..... the sign, which holds fliers showing 13 missing women and three men.

The fliers reflects not just fears that their bodies might be on Sowell's property, but also community members' frustrations with how they say police treat missing-persons reports from their downtrodden neighborhood.

Some of the missing are women who lived on society's fringe. Some were active or recovering drug users. Some had gone to jail, producing criminal records their families believe are the reason police didn't take their disappearances seriously.

Cleveland City Councilman Zach Reed, at a rally with two dozen clergy members, said people should stop stereotyping those who might have ended up in Sowell's house of horrors.

"I want us to stop this conversation that they were crackheads, they were this and that," he said. "They were people."

Michelle Mason lived near Sowell's neighborhood and rarely went longer than two days without talking to her family. After a few days of silence in October 2008, the family went to police.

"Because my sister had a prior arrest history, they kind of didn't take it seriously," Mary Mason said.

But Michelle Mason had stopped collecting and cashing her Social Security checks. Before her disappearance, she had just paid her rent and her cell phone bill. Her apartment was left as if she intended to return.

"We tried to convince them with everything in us that this was not normal, and they tried to convince with everything they had that it was," Mary Mason said.

On a second visit to police, Michelle Mason's sons were told there are "thousands of Michelles in the city," and that officers didn't have the time or the manpower to hunt for them all.

"It was taken almost as a joke, that she was just this kind of person. Her drug use was years behind her. But they pull her up on that computer, and they say, 'She's a nobody,'" Mary Mason said. "She's not a nobody."

___

Associated Press writers John Seewer and Thomas J. Sheeran contributed to this report.

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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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