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Mark Sanchez, who lives in the neighborhood and shares Ariel Castro’s affinity for the bass guitar, told The Daily Telegraph that he was at the kidnapper’s home on May 2 when he heard weird thudding sounds coming from the floor above.
Mark Sanchez also saw a little girl at one point whom he claimed he had never seen before.
Ariel Castro explained that the child was his granddaughter.
Days later, he was horrified to learn about what had been going on in the house for more than a decade.
Mark Sanchez said he was at Ariel Castro’s home on May 2 when he heard weird thudding sounds coming from the floor above
Mark Sanchez told the paper that he would always have to arrange plans to hang out with Ariel Castro in advance – because he never answered the door if he showed up without letting Castro know first.
He told the Telegraph: “I have to say the guy was a demon but he played it real cool. It was the first time that I heard any noise.”
Ariel Castro, 52, is suspected of holding amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight captive in his home for a decade.
Authorities say he kidnapped all three women, raped them and fathered a child with one.
The women were found May 6 after one escaped and called 911.
Jasmina Baldrich and Ashley Colon, who were driving around their Cleveland neighborhood, became witnesses to a historic rescue when they shot a video of police raiding the home of kidnapping suspect Ariel Castro.
Jasmina Baldrich and Ashley Colon thought they were about to be pulled over last Monday when they noticed a police cruiser behind them, and turned onto Seymour Avenue.
There, they saw a heavy police presence, with officers approaching Ariel Castro’s house. The spectacle prompted Jasmina Baldrich to take out her iPhone and start videotaping what was going on.
In the video, cops can be seen prying open the front door of Ariel Castro’s house. Once open, they flood into the home, some reaching for their handguns.
Jasmina Baldrich and Ashley Colon became witnesses to a historic rescue when they shot a video of police raiding Ariel Castro’s home
The women also said that they saw a woman pass who claimed that she was Amanda Berry, and they couldn’t believe their ears.
Jasmina Baldrich told NewsChannel5.com: “We just seen cops and then out of nowhere all we see Amanda walking by saying, <<I’m Amanda Berry>>.”
Like others in the community, Jasmina Baldrich was familiar with the Amanda Berry case, and were shocked to find the missing woman, clutching her six-year-old daughter.
Jasmina Baldrich told NewsChannel5: “We knew like that [snapping fingers]. We both got goose bumps at the same time. We were shocked, we could not believe it but it clicked.”
Ashley Colon added: “People would die just to see these girls get saved and we just happened to be there.”
Ariel Castro, 52, is being held on $8 million bond.
The ex-school bus driver was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape.
Michelle Knight, Amanda berry and Gina DeJesus, now in their 20s and 30s, vanished separately between 2002 and 2004. At the time, they were 14, 16 and 20 years old.
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Longest-held Cleveland kidnap victim Michelle Knight suffered such severe beatings while locked inside the house of horrors that she will require facial reconstruction surgery, her family said.
Michelle Knight, 32, was released from hospital on Friday, five days after she and two other victims Amanda Berry, 27, and Gina DeJesus, 23, along with Amanda’s six-year-old daughter were rescued following a decade held captive in the dungeon-like home.
“When she was severely beaten, he beat her so badly in the face that she has to have facial reconstruction and she’s lost hearing in one ear,” Michelle’s grandmother, Deborah Knight, told CBS.
Michelle Knight suffered such severe beatings while locked inside the house of horrors that she will require facial reconstruction surgery
Michelle Knight told police that her alleged captor, Ariel Castro, repeatedly raped her and caused her to miscarry at least five times over the years by starving her and punching her in the stomach.
The news of her condition comes after it was revealed that Gina DeJesus’ family is planning to “adopt” Michelle Knight and look after her as their daughter because of Knight’s fractious relationship with her own family.
According to a friend of Felix and Nancy DeJesus, Michelle Knight initially rejected a meeting with her own mother, Barbara Knight, though it is unclear whether they have since met in the days since she was released from hospital.
Lupe Collins, a neighbor who helped the DeJesus family look for Gina since she disappeared in 2004, said Nancy DeJesus told her in a phone call on Thursday that she and her husband are trying to convince Michelle Knight, now 32, to stay with them.
“She was Georgina’s sister for ten years in that house and she’s still her sister now,” Lupe Collins said.
“They’re going to take her in as their own family member and help her.
“Michelle doesn’t want to go back to her own family because they abused her before she was kidnapped and they only want the money now.”
Michelle Knight was taken to DeJesus’s house after she was released from hospital.
Amanda Berry and her fellow captives Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight are enjoying their first weekend of freedom after escaping the clutches of brutal Ariel Castro.
Amanda Berry, 27, Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32, are set to become overnight millionaires by telling their harrowing stories from the Cleveland horror house.
Oprah Winfrey is said to have offered Amanda Berry $300,000 to do her first interview.
A source close to Gina DeJesus claimed she was so traumatized that she was unable to sleep in a bedroom.
“She was locked in a room for so long that she is now sleeping on an inflatable mattress in the living room,” the source said.
“She can’t stand the idea of being in a small room. She walks around the garden. She is beautifying herself, doing her nails and hair and experimenting with make-up. She’s been catching up on everything, reading women’s magazines, trying to figure out what she has missed and who the Kardashians are.”
Amanda Berry and her fellow captives Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight are enjoying their first weekend of freedom after escaping the clutches of brutal Ariel Castro
Michelle Knight, 32, has been dubbed “the forgotten victim” because her disappearance was never taken seriously by police. She vanished in 2002 aged 20 after her young son was taken into care.
The source revealed that she refused to see family members, including her mother, after her release, preferring to stay at the DeJesus family home.
When Amanda Berry had her daughter Jocelyn, which DNA tests have confirmed was fathered by Ariel Castro, she was given “favored” status by her captor, the source added.
“Castro referred to Amanda as his girlfriend and showered affection on Jocelyn. When they were rescued, Jocelyn was crying for her daddy. She is confused and doesn’t understand what is going on.”
Ariel Castro’s daughter Angie said that he showed her a photograph of a child she now believes was Jocelyn in February. Amanda Berry’s mother Louwana died aged 48 while her daughter was imprisoned. She went to her grave believing she had spoken to her daughter’s kidnapper.
After Amanda Berry had been missing for three days, the story was covered on a news bulletin, after which she received a phone call from a man who told her Amanda was with him.
In a TV interview Louwana Berry gave after the call in 2002, she said: “So I’m begging him to let me speak with her, just to let me know if she’s there. And he hesitated and said, <<I’ll have her home in a few days>>. I kept begging for him to let me speak with her. And he hung up.”
Cleveland police refused to say whether Ariel Castro had confessed to making the call, saying: “We don’t comment on an ongoing investigation.”
Grimilda Figueroa, the mother of Ariel Castro’s children, repeatedly went to authorities with accusations he was beating, abusing and threatening her.
However, her complaints never reached the point where Ariel Castro was imprisoned or triggered additional police investigations.
The late Grimilda Figueroa’s accusations against Ariel Castro began in 1989 and the last came in 2005, three years after he allegedly kidnapped Michelle Knight, the first of three women who had been held in his Cleveland house.
In the first case, Ariel Castro was not sentenced to prison and in the other two Grimilda Figueroa chose to drop proceedings.
Domestic abuse experts said victims in such cases often change their mind because they are afraid, or they lack knowledge of the legal system.
Ariel Castro now has been charged with three counts of raping Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight and four counts of kidnapping the three women and his daughter born to Berry while in captivity.
An Ohio prosecutor said on Thursday he intends to charge Ariel Castro with murder in connection with the starvation and abuse of Michelle Knight during pregnancies that led to miscarriages.
Grimilda Figueroa died in April 2012, at the age of 48, from an accidental overdose of painkiller oxycodone, according to an Indiana coroner.
Her last complaint against Ariel Castro, a 2005 request to the court for an “order of protection” could have been a missed opportunity to expose him, domestic abuse experts said.
If Ariel Castro had violated the order he could have been investigated by police and possibly arrested. That could have been an opportunity to find the women he allegedly held captive, or it could have made things worse if they had been abandoned without him and unable to leave the house.
Grimilda Figueroa also filed a police report in 2005 saying Ariel Castro had threatened to “beat your ass” in front of their daughter, according to the report.
A spokeswoman for Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said that police told Grimilda Figueroa that year to go to the county prosecutor’s office and file a criminal complaint but she did not.
Instead, Grimilda Figueroa sought a civil order of protection in county court. In Ohio, a victim can get a civil order without criminal charges because they believe this will be less upsetting to the offender, said Anne Murray, director of the domestic violence and stalking unit for the city of Columbus, which is 140 miles from Cleveland.
Grimilda Figueroa eventually dropped even that request for a protection order and so the court case was dismissed.
Grimilda Figueroa, the mother of Ariel Castro’s children, repeatedly went to authorities with accusations he was beating, abusing and threatening her
“That breaks my heart,” Anne Murray said.
Grimilda Figueroa had four children with Ariel Castro – Ariel “Anthony”, Arlene, Angie and Emily – and her efforts to protect herself from him spanned at least 16 years.
The first incident was in 1989. Ariel Castro pleaded no contest and was given a year of probation after Grimilda Figueroa made a domestic violence complaint against him, according to a Cuyahoga County court document.
On December 26, 1993, Ariel Castro was arrested after he arrived home drunk and began beating Grimilda Figueroa, police said.
“I was afraid that he would come home in this condition so I had already called police,” a police report at the time quoted Grimilda Figueroa as telling them.
The woman told police that he had thrown her to the ground, hit her about the face and head and kicked her, according to a Cleveland police report.
Their 12-year-old son, Anthony, ran out of the house to get help for Grimilda Figueroa and was pursued by Ariel Castro, the report said.
When a grand jury considered the incident, Grimilda Figueroa said she could not remember the abuse, according to court documents. The case was dropped.
“She was afraid,” said Chris Giannini, a former police officer and owner of International Investigations, a private investigations company, who tried to help protect Grimilda Figueroa from Ariel Castro.
Domestic violence experts say abuse victims often raise charges and then back down from pursuing them out of fear or other difficulties with the legal system.
“If they don’t have the support and the knowledge to go through with what they need to do, a lot of victims stop,” said Linda D. Johanek, chief executive officer of Cleveland’s Domestic Violence & Child Advocacy Center.
According to Cuyahoga County court documents, Grimilda Figueroa had been granted full custody of her and Ariel Castro’s children by 1997. By then, she was in a new relationship with a man named Fernando Colon, who was a guard at a hospital where she went for her injures from Ariel Castro’s beatings, according to Colon.
On August 29, 2005, Grimilda Figueroa went to court again, seeking an order of protection against Ariel Castro. She also said he had threatened to kill her and her children during the previous year and had “abducted” the children.
A year before that complaint, two of the daughters, Emily and Arlene, accused her new partner, Fernando Colon, of sexual abuse, Chris Giannini said. He investigated the case on behalf of Fernando Colon, and believes that Ariel Castro manipulated his daughters into accusing Colon. Grimilda Figueroa and Fernando Colon denied the abuse.
Fernando Colon was convicted in September 2005 on five charges of child molestation based on the testimony of the daughters, and was sentenced to three years of community supervision, according to court documents.
Arlene Castro declined to be interviewed by Reuters. Emily Castro is in prison serving a 25-year sentence after being convicted of attempting to murder her baby daughter in 2007 by slashing her throat.
Also in September 2005, authorities tried to serve Ariel Castro with a summons to attend a hearing on Grimilda Figueroa’s complaint.
“They went to his house three times and no one answered,” said Diane Palos, administrative judge for the domestic relations court in Cleveland. Ariel Castro came to the court to get the summons, she said.
The hearing on Grimilda Figueroa’s petition was held in November 2005. Court records show Ariel Castro and Grimilda Figueroa both attended the hearing as did Castro’s lawyer.
Grimilda Figueroa’s lawyer, Robert Ferreri, did not show up, citing a conflict with another case in juvenile court, records show.
Robert Ferreri, a former Cuyahoga County judge, resigned from the practice of law in 2011 as he was facing discipline, according to the Ohio Supreme Court. His law license had been suspended twice before in 1999 and 2000.
Repeated attempts by Reuters reporters to reach Robert Ferreri by phone or at residences listed for him were unsuccessful.
Grimilda Figueroa decided not to proceed with the request for a protection order, according to court documents. Her lawyer advised her that she would be at a severe disadvantage if she went ahead without him, documents show. The case was dismissed and she did not exercise her legal right to revive it.
“She feared this man [Ariel Castro],” said Fernando Colon, who now is unemployed and on disability.
“This man had her psychologically under control. Every movement she made, he was aware of. He threatened to kill her and the kids.”
Since 2005, victims’ advocates have been added to the justice system in Ohio to guide women through the hearing without a lawyer, said Alexandria Ruden, senior attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland.
Another innovation is that in the past 15 to 20 years the justice system has become more sensitive to the pressures on battered women, said Mat Heck, prosecuting attorney for Montgomery County, Ohio, and chairman-elect of the American Bar Association’s criminal justice section.
Authorities are now more willing to prosecute domestic violence cases even when the victim does not want to, he said.
If Grimilda Figueroa had gotten the protection order, it would have been effective for five years. Any violation by Ariel Castro could have been prosecuted as a crime.
“It’s possible that had she gotten that order, there could have been follow-up prosecution, absolutely,” Alexandria Ruden said.
Grimilda Figueroa decided in late 2005 to move her children to Indiana, according to Chris Giannini and Fernando Colon. After she died last year, her son Anthony Castro, who now lives in Columbus, Ohio, posted on the funeral home online guest book: “Dear Mom. You are gone too soon. But your suffering is over.”
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Ariel Castro told police under interrogation that he was an addict who could not control his impulses.
The news came after prosecutors revealed they will likely seek the death penalty for the Cleveland kidnap suspect if extra charges are filed in relation to the termination of his victim’s pregnancies.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty said yesterday that based on the facts of the case, his office intends to seek charges not only for the assaults endured by the victims, but also “each act of aggravated murder he committed by terminating pregnancies”.
Timothy J. McGinty said he would seek charges for each act of violence, rape, kidnapping, assault and “each act of aggravated murder he committed by terminating pregnancies that the offender perpetuated against the hostages during this decade-long ordeal”.
Ariel Castro, 52, hung his head in shame as he made his first court appearance
Ariel Castro, 52, hung his head in shame as he made his first court appearance yesterday morning, the first time he has been seen in public since he was arrested on Monday.
His brothers appeared alongside him but were later released from custody.
Ariel Castro stared at the floor throughout the short hearing at Cleveland Municipal court. He didn’t once glance up to face the packed courtroom from the moment he entered.
Flanked by five guards and wearing a blue prison jump suit, he shuffled into the courtroom alongside his brothers.
Ariel Castro, who is alleged to have kept Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus captive for over a decade, refused to look up at judge Lauren Moore and face the bank of TV cameras inside courtroom three.
He did not speak or acknowledge the judge when she set bond at $8 million.
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Michelle Knight will be “adopted” by Gina DeJesus’ family and they will look after her as their daughter after Michelle rejected a meeting with her own mother, a friend of Felix and Nancy DeJesus has revealed.
Lupe Collins, a neighbor who helped the DeJesus family look for Gina since she disappeared in 2004, said Nancy DeJesus told her in a phone call on Thursday that she and her husband are trying to convince Michelle Knight, now 32, to stay with them.
“She was Georgina’s sister for ten years in that house and she’s still her sister now,” Lupe Collins said.
“They’re going to take her in as their own family member and help her.
“Michelle doesn’t want to go back to her own family because they abused her before she was kidnapped and they only want the money now.”
Michelle Knight will be “adopted” by Gina DeJesus’ family and they will look after her as their daughter
Michelle Knight was released from the hospital on Friday and was taken to Gina DeJesus’ house.
Lupe Collins said the DeJesus family will be able to offer Michelle Knight the loving household that she never had even before she was allegedly kidnapped by Ariel Castro.
“They’re a loving family, a giving family. Felix and Nancy will take care of her and make sure she gets the helps she needs,” Lupe Collins said.
Two days ago, Gina DeJesus triumphantly returned to the neighborhood and walked into her home and hundreds of neighbors and well-wishers cheered.
By contrast, Michelle Knight’s homecoming had no fanfare.
Her great aunt Deborah Knight and her brother Freddie said that they had no idea where Knight could stay when she was released from the hospital.
“I don’t know where she’ll go,” Deborah Knight said from her dilapidated house on Cleveland’s West Side.
However, Freddie Knight, Michelle’s twin brother, said he saw his sister in the hospital and she wants her family to be reunited.
“I want her out of there and I want her home,” Freddie Knight, 32, said.
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Michelle Knight has finally been released from hospital and is staying at the home of fellow captive Gina DeJesus after she refused to see her mother.
Michelle Knight, 32, became the third and final victim to leave the hospital where she was being treated for the physical and mental abuse she endured over ten years allegedly at the hands of Ariel Castro in Cleveland, who is accused of routinely beating and raping his three victims.
The hospital said Michelle Knight is in good spirits and grateful for the fund created to aid the victims.
Michelle Knight has refused to see her mother Barbara, choosing instead to stay with her fellow captive Gina DeJesus.
A family friend who talked to Nancy DeJesus said the DeJesus family is taking Michelle Knight in because she says Gina is her only family left in Cleveland.
The hospital statement said: “Michelle Knight is in good spirits and would like the community to know that she is extremely grateful for the outpouring of flowers and gifts.
“She is especially thankful for the Cleveland Courage Fund. She asks that everyone please continue to respect her privacy at this time.”
Michelle Knight’s mother is believed to have hired a lawyer in order to try and get access to her daughter.
Attorney Jay Milano told WKYC: “Barbara just wants to be a part of the healing process.”
Michelle Knight has finally been released from hospital and is staying at the home of fellow captive Gina DeJesus after she refused to see her mother
Barbara Knight flew in from Florida on Tuesday night after learning about her daughter’s rescue on the news and claimed she never gave up hope Michelle was still alive.
She said she wanted to bring her back to Naples with her once she was released from hospital.
Michelle Knight was the first of the three victims to be abducted. She was last seen at a cousin’s house near West 106th Street and Lorain Avenue in Cleveland in 2002.
But her disappearance did not receive much publicity as she was classed as a runaway and her name was taken off the missing person’s database just 15 months later.
Michelle Knight’s twin brother yesterday recalled his shock at seeing her alive for the first time in more than a decade.
“When I saw her, she was white as a ghost,” Freddie Knight, 32, told The New York Post.
“But she told me, <<Come over here and give me a hug. It’s been ages!>>.
“She was happy to see me. It was emotional. She even recognized me – even though it had been 11 years.”
Freddie Knight also said he was afraid that his sister would become the “forgotten kidnap victim” as so much more attention was placed on Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus.
He also said that she would not have a home to go to when she was released from hospital – unlike the other two victims.
Freddie Knight himself, who says he was kicked out of his mother’s house 18 years ago when he was just 14, didn’t even know his sister was gone until he saw the news on TV.
He was among the first of her family members to see her after her rescue.
“She’s really weak. She’s just trying to cope with everything right now.
“She didn’t talk much. When she’s ready, she will tell me but I don’t want to bring it up until then. She’s really traumatized right now.”
Barbara Knight has contended all week that police did not do enough to try and find her daughter.
The police department’s policy on investigating missing adults at the time states that an officer must go and see if a missing person has been found, then inform the FBI within two hours so the person can be removed from the National Crime Information Center database.
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Ariel Castro claims in a suicide note written years ago that he was abused as a child and raped by an uncle, it was revealed today.
According to a law enforcement source, the letter contained details about Ariel Castro’s whole life and the three abductions – detailing what led him to kidnap the three women off the street and hold them captive for ten years.
The FBI found the note when they were searching his house and said they were fairly certain from its contents that it was a suicide letter.
Ariel Castro detailed that he wanted all his money to be left to his victims Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight.
Ariel Castro claims in a suicide note written years ago that he was abused as a child and raped by an uncle
His home on Seymour Avenue is now a crime scene, with investigators carrying out numerous pieces of evidence – including ropes and chains.
19 Action News reporter Scott Taylor says he received a copy of the letter, which he claims was written in 2004 and found by police inside Ariel Castro’s house.
Scott Taylor posted excerpts of the letter on his Twitter page late Wednesday night, including a confession that he was “a sexual predator” and “I need help”.
Ariel Castro has been charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. Two of his brothers were also arrested on Monday, but have not been charged in connection to the case.
Police announced the charges on Wednesday – two days after Ariel Castro and his two brothers Pedro and Onil were arrested.
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Cleveland captive Michelle Knight was removed from the missing person’s database just 15 months after she was reported missing in 2002, it emerged today.
Police removed her name after repeated attempts to contact her mother to verify the-then 22-year-old was still missing failed.
Barbara Knight said that police did not do enough to try and find her daughter and did not give it the same attention as Amanda Berry’s case or Gina DeJesus because they thought she was a runaway.
The police department’s policy on investigating missing adults at the time states that an officer must go and see if a missing person has been found, then inform the FBI within two hours so the person can be removed from the National Crime Information Center database.
Kym Pasqualini, a national advocate for missing adults, told The Plain Dealer that the removal of Michelle Knight’s name and description from the database helped the case fall through the cracks.
However, even after she was removed from the database, police reports show that officers continued to inquire about her whereabouts several times afterwards and successfully verified she was still missing in May 2003 after finally reaching her mother.
On Wednesday, two days after their escape from the house on Seymour Avenue, Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry were released from the hospital and reunited with their families.
Michelle Knight remains in the hospital.
Michelle Knight was removed from the missing person’s database just 15 months after she was reported missing in 2002
It also emerged yesterday that Michelle Knight was gang-raped and impregnated in junior high – a year before she suffered more than ten years of abuse under a kidnapper.
Her great-aunt, Deborah Knight, told the New York Daily News on Thursday that three male classmates grabbed Michelle at school and raped her.
Deborah Knight told the paper that if that wasn’t enough of a hardship, she later found out that she was pregnant as a result of that attack – and later had a son she named Joey.
The boy was placed in foster care shortly after he was born.
Michelle Knight’s twin brother Freddie told the paper that when he saw his long-lost sister, she asked him for a hug.
He added: “She was so freaking happy. I gave her a hug, but I couldn’t give her a bear hug because of all the things that happened to her.”
Relatives told the Daily News that Michelle is looking forward to being reunited with her son, now 13, after she leaves the hospital.
It was revealed earlier this week that Michelle Knight is reportedly suffering hearing loss and facial bone damage after years of vicious beatings to her head.
Michelle Knight’s mother Barbara, 50, said she never gave up hope and will now be able to introduce Michelle to the half sister she has never met, 10-year-old Katie, who was born after she disappeared.
On Wednesday, Barbara Knight told to the Today show about how she had never given up hope that her daughter was alive – but that she was led to believe the woman, then in her 20s, had fled.
“Certain people said she didn’t want nothing to do with me but still in my heart I thought no, because I knew my Michelle,” Barbara Knight said.
“They figured she just left because of the baby and everything.
“[Police] told me if she breaks the law or they spot her, they’ll let me know – but nothing happened.”
Barbara Knight, who said she filed a missing persons report after Michelle vanished and continued to search for her, said her sons have been reunited with Michelle but she has not yet seen her.
“I just wish that my daughter would reach out and let me know that she’s there… She’s probably angry at the world because she thought she would never be found but thank God that somebody did,” she said.
“I don’t want her to think that I forgot about her… Hopefully whatever happened between us, if something did – I hope it heals because I really want to take her back to Florida with me.”
But Barbara Knight said that she knew little about what had happened to Michelle since she last saw her as she has not spoken with detectives.
“There was a detective who called me but he just said it was my daughter,” she said, adding that she missed his call and that he had left work when she called back.
“I didn’t get a hold of anyone.”
Instead, she only knows the details from watching news reports.
While the stories of missing Cleveland girls Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry, who were also found on Monday, have remained high-profile cases over the last decade, little was known of Michelle Knight.
While family appeals for Gina and Amanda have been frequent and well-publicized over the past ten years, her case appears to have been long forgotten.
Michelle Knight was in her early 20’s when she was last seen on August 23, 2002, at her cousin’s house near West 106th Street and Lorain Avenue.
Barbara Knight said she would often put up fliers around Cleveland’s West Side and even after moving away she would return to continue the search on her own as police were little help.
The mother previously told The Plain Dealer that Michelle vanished shortly after she was scheduled for a court appearance in the custody case of her son.
She told the paper that Michelle had become involved with an abusive man whom she thinks injured her toddler grandson, eventually leading her daughter to lose the boy.
Barbara Knight told The Plain Dealer she believes she once saw her daughter walking with an older man at a shopping mall several years ago.
When the woman trailed behind her companion, he would grab her by the arm and pull her along, she said.
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Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro, who is accused of abducting, raping and beating Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus is the father of Amanda’s 6-year-old daughter Jocelyn, DNA tests have confirmed.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said in a news release this morning that state lab technicians worked through the night to confirm that the child born in captivity belonged to Ariel Castro.
Ariel Castro’s DNA was also tested to see if it was connected to any state crimes, specifically to similar missing teen cases in the area, but it resulted in no matches.
National results are still pending, The Plain Dealer reports.
Details emerged this week about the circumstances surrounding Jocelyn’s birth in the house of horrors Ariel Castro held the women in for a decade.
Amanda Berry, 27, is believed to have given birth to her daughter in an inflatable child’s swimming pool to ensure minimal mess. Michelle Knight was allegedly ordered by Ariel Castro to deliver the baby and was told she would be killed if the baby died.
Ariel Castro is the father of Amanda Berry’s 6-year-old daughter Jocelyn as DNA tests have confirmed
Baby Jocelyn was not breathing when she was born but Michelle Knight is said to have given her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to get her breathing started, in turn saving both their lives.
Jocelyn is said to have been instrumental in the escape of the three women as she alerted her mother Amanda Berry that Ariel Castro, 52, had left the house, prompting her to call for help from inside the boarded house.
The girl is believed to have told her mother: “Daddy has gone to see grandma.”
Jocelyn was the only one who would be taken out of the house by Ariel Castro on weekends to see his mother, Lillian Rodriguez. She called the elderly woman grandmother.
The girl was also seen out recently at a playground with Ariel Castro.
When Ariel Castro was asked who the young girl was he told neighbors she was his girlfriend’s daughter.
Police chief Ed Tomba said Amanda Berry had been home schooling her daughter.
Charles Ramsey, Cleveland hero neighbor who saved three young women and a child from the “house of horrors”, has spoken out about his criminal past saying the domestic violence incidents made him the good man he is today.
Charles Ramsey, 43, who has become something of a celebrity since the rescue of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight due to his antics with the media, was picked up on domestic violence charges in 1997, 1998 and 2003.
Speaking to TMZ, Charles Ramsey said: “I’ve made amends with the people involved and we’ve all moved on and grown up.
“Those incidents helped me become the man I am today and are the reason why I try to help the community as much as I can … Including those women.
“If I had so much hatred for women, I would have minded my own business this week and walked away instead of risking my life to save someone else.”
Charles Ramsey has spoken out about his criminal past saying the domestic violence incidents made him the good man he is today
Charles Ramsey served six months in jail after he entered a “no contest” plea in 1998 – when he was charged with domestic violence and failing to appear in court following his first arrest, according to documents revealed on Wednesday by The Smoking Gun.
After his third arrest in 2003, Charles Ramsey was sentenced to another eight months in prison.
That same year, his wife Rochelle filed for divorce.
In an interview with The Smoking Gun, Rochelle said that her ex-husband Charles Ramsey also dodged $51-per-month child support payments for the couple’s daughter.
Meanwhile, a second neighbor, Angel Cordero, claimed he was the one who rescued Amanda Berry – and Charles Ramsey did not arrive at the scene until after the woman was freed.
Speaking Spanish, Angel Cordero told NewsChannel5: “I helped her and I was first.”
Angel Cordero added that by the time Charles Ramsey arrived, Amanda was already “outside with the girl”.
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Cleveland’s NBC affiliate WKYC scored an exclusive sit-down interview with Charles Ramsey, the man who discovered missing Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight imprisoned into his neighbor’s home.
Charles Ramsey, 43, instantly became famous across the internet after he gave a descriptive and opinionated interview to another local Cleveland reporter Monday evening.
Cleveland’s NBC affiliate WKYC scored an exclusive sit-down interview with Charles Ramsey, the man who discovered missing Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight
Now, he said he’s just glad the three women got out of captivity alive and rejects the “hero” label that WKYC’s anchors and others have been affixing to him.
Charles Ramsey says he knows he did a “good deed” but he’s finding it difficult to live with the fact that the three girls were being held against their will next door to him for so long. After retelling the story he originally relayed the night before, Charles Ramsey reacted to the internet sensation he has become, with the anchor asking him what it’s like to be “hashtag Charles Ramsey.”
“I don’t even want it,” Charles Ramsey said of the attention.
“They keep saying I’m a hero. Let me tell you something, I’m an American, and I’m a human being. I’m just like you. I work for a living. There was a woman in distress, so why turn your back on that?”
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Ariel Castro, who is accused of imprisoning three women for about a decade in Cleveland, has made his first court appearance.
Ariel Castro, 52, is charged with kidnap and rape. He did not enter a plea.
Bail was set at $8 million, meaning in effect that he will remain in custody.
The women were abducted at different times and held in Ariel Castro’s house. One of those held, Amanda Berry, 27, escaped on Monday and raised the alarm.
The other women freed soon afterwards were Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32.
Ariel Castro, handcuffed and dressed in blue overalls, remained silent and looked down while lawyers spoke to the judge at Cleveland Municipal Court on Thursday.
County prosecutor Brian Murphy told the court: “The charges against Mr. Castro are based on premeditated, deliberate, depraved decisions to snatch three young ladies from Cleveland West Side streets to be used in whatever self-gratifying, self-serving way he saw fit.”
Ariel Castro is charged with four counts of kidnapping, covering the three initial abduction victims and Jocelyn, Amanda Berry’s six-year-old daughter, who was apparently conceived and born in captivity.
The former school bus driver also faces three counts of rape, one against each woman. More charges may be added, officials have said.
Ariel Castro, who is accused of imprisoning three women for about a decade in Cleveland, has made his first court appearance
Two of Ariel Castro’s brothers, Pedro and Onil, were also arrested, but police found no evidence they were involved in the crime.
They appeared in court alongside Ariel Castro on unrelated minor charges. Pedro Castro was fined $100 for public drinking, while two charges against Onil Castro were dropped.
Ariel Castro has been put on suicide watch and will be kept in isolation, his court-appointed lawyer Kathleen DeMetz told reporters.
The three women were all abducted after accepting rides from Ariel Castro, according to a police report leaked to the media.
On Thursday, Ariel Castro’s daughter, Arlene, who was one of the last people to see Gina DeJesus before she disappeared in 2004 aged 14, wept during a TV interview.
Describing herself as “disappointed, embarrassed, mainly devastated”, she apologized to Gina DeJesus.
The women told officials they could only remember being outside twice during their time in captivity.
Cleveland City Councilman Brian Cummins said the women had told police they had only gone as far as a garage on the property, disguised in wigs and hats.
Brian Cummins, citing police information, said the victims had been kept apart inside the house until their captor felt he had enough control to allow them to mingle.
Michelle knight was forced to help Amanda Berry deliver her daughter, and was threatened with death if the child did not survive.
Amanda Berry’s baby was born in a plastic inflatable children’s swimming pool on Christmas Day 2006, according to a police report.
She was not the only woman who became pregnant during captivity, Brian Cummins said. One of the three women had suffered at least five miscarriages.
Ariel Castro is accused of having intentionally caused the miscarriages by starving her for weeks and beating her
in the abdomen, according to the city councilman.
Police said more than 200 pieces of evidence had been taken from the home where the three women were held captive.
They said interviews with the women had yielded enough information to charge Ariel Castro.
Police said he had been co-operating with them, waiving his right to silence and agreeing to a test to establish Jocelyn’s paternity.
On Wednesday hundreds of cheering people welcomed home Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry and her daughter.
Amanda Berry, whose disappearance in 2003 the day before her 17th birthday was widely publicized in the local media, escaped on Monday evening by kicking the door and screaming for help, while her alleged captor was out.
Michelle Knight, who was 20 when she disappeared in 2002, remains in hospital.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports Michelle Knight had complained of chest pains during her rescue, but she is listed as in good condition.
Charges against Ariel Castro:
- Four counts of kidnapping – one for each woman and one for a six-year-old girl police say was born in captivity
- Three counts of rape, one for each woman, representing what police say is years of sexual abuse
- Bail is set at $8 million, $2 million for each alleged victim
- Charges may be added as the investigation proceeds
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Charles Ramsey, the McDonald’s loving neighbor hailed as a hero for rescuing three women held prisoner in a Cleveland home, was arrested three times for battering his now ex-wife, it has been revealed.
Charles Ramsey, who has become something of a celebrity since the rescue of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight due to his antics with the media, was picked up on domestic violence charges in 1997, 1998 and 2003.
He served six months in jail after he entered a “no contest” plea in 1998 – when he was charged with domestic violence and failing to appear in court following his first arrest, according to documents revealed on Wednesday by The Smoking Gun.
After his third arrest in 2003, Charles Ramsey was sentenced to another eight months in prison. That same year, his wife Rochelle filed for divorce.
Charles Ramsey, who has become something of a celebrity since the rescue of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight due to his antics with the media, was picked up on domestic violence charges in 1997, 1998 and 2003
In an interview with The Smoking Gun, Rochelle said that Charles Ramsey also dodged $51-per-month child support payments for the couple’s daughter.
Meanwhile, a second neighbor, Angel Cordero, claimed he was the one who rescued Amanda Berry – and Charles Ramsey did not arrive at the scene until after the woman was freed.
Speaking Spanish, Angel Cordero told NewsChannel5: “I helped her and I was first.”
Angel Cordero added that by the time Charles Ramsey arrived, Amanda Berry was already “outside with the girl”.
“But the truth who arrived there, who crossed the street, who came and broke the door, it was me.”
But Angel Cordero says that he does not harbor any resentment or jealousy toward Charles Ramsey, as long as the women he helped rescue from the home are OK.
He told the station: “I did what had to be done. I helped her. They have their daughter, daughters are safe over there.”
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An alleged suicide letter written by Cleveland kidnapping suspect Ariel Castro in 2004, in which he describes the crimes and admits that he is a sexual predator who “needs help”, is claimed to be in possession of a news reporter.
Ariel Castro, 52, owned the home in which three women – Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight – were held captive for about 10 years before they escaped on Monday.
His home on Seymour Avenue is now a crime scene, with investigators carrying out numerous pieces of evidence – including ropes and chains.
Among the items collected was reportedly a letter, in which Ariel Castro allegedly confesses to his crimes and writes about his desire to kill himself “and give all the money I saved to my victims”.
19 Action News reporter Scott Taylor says he received a copy of the letter, which he claims was written in 2004 and found by police inside Ariel Castro’s house.
An alleged suicide letter written by Cleveland kidnapping suspect Ariel Castro in 2004, in which he describes the crimes, was found at his home
Scott Taylor posted excerpts of the letter on his Twitter page late Wednesday night, including a confession that he was “a sexual predator” and “I need help”.
In one, Scott Taylor says that Ariel Castro didn’t know why he kept looking for another victim, because “I already had 2 in my possession”.
In another, Ariel Castro allegedly wrote that he was surprised how young his daughter’s best friend Gina DeJesus was – because he “thought she was much older”.
One other excerpt revealed by Scott Taylor even appears to blame his victims for their predicament, saying: “They are here against their will because they made a mistake of getting in a car with a total stranger.”
Ariel Castro has been charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. Two of his brothers were also arrested on Monday, but have not been charged in connection to the case.
Police announced the charges on Wednesday – two days after Ariel Castro and his two brothers Pedro and Onil were arrested.
Ariel Castro will make his first court appearance on Thursday amid tight security at Cleveland Municipal Court.
In a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, police chief Ed Tomba said the women did not have any opportunity to escape and had only been outside the house twice in the last ten years.
“We were told they left the house and went into the garage in disguise. They never left the property.”
He added: “The first time they have been outside the house in ten years was when they escaped from the house.”
Ed Tomba said Ariel Castro had been cooperating fully with police and had made a detailed statement having read his rights.
Ariel Castro, the man suspected of imprisoning three women for several years in Cleveland, is due to make his first court appearance.
Ariel Castro, 52, has been charged with kidnap and rape.
The women were abducted at different times and held in a house in a suburban street for about a decade. One woman escaped on Monday and raised the alarm.
The police detained two of Ariel Castro’s brothers, but later said they appeared to have no involvement in the crime.
Ariel Castro owned the house from which Amanda Berry, 27, Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32, were rescued.
Police said the women could only remember being outside twice during their time in captivity, and were then only allowed into the garage.
Deputy police chief Ed Tomba said the women were not held in one room “but they did know each other and they did know each other was there”.
Ariel Castro, the man suspected of imprisoning three women for several years in Cleveland, is due to make his first court appearance
Amanda Berry escaped on Monday along with her six-year-old daughter Jocelyn, who was born in captivity.
According to a source close to the investigation, one of the women was forced to help Amanda Berry deliver her daughter, and was threatened with death if the child did not survive.
In a news conference late on Wednesday, authorities said Ariel Castro would be charged with four counts of kidnapping.
The charges covered the three initial abduction victims and Jocelyn.
Ariel Castro was also charged with three counts of rape, one against each woman.
Police said more than 200 pieces of evidence had been taken from the home where the three women were held captive.
They said interviews with the women had yielded enough information to charge Ariel Castro, and that further charges could be added.
Police say Ariel Castro has been co-operating with them, waiving his right to silence and agreeing to a test to establish Jocelyn’s paternity.
Michelle Knight remains in hospital, while the other two women have been released to their families.
On Wednesday hundreds of people gathered around the DeJesus family home, cheering as Gina DeJesus was brought from hospital.
Gina DeJesus, wearing a bright yellow hooded shirt, was escorted into her home by a woman with her arm around her, giving the well-wishers a brief wave.
Amanda Berry and her daughter arrived at her sister’s home shortly before midday on Wednesday.
She disappeared in 2003 aged 16, but escaped on Monday with the help of a neighbor who heard her screaming and kicking a door while her alleged captor was out of the house.
When police arrived, they also found Gina DeJesus and Amanda Knight in the house.
Gina DeJesus had gone missing aged 14 in 2004, while Michelle Knight had disappeared in 2002, aged 20.
Ariel Castro reportedly fled the neighborhood and was arrested at a nearby McDonald’s restaurant, according to local media.
Cleveland police have started searching properties near the home where three missing women were imprisoned for a decade after Michelle Knight told them there could be other girls.
Michelle Knight, who was found at the Cleveland home on Monday after being held against her will for more than 10 years, said that there was another girl at the home around 10 years ago.
But Michelle Knight, who herself was kidnapped in 2002, said the victim then disappeared.
In police interviews she added that she did not know how many other women were in the house because they were all locked in separate rooms, Fox News reported.
Along with his alleged victims, only Ariel Castro lived at the home at Seymour Avenue. His older brother Pedro Castro lived at his mother’s home, while Onil, the youngest of the three brothers, lived alone in his own home “somewhere in the lower west side”, police said.
The details could give hope to the family of Ashley Nicole Summers, who was 14 when she vanished on July 6, 2007 in the same neighborhood from where Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus were taken.
Initially Ashley Summers was considered a runaway as had she lived with her great-uncle and they had argued prior to her disappearance.
But a year later the police and FBI believed Ashley Summers was an “endangered juvenile” who could be “being held again her will”. In 2009, the FBI said they suspected a link between Ashley Summers’ disappearance and those of Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus.
Ashley Summers’ physical appearance and the proximity of her home to the other disappearances lead investigators to suspect the cases were linked and that all three might have been kidnapped by the same man.
Ashley Nicole Summers was 14 when she vanished on July 6, 2007 in the same neighborhood from where Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus were taken
Special Agent Vicki Anderson, of the FBI Cleveland Division told Cleveland.com on Tuesday that Ashley remains in their thoughts as they gather evidence at Ariel Castro’s Seymore Avenue home.
“We are keeping Ashley in our thoughts as we go every step of the way,” she said.
“Whether it is something we find at the house, or someone seeing the stories remembers something, we continue our search for Ashley.”
A cadaver dog, along with various law enforcement officers, searched Ariel Castro’s Cleveland home on Tuesday, said Vicki Anderson. But police revealed they had not found any human remains at the house despite fears up to five babies could be buried in the garden.
But police did confirm on Wednesday that they found ties and chains inside the home.
“We have confirmation that they were bound, and there (were) chains and ropes in the home,” Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath said, adding that authorities did not miss opportunities to find them.
Prior to the disclosure of the naming of the women discovered on Monday, Ashley Summers’ family had briefly thought their daughter could be amongst those discovered.
“We’re hoping that it’s connected, and they knew where she was,” her aunt Debra Summers told CNN.
“We’re hoping for a miracle.”
The Summers family is renewing their efforts to publicize Ashley’s disappearance.
The FBI’s missing person website says Ashley Summers has a tattoo of “Gene” enclosed in a heart on her upper arm, and her birthday is June 16, 1993, making her 19 years old.
Investigators will speak to Gina DeJesus, Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight to see if they know anything about Summers’ disappearance.
On Tuesday, Cleveland Police said: “Every single lead was followed up on no matter how small. We dug up yards, canvassed neighborhoods. [The] real hero is Amanda Berry.”
Until now the search for the missing women had been fruitless, a series of false leads and bitter disappointment for the desperate families.
Michelle Knight, who was 20 years old when she went missing in August 2002, was last seen at a cousin’s house near West 106th Street and Lorain Avenue.
Three years later, in April 2003, Amanda Berry, disappeared after leaving her job at a Burger King – at West 110th Street and Lorain. It was the day before her 17th birthday.
And a year later, Gina DeJesus, then 14 years old, was last seen leaving her middle school at West 105th Street and Lorain.
All three were found safe on Monday night after Amanda Berry bolted from a home on Seymour Avenue, about three miles from where they were last seen.
Amanda Berry told police that she and the other girls were being held prisoner by Ariel Castro, 52, who has been arrested along with his two brothers, Pedro and Onil, on suspicion of kidnapping.
Cadaver dogs appeared at the home following fears babies were born inside the Cleveland house. At least five children may have born at the house, police sources told NewsChannel5.
One victim suffered up to three miscarriages because she was so malnourished, while other sources told WKYC the captors would beat the pregnant women, so that the babies would not survive.
A 911 dispatcher is under investigation after taking Amanda Berry’s call seconds after she fled the Cleveland dungeon where she and two others had been held captive for a decade.
The desperate call for help led to the discovery of Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, who were found alive on Monday inside a house in the west side of the city.
But the 911 dispatcher – one of the first people Amanda Berry spoke to after her decade long captivity – has been criticized for not comforting the distressed caller and not keeping the 26-year-old on the phone until the police arrived.
The dispatcher came under fire as it was revealed last night that police bungled three calls that could have led to the earlier rescue of the sex slave victims.
Amanda Berry’s phone call on Monday evening from a neighbor’s phone lasted less than two minutes.
Amanda Berry, who disappeared in 2003 aged 14, is heard screaming down the phone to an Ohio police operator: “I’ve been kidnapped and I’ve been missing for 10 years, and I’m, I’m here, I’m free now.”
But multiple times the dispatcher’s response was: “Talk to the police when they get there,” before asking the name of Amanda Berry’s captor, as well as his age and ethnicity.
In the 911 call Amanda Berry implores the dispatcher that she needs the police immediately, but she is told authorities will be sent as soon as a “car becomes open”.
A 911 dispatcher is under investigation after taking Amanda Berry’s call seconds after she fled the Cleveland dungeon where she and two others had been held captive for a decade
At one point when Amanda Berry says: “I’m Amanda Berry. I’ve been on the news for the last 10 years,” the dispatcher replies: “I got that, dear.”
In the recording the emotional cries from Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight can be heard.
As Amanda Berry becomes more frantic the dispatcher says: “The police are on their way; talk to them when they get there.”
The dispatcher, whose identity has not been revealed, repeats again: “I told you they’re on their way; talk to them when they get there, OK.”
“One of the things that jumped out was that after the dispatch took the information, she moved on to the next call. I think that realizing the gravity of the situation, the dispatch might have stayed on the call with that person,” Gary Allen, a dispatcher for 20 years in Berkeley, California told the Daily Beast.
“You generally want to hold the person on the phone and try to make a personal connection until law enforcement can get there.”
CBS58 played the full 9-1-1 call for Kenosha County Telecommunications and Training Officer Sandy Zuerlein, who admitted she would have kept Amanda Berry on the phone.
“In this call, she was afraid that the man who had her was coming back. If I had kept her on the phone, and he came back, we could have alerted officers,” Sandy Zuerlein said.
In response Cleveland Department of Public Safety Director Martin Flask said police were dispatched and on scene in the west side neighborhood in less than 2 minutes.
“While the call-taker complied with policies and procedures which enabled a very fast response by police, we have noted some concerns which will be the focus of our review, including the call-taker’s failure to remain on the line with Ms. Berry until police arrived on scene.
“Please be assured that this matter will be investigated, and if necessary, appropriate corrective action taken.
“I would like to note that the call-taker did take the call, create an event and send it to the channel dispatcher in less than 90 seconds. Within 1 minutes and 18 seconds from the time that the call-taker answered the call our dispatcher was broadcasting the assignment to available police units.
“As a result of the call-taker’s actions, police were dispatched and on scene in less than 2 minutes”
Meanwhile it emerged that police bungled three calls that could have led to the earlier rescue of the trio held in a house of horrors.
On one occasion, neighbors saw three naked girls on all fours with dog collars around their necks and three men controlling them in the back garden – but police didn’t even bother responding to their call.
The shocking revelations emerged last night as more details emerged about the nightmare ordeal suffered by the three women – Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight – who were finally rescued from their suburban prison in Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday.
The sadistic kidnappers raped their victims repeatedly over the last ten years, resulting in several pregnancies and the birth of at least one child, according to US reports.
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At least two of the women held captive in Ariel Castro’s house in Cleveland for about a decade were raped by their captors, it was revealed today by an unnamed source close to the investigation.
One woman was forced to help Amanda Berry give birth and was threatened with death if the baby died, the source said as two of the women returned home.
Cleveland’s police chief has said the women were bound with ropes and chains.
Former school bus driver Ariel Castro, 52, has been arrested along with his two brothers, Pedro, 54, and Onil, 50.
Ariel Castro owns the home where the three women were found.
The source said one of the women became pregnant many times and had multiple miscarriages.
Another woman became pregnant and was so badly beaten she lost the baby, the source added.
The source also said the woman who helped Amanda Berry deliver her daughter, Jocelyn, now 6, was threatened with death if the child did not survive.
At least two of the women held captive in Ariel Castro’s house in Cleveland for about a decade were raped by their captors
Meanwhile, hundreds of people gathered around the DeJesus family home, cheering as 23-year-old Gina DeJesus arrived.
Gina DeJesus, wearing a bright yellow hooded shirt, was escorted into her home by a woman with her arm around her.
In a news conference outside the house, members of her family appealed to neighbors to help find a fourth missing girl, Ashley Summers, who has not been seen since 2007 when she was 14 years old.
“There are not enough words to say or express the joy that we feel for the return of our family member Gina, and now Amanda Berry, her daughter and Michelle Knight who is our family also,” said Sandra Ruiz, Gina DeJesus’ aunt.
She praised the FBI and Cleveland police for their long-time support, and asked neighbors not to retaliate against the suspects’ family.
Felix DeJesus, Gina DeJesus’ father, said people needed to watch out for children in their neighborhood, exhorting the community to “fix” the problem.
Amanda Berry, 27, arrived at her sister’s home shortly before midday on Wednesday, along with her daughter Jocelyn, apparently conceived and born in captivity.
Police Chief Michael McGrath said Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and the third victim, Michelle Knight, 32, were in good condition “considering the circumstances”, in an interview with NBC.
Chief Michael McGrath added that while in captivity, the women were sometimes allowed outside in the garden.
Meanwhile, Cleveland public safety director Martin Flask said that no human remains had been found at the home, after “a thorough search”. Police have said they are also investigating other properties.
Ariel Castro is accused of kidnapping and sexually abusing the three women; his brothers are accused of complicity in the same offences, according to arrest documents.
The police chief said investigators were interviewing the Castro brothers, and they were talking.
Charges against the three suspects may be announced later.
Chief Michael McGrath disputed claims by neighbors that police did not fully investigate reports of suspicious activity at 2207 Seymour Avenue, which is in a working-class, mostly Puerto Rican district.
Amanda Berry escaped on Monday with the help of a neighbor who heard her screaming and kicking a door while her alleged captor was out of the house.
When police arrived they also found Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight in the house. Gina DeJesus had gone missing aged 14 in 2004, while Michelle Knight had disappeared in 2002, aged 20.
Ariel Castro reportedly fled the neighborhood and was arrested at a nearby McDonald’s restaurant, according to local media.
His son, Anthony Castro, told London’s Daily Mail newspaper that his father would not let him inside on his last visit to Seymour Avenue.
“The house was always locked,” he said.
“There were places we could never go. There were locks on the basement. Locks on the attic. Locks on the garage.”
It is unclear when the other Castro brothers were detained.
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McDonald’s have reached out to Charles Ramsey, the man being dubbed a hero and a legend in Cleveland and told him they will be in touch as yet another hilarious interview with Ariel Castro’s neighbor hits the internet.
Charles Ramsey, who is responsible for freeing Amanda Berry and two other women who were being held captive at his neighbor’s home, joined CNN’s Anderson Cooper to re-tell the events of the heroic evening which led to the freedom of Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus.
In a lengthy and animated interview with Anderson Cooper, Charles Ramsey describes the moment he heard Amanda Berry screaming from his neighbor’s home, the dramatic moment he kicked the door in to rescue her and the 911 call he made to the “moron” dispatcher, all while holding his half-eaten Big Mac.
When Anderson Cooper asked him what neighbor Ariel Castro was like, Charles Ramsey said: “He was cool, he wasn’t no freak of nature, he was like me and you. He talked about the same things me and you do bro.”
Charles Ramsey revealed that he actually spoke to Ariel Castro earlier that day because the mail man had put his mail into Ramsey’s mailbox. He said that Ariel Castro drove off and he cycled to McDonald’s.
Charles Ramsey, who is a dishwasher, brushed off his hero status, telling Anderson Cooper that he just had to “do the right thing”, adding: “Bro, I’m a Christian, an American, and just like you. We bleed the same blood, put our pants on the same way.
Charles Ramsey joined CNN’s Anderson Cooper to re-tell the events of the heroic evening which led to the freedom of Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus
“It’s just that you got to put that – being a coward, and I don’t want to get in nobody’s business. You got to put that away for a minute.”
He also revealed he is traumatized and has had trouble sleeping after learning what was taking place right next door to him.
“Up until yesterday, the only thing that kept me from losing sleep was lack of money. You know what I’m saying? But now that that’s going on and I think I could have done this last year…”
He also says that any reward money should not be given to him, but to the three women who had lost so many years of their lives being held captive.
“I tell you what you do, give it to them… you know I got a job anyway” he said before pulling out his paycheck that he just picked up and showing it to Anderson Cooper.
Yesterday, after giving several zany interviews which catapulted him to internet celebrity status, Charles Ramsey’s mentions of McDonald’s caught the attention of the fast food chain.
McDonald’s later tweeted: “We salute the courage of Ohio kidnap victims & respect their privacy. Way to go Charles Ramsey – we’ll be in touch.”
Charles Ramsey’s expletive-filled 911 call is garnering just as much attention as his interviews.
He explains to the dispatcher: “Hey bro I’m at 2207 Seymour Avenue, West 25th. Hey check this out, I just came from McDonald’s right? And I’m on my porch eating my little food and this broad is trying to break outa the f***ing house next door to me.
“There was a bunch of people on the street right now and sh** and we are like, <<What’s wrong with you, what’s the problem?>>
“And she’s like, <<This mother f***er has kidnapped me and my daughter>>. Said her name is Linda Berry or some shit. I don’t know who the fuck that is, I just moved over here bro.”
The dispatcher asks Charles Ramsey to calm down and slow down and tries to ascertain what is happening and where they are.
He explains that he is looking at Amanda Berry, who is on the phone with a different dispatcher. Charles Ramsey explains that she is white, but her child is Hispanic and that she is wearing “a white tank top and blue sweat pants”.
Charles Ramsey is then asked if Amanda Berry needs an ambulance and he can be heard shouting over to her.
“You need an ambulance or what? She needs everything, she in a panic, she’s been kidnapped you know? So put yourself in her shoes.”
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Michelle Knight, one of the three women freed from a decade of imprisonment in a Cleveland home, is reportedly suffering hearing loss and facial bone damage after years of vicious beatings to her head, it has emerged.
Michelle Knight, now 32, who vanished in 2002, was found at a Cleveland home on Monday with two other women and a six-year-old girl – but she has not yet contacted her mother for a reunion.
The first details about Michelle Knight are emerging as images of her have finally been released. They show her as a teenager before she was kidnapped – at a time when she endured an often troubled relationship with her family.
She had given birth to a son who was later taken into the custody of child services, and authorities suggested to her mother that she may have fled following the upset from the ordeal.
Her mother, Barbara Knight, left her home in Naples, Florida, on Tuesday to head to Cleveland to see Michelle but they have not yet been reunited, she told the Today show.
Barbara Knight, 50, said she never gave up hope and will now be able to introduce Michelle to the half sister she has never met, 10-year-old Katie, who was born after she disappeared.
Katie was with her mother as they left for the airport on Tuesday afternoon.
On Wednesday, Barbara Knight spoke to the Today show about how she had never given up hope that her daughter was alive – but that she was led to believe the woman, then in her 20s, had fled.
“Certain people said she didn’t want nothing to do with me but still in my heart I thought no, because I knew my Michelle,” she said.
“They figured she just left because of the baby and everything.
“[Police] told me if she breaks the law or they spot her, they’ll let me know – but nothing happened.”
Barbara Knight, who said she filed a missing persons report after Michelle vanished and continued to search for her, said her sons have been reunited with Michelle but she has not yet seen her.
“I don’t want her to think that I forgot about her,” Barbara Knight said.
“Hopefully whatever happened between us, if something did – I hope it heals because I really want to take her back to Florida with me.”
Michelle Knight vanished in 2002 but she was never registered as missing on the Ohio Missing Persons website
Sources told Fox 8 that Michelle Knight appears to have facial bone damage from her horrific treatment.
But Barbara Knight said that she knew little about what had happened to Michelle since she last saw her as she has not spoken with detectives, she said.
“There was a detective who called me but he just said it was my daughter,” she said, adding that she missed his call and that he had left work when she called back.
“I didn’t get a hold of anyone.”
Instead, she only knows the details from watching news reports.
While the stories of missing Cleveland girls Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry, who were also found on Monday, have remained high-profile cases over the last decade, little is known of Michelle Knight.
While family appeals for Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry have been frequent and well-publicized over the past ten years, her case appears to have been long forgotten.
Now believed to be aged around 32, Michelle Knight was in her early twenties when she was last seen on August 23, 2002, at her cousin’s house near West 106th Street and Lorain Avenue.
Barbara Knight said she would often put up fliers around Cleveland’s West Side and even after moving away she would return to continue the search on her own as police were little help.
Michelle Knight’s grandmother, Deborah Knight, said the family, after speaking with police and social workers, had accepted that she likely left on her own free will.
They believed Michelle Knight was angry that her son had been taken into custody.
Barbara Knight previously told The Plain Dealer that her daughter vanished shortly after she was scheduled for a court appearance in the custody case of her son.
The mother told the paper that Michelle Knight had become involved with an abusive man whom she thinks injured her toddler grandson, eventually leading Michelle to lose the boy.
Michelle Knight had him as a teenager; her mother said that she had been assaulted at school but it was never taken seriously by police. She then fell pregnant soon after and dropped out of school.
Michelle Knight was never registered as missing on the Ohio Missing Persons website.
Barbara Knight told The Plain Dealer she believes she once saw her daughter walking with an older man at a shopping mall several years ago. When the woman trailed behind her companion, he would grab her by the arm and pull her along, she said.
The mother was “calmly” looking forward to the reunion according to neighbors in Naples, where she lives with her second husband Tom Hudson and members of his family.
“It’s an emotional time for them,” said Sheldon Gofberg who lives across the street from the family’s house in the southwest Florida town.
“They didn’t get any sleep last night.”
Sheldon Gofberg said neighbors had no idea that Barbara Knight was the mother of a missing girl and that she appeared to have her hands full looking after Katie and helping with Tom Hudson’s two children, Julian, 16, and his sister Alex, 8.
“They’re a friendly family, Tom would do anything to help you, give you the shirt off his back,” Sheldon Gofberg said.
Despite the turmoil, Tom Hudson kept a commitment with Sheldon Gofberg to take him to a Home Depot.
“We were in the car driving and Tom said, <<You know those three girls they found in the house in Cleveland? One of them was Barbara’s daughter>>. I was astounded,” Sheldon Gofberg said.
“I said, <<She’s got to be pretty emotional?>> and he said, <<Not really because we’ve been waiting to hear back from the FBI>>.”
The family had refused to talk to reporters and TV crews waiting outside their home, sending the teenage boy Julian, who was wearing an ankle monitoring bracelet, outside to ask them to leave.
After 10 years being held against their will, the three women – Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight – were finally freed after neighbor Charles Ramsey, heard screaming from the house and helped them escape through a door.
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Jocelyn is the little girl born to Amanda Berry, one of three women imprisoned in a Cleveland home for a decade.
The 6-year-old girl is “happy and healthy” despite being brought up in captivity, authorities have revealed.
After kidnap victim Amanda Berry, 27, courageously escaped the home on Monday, she told her grandmother that the child is her daughter Jocelyn, who was born at Christmas six years ago.
Authorities believe that Jocelyn’s father is one of the three brothers arrested in connection with the kidnappings and they are now carrying out paternity tests to confirm their suspicions.
Jocelyn was home-schooled by her mother, possibly without the knowledge of the suspects, Ariel Castro, 52, and his two brothers Onil Castro, 50, and Pedro Castro, 54.
The girl, who escaped the home with Amanda Berry and two other missing women, Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32, was pictured grinning in hospital alongside her mother and her aunt Beth.
Jocelyn is the little girl born to Amanda Berry, one of three women imprisoned in a Cleveland home for a decade
Jocelyn, who authorities said enjoyed popsicles while being examined by doctors, is photographed lightly touching her mother’s arm and showing off her missing two front teeth.
“She looks great, happy, healthy and ate a popsicle last night,” Cleveland Police Deputy Chief Ed Tomba said.
“Seeing her mother smile made her smile.”
Ed Tomba added that it was “a good possibility” that one of the three suspects was her father.
It is feared other babies were born inside the Cleveland house. At least five children may have born at the house, police sources told NewsChannel5.
One victim suffered up to three miscarriages because she was so malnourished, while other sources told WKYC the captors would beat the pregnant women, so that the babies would not survive.
It is unknown what happened to any children who were born at the home.
FBI Special Agent Vicki Anderson told ABC TV that the three women had spent time together at Metro Medical Center hospital, where they were taken after being freed.
She described them as being in very good spirits and said it was obvious that they were very close.
“You could see that they had a bond, that they had been through this together,” Vicki Anderson said.
All three women were abducted between 2002 and 2004, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus were in their teens at the time of their kidnappings and Michelle Knight was 20 years old.
On Monday evening, Amanda Berry began screaming from behind the locked front door of the home and was helped out by a neighbor. She fled the home and called 911.
Authorities are now investigating how the horrors inside the home went undetected for so long.
Neighbor Israel Lugo said other neighbors had seen naked women crawling on all fours behind Ariel Castro’s house. Three men were in the garden and were controlling the women, he said.
“We thought it was funny at first, and then we thought that was weird so we called the cops,” neighbor Nina Samoylicz told CNN.
“They thought we was playing, joking, they didn’t believe us.”
Neighbors waited for police for two hours but no patrol cars showed up.
Cleveland police said that the department has no records of a call for service to that home.
But the claim is one of a number of stories to have emerged from neighbors who say they reported unusual goings-on at Ariel Castro’s Seymour Avenue, Cleveland home to local police who either didn’t respond or didn’t enter the house when they did show up.
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Charles Ramsey, the neighbor credited with saving three young women held captive in a Cleveland home for a decade, said he heard desperate screams and then kicked through a door to help one escape.
Charles Ramsey said he was eating a McDonald’s meal when he heard the cries, ran over to investigate holding a Big Mac and then came face to face with Amanda Berry, who was last seen in 2003 aged 16.
He told WEWS-TV: “I heard screaming, and I see this girl going nuts trying to get outside [of the house].
“I go on the porch and she said, <<Help me get out. I’ve been here a long time>>. I figure it was domestic violence dispute.”
“She comes out with a little girl and says <<Call 911, my name is Amanda Berry>>.”
Charles Ramsey said he didn’t immediately process that it was the same Amanda Berry who had disappeared from the neighborhood 10 years ago.
Charles Ramsey is the neighbor credited with saving three young women held captive in a Cleveland home for a decade
Soon afterwards, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were also found alive on inside the house.
When Charles Ramsey helped Amanda Berry out of the house, she was holding a young child, and there were other children in the home.
Charles Ramsey added: “I knew something was wrong when a little pretty white girl ran into a black man’s arms. Something is wrong here. Dead giveaway.”
Ariel Castro, 52, has been arrested and is in police custody in connection with the kidnapping case along with his two unnamed brothers, who are 50 and 54.
Charles Ramsey said: “When she told me, it didn’t register until I got the call to 911 and I’m like, <<I’m calling 911 for Amanda Berry? I thought this girl was dead>>.”
He handed Amanda Berry the phone, and she told police that she had been held captive in the home and to send help.
Also found in the home were two more women who had been reported missing at around the same time – Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight. All three appeared to be in good health.
Dr. Gerald Maloney, of Cleveland MetroHealth Center, told reporters: “They’re safe… We’re in the process of evaluating medical needs. They appear to be in fair condition at the moment.”
Gina DeJesus vanished in 2004, while Michelle Knight was last seen in 2002.
There were also several children in the home.
When police arrived, officers asked Charles Ramsey if he knew who he rescued.
The revelations shocked Charles Ramsey, who said that he has known Ariel Castro and the two often spent time together.
He told NewsNet5: “I’ve been here a year. I barbeque with this dude, we eat ribs and what not and listen to salsa music. Not a clue that that girl was in that house or that anyone else was in there with.”
Charles Ramsey added: “He’s somebody you look and then you look away because he’s just doing normal stuff. You got some big testicles to pull this one off because we see this guy every day.”
Amanda Berry disappeared at age 16 on April 21, 2003, one day before her 17th anniversary, when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at a Burger King.
Gina DeJesus went missing at age 14 on her way home from school about a year later.
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The three missing women in Cleveland who were abducted a decade ago were all last seen on the same busy block in the city.
Michelle Knight, who was 20 years old when she went missing in August 2002, was last seen at a cousin’s house near West 106th Street and Lorain Avenue.
Three years later, in April 2003, Amanda Berry, disappeared after leaving her job at a Burger King – at West 110th Street and Lorain. It was the day before her 17th birthday.
A year later, Gina DeJesus, then 14 years old, was last seen leaving her middle school at West 105th Street and Lorain.
All three were found safe on Monday night after Amanda Berry bolted from a home on Seymour Avenue, about three miles from where they were last seen.
Amanda Berry told police that she and the other girls were being held prisoner by Ariel Castro, 52, who has been arrested along with his two brothers on suspicion of kidnapping.
The three missing women in Cleveland who were abducted a decade ago were all last seen on the same busy block in the city
The exact circumstances of the abductions is currently unclear, and it is not known whether or not the kidnapper deliberately targeted the block where all three victims were taken.
The story of Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus’ disappearance has been well known in the area for the past decade, as their relatives have continually held vigils and kept the story alive in the press.
Michelle Knight’s case was less high profile – police told her family that she had probably run away of her own accord after her son was taken away from her, so the search effort was less concentrated.
Amanda Berry’s mother Louwanna Miller died in March 2006 aged just 44 after the years of her daughter’s disappearance had taken a toll on her deteriorating health. Local news reports said that she “died of a broken heart”.
Amanda Berry’s sister has continued to keep the case in the public’s attention since their mother died, and she has worked closely with the DeJesus family.
Last year, Gina DeJesus’ mother Nancy Ruiz raised concerns that her daughter might have been the victim of human trafficking.
“I always said it from the beginning; she was sold to the highest bidder,” Nancy Ruiz said.
Last night Ariel Castro’s neighbor Charles Ramsey described the amazing moment he became the first person to see Amanda Berry – who gave birth in captivity – since 2003.
“I go on the porch and she said, <<Help me get out. I’ve been here a long time>>. I figure it was domestic violence dispute,” he said.
“She comes out with a little girl and says <<Call 911, my name is Amanda Berry>>.”
Charles Ramsey continued: “When she told me, it didn’t register until I got the call to 911 and I’m like, <<I’m calling 911 for Amanda Berry? I thought this girl was dead>>.”
He handed Amanda the phone, and she told police that she had been held captive in the home and to send help.
The three women were rescued and taken to an area hospital where they were receiving treatment.
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