Tanja Doss said that if she had quickly gone to authorities, her best friend, Nancy Cobbs, might not be missing. She believes Cobbs might be among the 11 victims whose remains were found at Sowell's home.

Police have recovered 10 bodies and a skull from the home and yard of Anthony Sowell, 50, a registered sex offender who moved back to his family's house in 2005 after serving 15 years in prison for attempted rape. He is being held without bond on five counts of aggravated murder.

Of the bodies found at Sowell's home, three victims have been identified so far - Tonia Carmichael, 52, of Warrensville Heights, Ohio; and Telacia Fortson and Tishana Culver, both 31 of Cleveland.

As a cold, steady rain fell yesterday afternoon, investigators reentered the house to look for and review evidence to help them decide whether they need to dismantle walls, open floors, or look elsewhere.

Area pastors urged the families of missing people to provide DNA samples that could help the coroner's office identify the remains. The pastors say nearly two dozen others are still missing in the community.

The coroner's office, meanwhile, tried to calm concerns by promising that DNA samples would not be shared with law enforcement.

Doss, 43, said she met Sowell in 2005, right after he was released from prison. He did not tell her why he had done time.

In April this year, she said, he invited her over for a beer. They went to the third floor of his house and were talking.

"And then he just clicked," Doss said. "I'm sitting on the corner of the bed, and he just leaped up and came over and started choking me."

"He said, 'If you want to live, knock three times on the floor.' And I knocked on the floor," she said.

Holding her throat, she said, he told her that she could be "dead in the street" and no one would care.

He made her strip off her clothes and lie on the bed but did not try to rape her, Doss said. She said she curled up in a ball and tried to talk him down, saying things like, "Why you gotta act like that?"

Then she prayed.

Sowell wouldn't let her leave, Doss said, so she fell asleep and awoke to him acting as if nothing had happened.

"He said: 'Hi, how you doing? You want something from the store?' " Doss said.

She picked up her cell phone and pretended to call her daughter.

"I said: 'Oh, wow, my granddaughter is sick. She's got the flu,' " she said. "He asked if I wanted to go to the store with him, but I told him I had to go home. He went to the store, and I went in the other direction."