The Voiceless

The Voiceless

The murder of 11 women all found within the same vicinity seemed like an unlikely horror movie. A monstrosity that would not be possible in modern time due to current laws and updated police technology. But this was no movie and the horrors that took place on Imperial Avenue on Cleveland’s east side were all too real.

Anthony Sowell served 15 years for the attempted rape of a woman in 1989. Sowell was in the Tier 3 category, the most dangerous classification of sex offenders in Ohio. The county where Sowell lived was home to 3,400 sex offenders, all which are supposed to be tracked by authorities. Experts say sex offender lists fail to distinguish between minor offenders and the most dangerous predators. This plus the fact that the authorities failed to inform neighbors of Sowells descent into the community would contribute to two years of unaccounted murder victims. Police believe the women were easy prey. Criminologists state serial killers often target people who may have difficulties and inconsistent schedules. Prostitutes, runaways and drug users are often preyed upon because their absences might not raise red flags.

On Dec. 2, 2008 Barbara Carmichael filed a missing-person report in Warrensville Heights. She tells police her daughter Tonia Carmichael has not been seen in three weeks. Due to drug abuse her daughter would sometimes disappear between three to five days, but this time was different and the mother worried that her daughter could be in danger.

A couple of days later on Dec. 8, 2008 a bleeding woman by the name of Gladys Wade frantically approached a police car at East 116th Street and Kinsman. She tells police that Anthony Sowell asked her if she wanted to drink beer with him. When she said no, he punched her, choked her and tried to rip off her clothes. Wade later stated to CNN "He just kind of twisted my neck, twisting it, twisting it, twisting it," I was gouging his face at the same time. At the same time, I was trying to take his eyeballs out. It was like the devil, you know? Eyes glowing." Police went to Sowell's home, and arrested him due to the allegations. Later no charges were filed because Wade did not want to talk to detectives. Unfortunately After Wade's complaint to police, six more women would disappear.

On September 23, 2009 a woman by the name of Shawn Morris stated that Sowell Invited her into his home for beer. Her description of what happened there was just as sinister as the attacks laid out by Sowell's 1989 victim and, later, by Gladys Wade.

The woman said Sowell punched her in the face and began performing oral sex on her. She was able to escape by promising to return the next day. Officers issued a warrant for Sowell's arrest based on Morris’s account.

The police entered Sowell’s home on October 29, 2009. First, they discovered two bodies rotting in the attic, then five more buried in the backyard. Once the search of the property was completed the body count totaled 11. The names of the recovered bodies included: Tonia Carmichael,Crystal Dozier, Tishanna Culver, Kim Yvette Smith, Nancy Cobbs, Amelda Hunter, Telacia Fortson, Janice Webb, Diane Turner, Le'Shanda Long, and Michelle Mason.

Once the verdict was reached Sowell, 61, was found guilty of killing 11 women and hiding their bodies in and around his home. A Cuyahoga County jury gave him the death sentence, but he died on February 8, 2021 due to terminal illness with appeals pending and no execution date.

After Sowell’s crimes brought international attention to Cleveland’s sex crimes unit, the Plain Dealer newspaper began reporting on a backlog of thousands of sexual assault kits that detectives did not submit for DNA testing.

Stories showed that police systematically closed cases if they could not reach victims after three tries, and detectives decided on a case-by-case basis whether to send DNA evidence to a state lab to identify the culprit. Detectives and jail staff also routinely failed to collect DNA swabs from suspects after their arrests on felony charges and submit the sample to the state’s database, which law enforcement runs sexual assault kit evidence against to obtain a DNA match.

Sowell was among those whose DNA should have been entered into the database but was not.

The discovery that Sowell’s DNA was not in the DNA database brought increased scrutiny to law enforcement’s processes for collecting DNA. The state’s prison system and local law enforcement in Cuyahoga County eventually changed procedures to ensure that DNA evidence was collected from every person arrested on a felony charge submitted to the state.

Website citations:

10 Bodies in Sex Offender’s Home: Is System Broken. (2009). ABC. https://abcnews.go.com/WN/anthony-sowell-murder-case-highlights-broken-sex-offender/story?id=8999276

11 bodies, one house of horrors: Why Cleveland women were ’invisible. (2010). CNN. https://abcnews.go.com/WN/anthony-sowell-murder-case-highlights-broken-sex-offender/story?id=8999276

Anthony Sowell dies: Looking back on Imperial Avenue murders. (2021). Fox 8. https://fox8.com/news/anthony-sowell-dies-looking-back-on-imperial-avenue-murders/

Cleveland serial killer Anthony Sowell’s brutal murders were flashpoint for city that long mishandled sex crimes. (2021). Cleveland. https://www.cleveland.com/crime/2021/02/cleveland-serial-killer-anthony-sowells-brutal-murders-were-flashpoint-for-city-that-long-mishandled-sex-crimes.html