Ohio suspect's old home searched; no bodies found
Thomas J. SheeranThe FBI says no bodies turned up in a search of the former home of an Ohio serial killing suspect who later lived on another property that held the remains of 11 women.
Agents led two search dogs on Wednesday around the East Cleveland property where 50-year-old Anthony Sowell lived before going to prison for 15 years for a 1989 attempted rape.
Agents took some items, but FBI spokesman Scott Wilson declined to identify what. He says there are no plans to resume the search.
Sowell has been charged with 11 counts of aggravated murder after the bodies were found at his Cleveland home. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
CLEVELAND (AP) — A home outside Cleveland where a suspected serial killer once lived was searched by FBI agents and cadaver dogs Wednesday for any remains in addition to the 10 female bodies and skull found at his more recent home nearby.
Agents led two search dogs around the East Cleveland property where Anthony Sowell, 50, lived before going to prison for 15 years for a 1989 attempted rape. The search inside and outside the house didn't immediately turn up remains, FBI spokesman Scott Wilson said.
The current owners, who aren't connected to the Sowell family, have cooperated, Wilson said.
Police in East Cleveland began reviewing three unsolved slayings from 1988 and 1989 after Sowell was arrested and his background in East Cleveland emerged.
The renewed search was part of a wider FBI investigation into the Sowell case, Wilson said, including previously reported plans to search outside the Cleveland area in states he lived while in the military.
Sowell served in the Marines from 1978-85 with assignments at Parris Island, S.C., Camp Lejeune and Cherry Point, N.C., Camp Pendleton, Calif., and Okinawa, Japan.
East Cleveland police Cmdr. James Naylor said his department hadn't found any unsolved slayings from the 1980s beyond the three previously identified.
Rosalind Garner was found strangled in her home May 27, 1988; Carmella Prater was found dead in an abandoned building Feb. 27, 1989, beaten but with the cause of death undetermined; and Mary Thomas was found strangled near an abandoned building March 28, 1989.
In announcing additional aggravated murder charges against Sowell on Tuesday, prosecutors said they would try to prove a pattern of murders, including strangling.
The tree-lined East Cleveland street where the latest search is taking place has a mix of older homes, some well-kept and some in need of repair. The house where Sowell once lived sat empty in recent years before it was renovated.
Only a handful of residents are still around from the time he lived in the neighborhood, which is just 4 miles north of the Cleveland neighborhood where the bodies were found at Sowell's latest home.
That property was searched for three weeks after police who went to arrest him Oct. 29 on a sexual assault allegation found the first of 10 bodies and a skull in the home or buried in the yard.
Sowell has been charged with 11 counts of aggravated murder and could face the death penalty if convicted. Sowell faces arraignment Thursday on an 85-count indictment returned Tuesday by a Cuyahoga County grand jury.
FBI agents also participated in the search of his Cleveland home, into which he moved with family members four years ago after finishing his prison term. The FBI used thermal imaging devices to check for composting materials or graves.
Authorities have said Sowell lured vulnerable women — typically homeless or living alone and with drug or alcohol addictions — to his home and attacked them.
Of the 11 alleged victims, all black women, 10 have been identified. The remains of 10 women and a skull were found in his home and buried in the yard.
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Associated Press writer John Seewer contributed to this report.