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Experts to help ID final body from Cleveland home

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The Associated Press Updated 1:41 PM Thursday, November 26, 2009

CLEVELAND — Police have turned to a leading anthropologist and a forensic artist to help identify the remains of an 11th woman found inside the home of a suspected serial killer.

Ten others have been identified. The suspect, 50-year-old Anthony Sowell, is in jail on $6 million bond.

For the final ID, anthropologist C. Owen Lovejoy of Kent State University will examine how the bones are connected on the victim's skull, which will help determine her age, authorities said. Linda Spurlock, a forensic reconstruction expert at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, will develop a sketch of the woman's face.

Lovejoy and Spurlock were part of a scientific team that helped study the skeleton of Ardipithecus ramidus, a 4.4 million-year-old human ancestor. Research papers on the hominid were published in October.

Unlike the other 10 victims, the 11th has been tougher to ID because of the lack of a positive DNA match from a mother, child or siblings of the victim, said Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller.

The victim's skull and other test samples will be given to Lovejoy and Spurlock in the next few weeks. The sketch that Spurlock develops won't be an exact likeness but can illustrate facial features that family members may recognize.

"This will take a few weeks, but I am hoping the family of the missing person will see enough similarities and will come forward to do a DNA test," Miller said.

Miller said the victim appears to be in her 30s or 40s. The corpse, which was both mummified and decomposed, was found by police covered with plastic and comforter sheets in a room inside Sowell's house.

Spurlock said she will create a front view and profile sketch of the victim. Tissue depth markers will be used to help determine the way the victim's face was shaped.

Sowell, a registered sex offender, has been charged with five counts of aggravated murder and, separately, with rape, kidnapping and attempted murder in an alleged Sept. 22 attack that prompted police to search his home Oct. 29.

The ten victims identified were black and many were homeless or living alone and had drug or alcohol addictions. Most apparently had been strangled.

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Information from: The Plain Dealer, http://www.cleveland.com

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November 26, 2009 06:39 PM EST

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