Neighbors Of Alleged Serial Murderer Want Answers
The remains of 11 people were found in and around Anthony Sowell's home on Cleveland's east side. - The remains of 11 women were found in and around Anthony Sowell's home on Cleveland's east side. (David Barnett / NPR)
Police in Cleveland are taking apart a house on the city's east side, looking for more clues in a serial murder investigation in the working-class neighborhood. The remains of 11 people have been found on the property. A 50-year-old registered sex offender has been arrested and charged, and many in the community are now questioning why it took so long for police to act.
Grisly Nature Of Crime Stuns All
Stepping out of a downtown courtroom, Cleveland Police Special Operations Chief Ed Tomba has mixed feelings. On one hand, he's relieved that murder suspect Anthony Sowell has been formally charged. On the other, he is trying to comprehend the magnitude of the alleged crimes.
"In 24 years in law enforcement, we've never seen anything like it," Tomba says.
All of the victims appear to be African-American women who had been raped and strangled to death. The county coroner says some of the murders may date back to 2005, the year Sowell returned home after serving a 15-year prison sentence for sexual assault.
Neighbor Darnissa Wiley says that until recently, there was no reason to suspect what was allegedly going on in the house.
"He had a block party in the summertime," she says. "People were going in his house, in his backyard, and no one knew that kind of behavior was going on."
Neighbors Complained About Odor
This was in spite of the fact that a strong stench hung in the air, Wiley says.
Neighbors never tied it to the decomposing bodies in and around the house. Some blamed the smell on a nearby sausage factory. Neighbor Charles Sharp went to City Hall to complain, but says nothing ever happened.
"When you smell that odor in the neighborhood and you don't get nobody's attention on it," he says, "what can you do?"
That report to authorities is one of several that remain unexplained. Some residents complain that police were slow to investigate reports of missing women in the neighborhood. At a news conference on Tuesday, Police Chief Michael McGrath defended his officers.
"I would not say we dropped the ball," McGrath said. "When we did have the right information, we were vigilant and continue to investigate."
Many residents react to McGrath's statement with disbelief. Neighbors say they had no idea about Sowell's criminal past. As a registered sexual predator, he was required to check in with the county sheriff's office every 90 days, but since he wasn't on probation, deputies couldn't enter his home without a warrant.
And it's unclear whether Cleveland police officers who arrested and later released Sowell for attempted rape last December knew of his record as a sexual offender. University of Houston criminologist Steven Egger, who studies how serial killer investigations are conducted, says he's not surprised.
"Unfortunately, police do not communicate very well between police agencies," Egger says. "This is one of the reasons that, in my opinion, serial killers are allowed to kill and kill again, and continue to kill, and rack up a number of victims."
'A Culture Of Silence'
Further complicating matters, some of Sowell's alleged victims were women who had struggled with drug abuse, making it less likely that relatives would report them missing in a timely manner.
Ada Averyhart lives a couple of blocks from the crime scene and says city officials were slow to react, but she also worries about a culture of silence that pervades the streets.
"Everybody's going their own way," she says. "They just don't talk anymore. Whatever happens, happens."
For now, police continue the search for bodies in Sowell's house as the city struggles to come to terms with the horrendous crimes and to figure out how to prevent them in the future.
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