Who Were Anthony Sowell Victims?
Warning: The following contains disturbing descriptions of violence, including sexual violence. Reader discretion is advised. Police found two decomposing bodies at Sowell’s house in Imperial Avenue while serving a warrant on October 29, 2009. In the next week, a total of 11 victims were found in and around his home. Sowell lured the women to…
Warning: The following contains disturbing descriptions of violence, including sexual violence. Reader discretion is advised.
Police found two decomposing bodies at Sowell’s house in Imperial Avenue while serving a warrant on October 29, 2009. In the next week, a total of 11 victims were found in and around his home. Sowell lured the women to his house, often with the promise of drink or drugs, before strangling them.
Who Were Anthony Sowell’s Victims?
Between 2007 and 2009, Sowell, a former U.S. Marine and convicted sex offender who served 15 years for kidnapping, rape, and attempted rape, murdered 11 women. He hid or buried their remains in his home and yard. Among the findings was a skull, which he had wrapped in a paper bag and placed in a bucket. The odor permeating from Sowell’s house was said to be so overwhelming that people thought it came from a nearby sausage shop.
Crystal Dozier, a 38-year-old mother of seven, went missing in May 2007. Thirty-three-year-old mother Tishana Culver spent several years without stable housing before rebuilding her life and moving into a small apartment in the Woodlands Hill Park area of Cleveland.
Leshanda Long, a mother of three, was last seen in August 2008. Michelle Mason left Cleveland as a young adult to spend time in New York and New Jersey. Despite struggling with drugs, Kim Smith took meticulous care of her disabled father, making sure he got to his doctor appointments and cooking and cleaning for him.
Nancy Cobbs. After spiraling into a world of drugs, Nancy Cobbs ended up spending time in prison. Amelda “Amy” Hunter, a beautician and mother of three, disappeared in the spring of 2009. Carmichael, 53, disappeared in the fall of 2009 and was the first victim identified from Sowell’s home. People remember Janice Webb as the “family jokester,” who enjoyed pulling pranks. But in 1995, after a trip to Los Angeles, her life took a dark turn.
Telacia Fortson was adopted as a child and, although she was loved, according to friends, she never overcame her feelings of abandonment. Diane Turner, a mother of six, battled drug addiction for most of her life. She entered multiple rehabilitation programs and, on and off, remained clean and sober.
