Amelda Hunter

CLEVELAND - Amelda Hunter, known mostly as Amy, of Cleveland, was last seen on or about April 18, 2009.

Hunter’s family issued a missing persons report on November 3, days after her body was found at Sowell’s home.

"I remember when my mother brought her home from the hospital. I’m the oldest,” Lynnette Hunter Taylor said, on the day of her sister’s funeral. "I came here today to put my sister away with dignity.”

Amelda Hunter's body was found in November 2009 in Anthony Sowell's backyard. The prosecutors said her body had a strap from a bag tied around her neck. The 47-year-old’s body was identified on Nov. 8, 2009.

Hunter had three children and became pregnant with her first while she was a junior in high school. Her family said she was raped and that’s when her life started to fall apart.

"It was around my birthday, sometime in April… About two years ago," Bobby Dancy Sr. said. "She was at the house and I went to work or something. When I cam back, she was gone. That was the last time I saw her." Dancy said his long-time girlfriend had a history of disappearing, and sometimes he would wake up and she would be gone.

Dancy said he took his son, Bobby Jr., to the coroner's office for a DNA test after the bodies were found. The results confirmed that Amelda was one of the 11 women found on Imperial Avenue.

"You have dreams at night time," said Amelda’s sister Denise Hunter. "You miss her in the daytime. Music you used to play together (reminds you) of the things we used to do."

"She loved music, she loved art, she loved dancing," Denise Hunter said.

During the Sowell trial in July 2011, Denise Hunter said she went with her sister to “Tony's” house in 2007, before describing the layout of Sowell's apartment. The last time Denise Hunter saw her sister, Amelda, was in April 2009.

"No calls. No picking up on her cellphone. Nothing," Denise Hunter said. By her birthday in June, the family was worried. "When I seen the house, I knew she was there... On her birthday, her son went and we found it was positive match."

Her brother was removed from the courtroom for an outburst during the trial, while Sowell’s sister was on the stand. As she complained about how difficult the trial had made her life, Amelda’s brother shouted “Now, you know how we feel.”

"It was you and you alone. You gave them no mercy, no compassion," said Debra Hunter, representing Amelda Hunter's family during the victim impact statements. "You and you alone had a chance to stop this madness. My sister and my cousin live on… Dead man walking."