Unsolved cases reviewed for link to Sowell

JACKSONVILLE, N.C., Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Investigators near two North Carolina military bases say they're reviewing unsolved cases for any links to suspected Cleveland serial killer Anthony Sowell.

Sowell, 50, was being held without bail Tuesday on five counts of aggravated murder in the deaths of 11 women recently found buried in and around his home in Cleveland.

Between 1978 and 1983, Sowell was stationed as a Marine at Camp Lejeune and at a base in Havelock, N.C. Investigators in counties near the bases are reviewing unsolved cases from those years involving rape, homicide and missing people, Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown told The Cleveland Plain Dealer.

A preliminary computer search turned up no reference to Sowell, though investigators plan to hand-search paper files because the computer database from the 1980s was known to be flawed, Brown said.