PrintThree women kidnapped a decade ago found alive
Not a political story but included because it is easily one of the most unique, feel-good stories of the year so far.
Three young women, kidnapped 9, 10, and 11 years ago were found alive at a house in Cleveland after one of the captives escaped through a broken door and frantically called 911.
They were the prisoners of three brothers who lived in a house on the west side of the city.
Three longtime missing women, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, have been found alive, apparently kidnapped and held for years as prisoners inside a house on Cleveland's near West Side.
Berry called police Monday afternoon and frantically told a dispatcher that she was alive and free after being kidnapped 10 years ago and held captive in a house on Seymour Avenue.
"We've confirmed it's them," a Cleveland detective said. "They are alive and safe." Police have scheduled a news conference for 9 a.m. today.
Berry, now 27, DeJesus, 23, and Knight, 30, were taken to MetroHealth Medical Center. The FBI and police will interview the women, the detective said.
DeJesus, missing for nine years, and Knight, missing for 11 years, were with her.
Police arrested three brothers, ages 50, 52 and 54. Police did not release names.
But neighbors said one of them is the owner of the house, Ariel Castro, 52, a Cleveland school bus driver until last November who had lived in the two-story house since 1992. Records show he was arrested for domestic violence in 1993, but a grand jury declined to indict him.
Police were searching the house and yard Monday night and into this morning.
Berry was the first to get out of the house, escaping through a broken door. A child came out behind her. Police then came and rescued the other two women, who were taken to the hospital. It wasn't immediately known who the child was.
I'm sure details will start trickling out over the next 48 hours. Do not be surprised if there are a few twists and turns in this story. As hinted at here:
Michelle Knight's grandmother, Deborah Knight, said she had not yet heard from police but was waiting for some kind of verification that one of the women is really her granddaughter. Although Michelle Knight was reported missing more than a decade ago, family members concluded that she probably left on her own because she was angry that her son was removed from her custody, the grandmother said. She said her daughter believed she had last seen Michelle Knight several years ago in a van with an older man at a shopping plaza on West 117th Street.
No sense jumping to conclusions, except if the women weren't held against their will, how come no one in the neighborhood ever saw them? Or even knew they were there?
The important thing is that their friends and families now know they are safe.
