Cleveland officials hail bravery of missing women

BBC News online -- 7 May 2013

Steve Anthony, FBI Special Agent: "The healing can now begin"

Police have praised the bravery of three women found alive on Monday evening in a house in Cleveland, Ohio, after they vanished about a decade ago.

Amanda Berry disappeared aged 16 in 2003, Gina DeJesus went missing aged 14 a year later, and Michelle Knight vanished in 2002 aged around 19.
A school bus driver and his two brothers have been arrested.

Police told a news conference that they had been called twice to the alleged captor's home - in 2000 and 2004.

The three women were taken to hospital for a check-up and to be reunited with their relatives before being discharged on Tuesday morning.

In the news briefing, Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba said a six-year-old girl also rescued from the home was believed to be the daughter of Amanda Berry.

FBI Special Agent Stephen Anthony said: "The nightmare is over. These three young ladies have provided us with the ultimate definition of survival and perseverance. The healing can now begin."

At the scene Jonny Dymond BBC News, Cleveland

It is difficult to believe that Seymour Avenue could be home to such a crime: a quiet tree lined street with houses knocked about and sometimes boarded up, a red-brick church and traffic humming back and forth at either end.
But it is the residents and neighbours who are most surprised. Aurora Marti, 75, has lived across from 2207 Seymour Avenue for 27 years. Ariel Castro used to come and sit on her porch and chat with her. He took her granddaughter out for bike rides at a nearby park.
When the nearby area was being dug up in the search for Amanda Berry's remains, he talked to her about it. All the while he is alleged to have held Amanda and two other women just across the road.

"Yes, law enforcement professionals do cry," he added.

He vowed prosecutors would "bring the full weight of justice" against those responsible.
School bus driver Ariel Castro, 52, and his two brothers, Pedro, 54, and Onil, 50, have been taken into custody.

Police Chief Michael McGrath said the women were believed to have been tied up at the house. Officials said they may also want to investigate other properties.

Ms Berry, now 27, escaped on Monday evening when a neighbour heard her screaming and kicking a door, while her alleged captor was out of the house.

Rescuer Charles Ramsey said he had helped kick in a metal door so that Ms Berry could climb outside.

In a recording of Monday's 911 call released to news media, she says: "I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years. And I'm here. I'm free now."

Ms Berry tells the emergency dispatcher she has been on the news for the past 10 years, and begs for help to arrive before her alleged captor returns.

A neighbour, Charles Ramsey, tells reporters: "We had to kick open the bottom of the door"

Police Chief McGrath told Tuesday's news conference: "Thankfully, due to Amanda's brave actions these three women are alive today."

Neighbour Anna Tejeda said she had refused to believe the young woman at first. "You're not Amanda Berry. Amanda Berry is dead," she said, according to the Associated Press news agency.
Other neighbours said they did not realise anybody was living at the house at 2207 Seymour Ave.

During the news conference, Public Safety Director Martin Flask said that in March 2000, Mr Castro had called the authorities to report a fight on his street, but no arrest was made.

In January 2004, police called at Mr Castro's home, but no-one answered. They were alerted by children's services after a child was left at a depot on a school bus that Mr Castro had been driving. Authorities concluded there had been no criminal intent.

Ms Berry had last been heard from aged 16 when she called her sister on 21 April 2003 to say she would get a lift home from her job at a Burger King restaurant.

In 2004, Ms DeJesus - who is now 23 years old - was believed to have been on her way home from school when she went missing.

911 call: "Help me I'm Amanda Berry... I've been missing for 10 years"

Their disappearances made local headlines in Cleveland, and many assumed the girls were dead.
The case of Michelle Knight, who was older than the other women when she disappeared and is now 32, was less widely publicised.

Her grandmother, Deborah Knight, was quoted by the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper on Monday as saying the authorities concluded she had run away.

The relatives of the victims have responded with shock and delight. Sylvia Colon, a relative of Gina DeJesus, said the family had never given up hope.

But Ms Berry's mother, Louwana, died in March 2006, three years after her daughter went missing. A local politician said the mother had died of a "broken heart".

In an extraordinary twist, it emerged that Ariel Castro's son - also called Ariel, although he goes by his middle name Anthony - wrote an article about the disappearance of Gina DeJesus for his local newspaper in 2004.

Police have not commented on the case of a fourth missing girl, Ashley Summers, who disappeared in the same area in July 2007 when 14 years old.