CLEVELAND (AP) — Suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell seemed like a "civilized person" on the April evening that Tanja Doss went up to his third-floor bedroom for a beer — until, she said, he leapt up and began choking her and threatening to kill her.

The 43-year-old woman told The Associated Press on Thursday that she survived a night of terror through a combination of calm and cajoling, prayer and trickery. But when she escaped the next morning, she didn't tell police. Her past conviction on a drug charge, she said, made it unlikely they'd take her seriously.

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

Police and a cadaver dog re-entered the home Thursday where Sowell apparently lived among the reeking, rotting corpses of 10 women and the paper-wrapped skull of another in a basement bucket. The ex-Marine, who served 15 years in prison for attempted rape, is being held without bail on five aggravated murder charges.

Just days after her own escape, Doss was helping search for her friend Nancy Cobbs. Now Cobbs is among about two dozen missing women whose friends and family fear fell victim to Sowell.

Only three of the victims have been identified so far — Tonia Carmichael, 52, of Warrensville Heights; Telacia Fortson, 31, of Cleveland; and Tishana Culver, 31, also of Cleveland.

Doss believes she only narrowly escaped the fate of those dug up from Sowell's yard.

She had met Sowell in 2005, after his prison release, but didn't know the real reason for his sentence. She found him to be "a civilized person, sitting outside drinking beer, a nice person." So she didn't hesitate to join him for a drink.

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

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

Sowell made her strip and lay on the bed, she said, but did not attempt to rape her. Doss 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 to herself, and eventually, both fell asleep. She awoke in the morning with Sowell acting as if nothing had happened, she said, asking whether she wanted something from the store.

She picked up her cell phone and pretended to call her daughter, then claimed her granddaughter had the flu. When Sowell left for the store, she went in the other direction.

She didn't report the confrontation because "my background ain't squeaky clean," she said.

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."

When Cobbs disappeared — four days after her 44th birthday on April 20 — Doss didn't think about Sowell as she helped search abandoned buildings and post fliers.

It wasn't until Monday, three days after bodies had begun turning up, that Doss finally went to police.

Sowell also faces charges of rape, felonious assault and kidnapping after a Sept. 22 attack on a woman at his home. A message left with the county public defender's office was not returned Thursday.

Near Sowell's home, a plywood memorial hangs from a chain link fence, the word MISSING stenciled in black. Five stuffed animals and an artificial rose adorn .....

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we have to do better, but we are sooo scared to speak out against issues. Everyone in the neighborhood should take responsibility.
craziness...

by   
Jazflutesmith
November 6, 2009, 12:27 pm
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NOW we show concern. What happened to, "don't snitch don't tell "

by   
Jazflutesmith
November 6, 2009, 12:25 pm
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Reno, actually what is worse than the police force and mayor reaction or inactions..Is Black people themselves, they smelled the stinched for years, they know the amount of females missing in that area alone...Tthey should have banned together than and marched on city hall front steps until something was done, including writing their congressperson...They did nothing, but smelled the stinch, aware of the missing and simply did not care enough about another Black person life and if we don't care, whose gonna

by   
Broughtwaprice
November 6, 2009, 11:28 am
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And to say that these women should have known better or been more careful is pointless. You know a drug addict will sell their first born for a good size hit, so endangering their own life is just, unfortunately, part of the program.

by   
Reno112303
November 6, 2009, 10:47 am
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I'd bet my retirement, and the money in my Granny's old lockbox, that ALL of these women either drug addicts and/or prostitutes, and he targeted them because he was smart enough to know that the police would not give a damm about a missing crackhead or prostitute. Class can we say...Jeffrey Dahmer! I'm horrified that such an apathetic attitude was taken by the police in Cleveland. Mayor Jackson was just elected for another term, and if I lived in Cleveland, I'd be beating down his door!!! Somebody needs to answer for this.

by   
Reno112303
November 6, 2009, 10:46 am
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There goes the theory that most of your serial killers are white normal looking socialpaths.What this does show is that their are many different kinds of sociapaths.This gut truly has the eyes of a killer.What amazes me though is why all kinds of women contiue to put they're self in a position for this to happen to them.i mean even drugs or money are not worth the horror most of those women was most likely subjected to.

by   
Tracey Hail
November 6, 2009, 10:37 am
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All this means is that he picked his victims wisely, he picked women that nobody would exactly be looking for and the police would not in a hurry to find. These women were still human beings and justice must be served. But most of his victims willing went into the house of death.

That is the truly sad part and the children left behind.

by   
Broughtwaprice
November 6, 2009, 10:18 am
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ATTEMPTED MURDER IS JUST THAT no matter who you are!! I think some parks were left out.Sex had to be the reason she is alive today.JUST OUT OF PRISON,jumped her and choke her,calmed down,then went to sleep naked?? come on now,or is she waiting for a price to tell all? so does that put her in the category of "NOT SNITCHING."? DUH??? HE JUST GOT OUT OF JAIL-THAT COULD HAVE VIOLATED HIS PAROLE,THEN BACK IN JAIL HE WENT!!!..........NOBODY FOUND DEAD IN THE YARD.....WE NEED TO KNOW THE LAW TO APPLY THE LAW!!!!!!!!!!

by   
Skegeebp51
November 6, 2009, 10:14 am
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The real tragedy of this to women is...you gotta make better choices on who you invite into your world..The fact that she finds a unemployment, scrap collecting, beer drinking man...cool...Says it all, even how so many of these women became victims...Dayum!

by   
Broughtwaprice
November 6, 2009, 10:07 am
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Let's NOT be too quick to put this lady down---she met him a few years ago,so she didn't JUST meet him that night he lost his MARBLES on her---REMEMBER: HE'S the _____ PSYCHO-SOCIO-PATH---NOT his VICTIMS!!!!!!

by   
Rubinisk
November 6, 2009, 10:06 am
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She found him to be "a civilized person, sitting outside drinking beer, a nice person." So she didn't hesitate to join him for a drink. That statement says it all. I have never happened upon a stranger drinking a forty on his stoop and said to myself "This seems to be a nice civilized person to have a drink with". Did these people have a chemical imbalance or something...This is nutts! Empower yourself

by   
Reality_Check
November 6, 2009, 8:47 am
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The City of Cleveland dropped the ball on this BIG TIME.The fact that the only thing that seperates the Imperial from the Fourth District Police Station is Luke Easter Park, and appx 2 blocks from the crime scene sits a Fire Station.You would think tbat both safety forces who frequent the area would have noticed the smell. If you report a missing person adult, its a low priority its classified as a code 4. You may get a police officer to respond to make a report, or you may be instructed to go to the district or the report would be taken by an officer who is detailed to the radio room.

by   
Chip1265
November 6, 2009, 7:41 am
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