Accused Serial Killer Wears Pacemaker

CLEVELAND -- An accused serial killer was not granted bond during a court arraignment Wednesday morning.

Anthony Sowell, 50, is charged with five counts of aggravated murder as well as rape, felonious assault and kidnapping.

The public defender asked for bond in the case, but the judge said Sowell is a danger to the community. NewsChannel5 learned in the court appearance that Sowell has been on unemployment for about two years after being laid off from a job. He also has a pacemaker and is on medication for a heart condition.

The case will be given to the grand jury.

Sowell also served 15 years in prison in connection with rape and was labeled a sexual predator. This, too, weighed heavily in the judge's decision. The hearing lasted about six minutes.

Sowell is also being held in an area of the jail in a cell by himself.

Meanwhile, firefighters are expected to check walls, floors and ceilings for more evidence.

On Tuesday, four additional bodies and a skull were found when a forensic team and detectives started digging at his Imperial Avenue home. Six bodies had been discovered previously.

The skull was wrapped and in a bucket in the basement.

"It appears that this man had an insatiable appetite that he had to fill," Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath said during a Tuesday news conference.

The Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office said six of the victims were female and five of the six were strangled. The decomposition has made it difficult to determine how one victim died, spokesman Powell Caesar said.

None of the victims has been identified, but the coroner said the initial six bodies found were African-American.