CLEVELAND -- As the body of one woman found in a home on the city's southeast side was identified, some residents maintain that police didn't investigate missing persons reports because the women were believed to be drug addicts.

Ten bodies and a skull have been discovered in an Imperial Home where Anthony Sowell, 50, had been living since being released from prison in 2005 on a rape charge.

Sowell appeared in court Wednesday. He is now charged with five counts of aggravated murder as well as rape, felonious assault and kidnapping. He was not granted bond.

Cuyahoga County Coroner Dr. Frank Miller identified one of the bodies as Tonia Carmichael. Her remains were identified through DNA. She went missing in November 2008.

Cleveland police don't take missing-persons cases seriously if they involve people clinging to the lower rungs of society, said Judy Martin, a leading local anti-crime advocate.

Because of this alleged mindset, Councilman Zach Reed is demanding an investigation into how crime reports in the neighborhood have been handled. Reed also said that his office received reports of a strong odor in the area and he wants to know how the complaints should be handled.

Mayor Frank Jackson refused to second-guess officers, but said he expected the police chief would evaluate the situation and make adjustments if necessary.

Police Chief Michael McGrath said the city takes about 10 missing-person reports a day but typically clears at least 90 percent within 48 hours.

Chuck Cole, a landlord with rental homes in the area, said most of the women who disappeared went by nicknames. He said he sometimes saw them buying beer at the corner convenience store, or lounging on Sowell's front porch.

"He reeled them in like that with the money and, you know, promises," Cole said of Sowell.

The Smell

After a while, though, the women stopped coming around.

Residents said that in retrospect the smell alone should have raised questions. It wafted down the street, sometimes forcing employees at the sausage shop near his home to abandon the store on hot summer days.

Sowell's street is lined with occupied homes sandwiched between vacant, boarded-up houses and scattered small businesses with a steady stream of customers.

"We're not talking about some desolate area, some abandoned barn," said Reed, whose mother lives a block away. "How did somebody get away with this in a residential neighborhood?"

It smelled like a dead dog, neighbors say. Like sewage. Like rotting meat.

"It was smelling so bad, horrible, putrid," said Kenneth Broader, a postal carrier who delivers mail to Imperial Avenue.

Sewage lines were replaced. Equipment was scrubbed. City utility officials even came to investigate, on more than one occasion. But the stench lingered.