Would the Imperial Avenue killings have been prevented if extra steps were taken?

11-22-2009 Ohio:

What if? The question must haunt anyone whose path intersected that of serial-killer suspect Anthony Sowell over the past two decades.

What if Cleveland police and prosecutors worked to charge Sowell when they had the chance in 2008? Or in 1990? What if city officials kept looking until they found the reason behind a neighborhood stench in 2007? What if East Cleveland detectives investigating three unsolved murders had labeled Sowell a suspect in 1989?

The story leading up to the Imperial Avenue killings includes points at which police, prosecutors, neighbors, public officials and others faced decisions.

In every case, the decisions they made left Sowell on the street.

"I see a system that's completely broken," said Cleveland Councilman Zack Reed, who acknowledges his own role in the failed process. "How do we miss this guy? We need to figure out how that happened, or it can happen again."

Investigators found the remains of 11 women at Sowell's home once the system caught up to him a few weeks ago. Sowell now sits in jail, held on a $6 million bond as a suspect in a mounting list of offenses.

So far, he has been charged by Cleveland prosecutors with five counts of aggravated murder. He also has been indicted by a Cuyahoga County grand jury on two counts each of felonious assault, kidnapping and rape and one count of attempted murder in a September attack that sent police to Imperial Avenue to unearth a horrible truth.

Among the lessons to be taken from the case is that complacency played a role in lives ending. People did not take extra steps that might have stopped a trail of death. These are some of the critical crossroads involving the accused killer.

Three homicides: Sowell ended 1990 in prison. The charge? Attempted rape.

Some wonder now if it should have been murder.

East Cleveland police found three dead bodies within a mile of Sowell's Page Avenue home in 1988 and 1989. Detective Sgt. Ken Bolton said records show that investigators at the time never considered the accused rapist a suspect in the unsolved killings of Rosalind Garner, 36; Carmella Karen Prater, who was about 30; and Mary Thomas, 27.

That opinion is being re-evaluated today, as the homicides show similarities to the Imperial Avenue cases or connections to Sowell:

# Garner was strangled in her home on Hayden Avenue in May 1988.

# Prater lived down the street from Sowell. An anonymous phone tip led police to her beaten and frozen body in an abandoned home along First Avenue in February 1989. The coroner's office could not pinpoint the exact injury that caused her death.

# Thomas turned up dead a month later near another abandoned building on First Avenue. The pregnant woman had been strangled. Left around her neck was the red ribbon used to choke away her life. (Seven of the strangled women discovered on Imperial Avenue had some sort of cord still around their necks.)

The Thomas case also invites comparison to the July 1989 sex crime that imprisoned Sowell. In that incident, a pregnant woman survived Sowell's bruising chokehold and -- despite being bound around her wrists and ankles -- escaped her rapist captor's apartment home by climbing out a third-story window.

Sowell pleaded guilty to attempted rape for the attack. A judge sentenced him in September 1990 to 15 years in prison.

Another rape: The chilling tale a woman told Cleveland police in June 1990 would see sequels. Sowell choked her, she told officers. He raped her, too, right inside her East 71st Street home.

Police arrested Sowell on her words. Then the woman -- and the legal system -- fell silent.

The case unraveled with no charges filed as officials said the victim refused to testify and potentially add another sex crime to Sowell's criminal record. Sowell dodged being branded a serial rapist and, perhaps, more time incarcerated. He entered prison less than three months later with just a single sentence to serve.

Uncorrected: Sowell asked for help to curb his sexual deviancy.

Three years into his prison stay, Sowell told parole officials that he applied to enter a sexual offender treatment program as part of his rehabilitation. A report said the inmate "does wish to participate" in the specialized counseling.

But he never sat in on a sexual-offender session. Officials denied Sowell's request because -- despite his stated desire to participate -- he denied committing a sex crime. He left prison in June 2005 untreated for his carnal urges, though he took other courses designed to control rage and cage personal demons.

Upon his release, a court-ordered evaluation concluded that Sowell was unlikely to be a repeat offender.

On the date of his release, all of the Imperial Avenue victims were alive.

Scent of trouble: The odor hung over the Cleveland neighborhood.

A woman living across the street from Sowell on Imperial phoned Councilman Reed in June 2007 to complain about the overpowering stench. It smelled like rotting remains, like something -- or someone -- had died. The city took action. Workers flushed nearby drain pipes in an attempt to clear the problem. Crews replaced a sewer line.

But the mystery smell remained, even as the search for answers stopped.

Many in the neighborhood simply eyed the meat-filled sausage shop on the corner as the source of the ongoing stink. Employees at the 57-year-old business noticed the foul aroma, too, and took extra care to scrub equipment. It's clear now that the smell didn't originate inside the shop. It wafted from the lot next door. From Sowell's home.

When Reed's phone first rang, at least nine of the Imperial Avenue victims remained alive.

Caught . . . and released: The bloodied woman flagged down a passing police car on Cleveland's Kinsman Road. She described how she battled and fought off her attacker. Then she named him.

"Tone" on Imperial Avenue.

Police entered Sowell's home that night in December 2008 and found evidence of a hard-fought escape. Droplets of blood speckled the steps and wall leading into the house from an open side door. Officers arrested Sowell in his third-floor room and drove away with him. The street cops then handed the case over to detectives.

Two days later, Sowell walked free with no charges filed. The reason? It depends on who's talking.

A city prosecutor said a detective claimed the woman wasn't credible and that it was then determined the case lacked sufficient evidence. A police spokesman said the prosecutor -- not the detective -- deemed the accuser not credible. The police chief chalked up the decision to a lack of evidence and the "he said, she said" nature of the case.

Several legal experts said they believe enough facts existed for a grand jury to indict Sowell. Nobody took that step.

When officials let Sowell go, at least five of the Imperial Avenue victims remained alive.

Daily contacts: How many people sensed peculiarities at 12205 Imperial Ave. but ignored that prickly feeling of something horribly wrong? How many talked to Sowell and looked into his brown eyes without picking up on an inner anger? How many visited the residence yet overlooked a growing and grisly secret?

A brother of Sowell's said he stopped by the house earlier this year in a search for his stepmother, who once lived there but -- unbeknownst to him -- had been moved to a nursing home. He knocked on the door, but he never made it inside nor talked to Sowell.

A woman who lived with Sowell until 2008 said she noticed the smell but just lived with it.

Neighbors raised little fuss. Neither did others.

Women vanished off nearby streets and nobody reported them gone for days . . . or months . . . or at all. Were there other women who may have survived encounters with Sowell who kept mum instead of sharing their pain with someone who might have been able to end a brutal pattern?' ..Source.. John Horton, The Plain Dealer