[Jane Velez-mitchell, Host:] Tonight, a sick new milestone in the war on women. A gruesome discovery in Ohio. Six women found murdered inside the home of a convicted rapist. Cops say the bodies may have been rotting for months or years. Neighbors would gag when they walked past the house as the toxic smell of death poured out of the windows. So how did cops check up on this guy two months ago and not notice anything amiss? And who are his victims? Plus, a beautiful TV anchorwoman, raped and murdered in cold blood in her own bed. Now the man suspected of this vicious attack has his day in court as the trial finally begins. Will there be justice for Anne Pressly? Also, inside the frightening world of addiction. David Hasselhoff comes clean and finally admits his toxic troubles, telling the world about his ongoing battle with alcoholism, even comparing himself to notorious train wreck, Amy Winehouse. So is this a real life cry for help or free publicity for his new reality show? And cue the circus music. Jon Gosselin is back in the spotlight. This time, the star of "Jon and Kate Plus 8" was in front of the cameras undergoing marriage therapy with a famous rabbi. What? What`s going on here? If this guy`s serious about fixing his marriage, shouldn`t he be doing this behind closed doors? Tonight`s big issue, is Jon Gosselin addicted to fame? ISSUES starts now.
[Velez-mitchell:] Tonight, a manhunt leads police to a house of horrors in Cleveland. Six count them, six rotting corpses found inside the home of a convicted rapist named Anthony Sowell.
[Lt. Thomas Stacho, Cleveland Police Spokesman:] We have taken and confirmed three bodies out of the home. We`ve now, with the assistance of the coroner`s office, removed what we believe are the remains of three additional victims, one from the backyard and two from inside the home.
[Velez-mitchell:] Investigators say all six victims were African- American women who were strangled to death. Sowell could have been living with their bodies for months, possibly even years. The stench was so overpowering, it made neighbors gag. It made their eyes water, but none of them thought to call police. And just over a month ago, cops did a routine check on this man, because he is a registered sex offender. So why didn`t they notice the unmistakable smell of death? It gets worse. Last week, a woman told police Sowell had raped her inside his house. When police went to arrest him, he wasn`t there. That`s when they finally picked up on the extraordinary odor. Officers then found all those bodies. Sowell was arrested two days later. This guy served 15 years in prison for raping and choking a woman in 1989. Since his return to the streets in 2005, more than one woman has accused him of rape. So why wasn`t he prosecuted? Why wasn`t he sent back to the slammer? So much to cover, and I want to hear from you at home about why you think nobody did anything about the fantastic, unbelievable smell. Straight out to my awesome panel: Dr. Gail Saltz, clinical psychiatrist and associate professor of psychiatry at New York Presbyterian Hospital; Don Clark, former FBI special agent in charge; Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels and WABC radio talk show host; and Michelle Sigona, correspondent for "America`s Most Wanted" and international crime correspondent. Michelle, you have some very exclusive information on this case. Bring us up to date. What is the very latest?
[Michelle Sigona, Correspondent, "america`s Most Wanted":] The very latest on this investigation, Jane, is just a little bit of what you had mentioned. All six bodies inside of the house, police have identified. In fact, as being all African-American women, five of whom were strangled, unfortunately, and then the other ones` body was decomposed so badly that they could not determine how that female was, in fact, murdered. Now, when the coroner`s office went in, they were able to secure all six bodies. They had a cadaver dog go in to be able to locate every single body at locations from crawl spaces to living spaces, outside to shallow graves and to bring those in, to be able to determine the age and the sex and the gender of these particular women at this time. And right now, since they don`t have any identification for them, they are reaching out to some of the families throughout the neighborhoods to try to figure out some other missing women, up to eight that we know of so far, that could possibly be possible, potential victims in this. But they are working to match up that DNA at this time.
[Velez-mitchell:] And we`ve got some of those missing women. We`re going to present them to you in a little bit, to see if you at home perhaps have any information on them. Now, Michelle, before we move on, you have some exclusive information. I understand you talked to the mother of a woman who was married to this suspected serial killer.
[Sigona:] That`s correct, Jane. I located this woman, and what she says she doesn`t wish to be identified but what she did tell me was that more than 20 years ago, that her daughter actually met Sowell in the Marines, and they were married for about a year. She says that she does not remember a lot of information about him...
[Velez-mitchell:] So you`re saying he was a Marine, this guy?
[Sigona:] Yes. He was a Marine, for what she remembers about to be six and a half years. I did reach out to to the Marine Corps about an hour and a half ago because I just found out this information, and they have to go into the archives into St. Louis to be able to tell me the exact dates of when he enlisted and when he was released. There are some published reports out there that do say that he was there for about seven years and that he was honorably discharged, according to some parole records. Now, having said that, what this woman says is that her daughter did, in fact, meet Sowell and that they were married for about a year. Her daughter, unfortunately, died about 11 years ago...
[Velez-mitchell:] Uh-oh.
[Sigona:] ... unrelated to this. But she was, you know, speaking out, and what she wanted to say was that her heart really does go out to the families of these women who were found.
[Velez-mitchell:] Right. Well, I got to say, Michelle, it`s very nerve-wracking and actually disturbing to think that this suspected serial killer was a U.S. Marine. That`s a bizarre twist. Sowell was accused of rape after his release from prison four years ago. A woman says after she refused to have a drink with him this is after his release he punched her in the face and dragged her into his house. She told FOX 8 Cleveland, quote, "He was going to kill me. I had scars on my neck and nerve damage." She says she escaped and called cops. Sowell was arrested get this for rape, kidnapping and robbery, but the case was dropped. Why, Curtis Sliwa? Because this woman believes that it`s because she had a case pending, an assault case pending against her at the time. And so Sowell kind of turned the tables and claimed that she`d assaulted him. But I just don`t get it, Curtis, because this should have been a slam-dunk for prosecutors. He`s a convicted rapist, and she`s accusing him of doing the exact same thing he did before.
[Curtis Sliwa, Founder, Guardian Angels:] It will be interesting to see the backgrounds of the victims that they found who are buried underneath this home, because I`ll bet you they`re part of what have we have as a throwaway society for women. If you`re a dope fiend, a crackhead, a meth head, a runaway, a prostitute, we say, "See you later"; we forget you. Your file goes in the cold case file, and maybe it will get solved at some point in the future. We don`t view these people as being like the person next door, like "Leave it to Beaver" land, "Father Knows Best," "Little House on the Prairie." And that`s how these enemies of society, these cretins with chromosome damage, can continue to get away with these crimes undetected.
[Velez-mitchell:] Now, I got some disturbing information to tell you about now. And this is very creepy. Sowell had reportedly cruised sexual fetish Web sites. He described himself as a, quote, "master looking for someone to train." His profile on the site alt.com reads, "If you`re submissive and like to please, this master wants to talk to you. So get your expletive over here now." Dr. Gail Saltz, does this give you any kind of an inkling of what these women may have endured before they were strangled?
[Gail Saltz, Clinical Psychiatrist:] Unfortunately, absolutely. This is someone who was interested in domination, perhaps sadism, which often go hand-in-hand, and you would be very concerned that these women were, you know, really tortured in some way before they died.
[Velez-mitchell:] I mean, this is pretty serious stuff, Don Clark. You`re a special agent in charge of the Houston FBI. S&M; behavior can include physical violence, and if they it starts out as a game and maybe somebody`s lured in under that pretext, and it turns physically violent, that can be absolutely terrifying.
[Don Clark, Former Special Agent In Charge:] Well, it is very terrifying terrifying, Jane, and but one of the major problems here, Jane, is that we`re no longer in the `70s and `80s and `90s now. We`re in a stage now where prevention has to be the focal word. And that is crime prevention. Not arresting these people after the fact and after six or eight people are dead or so forth. They`ve got to prevent these crimes from happening. And when you`ve got things like rapists and child sex abusers, once they have been convicted, then somewhere along the line, with all the technology that we have, these people should be monitored for the rest of their lives. And I would argue that with anybody: if they are convicted and they`re put out on parole, they should be monitored so that you can pretty much know where these people are all the time.
[Velez-mitchell:] But but Michelle Sigona, you`re the investigator here. They were monitored. The cops reportedly checked up on him as recently as September 22 to determine whether he was living at the home that he said he was living at. Now, how come they didn`t notice the smell? This is astounding to me. This reminds me of the Phillip Garrido case. We`re going to get into that in a second but answer that question.
[Sigona:] Yes, it is astounding. And from what a lot of neighbors have said, and a lot of folks in the community, they have come out to say that, look, OK, everyone figured that he was going out, he was rummaging through trash, he picking up scrap metal, he was doing things to sell to sell those kind of items to earn a living. And that`s where the stench comes from, and that`s what you know, from collecting those items inside of his house. And that could have been, I don`t know, but that could have been what he told authorities and what police would have known. And if they were checking up on him as much as they say that they have record of, in that particular instance, all those instances, for that matter, then they would be able to to determine his kind of lifestyle. And they would know that he`s out there kind of, you know, scouring the area looking for things to sell.
[Velez-mitchell:] There were so many questions. There were so many red flags, and again, you`re astounded they don`t pick up on any of it. He was living with an elderly female relative who they`re now looking for. He said he took her to a nursing home. They`re trying to figure out whether that really happened or not. So much more on this nightmare discovery in just a moment. We`re also taking your calls on this. I want to know what you think about why people didn`t report the stench: 1-877-JVM-SAYS, 1-877-586-7297. Give me your thoughts. Plus, another case in the war on women. Arkansas anchorwoman raped, murdered in her own bed. Now this trial has started. Will there ever be justice for this beautiful young woman and her tortured family? But first, a houseful of rotting bodies found in Ohio. A neighborhood shocked to hear cops say a serial killer was living right next door.
[Unidentified Male:] Sigh of relief. The street is now safe again.
[Unidentified Female:] I`m glad he`s off the street. We`re just thankful that they got him.