Father

In 1989 Anthony Sowell hog-tied Melvette and raped her. The hospital sent her home in a gown, walking the street with her butt hanging out. He did 15 years. Nobody told her he got out. Four years later police found 11 women's bodies in his house. "If they had listened to me..." Cleveland. She was tied up for hours, not knowing if she'd live or die. The police took her to the hospital. Rape kit. A hospital gown. No clothes, nobody to call. So she walked down East Cleveland half naked, hours after being hog-tied. "They knew what the man did to me. And I was left to fend for myself." Sowell told police he was paying her for sex. He pleaded guilty and still swore he was innocent. In prison he filled out a questionnaire. One prompt read "Most women..." He wrote: "just tell lies." He served every day of his 15 years. He came out in 2005 a model prisoner. Melvette heard it through the grapevine. She called the police herself and asked why nobody warned her. The officer said: "He's done his time for what he did to you, so there was no reason to notify you." She didn't leave her house for years. He did. In the video below she says what she's been saying for 30 years. What happened next? In 2009 police walked into his house on Imperial Avenue. 11 women. In the house and buried in the yard. Who were they? Mostly poor women addicted to crack. Women nobody went looking for. What did he get? The death penalty. He died in prison before they could carry it out. Some people will say the system did its job: he served his full sentence. Others will say 11 women are dead because nobody listened to one. "If they had listened to me and took into consideration what this man was capable of, women would still be alive to this day." Who should answer for those 11?