Second Victim Is Identified From Cleveland Home
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 5:14 PM
Updated: Thursday, November 5, 2009 3:47 PM
Telacia Fortson, 31, is the second person to be identified among the remains of 11 bodies found at Sowell's Imperial Avenue home, police sources said.
Fortson lived in east Cleveland and was last seen in June, according to a missing person's report.
Crews are expected to soon begin searching the house again for more bodies.
Authorities said Wednesday that all 11 victims were black women; eight of them had been strangled.
Fortson is the second person identified. Tonia Carmichael was identified Wednesday.
Coroner's staff continue working to determine the identities of the other dead women.
Fortson's mother called east Cleveland police Saturday after she read about the bodies as Sowell's home.
She told police her daughter used crack cocaine and was last seen wearing blue jeans and a blue shirt.
Fifty-two-year-old Tonia Carmichael was the first of at least 11 murder victims, whose bodies were found in the registered sex offender's home.
Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath said Carmichael's remains were buried in the back yard and had marks indicating she was strangled. Authorities believe seven of the victims were strangled.
SLIDESHOW: Images From Scene
"Seven people still had something around their neck," said Cuyahoga County Coroner Dr. Frank Miller.
Miller joined by McGrath said a DNA match with Carmichael's mother led them to identify the Warrenville Heights woman, who's been missing since last November.
"I believe he preyed on them. And I believe from the time that we initially tried to report my mother missing in Cleveland, they did nothing as far as looking for her," Tonia's daughter Donnita Carmichael told ONN's Denise Alex.
Family members upset are upset and the community is frustrated. They thought a foul odor was coming from a meat and cheese shop in the neighborhood, not from decomposing bodies.
"I never thought this would happen here, never," said neighbor Willie Poole.
Police said the bodies could have been in Anthony Sowell's home since 2005, when he was released from prison on a 1989 attempted rape conviction.
"I don't think it's an overall anger of just police. People are upset that no one saw anything. People are upset he got released from prison and didn't get the help he needed," said community activist Jillene Pruitt.
Now police need help from the public to identify the 10 other victims.
After finding their remains in Sowell's backyard, attic, and living room floor,
they'll tear through walls of his home for more evidence. Police had said they would begin tearing
apart interior walls in search of more evidence or bodies, but there were no signs Thursday
morning that the work had begun.
"This man was sick. That's a real mental issue," said Poole.
A 50-year-old convict, who was unemployed and known to drink beer on his porch is now accused of one of the deadliest crime sprees in Cleveland.
Previous Stories:
November 4, 2009:
Rapist With 10 Bodies At His Ohio Home Denied Bond
November 3, 2009:
More
Bodies Pulled From Cleveland Home
November 3, 2009:
Coroner
Working To ID Bodies
November 2, 2009:
Probe
Focusing on 8 or 9 Women
November 1, 2009:
Coroner:
6 Bodies Found At Home
October 31, 2009:
Sowell In
Custody After 6 Bodies Found At Home
October 31, 2009:
Bodies Found
In Home
©2009 by ONN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
