First Victim of Anthony Sowell Identified

Eleven bodies in varying states of decomposition have been found so far in the home and buried in the backyard of Anthony Sowell’s home in Cleveland, Ohio. Of the eleven victims recovered to date six were inside the house and five were buried in the yard. Seven of the victims were strangled via use of a ligature, one was strangled manually, two were far too decomposed to determine specificity in the cause of death and have been ruled death by “homicidal violence”, and the autopsy of the eleventh is still being conducted. Of the corpses that the authorities have been able to determine sex and race, it appears the victims were by majority, if not all, African-American women.

Sowell’s multiple murders were discovered at his residence when officials arrived at the house in connection with charges that had been filed against Sowell concerning an alleged attack on Gladys Wade on December 8th, 2008. During that attack Gladys states Sowell punched her in the face, drug her into his home and began to strangle her. But Gladys was able to get away and thanks to her contacting the authorities, Cleveland has its very own serial killer under arrest. The judge ruled no bond yesterday for Anthony Sowell citing the “macabre nature” of the crimes and stating the allegations against Sowell were the most “gruesome” and “serious” he had heard in his time on the bench.

Anthony Sowell, an ex Marine and registered sex offender, has been out of prison since 2005 when he was released after serving a sentence for a previous attack on a woman. He was charged with two counts of attempted rape in 1989 and plead guilty to both in a plea agreement. He served his time for those charges from 1990 to 2005. Authorities fear Sowell’s victim list will include missing from just after he was released.

The first victim identified is Tonia Carmichael who went missing around November 10, 2008. Tonia’s body was identified through DNA testing. The mother of Tonia states the woman was a crack addict. It should not come as surprise if the list of victims are found to be of a similar set of women who were vulnerable either due to an addiction, or a lifestyle such as prostitution. Tonia was 52 when she went missing and had an address listed in the Shaker Heights area of Cleveland.