Anthony Sowell

It has been a year and a half since the convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell died behind bars in Ohio. Sowell was sentenced to death for killing 11 women and hiding their bodies around his house and on his property. It was reported that the 61-year-old Sowell was receiving end-of-life care at Franklin Medical Center, where he was diagnosed with a terminal illness. In October 2009, the Cleveland Police Department investigated Sowell in connection with a rape case. That was when they stumbled across two bodies, which eventually led them to discover the remains of 11 women.

Authorities said most of Sowell's victims had difficulty with addiction and died from strangulation. Others had been decapitated, while the remaining victims were so badly decomposed that the coroner could not determine the cause of death. Sowell told authorities during interviews that he had targeted women who reminded him of his ex-girlfriend, who was addicted to cocaine, and left him shortly before the killings began.

One would question how the neighbors went on with their lives, without noticing the smell of the decomposing bodies. However, the authorities said that the neighbors simply believed that the smell was coming from the sausage factory. The smell was so bad that the factory spent about 20,000 dollars on new plumbing and sewer pipes to try to dissipate the smell. Family members of the murdered black women and many black residents of Cleveland accused the police of not taking the disappearances seriously simply because of their race and troubled backgrounds concerning addiction. Cleveland police officers were also accused of mishandling the missing person's reports. However, authorities stated that some victims were simply never reported missing.

The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor, Michael O'Malley, said his thoughts and prayers were with the relatives and friends of the victims of Sowell, and proceeded to call him a monster. O'Malley also said: "I hope law enforcement and the criminal justice system have learned from the mistakes that have allowed this diabolical predator to remain undetected for so long." Joann Moore, the sister of Janice Webb, a victim of Sowell, said: "The ultimate goal was to see this through and see he got justice. That was something else we couldn’t see, he takes his last breath”. Moore went on to further state, “What happened more than a decade ago was a tragic story for the city of Cleveland. It was a tragic story for us that this could go on. I still miss my sister. I know she’s watching down on her son and his kids, and her siblings”. The former Cleveland City Council Member, Zack Reed, stated, “Sowell could have been stopped years before if we had done our job”.

The Cleveland Police Department has failed to connect the dots and recognize that there are missing women, regardless of their backgrounds and addiction problems. Cleveland Police have failed to thoroughly investigate those missing women, but they have not taken the victims' families or even the community seriously. They have failed these women on all levels.

Sowell's defense attorney, John Parker, said: "He was not a monster and not evil. Childhood abuse damaged him and serious mental health problems. May he rest in peace”. Sowell was a former Marine who came from a troubled childhood and often struggled with his mental health. Does that excuse him for what he’s done? No. Sowell had further appealed his case. As recently as May, a three-judge panel with the 8th District Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that Sowell did not present enough evidence that he did not receive a fair trial and that his trial attorneys ineffectively represented him during the penalty phase.