CLEVELAND – Police were yesterday working to identify three of six bodies discovered at the home of a convicted rapist.
Anthony Sowell fled before police in Cleveland, Ohio arrived to arrest him on new charges, but was captured after being spotted in the city’s east side, Lieut Thomas Stacho said last night.
Sowell initially denied he was the man authorities were looking for, but admitted his identity as officers began fingerprinting him, Lieut Stacho said.
Officers initially identified three decomposing bodies at Sowell’s home, Lieut Stacho said.
Powell Caesar, a spokesman for the Cuyahoga County coroner’s office, said additional remains were found and confirmed as three more bodies.
Autopsies were performed on all six bodies but no cause of death or names were announced. Two autopsies were done on Friday.
The first two bodies were found on Thursday night when police went to Sowell’s home to arrest him for felonious assault and rape. Police said Sowell had spent 15 years in prison for a 1989 rape. Cuyahoga County coroner Frank Miller identified two bodies as those of black women, and said one had died of a violent death ruled a murder. No race or sex was determined for the others.
Neighbour Teresa Hicks (48), who had known Sowell since high school, said: “He was crazy. Sometimes he would just go off if he didn’t have his way.”
Detectives with a search warrant found two bodies on Thursday on the third floor of a semi-detached house and began checking a fresh grave dug in the basement.
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)