Neighbors: Serial killing suspect seemed OK

updated 6:02 p.m. ET Nov. 6, 2009

CLEVELAND - The man who lived in the house of rotting corpses never gave people a reason to wonder what he was really doing behind closed doors.

Anthony Sowell was the guy who liked to sit on his front steps drinking King Cobra Malt Liquor for $1.50 a bottle, sometimes in the company of a woman. He was the guy who hung around the corner convenience store bumming change off his neighbors. He was the guy who scrounged around sidewalks and backyards for empty cans and scrap metal to sell.

The suspected serial killer seemed so harmless that when he invited neighbors over for a barbecue in his driveway, they came. So benign that when he beckoned women inside his house that smelled of death, they apparently went willingly.

"If it's up to the people in the neighborhood, he probably never would have got caught," said 52-year-old LaBaron Simpson. "Because he didn't cause no problems around here."

The house where the authorities say 50-year-old Sowell lived among the reeking corpses of 10 women and the paper-wrapped skull of another was silent on Friday, and investigators say they have no plans to resume searching for additional remains. The ex-Marine, who served 15 years in prison for attempted rape, is being held without bail on five aggravated murder charges.

Video   Woman talks of close call Nov. 5: A woman who alleges she was attacked by accused killer Anthony Sowell, then dragged inside of his home, describes her ordeal to WKYC's Mike O'Mara. NBC News Channel

So far only four victims have been identified, including 43-year-old Nancy Cobbs of Cleveland, whose name was released Friday. Others already identified are Tonia Carmichael, 52, of Warrensville Heights; Telacia Fortson, 31, of Cleveland; and Tishana Culver, 31, also of Cleveland. The city coroner's office is combing through DNA samples from the families of missing women to identify more remains.

Unbeknownst to most neighbors, Sowell was a registered sex offender who checked in with authorities from time to time and fooled people into believing he was just another guy trying to scrape out a living.

The only distinguishing physical characteristic about Sowell, who is about 5-foot-11 and weighed 160 pounds, is a scar under his left eye.

He smelled pretty bad, but then a lot of hard-up folks in this rough Cleveland neighborhood smell less than clean, people say. And even when a terrible, rotting stench wafted down the street and past his house, people didn't think Sowell was the source. Instead, they pointed fingers at the sausage shop next door.

'He always showed respect'
"Nobody could imagine that this man was capable of doing what he was doing," said Fawcett Bess, owner of Bess Chicken & Pizza, a restaurant across the street from Sowell's house. "He always showed respect to you — 'good morning' and 'good evening' and that kind of thing."

The portrait of Sowell's early years is hazy, and no record of his birth could be found.

Court papers show he claims he fathered a child in 1978 with a woman who was not identified. He also said he was married in 1981 and divorced in 1985, but did not name his ex-wife.

In January 1978, when he was 19, Sowell joined the Marines, where he became a rifle sharpshooter and won two good conduct medals during stints in Cherry Point, N.C.; Okinawa, Japan; and Camp Pendleton, Calif. In 1985, having risen to the rank of corporal, Sowell left the service.

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