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A Killer Sleeping Next to Dead Bodies? That’s the Case In This Chilling Snapped: Notorious Peek

Snapped Notorious: The Cleveland Strangler dives deeper into the haunting story of serial killer Anthony Sowell, a former Marine who preyed on women and slept beside their decomposing bodies.

By Samantha Bergeson Jul 19, 2021 5:00 PMTags
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Worse than hell. 

The Snapped: Notorious series takes on the infamous Cleveland Strangler in a haunting new two-hour special, airing Saturday, July 24. Snapped Notorious: The Cleveland Strangler details the discovery of eleven decomposing bodies in the home of former Marine Anthony Sowell; the story is told through interviews with six survivors who managed to escape Sowell's abuse.

In E!'s exclusive sneak peek, investigative journalist Beth Karas reflects on the especially gruesome case. "It [had] been over two years since women started vanishing in the neighborhood," Kara explains of the break in the case, "and now the police make a shocking discovery."

The Cleveland police storm Sowell's Mount Pleasant home...and realize they entered a "haunted house," according to former detective Martin Smith. "They observe two decomposed bodies on the floor," retired Det. Smith of the Cleveland Police Dept. recalls. Working only with flashlights, Det. Smith and Det. Lem Griffin navigated the crime scene.

"I describe [it] as a haunted house-type atmosphere," Smith remembers. "The more we found ourselves inside the house, the stronger the smell became, and once we arrived to the third floor, it was pretty intense."

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Sowell's property was littered with dead flies, "to the point where you couldn't actually see the floor," Smith points out. 

In fact, the experts on the scene had never witnessed such an evil case, likening it Sowell's crimes to hell. "The scene was extremely disturbing, like something out of Dante's Inferno," former Cleveland police lieutenant Michael Baumiller adds.

However, it only gets more gruesome: They encounter the bodies of 11 murdered women in Sowell's house. "This guy, for a fact, we know was living on the third floor where these bodies were," Smith concludes. "What kind of guy? What kind of person does that?" 

Watch the chilling clip above. 

Snapped Notorious: The Cleveland Strangler premieres Saturday, July 24 at 9 p.m. on Oxygen. 

(E! and Oxygen are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)

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