Cleveland man kidnaps 3 women between 2002 and 2004. What neighbors didn’t know was happening inside his house for a decade is horrifying

Three women disappeared from Cleveland, Ohio over a span of three years. Michelle Knight was the first to go missing in August 2002 when she was 21 years old. Amanda Berry vanished in April 2003, one day before turning 17. Gina DeJesus was last seen in April 2004 at just 14 years old. All three were taken by Ariel Castro, a bus driver who lived in the Tremont area of Cleveland.

Castro kept all three women locked inside his home on Seymour Avenue for almost 10 years. He used chains to tie them up and blocked the windows so nobody could see what was happening inside. The women faced constant abuse and were not given enough food. Castro would not let them use their real names while they were trapped there. 

Castro kept the women in different rooms and made it hard for them to become friends or support each other, as per ABC News. He had strict rules about everything, even simple things like how they cleaned dishes. Knight was trapped the longest and got pregnant five times while being held prisoner. Castro beat her so badly each time that she lost every pregnancy. Berry also had a baby while locked in the house, a daughter named Jocelyn who was Castro’s child.

Everything changed on one spring day in 2013

Castro made a mistake on May 6, 2013 when he left the house without locking all the doors properly. Berry saw that her bedroom door was open and decided this was her chance to get help. She pushed her arm through the storm door and started yelling for someone to hear her. A man named Charles Ramsey who lived nearby heard her screaming and helped her break free. Berry called 911 right away and said, “Help me. I’m Amanda Berry. I’ve been kidnapped and I’ve been missing for 10 years. I’m here. I’m free now.”

The police came very quickly and went inside the house. They found DeJesus and Knight upstairs in a room, scared that Castro would come back and hurt them. DeJesus later said it felt weird to hear someone say her real name because she had not heard it in five years. Similar to twin sisters who were separated and struggled to communicate with the outside world, being cut off from normal life for so long made basic things feel strange. 

Castro was arrested the same day and faced 937 criminal charges including kidnapping, rape, and murder because he forced Knight to lose her babies. He said he was guilty to avoid getting the death penalty. The judge gave him a life sentence plus 1,000 extra years. About a month later in September 2013, Castro killed himself in his jail cell.

The three women slowly put their lives back together after getting free. Berry got a job at a Cleveland TV station where she helps cover stories about missing people. DeJesus started a center with her cousin to help families who have missing loved ones. Knight picked a new name for herself, Lily Rose Lee, and got married in 2015. She also created an animal rescue group called Unleashed Animal Rescue. 

Berry and DeJesus worked together to write a book called Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland. Lee wrote her own books too, called Finding Me and Life After Darkness. The city tore down Castro’s house in August 2013 and turned the spot into a garden. The three women who survived extreme circumstances against all odds now use their experiences to help other people dealing with similar pain.