Cleveland Kidnapping Victims Now
It has been over 17 years since Ariel Castro of Cleveland, Ohio, abducted his first of three girls.
The first girl to be kidnapped by Castro was Michelle Knight who was 21 when first abducted. Her family had believed she ran away after losing custody of her son, making the search for her not as big as the next victim, Amanda Berry.
A year later Amanda Berry was kidnapped at the age of 17. Castro lured Amanda into his car on April 21, 2003, by saying he was going to give her a ride home. Castro would also use his daughter, who the girls were friends with, as a way to get the girls in his car. Amanda, willingly, got in. Then Castro took Amanda to his house where she would be for the next 10 years. Four days after being captured, Amanda’s missing person case made headlines.
The next victim was abducted on April 2, 2004, her name was Gina DeJesus. Amanda and Gina both went missing in the same area, so the cases of the girls had become connected. The conditions in the house were poor. Castro barely gave the girls any food and kept the girls chained up in the basement for the first few years, eventually moving them into separate rooms upstairs. ABC wrote about an interview with Berry saying, “Once a day, Berry said, Castro gave her a bag of chips or crackers or other food to eat”. The girls had buckets to use the bathroom in. Sometimes multiple times a day Castro would rape and torture the girls. Many times he would get the girls pregnant, then beat them until the women miscarried. One of the times Castro got Amanda Berry pregnant, but decided he was going to let Amanda have the baby.
The abuse and torture of the three girls and Amanda’s child went on for years until finally on May 6, 2013, Amanda Berry and her daughter, Jocelyn, escaped the house after catching one of the neighbor’s, Charles Ramsey, attention by kicking and screaming at the door while Castro was away. After getting out, Berry called the police. The police went into the house and got Gina and Michelle out safely. The girl's story made headlines all over the world. After ten years of absolute torture Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and now 6-year-old Jocelyn, were finally free.
The police later arrested Castro. He was charged with life plus an additional 1,000 years after pleading not guilty. On September 3, 2013, Castro committed suicide in his cell.
It has been over 7 years since the women were freed. The girls seem to be doing well and achieving big things. Michelle Knight has since changed her name to Lillian Rose Lee and has written two books, Life After Darkness and Finding Me, about her trauma and depression. Lee got married in 2015. Amanda and Gina both got their honorary high school diplomas on May 27, 2015. In 2017, Amanda joined with Fox 8 to help look for missing people in Northeast Ohio. In 2019 Gina DeJesus began co-founding the Cleveland Family Center for Missing Children and Adults. Amanda Berry also recently publicly posted a picture of her and her daughter, Jocelyn, who was fathered by Castro.
Despite all the trauma they endured from years of torture, Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus are moving on with their lives and seem to be living happily.
Works Cited