Mass murder in Ohio: how did police miss the signs?

A catalogue of missed opportunities to arrest Anthony Sowell for mass murder has begun to emerge from Cleveland, Ohio where police continue to search his home for the remains of bodies. By last night, the body count had risen to 11, making Sowell's house on Imperial Avenue one of the deadliest crime scenes in state history.

A heated tent was installed in Sowell's back garden yesterday so that police could continue their miserable task through the night. Decomposing bodies have been found scattered throughout the house and garden - some buried in a shallow grave in the basement, others hidden in the crawl space beneath the house. Police now have permission to take apart the house "brick by brick".

Neighbours who gathered outside yesterday said they have often complained about the "dead body smell".

Sowell is a registered sex offender who served 15 years in jail for rape before being released into the community in 2005. Local councilman Zack Reed told reporters: "I'm not going to point fingers but at the end of the day, someone clearly dropped the ball."

As well as the regular complaints about the stench, three recent episodes suggest more could have been done to uncover earlier the crimes that allegedly have been committed at Sowell's home:

THE RAPE VICTIM
Sowell was arrested on Thursday, October 29 when Cleveland police went to his home to press rape charges. But it turns out that 37 days had passed since the victim first reported the rape.

The police excuse is that it took more than a month for the woman to meet them and provide the information they needed to make an arrest. But did they not know that he was on the sex offenders' register? And why was her initial report on September 22 not enough to spur them into action?

She told police on the day that Sowell had invited her back to his home to share a drink. She was sitting with him in an upstairs room when he suddenly - and inexplicably - became angry. She claimed he punched her and then choked her with an extension cord wrapped around her neck. He then raped her.

The woman said she passed out from being choked. When she came to, she persuaded Sowell to let her go, promising she would return with $50 and not report him to police. However, as soon as she left the house she informed the police of the attack.

On September 25 the case was reviewed by the police department's sex Crimes unit and a detective was assigned to the case. But according to police, it was not until October 27 that the victim made herself available to be interviewed.

When police officers went to Sowell's home on October 29 he was not there - but they discovered the first of the dead bodies.

THE SURPRISE VISIT
Earlier on the same day the woman (above) claimed she was raped - September 22 - it now transpires that deputies from the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office made a surprise visit to Sowell to check that he was living where he had told them he was under the terms of his classification as a sex offender.

It was shortly before 9 am when the deputies arrived. Sowell opened the door to them but - as is apparently standard for such spot-checks - they did not enter the house.

Councilman Reed wants to know how the deputies failed to notice the stench that neighbours had complained about. "Did they physically go to the house," he asked, "or walk up and say, 'Looks good?' "

THE FALLING BODY
On October 20, firemen and an ambulance crew attended Sowell's house after neighbours called 911 to report a naked woman either falling or jumping from a second-floor window.

The paramedics found the woman with cuts and scrapes. Sowell came out of the house and told them he and the woman had been using cocaine and cannabis when the woman fell from the window.

The paramedics took the woman to Cleveland's MetroHealth Medical Centre and called police to visit the house to investigate the matter. When officers arrived at Imperial Avenue, there was no one at home so they went to the medical centre. The woman claimed her fall had been an accident and the matter was dropped.

Given that Sowell was a registered sex offender, why was the matter not investigated further?