Three women finally free after 10-year captivity

CLEVELAND (AP):

Three women who disappeared separately about a decade ago, and the child of one of them, were found in a home in this Midwestern United States city and likely had been tied up during years of captivity, authorities disclosed yesterday. Police arrested the man who owns the home and his two brothers.

Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were apparently held captive in the house since they were in their teens or early 20s, police said. The women appeared to be in good health and were taken to a hospital to be evaluated and to reunite with relatives. They were later released.

A six-year-old girl also was found in the home, and police said the child is believed to be Berry's daughter. He declined to say who the father was or where the child was born.

"I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years," she said. "And I'm here. I'm free now."

Authorities said Knight disappeared in 2002 at age 20 and is 32 now. Berry, now 27, disappeared at age 16 on April 21, when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at a Burger King. About a year later, DeJesus vanished at age 14 on her way home from school.

Police identified the three suspects as Ariel Castro, 52; Pedro Castro, 54; and Onil Castro, 50. Former school bus driver Ariel Castro owned the home, which is situated in a neighbourhood dotted with boarded-up older homes. No immediate charges were brought against them.

Calls not taken seriously

However, two neighbours said they were alarmed enough by what they saw at the house to call police on two occasions.

Elsie Cintron, who lives three houses away, said her daughter once saw a naked woman crawling on her hands and knees in the backyard several years ago and called police. "But they didn't take it seriously," she said.

Another neighbour, Israel Lugo, said he heard pounding on some of the doors of Castro's house, which had plastic bags on the windows, in November 2011. Lugo said officers knocked on the front door, but no one answered. "They walked to side of the house and then left," he said.

Neighbours also said they would see Ariel Castro sometimes walking a little girl to a neighbourhood playground. And Cintron said she once saw a little girl looking out of the attic window of the house.