Back At It: FBI Steps In As Homicide Detectives, Cadaver Dogs Launch New Search
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Posted by Web Staff - email | Facebook | Twitter CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) - Police homicide detectives and cadaver dogs are back on the scene at Anthony Sowell's Imperial Avenue house. There has not been this much police activity at the house since last Thursday. Around 12:30PM, two cadaver dogs went into an abandoned school building - the old Lafayette Elementary - at East 125th and Abell Street about a block and a half from Imperial. A neighbor tells 19 Action News the building has been abandoned for about 20-years.
Just after 1PM, a cadaver dog was brought to the backyard of Sowell's neighbor. That home has been vacant since March of 2008.
A total of eleven victims have been found in and around the southeast home of 50-year-old Sowell.
The coroner tells 19 Action News eight victims were strangled. Seven bodies still had something around their necks and one victim was strangled by hands. Two others were killed by homicidal violence. The cause of death for the last victim is undetermined. Some of the victims could have been missing for up to five years.
The FBI has offered their assistance to the CPD to follow-up on any leads on unsolved crimes outside the Cleveland area.
FBI profilers were in town over the weekend and met with police regarding Sowell. They are currently putting a timeline together of all the places the suspected Cleveland Strangler lived.
Sowell served in the Marines from 1978 to 1985 and was stationed in Parris Island, SC; Cherry Point, NC; Okinawa, Japan; and Camp Pendleton, CA.
He also lived in East Cleveland in 1989 - at which time he attacked a pregnant woman. He was convicted of attempted rape and was in prison from 1990 to June of 2005. In June of that year, Sowell moved into the home on Imperial Avenue.
Sowell - who is currently unemployed and wears a pacemaker for a heart condition - is being held without bond at the Justice Center. He's charged with aggravated murder, rape, felonious assault and kidnapping. He could land on death row if convicted of the charges filed against him.
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