Ohio authorities have released pictures of the three Castro brothers arrested after three missing women – Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight – were found at a Cleveland home where they had allegedly been held captive for a decade.
The mugshots of Ariel Castro, 52, who owned the property, and his brothers Onil, 50, and Pedro, 54, emerged as police sources claimed the women reportedly had multiple pregnancies at the home.
At least five babies were born at the house, while one of the victims, Amanda Berry, suffered as many as three miscarriages because she was so malnourished, police sources told NewsChannel5.
Other sources told WKYC that the captors would beat the women when they were pregnant, meaning that the babies would not survive.
It is unknown what happened to any children who were born at the home, and it is not clear whether a 6-year-old girl who was found alive there on Monday is among the number cited by sources.
The girl was found after her mother, kidnap victim Amanda Berry, 26, climbed through a screen door on Monday afternoon while her alleged captor was out and fled to a neighbor’s home to call 911.
When police arrived minutes later, they found Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michele Knight, 32, who had also been missing for a decade, along with the young girl.
At the press conference, authorities confirmed that the little girl was born to Amanda Berry while she was in captivity, but it is not known which of the three suspects – if any – is the father.
Today police praised Amanda Berry, who went missing a day before her 17th birthday in 2003, for escaping and alerting authorities to the two other women at the home.
“The real hero here is Amanda,” Cleveland Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba said at a press conference on Tuesday morning.
“She came out of that house and that started it all.”
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