Rapist's neighbors knew something was wrong (by the smell)

[Liberal_in_LA]

Rapist's neighbors knew something was wrong
The stench of decay clung to Anthony Sowell and his Cleveland home, where the bodies of six women were found. Now the community wrestles with self-recrimination.

-------------

Officers arrived at the property Thursday to arrest Sowell on a separate rape charge. He wasn't there, but the smell of decay was so thick that officers headed upstairs.

They found two bodies on the living room floor.

As the days passed, investigators found another body in a freshly dug grave underneath a set of stairs in the backyard. Two more were crammed into a crawl space inside the house. The sixth was in a shallow grave in the basement.

"The stench of decay was overwhelming," said Lt. Thomas Stacho, spokesman for the police department. "The closest I got was 15 feet from an open door, and it was more than bad enough. I can't figure out how the neighbors didn't know something was wrong."

They did.

For months, they said, they gagged whenever they walked past the wood-framed house, with its listing porch and neatly mowed lawn. Some recalled that Sowell's clothing smelled bad enough to make their eyes water.

"He came into my store last week and reeked so bad, I had to open the front and back doors," said Eli Tayeh, who owns the Amira Imperial Beverage convenience store across the street. "I asked why he stunk. He shrugged, bought his beer and walked out."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-rapist2-2009nov02,0,5229281.story?page=2

[TwilightGardener]

1. Surprised no one called the police. The stench of bodily decay

is pretty unmistakeable, and warranted at least a nuisance call.

[Greyskye]

4. I don't see how anyone who has smelled decaying flesh...

...could ever forget that scent. I agree with you completely.

[JonQ]

9. You could only ever be in the position

to never forget it if you've smelled it before.

Rotting carcasses are not a common occurrence these days.

[Greyskye]

16. You've never come across anything dead? Ever?

Rats, mice, deer, skunk, raccoon, badger - I've had encounters with these dead critters just in the past 5 years or so. Guess I didn't realize that some people were so sheltered from death.

[JonQ]

18. I have

but presumably not everyone has.

[Liberal_in_LA]

23. How about meat decaying in the fridge or the garbage? Everyone's smelled it

[elehhhhna]

24. true and they still don't come close to a 3+ day old dead human.

trust me.

[elehhhhna]

25. John Gacy's ex wife said their house smelled weird.

[seabeyond]

5. i would be clueless and not directly go there, never having smelled a decaying

body before.

[TwilightGardener]

6. Really, you've never smelled a dead animal? Geez, I hate driving past

bloated deer and raccoon carcasses, because when they're at the peak of ripeness, that godawful sweetish nasty smell gets in through the air vents.

[seabeyond]

8. didnt know it was indicative of all death. just thought what a mouse smelled like when dead

IF that is the smell of death.... then ya, i would recognize it. have experienced twice with mice

[TwilightGardener]

12. I think all mammals smell more or less the same when they decompose--

a mouse smells the same as a raccoon or cat or deer, it's just a matter of magnitude. I've never smelled a decomposing human (and I hope it stays that way!), but it's probably even worse because of sheer size.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. How do people not recognize the smell of death? Just the odor from a little dead mouse in

my driveway last summer was enough to make me retch.

[TwilightGardener]

3. Yup--when my cats leave a critter, I can smell it across the yard.

[hobbit709]

7. "Rapist" Hell. Out and out serial killer is what he is.

He might have raped but his real jollies came from killing.

[JonQ]

11. Yeah that puzzled me too

murder is a greater crime than rape, you would think they'd label him according to that.

What if he also didn't care for paying his taxes? Would he be labeled a notorious tax-evader?

[TwilightGardener]

15. He might not have been charged with that yet--I wondered that too.

[Liberal_in_LA]

22. He's a convicted rapist, re-arrested for rape, so far.

[JonQ]

26. I guess that makes sense

[October]

21. I think it's because they went to arrest him on a rape charge...

and when they arrived at his house, they observed the stench...discovered bodies, went upstairs, etc.

[Vinnie From Indy]

10. The smell of decayed flesh is biologically imprinted on our human brains

It is not an accident that the smell of natural gas is akin to the smell of rotting flesh. The smell is actually put into the gas so that if there is a leak, it can be quickly detected by humans. Over the course of human evolution our noses have keyed on this smell. It is one of the smells that humans can almost universally smell even in the most minute quantities. We are programmed to detect decaying flesh and that ability gave our species a competitive advantage in the evolutionary story.

[TwilightGardener]

17. Is it to keep us from sickening ourselves from eating rotting meat,

or is there some other purpose?

[MattBaggins]

20. It's a new debate in evolutionary biology

But the opposite might very well be the case. We may very well have descended from scavengers and not been the mighty hunters people like to think we were. We most likely competed with the vultures and hyenas.

Problem with that is that the reaction to the smell of death ought not to be vomiting and retching.

[Graybeard]

13. Experts being called in from Natural History Museum.

Studying the insects and maggots in the remains may determine how long ago the women were killed. Story gets even more gruesome.

[Warren DeMontague]

14. You know what? In this case- like the case of the girl kept prisoner in the back yard for 20 years-

if these people had had, say, a pot plant growing in the back yard or a windowsill, they'd have had a SWAT team on them in about 2 hours.

Your tax dollars at work, folks!!! :patriot:

[ohheckyeah]

19. Which says something sad about our society. n/t

[Gwendolyn]

27. Best thing to do would be to demolish the house.

Out of respect for the victims for one. It'll be inhabitable anyway. The smell of decomposing bodies permeates everything. You could paint the walls ten times and it'd still overwhelm.

[The Straight Story]

28. If he had been smoking they probably would have called the cops a long time ago

:hide: :rofl: