A registered sex offender, whose Cleveland residence contained the remains of 10 bodies and a human skull stored in a bucket, was ordered held without bail Wednesday as police prepared to tear down the walls of his home in search of more bodies.
At a hearing, assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor Brian Murphy said Anthony Sowell, 50, could face the death penalty if convicted of murder and that he was “an incredibly dangerous threat to the public.”
Kathleen DeMetz, Sowell’s court-appointed defense attorney, argued that bail should be set for Sowell because of medical concerns. Sowell has a pacemaker because of a heart condition, she said.
Judge Ronald Adrine denied bail for Sowell because of the “macabre nature” of the murders that he is charged with committing.
Sowell has been charged with five counts of aggravated murder.
Even Sowell’s attorney acknowledged the sensational nature of the case.
“I’ve been a public defender for 29 years and a lawyer for 32 years, and I’ve never had a case like this,” DeMetz said after the court hearing. “Cleveland has never had a case like this.”
Prosecutors said they expect more charges to be filed against the unemployed Cleveland resident in the coming weeks.
“We are waiting on the coroner’s ruling of the manner of death on the remaining bodies and remains found at the property” before pursuing additional charges, said Ryan Miday, spokesman for the Cuyahoga County prosecutor’s office.
In addition to the murder counts, Sowell has been charged with rape, felonious assault and kidnapping in connection with a Sept. 22 attack against a woman that allegedly took place inside his home.
Sowell moved into the duplex’s upstairs unit in 2005. Last week, when police arrived at Sowell’s house to arrest him for the alleged September attack, investigators discovered the bodies of two women inside.
They were lying on the living-room floor. As the days passed, more bodies were discovered. Another was in a freshly dug grave underneath a set of stairs in the backyard. Two more were crammed into a crawl space inside the house. The sixth was in a shallow grave in the basement.
Many were decayed beyond recognition. The Cuyahoga County coroner’s office has ruled that five of the six women were strangled.
On Tuesday, police said they had located another four bodies buried in the backyard and a skull wrapped in either paper or plastic inside a bucket in the basement.
The coroner’s office said Wednesday the skull belonged to someone whose body investigators had not located.
Authorities on Wednesday also identified the first of the victims as Tonia Carmichael, 52, a woman who family members say disappeared a year ago, according to The Associated Press.
