CLEVELAND — On Saturday morning, hundreds of Northeast Ohioans gathered in Cleveland to honor and remember the 11 women killed by Anthony Sowell whose bodies were discovered at Sowell's home on Imperial Avenue in 2009.
The garden honors Tonia Carmichael, Nancy Cobbs, Tishana Culver, Crystal Dozier, Telacia Fortson, Amelda Hunter, Leshanda Long, Michelle Mason, Kim Yvette Smith, Diane Turner, and Janice Webb.
“This beautiful garden will be a living memorial to the Eleven Angels whose lives were so brutally taken,” said Joy Johnson, executive director at Burton, Bell, Carr Development, Inc. “It’s been years in the making, and we now have some closure and healing for this community. And to have that healing centered on a beautiful green space and memorial that will be here for generations is a tremendous success.”
Among the community members who showed up Saturday to remember the victims were family members who also found a pocket of peace in the Garden of 11 Angels.
"My daughter Crystal Dozier was the very first one he killed and she was buried back there by the fence," said Florence Bray.
"Today was more than just special it was closure," said Doniesha Jacobs Carmicheal, the granddaughter of Tonia Carmichael.
"The death of eleven women at the hands of a serial killer, whose bodies were found hidden in and around the killer's home at 12205 Imperial Avenue on the border of the neighborhoods of Mt. Pleasant and Buckeye-Shaker, is a painful and traumatic memory for the families of the victims, the survivors, the neighborhood, and our entire community," a proposal for the monument reads. "This is the sad impetus of the Garden of Eleven Angels project."
The project was first brought before the Cleveland Planning Commission in June and a groundbreaking ceremony took place in July.
The Garden of 11 Angels also includes more than 30 different varieties of trees, plants, and flowers to breathe life into the space once occupied by Sowell's home.
“We believe the Garden of Eleven Angels will be a transformative project for the Mount Pleasant and Buckeye-Shaker neighborhood,” said Keshia Johnson Chambers, owner of Chambers Global Group, a Cleveland-based construction services firm. “By partnering together with Western Reserve Land Conservancy, Burton, Bell, Carr Development, LAND Studio, the families of the Eleven Angels and many others, we were all able to bring our unique and vital perspectives into this project. I truly believe that the diversity of our lived experiences was what made the Garden such a huge success.”
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