Law enforcement sources say they are investigating allegations that three missing women found alive Monday in a Seymour Avenue home may have been pregnant multiple times. It is unclear if more than one child had been born.
The sources also say that the victims, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, all appear to be malnourished, and that Knight may have suffered hearing loss. She has reportedly told police she was hit in the head. She may also have structural damage to her face.
A source further noted that Knight told police that there was another woman in the home when she got there, but one day she woke up and the woman was gone. There is writing on the wall in the basement which includes the name of a female and says, “Rest In Peace,” but police do not know if that is related to the case at this time.
……The son of Onil Castro, who did not want to be identified, says his Uncle Ariel would not let anyone inside his home.
“He never let anybody in his house nobody, my father, his own mother, if she went there she would call from outside the house and say she out front,” his son said. “My other Uncle Pedro would ride his bike there but nobody ever went into that house.”
He also said the family thought it was a little odd that Ariel wouldn’t let anybody inside but said they thought he just liked to keep to himself.
And no one in the family questioned why they weren’t allowed in his house or why he acted so strange?
The rescue began with a 911 call.
From Fox8 Cleveland
CLEVELAND — Three women, missing for years, found alive.
Now, after the astounding discovery, three men are in police custody. The men, ages 54, 52 and 50, are brothers. One of them has been identified as Ariel Castro.
It started with a scream for help from 2207 Seymour Avenue: “My name is Amanda Berry; please help me out of this house.”
That’s where neighbor Charles Ramsey says he found the woman who disappeared 10 years earlier.
But there was more.
Gina DeJesus, who went missing from the same neighborhood a year later, was with her, along with Michelle Knight, who hadn’t been seen for many years, as well.
A 911 call from Berry herself confirmed the shocking news.
“Help me, please! I’m Amanda Berry,” she told a dispatcher. “I’ve been kidnapped! I’ve been missing for 10 years and I’m here and I’m free now.”
Cleveland police say all three women may have been held in the Seymour Avenue home the whole time they were gone.
Berry, DeJesus and Knight were at MetroHealth Medical Center until early Tuesday morning. All three were in fair condition until they were released…
Kudos to neighbor Charles Ramsey for hearing Amanda’s screams and getting her out of the house.
All three were kidnapped from the same neighborhood. Amanda was last seen April 21, 2003 as she was headed home from her job at the Burger King on West 105th Street and Lorain Avenue. It was the day before her 17th birthday.
Gina DeJesus was 14 years old when she went missing on April 2, 2004.
Michelle Knight vanished in August 2002 at the age of 20.
Michelle Knight (Photo from James Ford Rhodes High School yearbook)
Now, after the astounding discovery, three men are in police custody. They are brothers. Cleveland police on Tuesday identified them as 52-year-old Ariel Castro, 54-year-old Pedro Castro and 50-year-old O’Neal Castro.
All three are expected to be charged.
It started with a scream for help from Ariel Castro’s Seymour Avenue: “My name is Amanda Berry; please help me out of this house.”
That’s where neighbor Charles Ramsey says he found the woman who disappeared 10 years earlier.
The red oval in this picture shows the damage to the front door where Amanda Berry escaped from a Seymour Avenue home.
Gina DeJesus, who went missing from the same neighborhood a year later, was with her, along with Michelle Knight, who hadn’t been seen for many years, as well.
A 911 call from Berry herself confirmed the shocking news.
“Help me, please! I’m Amanda Berry,” she told a dispatcher. “I’ve been kidnapped! I’ve been missing for 10 years and I’m here and I’m free now.”
With the help of Ramsey, Berry broke out of the home through the bottom of the front door. It took officers about two minutes to get to the scene, Cleveland Safety Director Marty Flask said Tuesday.
DeJesus and Knight emerged minutes later when officers arrived at the home. Also found, a 6-year-old girl whom police believe to be Berry’ daughter.
Cleveland police say all three women may have been held in the Seymour Avenue home the whole time they were gone.
Berry, DeJesus and Knight were at MetroHealth Medical Center until early Tuesday morning. All three were in fair condition until they were released, a hospital spokesperson told Fox 8 News.
Amanda was raped and likely gave birth to her child in the house. Another sad note: Berry’s mother passed away in 2006, just three years after her daughter’s disappearance.
Ariel Castro
Onil Castro
Pedro Castro
There’s a lot of questions like:
Why didn’t 20 year-old Michelle Knight do what she could to escape? Were they in that house the whole time? Did the kidnappers target these girls because they were easily manipulated and intimidated? Was it a classic case of Stockholm Syndrome? Were they under the constant watch of the three scumbag Castro brothers for the entire ten years? No TV or radio in the house? How did they keep those girls trapped in that house for ten years?
BTW: During a 2012 police search in the neighborhood for what they thought would be Amanda’s remains, Pedro Castro, who turned out to be one of the kidnappers said:
“That’s a waste of money.”
Forget the taxpayer-funded trial. THAT would be a waste of money. All three of those Castro mutherfuckers need to be hung by their ankles and beaten to a bloody pulp.
The whole story, as it comes out, will be very interesting. I’m just glad to hear that the women are safe.