OH OH Anthony Sowell and Jos Harwell DNA leads Ohio cold-case team to 2nd serial killer [Archive]

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Dark Knight

03-10-2011, 06:51 PM

CLEVELAND – The bodies could have been buried anywhere.

In the garbage bin next to his house, which occasionally reeked with the smell of something rotting inside. In the bowels of a boarded-up house down the block. Beneath a pile of debris in an overgrown, vacant lot...

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=13097643#.TtyCG_LNkqM

bessie

12-05-2011, 03:42 AM

March 10, 2011

Ever since those bodies were found stashed throughout Anthony Sowell's home, investigators have wondered: Did he bury more bodies nearby?

"I think it was on everyone's mind," says Richard Bell, one of the city's chief prosecutors and director of Cuyahoga County's cold-case unit. "We were not only finding bodies in his attic, but there were bodies out in the yard. The crew had to stay out there extensively, for days and days, wondering if they had dug deep enough."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=13097643#.TtyDIfLNkqM

From the same article:
One day in November, a year after the bodies were found in Sowell's home, O'Malley walked into Bell's office and said there was a DNA hit in one of the surge cases: Mary Thomas, 27, who was strangled and beaten to death in 1989.
But the name on the lab report was not Anthony Sowell.
http://a.abcnews.com//images/US/fccf484502fb4ea680c5bbc594d0a9ad_mn.jpg

It was Joseph Harwell, who pleaded guilty to fatally strangling a woman near Columbus in 1997 and is currently serving 15 years to life at a prison in Mansfield, an hour south of Cleveland...

Looking at the body, she allowed herself to think at first that this could not be her daughter — that there was still hope — not this girl with the darkened, ash-colored skin and that red cord wrapped around her neck.
For a long time afterward, Prater feared the killer would come after her. She moved back to St. Louis, her hometown, and stayed there for 10 years.

mysteriew

12-05-2011, 11:14 PM

Thanks for posting these articles on Sowell. I had kinda lost track of him and this reminded me to look him up. He was found guilty of the murders of 11 woman and of the attempted murder of several others.

In looking him up I did find something interesting on him. Everybody is entitled to a defense. And to have others to testify about him. I just wanted to bring attention to one of Sowell's witnesses

A man who killed 11 women and dumped their bodies around his property cried as his prison buddy, himself a convicted rapist, appealed to a jury Wednesday to spare his friend's life.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/03/anthony-sowell-rapist-begs-judge-death-penalty_n_917573.html

bessie

12-06-2011, 01:06 AM

Oh, the irony. :rolleyes:

A few more items on Sowell that I found last night but was too tired to post.

48 Hours Photo Gallery
http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-504083_162-5498171.html?tag=page

Anthony Sowell's House of Horrors: Who's Buried There? (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-5496610-504083.html)

November 4, 2009
First Anthony Sowell Victim Identified (http://abcnews.go.com/WN/anthony-sowell-victim-identified/story?id=8994164#.Tt2uvPLNkqM)
The Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office said the first body to be identified is that of Tonia Carmichael. Carmichael, who was identified through DNA evidence, was reported missing in November 2008 when she was 52 years old.

This one's hot off the press:

Sowell's Imperial Avenue House to be Demolished Tuesday (http://www.fox8.com/news/wjw-news-city-tearing-down-imperial-avenue-home,0,7063446.story)

1:58 p.m. EST, December 5, 2011
CLEVELAND, Ohio—
Mayor Frank Jackson's office tells Fox 8 News that the City of Cleveland has completed its asbestos abatement of the home at 12205 Imperial Avenue and the property will be demolished tomorrow.

CanManEh

12-06-2011, 02:27 AM

bessie

12-06-2011, 04:05 AM

Sowell and Harwell didn't work together, and Harwell is not responsible for the deaths of the women whose bodies were found at Sowell's house. After those bodies were discovered, LE stepped up the investigation on the many other murders that occurred within the same timeframe where the victims shared characteristics with Sowell's victims. In other words, they figured if he killed eleven, he might've killed others but disposed of their bodies elsewhere. During the course of the investigation, DNA revealed that Sowell wasn't the sole killer preying on local women. DNA found on the body of a victim LE suspected had been killed by Sowell was discovered to be that of a convicted rapist, Joseph Harwell. In the end, the investigation yielded not one, but two serial killers.

March 9, 2011

LEVELAND, Ohio -- A cold case squad exploring possible links between decades-old cases and serial killings suspect Anthony Sowell instead uncovered the trail of a killer who may have stalked impoverished women in the Cleveland area during the 1980s and 90s.

Joseph Harwell, 50, was indicted Tuesday on multiple counts of aggravated murder, rape and kidnapping in connection with the deaths of 27-year old Mary Thomas in 1989 and 33-year-old Tondilear Harge in 1996.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/03/cold_case_investigation_links.html

Wanting2Help

12-06-2011, 07:55 AM

CLEVELAND—Cleveland is tearing down the home where a serial killer dumped the remains of the 11 women he murdered.

Live video from the scene on Tuesday shows demolition equipment clawing apart Anthony Sowell's (SOH'-wehlz) house.

Victims' relatives and neighbors tell media outlets that razing the home will help bring closure, remove an eyesore and stop gawkers wanting to see what has been dubbed a "house of horrors."

The city condemned the property in September.

Police discovered 10 bodies and a skull there in late 2009 after officers went to investigate a woman's report that she had been raped at the home. Prosecutors say the 52-year-old Sowell lured his victims with the promise of alcohol or drugs.

Sowell has been sentenced to death. He's appealing his conviction.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/12/06/ohio_house_coming_down_where_remains_of_11_found/

Nore

12-06-2011, 08:28 AM

The house is down. They are now clearing the lot.
I just hope he does fry.:seeya:

mysteriew

12-06-2011, 04:18 PM

Iam confused Are you saying that one of the body's found at sowells home was killed by a different person. Are you saying A S worked with another seriel killer or that another serial killer , Killed this girl and then disposed of her body at sowell's house..I don't understand which u mean .

Sowell and Harwell didn't work together, and Harwell is not responsible for the deaths of the women whose bodies were found at Sowell's house. After those bodies were discovered, LE stepped up the investigation on the many other murders that occurred within the same timeframe where the victims shared characteristics with Sowell's victims. In other words, they figured if he killed eleven, he might've killed others but disposed of their bodies elsewhere. During the course of the investigation, DNA revealed that Sowell wasn't the sole killer preying on local women. DNA found on the body of a victim LE suspected had been killed by Sowell was discovered to be that of a convicted rapist, Joseph Harwell. In the end, the investigation yielded not one, but two serial killers.

March 9, 2011

LEVELAND, Ohio -- A cold case squad exploring possible links between decades-old cases and serial killings suspect Anthony Sowell instead uncovered the trail of a killer who may have stalked impoverished women in the Cleveland area during the 1980s and 90s.

Joseph Harwell, 50, was indicted Tuesday on multiple counts of aggravated murder, rape and kidnapping in connection with the deaths of 27-year old Mary Thomas in 1989 and 33-year-old Tondilear Harge in 1996.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/03/cold_case_investigation_links.html

This is just my opinion and my opinion only:

IOW Columbus had some missing women and some unsolved murders just sitting there. They all had certain characteristics...... drug involved, some with prostitution history, what might be called 'high risk' lifestyles. You don't want to know what those kinds of cases are sometimes called. Those cases were basically just sitting there.

After they accidently found the dead women at Sowell's, they thought maybe they could clear some of the other cases that were just sitting there. Maybe would take some of the sting away for letting Sowell get by with assaulting the one woman who jumped out of the window to get away from him, and the delays in arresting him for the assault of another woman.

So they started looking at their so called 'cold' cases and lo and behold they found a murderer, but it wasn't Sowell.

mysteriew

03-07-2012, 02:20 PM

For more than two decades, Veronica Thomas visited the grave site of her sister, Mary, and promised her killer would be brought to justice.

Today that promise was fulfilled.
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2012/02/serial_killer_joseph_harwell_w.html

mysteriew

04-02-2012, 02:03 PM

October execution of convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell delayed

Read more: http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/crime/bodies_found/october-execution-of-convicted-serial-killer-anthony-sowell-delayed#ixzz1quJhSaxb

mysteriew

04-02-2012, 07:37 PM

It's the first of what Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason said are several routine steps that could delay Sowell's execution from 10 to 30 years.
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2012/04/ohio_supreme_court_grants_seri.html

He is 52 now. With those kind of projections, he should be somewhere between the ages of 62 and 82 when they finally decide to uphold the sentence.

bessie

05-02-2013, 10:10 AM

Anthony Sowell Appeal: Prosecutors Say Ohio Man Who Killed 11 Deserves Death

By AMANDA LEE MYERS
03/12/13 08:27 PM ET
CINCINNATI — A man found guilty of killing 11 women and hiding their remains around his Cleveland home got a fair trial, and his conviction and death sentence should stand, state prosecutors told the Supreme Court.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/12/anthony-sowell-appeal_n_2863850.html