Anthony Sowell dead: Serial killer who murdered 11 women dies in prison

Serial killer Anthony Sowell, who brutally murdered 11 women, has died in prison.

Sowell had been on death row at Ohio’s Chillicothe Correctional Institute in the US, where he had continued to appeal his sentence for the horrifying killing spree 14 years ago.

The 61-year-old was given the death penalty for the gruesome murders after police found the rotting bodies of nearly a dozen women at his home.

Police had been investigating Sowell for an alleged rape when they went to his home in Cleveland on October 29, 2009.

Officers went on to make the gruesome discovery of two bodies. As investigators searched the former marine's home, they found and later identified the remains of 11 women.

Prosecutors said he had begun luring his victims to his home in 2007 before the discovery.

Many of the victims had histories of drug problems or were transients, and their disappearances were not always immediately reported to police.

The victims were said to have been bound and strangled using household items before being disposed of in bin bags and sheets.

Their remains were left in shallow graves, as well as in crawl spaces or simply left to decompose in the open air.

After a trial a jury convicted him of aggravated murder, rape, kidnapping, corpse abuse and evidence tampering.

He also was found guilty of attempting to kill three other women who survived.

The jury reportedly heard during the case that Sowell had a 'troubled upbringing, cognitive problems, psychosis and other disorders' and he was scheduled to receive the death penalty.

He was initially set to die by lethal injection on October 29 2012 but the appeals process meant this never happened.

Announcing his death a spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Corrections told Fox8 that Sowell had been receiving end-of-life care for a terminal illness at the Franklin Medical Center on Monday afternoon, and it was not Covid related.

Prison officials were said to have moved Sowell from Death Row at Chillicothe to the Franklin Medical Center in Columbus on January 21 before his death at 3.27PM.

Some of the victims originally identified in the search were: Tonia Carmichael, Nancy Cobbs, Tishana Culver, Crystal Dozier, Telacia Fortson, Amelda Hunter, Leshanda Long, Michelle Mason, Kim Yvette Smith, Diane Turner and Janice Webb.

The victims' families have been made aware of his death.

Speaking to Fox 8 about Sowell's death Donnita Carmichael, daughter of Tonia Carmichael said: "I am glad he is dead. God made it happen.

"I will never ever ever forgive him."

Joann Moore, sister of Janice Webb said: "We can go on because he's dead.

"We don't have to hear about him any more."

Last year Sowell had had his latest bid to overturn his 2011 conviction and death sentence thrown out by a panel of judges.

Sowell was first sentenced to 15 years for rape in 1990. He was said to have served 15 years before being released as a Sex offender.

Then two years later, his first victim, 35-year-old Crystal Dozier, was last seen in August 2008.