies at Sowell's home,
Stacho said. Powell Caesar, a spokesman for the Cuyahoga County
coroner's office, said additional remains were found and confirmed
Saturday as three more bodies, for a total of six.
As of Saturday, autopsies had been performed on all six bodies
but no cause of death or names were announced. Two autopsies were
done Friday.
The first two bodies were found Thursday night when police went
to Sowell's home to arrest him on charges of felonious assault and
rape. Police say he had spent 15 years in prison for a 1989
rape.
Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller identified two bodies as
black females and said one had died of a violent death ruled a
homicide. No race or gender was determined for the others.
Police established a command post in the neighborhood to take
missing-person reports and additional information on outstanding
missing persons in the neighborhood.
Teresa Hicks, 48, was among the neighbors who said they were
relieved about the arrest but left with a heightened fear of crime.
She said she has known Sowell since high school.
"He was crazy," she said from her porch Saturday. "Sometimes he
would just go off if he didn't have his way."
Darren Dunlap, 38, frequently visits the neighborhood to see his
brother or friends. He said Sowell was known for borrowing money
and looking for scrap metal to sell.
Hicks said she didn't think Sowell had a job but understood from
conversations with him that he lived on a monthly check. She said
she didn't know its source.
Police were checking crime reports to find matches for
similarities to the 1989 rape or the most recent allegation against
Sowell.
Minutes before the arrest was made, police Chief Michael McGrath
tried to reassure parents that it was safe for their children to go
trick-or-treating in the neighborhood if they followed standard
precautions like avoiding strangers and staying in a group.
Hicks said her daughter would not be trick-or-treating.
Detectives with a search warrant found two bodies Thursday on
the third floor of a duplex and began checking a fresh grave dug in
the basement. The bodies were in an advanced state of
decomposition, suggesting they'd been in the home a long time.
Police were checking missing-person reports back to June 2005,
when Sowell was released from prison.
As a convicted sex offender, Sowell was required to report
regularly to the sheriff's office, which said he had complied.
--AP
