Filed under: News, Race and Civil Rights
The 11 black women who went missing and unnoticed in Cleveland and who were later discovered to be victims of serial killerAnthony Sowell were also victims of a society that places less value on people who are poor or struggling with addiction issues.
They were the victims of a community that did not have enough clout to get police to listen and that lived far enough in the shadows to avoid attention despite the glaring signs that something was wrong.
These 11 women, who despite their past issues were Mothers who had children and family members who loved them, were simply allowed to slip through the cracks because of indifference.
A CNN report one year after the arrest of Sowell highlights the lives of some of these women. It's the type of attention that should have been showered on them by community and police. Particularly frightening is the prospect that Sowell could have been stopped, and we'll never be sure of how many other women he killed. Police have reopened 75 missing persons cold cases.
Despite the fact that many of Sowell's victims were prostitutes or had drug problems, some of them were trying to get their lives in order.
For example, 31-year-old Telacia Fortson was a mother of three who was trying to get off drugs. She lived in a shelter and had attended a church a block from Sowell's home six Sunday's in a row before her disappearance.
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Barbara Carmichael remembers her daughter, Tonia Carmichael, asking for $20 to get her truck door fixed days before she vanished. Due to Tonia's past drug history, Barbara Carmichael was rightfully skeptical of what her daughter was going to do with the money:
"Tonia was like a train wreck you see happening, and you can't stop it," Barbara says. "I really thought if I cared enough and tried hard enough, I could change her and make a difference in her life."
Barbara gave her the money and then her daughter disappeared. She marshalled friends and family to search for Tonia. They found Tonia's truck four blocks from Anthony Sowell's house.
The door had been repaired.
The women left behind at least 23 children, 36 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
It's no accident that Sowell targeted these women. CNN reports:
Serial killers prefer to target individuals engaging in unaccepted behaviors, because they can use the victim's lifestyle as leverage in their efforts to control them, says James McNamara, an FBI expert on serial killings. The victims' "invisibility" enables the serial killer to work without notice, several experts on serial killers say.
It took more than two decades for police in Los Angeles, California, to crack the case of the "grim sleeper," who terrorized and killed at least 10 black women, some working as prostitutes. In July, Lonnie David Franklin Jr., 57, was arrested and charged with 10 counts of murder. Franklin has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
In North Carolina in 2003, police began discovering the remains of women, almost all black prostitutes, around the small town of Rocky Mount. Nine bodies were found. Many of the victims led dangerous lives, according to local media reports, slipping in and out of random cars and coming in to constant contact with strangers. One man has been charged with one murder. Authorities are still investigating the other deaths.
After analyzing more than 110 serial murders, Steven Egger, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Houston at Clear Lake in Texas, found at least 75 involved victims who were drug abusers, homeless or prostitutes.
"People are quoted on television saying they deserve it because of their lifestyle, forgetting about the fact that it's somebody's daughter, wife, possibly somebody's mother," Egger said.
Some family members were so defeated by their loved ones lifestyle that they did not report it to police when they went missing.
Despite the good memories that Bobby Dancey had of his mother, Amelda Hunter, there were also the countless times she would disappear to use drugs. When it happened again in the summer of 2009, just four doors from where Sowell lived, Dancey did not report his mother missing:
"She had left before," he said quietly.
We already know that missing blacks get less media attention. We can't contribute to the problem by not even reporting that our loved ones are gone.
But maybe if someone had connected the dots and noticed that an unusual number of women in a small geographic area were disappearing, Dancey would have not just thought his mom left because of her drug issues.
I can't imagine 11 women vanishing in an upscale neighborhood and not seeing a report about it on some major news outlet. Sowell, who was listed as the highest category sex offender because of the 15 years he served for rape, could have been pointed out as a person of interest. If plotted on a map, Sowell probably would be the geographic center of the missing women.
How can a horrendous stench be allowed to hang in the air for two years with no explanation?
Police had a chance to catch Sowell. When he had only killed five known victims, a 40-year-old woman went to police and said Sowell had attacked her:
"He just kind of twisted my neck, twisting it, twisting it, twisting it," said Gladys Wade. "I was gouging his face at the same time. At the same time, I was trying to take his eyeballs out. It was like the devil, you know? Eyes glowing."
Wade was one of the lucky few to escape.
Police told CNN they didn't notice any smells or signs when they went to talk to Sowell about Wade, but a police report from that visit says police noticed blood droplets on the wall. Six more women vanished after Wade's report went nowhere.
"We're saying you don't have the right to judge whether or not a case is worth being investigated," Dave Patterson, a local activist who is pushing the legislature to reform the way police handle missing-persons cases, told CNN.
The African-American community simply has to stand together to demand more from our officials. A bunch of missing women and a horrible smell would not be tolerated in other communities.
We also need to learn to deal with our distrust of police. We must report our loved ones missing even if they have a criminal history or drug problem.
We must take action now. We can't wait until the next Anthony Sowell rears his ugly head.