Serial killer Anthony Sowell dubbed the Cleveland Strangler, has died in prison.
Sowell was sentenced to the Chillicothe Correctional Institution after murdering 11 women and leaving their bodies to rot around his home in Cleveland, Ohio.
The inmate was receiving end-of-life care for a terminal illness, a spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Corrections said.
But Sowell was not receiving treatment for Covid-19, it has been emphasized.
The killer was moved from Death Row at Chillicothe to the Franklin Medical Center in Columbus on January 21, state prison officials said.
The spokesperson said he died at 3.27 pm local time on Monday.
State prison officials notified the victims’ families of his death.
“I am glad he is dead,” said Tonia Carmichael’s daughter Donnita Carmichael.
“God made it happen. I will never ever forgive him. We can go on because he’s dead. We don’t have to hear about him anymore,” said Janice Webb’s sister Joann Moore.
Tonia Carmichael, Nancy Cobbs, Tishana Culver, Crystal Dozier, Telacia Fortson, Amelda Hunter, Leshanda Long, Michelle Mason, Kim Yvette Smith, Diane Turner, and Janice Webb, were identified as part of the search.
Two years after the investigation, the Cuyahoga County jury found him guilty on 81 counts, including aggravated murder and kidnapping.
Sowell was also convicted of attacking three other women who survived. He was sentenced to death and placed on Death Row but continued to appeal against the sentence.
He had just served a 15-year sentence for rape when police found the bodies inside his home, including one in a fresh grave he had dug in his basement.
