Woman: I got away from serial killing suspect

updated 7:51 p.m. ET Nov. 5, 2009

CLEVELAND - A Cleveland woman said Thursday that she was choked and threatened this year by the man now charged with murder after the remains of several people were found on his property — and that she is racked with guilt for not speaking up earlier.

Tanja Doss told The Associated Press that if she had quickly gone to authorities, her best friend, Nancy Cobbs, might not be missing. She believes Cobbs might be among the 11 victims whose remains were found at Sowell's home.

Police have recovered 10 bodies and a skull from the home and yard of 50-year-old Anthony Sowell, a registered sex offender who moved back to his family's house in 2005 after serving 15 years in prison for attempted rape. He is being held without bond on five counts of aggravated murder.

Of the bodies found at Sowell's home, three victims have been identified so far — 52-year-old Tonia Carmichael of Warrensville Heights; 31-year-old Tishana Culver of Cleveland; and 31-year-old Telacia Fortson of Cleveland. Police said Culver's family was notified Thursday. Police Lt. Thomas Stacho said the Cleveland woman had not been reported as a missing person.

Sowell served 15 years in prison for attempted rape and is being held without bond on five counts of aggravated murder.

Authorities asking for DNA samples
Pastors urged the families of missing people Thursday to provide DNA samples that could help the coroner's office identify the remains, claiming that nearly two dozen others are still missing in the community. The coroner's office, meanwhile, tried to calm concerns by promising DNA samples would not be shared with law enforcement.

Doss, 43, said she met Sowell in 2005, right after he was released from prison. He didn't tell her why he had done time.

In April this year, she said, he invited her over for a beer. They went to the third floor of his house and were talking.

"And then he just clicked," Doss said. "I'm sitting on the corner of the bed and he just leaped up and came over and started choking me."

Shocked, she said she lay back and tried not to struggle.

"He said, 'If you want to live, knock three times on the floor.' And I knocked on the floor," she said.

Still holding her throat, she said, he told her using profanities that she could be "dead in the street" and no one would care.

‘Why you gotta act like that?’
He made her strip off her clothes and lay on the bed but did not try to rape her, Doss said. She said she curled up in a ball and tried to talk him down, saying things like, "Why you gotta act like that?"

Then she prayed.

Sowell wouldn't let her leave, Doss said, so she fell asleep and awoke to him acting as if nothing had happened.

"He said, 'Hi, how you doing? You want something from the store?'" Doss said.

She picked up her cell phone and pretended to call her daughter.

"I said, 'Oh, wow, my granddaughter is sick. She's got the flu,'" she said. "He asked if I wanted to go to the store with him, but I told him I had to go home. He went to the store, and I went in the other direction."

Doss didn't immediately report the confrontation to police because she had done jail time on a drug charge and assumed they wouldn't take her seriously.

Video   Serial killer suspect held without bond Nov. 5: An Ohio man is being held without bond on aggravated murder charges after the discovery of 11 bodies in his home. NBC’s Ron Allen has the latest on the investigation. Today show

"Now, I feel bad about it, because my best friend might be one of the bodies," she said.

Doss last saw Nancy Cobbs on April 20, when they celebrated Cobbs' 44th birthday with a cake. The women grew up together, and Cobbs lived in the same neighborhood as Sowell.

When Cobbs vanished, Doss and Cobbs' daughters searched abandoned buildings. They posted fliers in stores and taverns, hoping someone had seen her, and filed a missing-person report April 24.

‘It goes through my mind all the time’
At the time, Doss said, she didn't think about what had happened with Sowell. She assumed he had just lost his mind for a few minutes. And Cobbs, she said, didn't know Sowell.

Now, it's all she can think about.

"It goes through my mind all the time," she said. "Every time I think about it, I start shaking. I can't get it out of my mind."

Doss said she finally reported the attack to police on Monday, three days after news surfaced of the discovery of bodies.

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