Anthony Sowell

A 19 Action News Investigation has found for years Cleveland cops did not take a basic step that could help identify missing people. Recently a spotlight has been put on the missing, especially since 11 bodies were found at the home of suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell. So what wasn't happening?  

Fed up with violent crime and demanding more help for missing persons, Rev. Al Sharpton is calling for Americans to take action. He is calling Monday a "National Day of Outrage." More than three weeks after the bodies of 11 women are found in and around Anthony Sowell's home on Imperial Avenue, the house remains a crime scene.  

Prosecutors met for the first time this morning with the attorney representing Anthony Sowell in the rape case that drew police to his Imperial Avenue home, where they found the remains of 11 women last month. Sowell, who is suspected of being a serial killer, was arraigned last week in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court and pleaded not guilty to two counts each of felonious assault, kidnapping and rape and one count of attempted murder in connection with a September assault. No evidence was ...  

Retired Sergeant Richard Murphy comments on how Anthony Sowell, the Cleveland man accused of murdering 11 women, slipped the bonds of justice only to kill and kill and kill again. Murphy also offers advice on how to monitor your neighborhood.  

Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Deputy Marty Lutz fills out paperwork after checking a home on Harvard Avenue in Cleveland. Lutz had to verify the address one day before the Tier III offender appeared in court. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cuyahoga County has the most sex offenders in Ohio, but only two full-time deputies regularly check on the 1,416 people considered the worst offenders.  

"It take peoples a long time to heal and that's the process, the healing process," said Sheaillivee Cade who lives on Imperial Avenue. "It's gonna take time for a lot of people to get over this." Three weeks of police activity likely ended for good on Wednesday with an eight hour search of Sowell's house and property.  

A charnel house on Imperial Avenue challenges us to find meaning where there is none. The unremarkable, white, three-story duplex on a street of duplexes was the kill zone and burial site of at least 11 women, most of them strangled. Their discarded bodies were found only recently, decomposing in a crawl space at Anthony Sowell's home and hastily dug graves in the back yard and the dirt basement.  

It was Friday the 13th. Kisha Hodges and her five children were already dealing with a loss having learned that their cousin Tishana Culver was one of the women found inside Anthony Sowell's home. That night a distraught Kisha fell asleep with food cooking on the stove.  

Investigators used shovels, a sledgehammer and a concrete-busting drill today in a renewed search of the home of a registered sex offender where 10 bodies and a skull have been found. Police say no additional bodies were found. Searchers with plastic gloves, surgical-style masks and head-to-toe hazardous-materials protective suits concentrated on Anthony Sowell's inner-city home and an adjacent yard.