CLEVELAND, Ohio — Thirty-seven days passed between the time a woman told police Anthony Sowell choked and raped her in his house and when police went to Imperial Avenue to arrest him.

That time gap has raised the question -- among the crowds of neighbors gathered outside Sowell's home, victims' advocates and at least one city councilman -- if more could have been done to track Sowell, whom police charged Tuesday with five counts of aggravated murder for some of the people found dead at his home.

"I'm not going to point fingers but at the end of the day, someone clearly dropped the ball," Councilman Zack Reed said Tuesday.

Reed wants to hold hearings about how so many warning signs about Sowell -- from the foul odor coming from his house to calls to police about him -- weren't acted upon fast enough.

Police said they did all they could to bring Sowell to justice for the Sept. 22 attack, but were hampered by a victim who was difficult to track down and hesitant to meet with detectives.

Mayor Frank Jackson defended the work of the police.

"He believes the police did their job properly," said Andrea Taylor, Jackson's spokeswoman.

Sowell's interactions with police and other safety forces underscore difficulty of striking a balance between the rights of criminals, victims and the general public. Victims, some who distrusted police, are often reluctant to talk with detectives.

Deputies from the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office made a surprise visit to Sowell on Sept. 22 in an effort to make sure he lived where he reported to authorities. Sowell served 15 years in prison for rape and was classified as a sex offender, which required him to keep his address on file and check in with deputies quarterly.

Sowell was home when deputies arrived shortly before 9 a.m.

Reed wonders how deputies could have checked on Sowell but not smelled the decomposing bodies.

"Did they physically go to the house or walk up and say, 'Looks good,' " Reed asked.

Deputies previously said Sowell opened the door but, as is standard for spot checks, they did not enter the house.

Later that evening, Sowell struck up a conversation with a woman and he offered to split his malt liquor with her, according to a police report. She entered Sowell's home and went to the second floor.

The woman told police that after drinking for a while, Sowell became upset, punched her in the face and began choking her with an extension cord. He raped her and then she passed out, the woman said.

She got out of the home by promising Sowell she would bring him $50 and would not go to the police. Then she called police and told them she had been attacked.

Detectives were assigned the case the next day and left messages with the woman. They called her and then visited her home. The woman's mother told police her daughter was hard to reach.

A week passed, and she agreed to meet with detectives on Oct. 11. The woman did not show up for the interview and they later scheduled another interview.

The woman met with detectives Tuesday, Oct. 27. They obtained a search and arrest warrant the next day, records show.

Police discovered the bodies Thursday and Friday.

They had been to the house nine days earlier, but again nothing came of the case after the victim did not want to talk to police.

Trucks from the Fire Department and Emergency Medical Service were sent to Sowell's home on Oct. 20 after neighbors called 9-1-1 and said they saw a naked woman fall or jump from a second-floor window.

EMS crews found the woman with cuts and scrapes. Sowell came out of the home and told rescue workers they had been using cocaine and marijuana all day and the woman fell out of the window, Police Chief Michael McGrath said.

EMS took the woman to MetroHealth Medical Center and asked police to send a car to the home to investigate. Police got there a few minutes later but no one was at the home, so the officer went to Metro.

That's where the woman told police her fall out of the window was an accident and she wasn't talking, McGrath said.