Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, Ashley Summers Missing In Cleveland Ohio~ Berry, DeJesus and Michelle Knight Found Alive~ Ariel Castro Indicted On 977 Counts!~ Castro Accepts Plea Deal/Castro Kills Himself!!!!!!!

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Amanda Berry is your typical teenage daughter. She dreams of being a clothes designer and meeting her idol, Eminem. More importantly Amanda loves her mom, Louwana whom she lived with. She also loves her sister Beth, who lived next door. Amanda was also a great aunt to Beth's daughters. The whole family misses her more than words can ever say. Like many teenagers Amanda had a part time job. She worked at a Burger King restaurant. She left the morning of April 21, 2003 and went to work. It was a typical day at work. Once she was done with her shift she called her sister about a ride. During that conversation Amanda told Beth not to worry she would walk home. It was just a couple of blocks but she disappeared. No one ever got to give her one last hug or say good-bye. It was the night before her 17th birthday. The birthday cake was ready. Her birthday money was sitting in her bedroom drawer ready to be spent on gifts. There were big plans for a party with family and friends. It's all on hold. Today her family is still waiting to celebrate that birthday and everyone that passes until Amanda comes home.

Please help us find her and bring her home,
Amanda's Family

In memory of Louwana Miller, mother of Amanda Berry. She passed away on March 2, 2006.

Words of Love from Georgina's family and friends
Georgina DeJesus came up missing on April 2, 2004, coming home from school. She is still missing to this day.

Gina is easy-going, laughs alot, and gets along good with almost everyone. She loves to roller-skate, swim, and play volleyball. Some of her favorite foods are red rice with chickpeas, and she also likes Burger King. One of her favorite colors is pink. She loves listening to music and also likes to dance and sing. She loves talking on the phone with her friends. She has a best friend, Crissy. If there was a special event, they would both go together. Then there were days Gina was quite withdrawn and to herself, due to her not being able to understand certain things.

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Ashley Summers was last seen near her residence on the west side of Cleveland, Ohio, on July 6, 2007. She was 14 years of age at the time of disappearance.

REMARKS
Summers has a tattoo of "Gene" enclosed in a heart on her upper arm.


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Individuals with information concerning this case should take no action themselves, but instead immediately contact the nearest FBI Office or local law enforcement agency. For any possible sighting outside the United States, contact the nearest United States Embassy or Consulate.

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Cleveland girl missing for seven years


CLEVELAND - On April 2nd, 2004 Gina DeJesus left Wilbur Wright Middle School, walked to W. 105th and Lorain Road and vanished without a trace.

Seven years later, the pain remains fresh for Gina's mother, Nancy Ruiz. It's the not knowing that is unimaginable unless you're the parent of a missing child. "It gets harder each day, each week, each month and each year," Ruiz said.
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Rally today marks 8th anniversary of disappearance of Amanda Berry

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A rally will be held at 6 p.m. today to mark the eighth year since then 17-year-old Amanda Berry disappeared.
"Another year of despair and anger has gone by -- eight years of hell and agony," community activist said Judy Martin said in a news release from Survivors/Victims of Tragedy, Inc. "That is what the Amanda Berry family has gone through since Amanda didn't return home from working at the neighborhood Burger King. Amanda was only 17 years old when she disappeared into thin air after she left work."
The group asks people to attend the rally at West 110th Street and Lorain Avenue to remember Berry and other missing people.
"She was going home to her birthday party," Martin said. "She had told her best friend at work that she would see her tomorrow. Her family waited for Amanda. They became anxious. They started calling her friends. In the days and weeks after Amanda's disappearance, they went out into the streets looking and searching for her. To this day, Amanda hasn't been seen. She is still missing."
Martin said Berry's mother, Luwanda, "died of a broken heart."
There have been times when police thought they found her, but they were mistaken.
"We hope that this rally will finally generate some clues that will lead to who snatched Amanda off the sidewalk on her way home from work and end the agony this family has gone through," she said.
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Amanda Berry at time of her disappearance eight years ago.

Amanda Berry, as she might look today.

Talk on the news today that Gina DeJesus may have been put into the human traficking trade.

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New charges for convicted sex offender

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) -
A convicted sex offender once a person of interest in the Gina DeJesus disappearance is now faces new charges.
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There's a pic of this creepy SO at the link.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio — FOX 8 News has learned that there is a possible break in the case of Amanda Berry, the Cleveland teenager who disappeared without a trace in 2003.
Top law enforcement sources tell the FOX 8 I-Team that they have received information, which they consider credible, that the teen met with foul play in 2003 and her body was later hidden.
A search was launched after an inmate from the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville sent law enforcement a letter indicating that he knew the location of Berry’s body.
Crews began to dig at W. 30th and Wade near I-90 on Thursday morning.
Fox 8 News reporter Dave Nethers spoke to Special Agent Vicki Anderson, with the Cleveland Division of the FBI, at the scene.
“We never close these cases, they remain open untin they’re solved,” Anderson said of Berry’s case and those like it. “So any tip that comes in, whether it’s here in Cleveland or anywhere in the nation, we definitely follow up on it.”
“Hopefully we’ll have information to provide later, either discounting this tip or saying yes, it was credible,” Anderson continued.
Beth Serrano, Berry’s sister, told Fox 8 News she received a phone call from police and will meet with them to receive the latest information on the case.
On April 21, 2003, then 17-year-old Berry left work at the Burger King at West 110th and Lorain and was heading home to celebrate her birthday, but never made it.
Her family has worked to keep the case in the public eye, holding out hope for some answers.
Berry’s mother passed away in 2006, taking all of the unanswered questions to the grave.
Those who knew her and what she endured after her daughter’s disappearance maintain she died of a broken heart.
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Must see video at link.

Channel 19 news is closely following this story today.
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CLEVELAND - A prison inmate has been sentenced to 4 1/2 years after admitting he provided a false burial tip in the 2003 disappearance of a 16-year-old Ohio girl.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio — There will be a vigil today to mark the 10th anniversary of the disappearance of Amanda Berry, who was 16 when she vanished from the West Side.

Family, friends and community activists will gather at 6 p.m. at West 110th Street and Lorain Avenue, where she was seen about 7:40 p.m. April 21, 2003, leaving her job at Burger King. Her 17th birthday was the next day.

"Her mother suffered and died not knowing what happened to her daughter," activist Judy Martin said. "We have vowed to continue to be vigilant."

The FBI and Cleveland police are offering a $25,000 reward for information; 216-621-1234 or 216-522-1400.
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BREAKING NEWS:
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Article from TerryRose's above link
05/06/2013

Cleveland police said missing teens Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and a third woman were found in a west side house on Monday.

Hundreds of people gathered in the streets near 2207 Seymour Avenue in Cleveland, where the women were discovered. Cleveland police said Berry, DeJesus and Michelle Knight are alive, talking and appear to be OK.

“I heard screaming… And I see this girl going nuts trying to get outside,” said Charles, a neighbor who found the women. “I go on the porch and she said ‘Help me get out. I’ve been here a long time.’ I figure it was domestic violence dispute."

“She comes out with a little girl and says ‘Call 911, my name is Amanda Berry’… When she told me, it didn’t register.” He said he made the call and gave Berry the phone. When police arrived, officers asked him if he knew who he rescued.

A witness who spoke Spanish told NewsChannel5's Stephanie Ramirez that he helped break down the door. He said there was a child who was about 4 or 5 years old with Berry, as well as other children inside the house. He said he recognized Berry from posters.

Officers have a suspect in custody. There will be a media briefing Tuesday morning.

Berry was last seen in 2003 when she was called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from work at the Burger King on West 110th Street and Lorain Avenue. She was set to turn 17 the day after her disappearance. Her mother died of heart failure in 2006.

On April 2, 2004, 14-year-old DeJesus went missing while walking home from Wilbur Wright Middle School. She was last seen around West 105 Street and Lorain Avenue. Her mother, Nancy Ruiz, said she believed DeJesus was sold into human trafficking.

“I always said it from the beginning; she was sold to the highest bidder,” Ruiz said in April 2012.

The remaining families of both women went to MetroHealth Medical Center, where they will be reunited. FBI agents were also at the hospital Monday night as family and friends flocked to see the women.

"I am thankful that Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight have been found alive. We have many unanswered questions regarding this case and the investigation will be ongoing. Again, I am thankful that these three young ladies are found and alive," Mayor Frank Jackson said.

Last summer, there was a break in Berry case that turned out to be an inmate’s hoax. Robert Wolford, 26, told authorities that Berry’s body was in a vacant lot in Cleveland. Police searched at West 30th Street and Wade Avenue in July with backhoes, but nothing was found. Wolford was sentenced to four and half years in prison after pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, making a false report and making a false alarm.


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Gina DeJesus, left, and Amanda Berry, right were found alive in Cleveland, Ohio, after being missing for years

gotta love a happy ending!!!

Happy reunion: Amanda Berry (center) was all smiles at the Cleveland Hospital alongside her emotional sister (left) and a young girl that is believed to be the one who fled Ariel Castro's house with Berry


Three girls who went missing a decade ago have been found alive after they were kept in the dungeon of a Cleveland, Ohio home.

Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus were found alive on Monday inside a house on 2200 block of Seymour Avenue near West 25th Street alongside a third woman identified as Michelle Knight.

A 52-year-old man named Ariel Castro has been arrested and is in police custody in connection to the case.

When the neighbor helped Berry out of the house, she was holding a young child, and there were reportedly other children in the home but it is unclear what their relationship is to the children.

Help me I'm Amanda Berry...I've been kidnapped and I've been missing for ten years and I'm here. I'm free now,' Berry is heard saying in the call to police that has been publicly released.

'I need them now before he gets back!' she said in the frantic phone call to 911, going on to identify her captor as Ariel Castro, a 52-year-old Hispanic man.

Berry disappeared in 2003, a day before her 17th birthday, and a year later then-14-year-old DeJesus went missing.

Berry went missing shortly after she called her sister to say that she was getting a ride home from her job at Burger King. DeJesus went missing on her way home from school.

Michelle Knight went missing in 2000 at the age of 20-years-old. Because Michelle was 20 when she vanished, no missing person report was ever filed as it was believed she left on her own accord.

They were found when a neighbor saw a woman, later identified as Amanda, screaming from inside a home in West Cleveland.

'I heard screaming, I'm eating my McDonalds, I come outside and I see this girl going nuts trying to get out of the house and I go on the porch and she says "Help me get out! I've been in here a long time,"' neighbor Charles Ramsey told local News Net 5.

'I go on the porch and she said "Help me get out. I’ve been here a long time." I figure it was domestic violence dispute.'

'She comes out with a little girl and says ‘Call 911, my name is Amanda Berry’... When she told me, it didn’t register.'

'It didn't register until I got on the phone with 911 and I said "I'm calling 911 for Amanda Berry- I thought this girl is dead."

'That girl Amanda told the police "I ain't the only one, there are some more girls up inside that house" so they went.'

The women were taken to MetroHealth Medical Center, as they are reportedly suffering from severe dehydration and slightly malnourished but alive.

Charles Ramsey said that he was shocked about the discovery because the man who owns the home- who is thought to be the kidnapper- did not stay hidden from those around him.

'I've been here a year. I barbeque with this dude, we eat ribs and what not and listen to salsa music.
Not a clue that that girl was in that house or that anyone else was in there with,' Charles said of Castro.

'He's somebody you look and then you look away because he's just doing normal stuff.

'You got some big testicles to pull this one off because we see this guy every day,' he told NewsNet5.

Local news reporters told CNN that Castro is said to have worked as a bus driver for the Cleveland Metropolitan schools, though it is unclear whether that was the case when the women were kidnapped.

Crowds of Cleveland residents gathered at the police station and cheered as squad cars pulled into the station Monday night, and a similar crowd gathered outside of the hospital.

The disappearances of Amanda and Gina captured the attention of the entire city for the past decade, as their relatives have continually held vigils and kept the story alive in the local press.

Amanda's mother Louwanna Miller, died in March 2006 after the years of her daughter's disappearance had taken a toll on her deteriorating health. Local news reports said that she 'died of a broken heart'.

Amanda's sister has continued to keep the case in the public's attention since their mother died, and she has worked closely with the DeJesus family.

Earlier in the case, DeJesus' mother Nancy Ruiz raised the alarm that her daughter was the victim of human trafficking.

'I always said it from the beginning; she was sold to the highest bidder,' Ms Ruiz said in April 2012.

Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson was the first public official to speak out about the case, confirming the identities of the three women.

'I am thankful that Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight have been found alive. We have many unanswered questions regarding this case and the investigation will be ongoing. Again, I am thankful that these three young ladies are found and alive,' he said.


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I was napping and heard this in my sleep. Later remembered it and came here and I am so happy!!! It's a miracle that Amanda was able to escape and that those other girls were able to escape!!!!!
It is scary to think that from the neighbors prospective this man appeared normal, that they barbecued together, this man held down a job.

I'm hoping one of those unidentified girl might be Ashley Summers!

It doesn't look like one will be A Summers, but a very delicate issue in the local news seems to be the 5-year-old little girl with Amanda, said to be her daughter. Amanda has been missing and in captivity for 10 years, do the math, one of the perps is the father, it would appear.

(The other woman is Michelle Knight, who they wrote off as missing of her own accord, but we shall see what her story is now. There was never any missing person hunt for her like there was for Amanda and Gina, no vigils, nothing. This is the first we are hearing her name and yet, she was in captivity along with the other two it appears.)

There is also the hint that other children resided in the home as well, besides the child of Amanda.

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"I'm here. I'm free now," a frantic Amanda Berry told a 9-1-1 telephone operator moments after she escaped 10 years of captivity on Cleveland's West Side.

The Cleveland law Department released recordings this evening of calls to 9-1-1 about the discovery of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, all of whom disappeared a decade or more ago.

Cleveland Police say missing teenagers, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, have been found inside a home on Seymour Avenue.

The two teens disappeared nearly a year apart a decade ago.

Here's a look at the timeline involving Amanda Berry's disappearance.

April 21, 2003: Amanda Berry last seen leaving her job at a Burger King at W. 110th and Lorain. She disappeared the day before her 17th birthday.


April 2003: Berry's family receives call from Amanda's cell phone. Man tells family the teen will be released in a few days. FBI begins investigating as a kidnapping.


November 2004: Amanda's mother, Louwana Miller, appears on Montel Williams show with psychic Sylvia Browne. Browne tells Miller that Amanda is dead and she sees her "in water." Devastated, Miller is told she will see Amanda "on the other side, in Heaven."


March 2, 2006: Amanda's mother, Louwana Miller, dies of heart failure at age 43. Her daughter says Amanda's disappearance broke her mother's heart.


November 2008: Body found by hunters in a Wisconsin creek is suspected of being Amanda's. However, DNA tests rule that out.


July 2012: Tip from a prisoner being held in Lucasville leads to search of house on W. 30th and Wade in connection with Amanda Berry disappearance. A search of the site turns up no evidence of the missing teen.


May 6, 2013: Three women run from a home on Seymour Avenue claiming to be Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and a third woman-yet to be identified.
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CLEVELAND - Three women who went missing separately about a decade ago were found Monday in a home just south of downtown and likely had been tied up during years of captivity, said police, who arrested three brothers. One of the women said she had been abducted and told a 911 dispatcher, "I'm free now."
Crowds gathered Monday night on the street near the home where the city's police chief said he thought Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight had been held since they went missing when they were in their teens or early 20s.
The women appeared to be in good health and were taken to a hospital to be evaluated and to reunite with relatives. Police said a 6-year-old also was found in the home, but the child's identity or relationship to anyone in the home wasn't revealed.
A neighbor, Charles Ramsey, told WEWS-TV he heard screaming Monday and saw Berry, whom he didn't recognize, at a door that would open only enough to fit a hand through. He said she was trying desperately to get outside and pleaded for help to reach police.
On a recorded 911 call Monday, Berry frantically declared, "I'm Amanda Berry. I've been on the news for the last 10 years."
She said she had been taken by someone and begged for police officers to arrive at the home on Cleveland's west side before he returned.
"I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years," she told the dispatcher. "And I'm here. I'm free now."
Berry disappeared at age 16 on April 21, 2003, when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at a Burger King. DeJesus went missing at age 14 on her way home from school about a year later. They were found just a few miles from where they had gone missing.
Police said Knight went missing in 2002 and is 32 now. They didn't provide current ages for Berry or DeJesus.
Police said one of the brothers, a 52-year-old, lived at the home, and the others, ages 50 and 54, lived elsewhere. Authorities released no names and gave no details about them or what charges they might face.
Ramsey, the neighbor, said he'd barbecued with the home's owner and never suspected something was amiss.
"There was nothing exciting about him — well, until today," he said.
Julio Castro, who runs a grocery store half a block from where the women were found, said the homeowner arrested is his nephew, Ariel Castro.
Berry also identified Ariel Castro by name in her 911 call.
Attempts to reach Ariel Castro in jail were unsuccessful Monday. Messages to the sheriff's office and a jail spokesman went unanswered, and there was no public phone listing for the home, which was being searched by dozens of police officers and sheriff's deputies.
The uncle said Ariel Castro had worked as a school bus driver. The Cleveland school district confirmed he was a former employee but wouldn't release details.
The women's loved ones said they hadn't given up hope of seeing them again.
A childhood friend of DeJesus, Kayla Rogers, said she couldn't wait to hug her.
"I've been praying, never forgot about her, ever," Rogers told The Plain Dealer newspaper.
Berry's cousin Tasheena Mitchell told the newspaper she couldn't wait to have Berry in her arms.
"I'm going to hold her, and I'm going to squeeze her and I probably won't let her go," she said.
Berry's mother, Louwana Miller, who had been hospitalized for months with pancreatitis and other ailments, died in March 2006. She had spent the previous three years looking for her daughter, whose disappearance took a toll as her health steadily deteriorated, family and friends said.
Councilwoman Dona Brady said she had spent many hours with Miller, who never gave up hope that her daughter was alive.
"She literally died of a broken heart," Brady said.
Mayor Frank Jackson expressed gratitude that the three women were found alive. He said there are many unanswered questions in the ongoing investigation.
At Metro Health Medical Center, Dr. Gerald Maloney wouldn't discuss the women's conditions in detail but said they were being evaluated by appropriate specialists.
"This is really good, because this isn't the ending we usually hear in these stories," he said. "So, we're very happy."
In January, a prison inmate was sentenced to 4 1/2 years after admitting he provided a false burial tip in the disappearance of Berry. A judge in Cleveland sentenced Robert Wolford on his guilty plea to obstruction of justice, making a false report and making a false alarm.
Last summer, Wolford tipped authorities to look for Berry's remains in a Cleveland lot. He was taken to the location, which was dug up with backhoes.
Two men arrested for questioning in the disappearance of DeJesus in 2004 were released from the city jail in 2006 after officers didn't find her body during a search of the men's house.
One of the men was transferred to the Cuyahoga County Jail on unrelated charges, while the other was allowed to go free, police said.
In September 2006, police acting on a tip tore up the concrete floor of the garage and used a cadaver dog to search unsuccessfully for DeJesus' body. Investigators confiscated 19 pieces of evidence during their search but declined to comment on the significance of the items then.
No Amber Alert was issued the day DeJesus failed to return home from school in April 2004 because no one witnessed her abduction. The lack of an Amber Alert angered her father, Felix DeJesus, who said in 2006 he believed the public will listen even if the alerts become routine.
"The Amber Alert should work for any missing child," Felix DeJesus said then. "It doesn't have to be an abduction. Whether it's an abduction or a runaway, a child needs to be found. We need to change this law."
Cleveland police said then that the alerts must be reserved for cases in which danger is imminent and the public can be of help in locating the suspect and child.
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Photo credit: AP | Felix DeJesus holds a banner showing his daughter's picture in his living room in Cleveland. Cleveland police say two women who went missing as teenagers about a decade ago have been found alive in a residential area. (March 3, 2004)

Charles Ramsey became a national hero on Monday when he helped rescue three missing women.

Ramsey was eating in his home south of downtown Cleveland when he heard screaming next door and went to investigate. That's when he saw Amanda Berry, a woman who went missing 10 years ago, and a young child. Berry was shouting for help and trying to get outside.

"I go on the porch and she said 'Help me get out. I've been here a long time.'" Ramsey said.

He and another witness then broke the bottom of the door and freed the inhabitants. Inside the house were two other missing women: Gina Dejesus, who disappeared in 2004, and Michele Knight, who went missing in 2002.

Ramsey used his cellphone to call 911; click here to listen to the exchange (Warning: Graphic language).

When he handed the phone to Berry, she told the 911 dispatcher: "I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years. And I'm here. I'm free now."

Ramsey told WEWS-TV that he was stunned by the news that these women had been held captive next door.

"I barbecue with this dude," Ramsey said. "We eat ribs and what not, listen to salsa music, you see where I'm coming from? Not a clue that that girl was in that house, or anybody else was in there against their will."

All three women were taken to MetroHealth Medical Center and were in fair condition, WKYC reported. A 6-year-old child was also taken into custody.

Police said three brothers have been arrested, The Associated Press reported. The names of the suspects, or what charges they will face, have not yet been released. Authorities plan to hold a news conference on Tuesday.
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This image obtained courtesy of WOIO TV shows Amanda Berry, center, reunited with her sister, left, on May 6, 2013, in Cleveland.

Just saw this on HLN. Fantastic News!!!!!!!!!!!!

November 2004: Amanda's mother, Louwana Miller, appears on Montel Williams show with psychic Sylvia Browne. Browne tells Miller that Amanda is dead and she sees her "in water." Devastated, Miller is told she will see Amanda "on the other side, in Heaven."

Sylvia Browne should hang it up and find another job that she's qualified for. A few years ago there was quite a scandal when she spouted of about the fate of the trapped miners and didn't even come close.

During the horrific 10 years that Amanda Berry was held captive in an Ohio basement, she gave birth to a precious daughter. After their heroic escape, both mother and daughter are recovering in a local hospital.
Amanda Berry‘s chilling 911 call on May 6 led to the rescue of her and two other young women held captive for a decade — Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32. As they escaped Ariel Castro‘s frightening basement, Amanda, 26, held on to the hand of a young girl — and it was revealed the child was a daughter she gave birth to while in captivity.
Amanda’s relatives confirmed that the young girl is a daughter the 26-year-old gave birth to while being held against her will. The little girl is believed to be around age six. Authorities haven’t revealed who fathered the child, but it’s clear she was conceived during the 10 years Amanda was kidnapped.

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Check out his friends with the name Castro and read the comments on some of the pages. The family seems as shocked as the rest of us.

Three brothers were in custody Monday night in connection with the kidnapping of three Cleveland women.
Cleveland police said Ariel Castro, 52; Pedro Castro 54; Oneil Castro, 50 are in police custody in connection with kidnapping of Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus.


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Ariel Castro: A Father's Love for his Children is like none other.
Ariel Castro: HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Grand baby Janyla, love the flower on your hair...I Love You! xoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxx

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Ariel Castro's son, Anthony" Castro, had written an article about the case of Gina DeJesus in 2004, weeks after she disappeared while walking home from school.

"This is beyond comprehension. ... I'm truly stunned right now," Anthony Castro, 31, told WKYC-TV.

Anthony Castro said he was a journalism student at Bowling Green State University when he wrote the article for the Plain Press in Cleveland. Chuck Hoven, editor of the Plain Press, now and at that time, confirmed that Castro was a college student, writing the story on a class assignment.

The younger Castro even interviewed DeJesus's mother, Nancy Ruiz, who talked about how things had changed in her neighborhood since her daughter went missing.

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I was just about to post the same article BJ about the son interviewing Gina's Mom! OMG I cannot imagine how the son feels now knowing his Father had her captive in his home!

A 2008 news article from an Indiana website reported that Emily Castro, who appears to be the daughter of suspected kidnapper Ariel Castro, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for slashing the throat of her then-11-month-old daughter.

The article quotes her brother, Ariel "Anthony" Castro (same first name as his father), as saying she was mentally ill.

The name of the injured child was also discussed by Castro and his relatives on social media sites as being a member of the family.

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Ariel Castro: HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Grand baby Janyla, love the flower on your hair...I Love You! xoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxx

The daughter of the prime suspect in the kidnapping case of three Cleveland women was jailed for 25 years in 2008 for the attempted murder of her 11-month-old baby, it was revealed today.
Emily Castro, 24, tried to slash her daughter Janyla's throat in April 2007 after she broke up with the child's father.
Court documents state that police were called to Emily's home in Fort Wayne, Indiana - where she moved after she became pregnant - when a passerby saw a woman running out to the street with a bleeding baby in her arms.
The woman was Emily's mother, Grimilda Figeroa, who told police that her daughter stabbed her own child.
When officers went to the home, they found Emily Castro covered in mud, water and blood.
She was bleeding from self-inflicted knife wounds to her neck and wrists and told police she tried to kill herself with the same knife she used to attack her baby. She then tried to drown herself in a nearby creek.

At the time, she had a long history of mental illness though was found competent to stand trial as it did not meet the legal definition of insanity.
During the trial, her defense attorneys produced evidence that Castro suffered from serious depression for years before the birth of her daughter, and that it spiraled into paranoia, causing her to think her family was trying to kill her and the baby at the time of the attack.
The Journal Gazette reported at the time of the trial that Emily told the judge she was a good mom and that she did not know how it could have happened.
Her brother, Ariel 'Anthony' Castro read out a statement in court in defense of his sister and her mental illness.
He said: 'What happened to Janyla was serious, unthinkable and irreversible. What happened to my sister is no less serious.
'Emily's mental illness was something the family saw every day, and it was regrettable it failed to meet the legal definition of insanity.'
She was not an 'animal who tried to kill her daughter out of revenge', he said, describing his sister as a proud mother who put together scrapbooks in anticipation of Janyla’s first birthday.
The child made a full recovery, though it is not known whose custody she is currently in.

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OMG how horrible! I'm so glad that child didn't die. I hope she's not w/ family, no telling what those three brothers might have done to her! MOO.

The three women found safe Monday night in Cleveland were forced to have sex with their captors, resulting in up to five pregnancies, several police sources tell WKYC-TV, Cleveland.

One of those sources tells WKYC-TV that the captors would beat the pregnant girls. Both sources say the babies didn't survive.

The sources cited by the TV station say it is unclear what happened after the pregnancies.

Investigators are going through the home for clues, including the backyard where they found "disturbed" dirt. The sources did not know whether that was related to the pregnancies.

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BJ wrote:

Ariel Castro padlocked the doors leading to his basement, his attic and his garage and never allowed his family inside, his son has exclusively revealed to MailOnline.
Chilling photographs from 2001 show a grinning Castro standing in front of a locked door - behind which an unimaginable horrors may have been unfolding in the basement.
At that point, Michele Knight, one of the three women he allegedly held captive for a decade, had already been missing for a year.
In an interview with MailOnline, his son Anthony Castro, 31, has spoken of his horror at his father's alleged crimes and revealed how Ariel Castro asked him just weeks ago whether he believed the kidnapping of Amanda Berry - one of his victims - would ever be solved.
'If it's true that he took her captive and forced her into having sex with him and having his child and keeping her hidden and keeping them from sunlight, he really took those girls lives,' he said.
'He doesn't deserve to have his own life anymore. He deserves to be behind bars for the rest of her life. I'm just thankful they're alive.'
Among his infrequent contact with his father, whom separated from his mother in the 1990s, one recent conversation particularly stands out in Anthony's mind.
In mid-April, he says, his father asked him whether he thought police would ever find Amanda Berry, who escaped the Cleveland home on Monday afternoon.
When Mr Castro said he thought Berry was likely dead because she had been missing so long, Ariel responded: 'Really? You think so?'
At that time, according to police, Berry was locked in the basement of his father's home.
'The house was always locked,' Anthony remembered . 'There were places we could never go. There were locks on the basement. Locks on the attic. Locks on the garage.'
Ariel Castro, 52, was arrested with his two brothers, 54-year-old Pedro and 50-year-old Onil after Berry, now 26, dramatically escaped from the house on Monday, a decade after she vanished.
Berry was rescued from the home, along with 23-year-old Gina DeJesus, who disappeared in April 2004 at age 14, and 32-year-old Michele Knight, who vanished in 2000 when she was 20.
Anthony, a banker who lives in Columbus, Ohio, depicted his father as a violent, controlling man who nearly beat his mother to death in 1993 while she was recovering from brain surgery.
He said his father was secretive and barred his family from entering certain rooms when he wasn’t around.
Anthony said he last visited his father’s home two weeks ago, though he was not invited inside. He said he never suspected that his father could be keeping three women captive in the basement.
'The only thing I can express is a tremendous level of shock,' he said. 'To those girls, it's beyond comprehension what happened to them. It's just a nightmare. I just feel so horrible for them. Unspeakably horrible.'
Ariel's ex-wife Grimilda 'Nilda' Figueroa - Anthony's mother – moved Mr Castro and his three sisters out of Ariel’s house in 1996 after years of violent abuse.
Anthony said he now speaks with his father just a few times a year – and seldom visits his house.
'I haven't been at that house for longer than 20 minutes for longer than I can remember,' he said. 'And we’re talking since high school. Late 90s.'
Anthony said neither he nor his three sisters have had much of a relationship with Ariel Castro.
'Having that relationship with my dad all these years when we lived in a house where there was domestic violence and I was beaten as well... we never were really close because of that and it was also something we never really talked about,' he said.
'It’s astonishing to even think about that I was so close to that. That I was physically at the house two weeks ago while that was going on, it's a lot to grasp.'
Anthony said he has spoken with several members of his family since his father and uncles were arrested. After getting over the initial shock of the horrendous allegations, they all have accepted that Ariel was likely capable of holding the three women against their will
'They're all furious. They're livid,' he said.
His sister Angie, who lives in Cleveland with her husband and three small children, said she is convinced her father is guilty of kidnapping the women.
Anthony said he has no idea what role his uncles could have played in the ordeal. However, he says he doesn't yet believe that the three women were kept at Ariel's house for the entire 10 years.
He speculated that his uncle Onil, who also owns his house and lives alone, might have been involved in keeping the women in captivity.
'Part of me can believe he had something to do with it,' he said of his uncle. 'Part of me can’t believe that it's something of this magnitude.
Both men were alcoholics for many years, Anthony said, but Onil has since sobered up.
'When I was a kid, he was always drunk. Both of them, my uncles were always drunk,' he said.
His uncle Pedro, who lived with the mother of the brothers, has been so badly impacted by alcoholism that it's hard to even carry on a conversation with him, he said.
Amanda Berry disappeared in 2003 just a day before he 17th birthday. Her disappearance shocked her neighborhood in the west side of Cleveland
After the disappearance of Gina DeJesus in April 2004, Anthony Castro penned a piece for his local paper which included quotes from her mother.
He was a journalism student at Bowling Green State University when he wrote the article, entitled 'Gina DeJesus’ disappearance has changed her neighborhood', for the Plain Press in June of that year.
Gina's mother Nancy Ruiz told him: 'You can tell the difference. People are watching out for each other’s kids. It’s a shame that a tragedy had to happen for me to really know my neighbors.
'Bless their hearts, they’ve been great. People are really looking out for my daughter.'

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May 7, 2013

As three Cleveland women reunited with their families on Tuesday after vanishing for about a decade in their own neighborhood, police scoured the house they escaped from for clues on how they could be held captive for so long with no one noticing.

Cleveland authorities said there was one attempt to visit the home in 2004 on an unrelated matter but no one answered the door. They said they combed through records and found no other calls to the house nor reports of anything amiss in the years the women were missing.

But neighbors said they had made more than one call to police about suspicious activity at the house.

Amanda Berry, 27, who disappeared in April 2003, along with Gina DeJesus, 23, who vanished in 2004, and Michelle Knight, 32, who went missing in 2002, were held captive at the house.

Rescued with them on Monday was a 6-year-old girl who police said was Berry's daughter. She would have been conceived and born during Berry's captivity.

Israel Lugo, a neighbor, said he called police in November 2011 after his sister saw a girl at the house holding a baby and crying for help. He said police came and banged on the door several times but left after no one answered.

Lugo said about eight months ago, his sister saw Ariel Castro, who owns the house, park his school bus outside the house and take a large bag of fast food and several drinks inside.

"My sister said something's wrong ... That's when my mom called the police," he said. Lugo said police came and warned Castro not to park the bus in front of his house.

Cleveland police, who had brothers Ariel Castro, 52, Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50 arrested as suspects in the case, did not immediately respond to repeated requests seeking comment about the reported calls.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Mayor Frank Jackson said: "We have no indication that any of the neighbors, bystanders, witnesses or anyone else has ever called regarding any information, regarding activity that occurred at that house on Seymour Avenue."

Monday evening's rescue, described as a "miracle" by one family member, unfolded with a frantic emergency call from a woman who told a 911 operator she was Amanda Berry, the subject of years of searches.

Berry had escaped from the two-story house in the low-income neighborhood on Cleveland's West Side with the help of a neighbor who told police he heard screaming and helped her kick out a locked screen door.

SEARCHES OVER THE YEARS

The disappearances of Berry and DeJesus were well known in Cleveland, although Knight's disappearance had attracted less attention, police said. Just last month a vigil was held to mark the ninth anniversary of DeJesus' disappearance.

Anthony Quiros, 24, who grew up next door to the house where the women were found, said Ariel Castro had been an onlooker as police dug up a Cleveland lot looking for remains in the case on a tip that proved false.

"He also came to a vigil and acted as if nothing was wrong," said Quiros. He said he saw Castro comforting DeJesus's mother about a year ago.

Born in Puerto Rico, Ariel Castro played bass in Latin music bands in the area. Records show he was divorced more than a decade ago and his ex-wife had since died. He is known to have at least one adult daughter and son.

On a Facebook page believed to be his, Castro said last month that he had just become a grandfather for a fifth time. Court records show he was arrested in 1993 on a domestic violence charge that was subsequently dismissed. I

Neighbor Anthony Westry said a little girl often could be seen peering out the attic window of the Castro house.
"She was always looking out the window," he said. Castro would take her to the park to play very early in the morning, "not around the time you would take kids to play," he said.

Berry had last been seen leaving her job at a fast-food restaurant the day before her 17th birthday in April 2003, and Gina DeJesus was last seen at a telephone booth as she was walking home from school.

A man who helped to look for DeJesus, Pastor Angel Arroyo, said he and her family members had handed out flyers years ago in the neighborhood where she was found.

"We didn't search hard enough. She was right under our nose the whole time," Arroyo said.

The neighborhood houses are typically separated only by a driveway. Two houses to one side of the Castro house are boarded up.

Children and Family Services authorities went to the house in January 2004, more than a year after Knight disappeared and eight months after Berry went missing, because Ariel Castro had left a child on a school bus, the mayor said.
They "knocked on the door but were unsuccessful in connection with making any contact with anyone inside that home," he said.
Police said Castro had been interviewed extensively during that investigation and no criminal intent was found regarding the child left on the bus.

By law, the Castro brothers must be charged within 36 hours of their arrests, which took place on Monday evening.

"BELIEVE IN MIRACLES"

After their rescue, the three women were taken to a local hospital, reunited with family and friends, and released.

"If you don't believe in miracles, I suggest you think again," DeJesus' aunt Sandra Ruiz said to reporters on Tuesday in Cleveland. Her comments were televised by local station WJW.

"This is a miracle," Ruiz said. But she added: "Watch who your neighbor is because you never know."

The case is not the first time Cleveland has witnessed a horrific story close to home that raised questions about the thoroughness of police investigations.

In 2009, police discovered a home in Cleveland where Anthony Sowell had imprisoned and killed 11 women. Family members of some victims filed a lawsuit against the city, complaining about the police's handling of the case.

Sowell was convicted in 2011 and is on death row.

FBI and other law enforcement officials were searching the Castro house as well as other properties, said police, who did not elaborate.

Neighbor Joe Popow said he found it chilling to have known Castro.

"After all this has happened, I think, Oh my God, what did I miss? This person came to my house," he said.

During her 911 call, Berry can be heard naming Ariel Castro as the man she was fleeing from, and she indicated she knew her disappearance had been widely reported in the media.

"Help me! I'm Amanda Berry. ... I've been kidnapped and I've been missing for 10 years and I'm here. I'm free now," Berry can be heard saying in a recording of the call released by police.

The discovery of the three women was reminiscent of the case of Jaycee Dugard, who was snatched from her northern California home at age 11 by a convicted sex offender, Phillip Garrido, and kept in captivity for 18 years before being rescued in 2009.

During that time she was repeatedly raped by her abductor and gave birth to two girls fathered by him.

Dugard released a statement on Tuesday, saying: "As simple as it sounds, these women need the opportunity to have the privacy to heal and reconnect."

"I know individuals are strong in spirit and can be resilient in crisis. I wish them the best in their journey," she said.


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After apparently being held captive for years, three missing women were found alive on Monday in a house on Cleveland’s west side. Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus vanished as teenagers in 2002, 2003, and 2004, respectively. While authorities believed that Knight had run away from home, Berry and DeJesus had been the subject of much press attention over the past decade. (The Plain Dealer has dubbed them “two of Cleveland's most famous missing persons.”) A 52-year-old school bus driver named Ariel Castro and his two brothers have been arrested in connection with the case.

This is still a breaking story, and much remains unknown—we’ll be getting a lot more information about Berry, Knight, DeJesus, and the Castros over the next few days. But, unfortunately, there’s one name we’re not hearing: Ashley Summers.

Ashley Summers was 14 years old when she disappeared in 2007 from the same Cleveland neighborhood where Berry, DeJesus, and Knight went missing. She was presumed to have run away from home after a family dispute, but when she was never seen or heard from again, authorities began to suspect she was being held against her will. Summers’ grandmother claimed she saw Ashley in a car in November 2007, with short, dyed-blonde hair. In a 2009 Oprah segment about the disappearances of Summers, Berry, and DeJesus, FBI Special Agent Phil Torsney seemed to discount this, saying “there’s been no legitimate sighting of Ashley since she left her house.”

Authorities have long speculated that the disappearances of Berry, DeJesus, and Summers were linked, and that “one or more of the girls may have been forced into prostitution.” Looking at a map of the neighborhood from which they all disappeared, you can see why the crimes could’ve been related. Before yesterday’s rescue, Berry was last seen at a Burger King at W. 110th St. and Lorain Ave. in Cleveland, while DeJesus was last seen five blocks away, at W. 105th St. and Lorain. Ashley Summers was reported missing from her family’s house at W. 96th St. and Madison Ave., about a mile and a half from where Berry and DeJesus disappeared. The neighborhood is about three and a half miles away from Ariel Castro’s house at 2207 Seymour Ave., where Berry, DeJesus, and Knight were found yesterday—a quick jaunt down I-90. (In a 2009 blog post, Summers’ step-grandmother said that Ashley actually went missing from her great uncle’s house on Holmden Ave. in Cleveland’s west side. If that was the case, Holmden Ave. is less than a mile away from 2207 Seymour Ave.)

Did Ariel Castro and his brothers have anything to do with Summers’ disappearance? At this point there’s no indication that they did, and it would be irresponsible to jump to any conclusions. But you’d have to imagine that Summers’ family is asking that question today, and hoping they get some good news.
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Anderson Cooper is covering this story right now on CNN.....Pacific time.

Yes I have it on. Turned it on to watch Amanda Knox and found this. Very interesting. He just interviewed Charles Ramsey who kicked in the door and rescued Amanda, this guy said that everyday there were two little girls who played in the backyard with the dogs for a couple of hours. He was told they were the guys grandkids.

(CNN) -- The discovery of three young women missing for a decade in Cleveland immediately raised the hopes of the family of a fourth missing woman Tuesday.
After all, Ashley Summers was just like two of the three discovered women: Cleveland teenagers who all disappeared within five blocks of each other over a four-year span.

The anticipation for Summers' family was heightened momentarily when authorities said they had yet to identify one of the three discovered women.
Was it Ashley? Could it be Ashley, who went missing almost six years ago at age 14?
"At first, when they said the third girl wasn't identified, I was hoping one would be Ashley," said her aunt, Debra Summers.
Ashley Summers' mother expressed similar emotions. "She said, 'Oh, my God' -- just hoping it was Ashley," Debra Summers, 30, said of her sister Jennifer Summers, 33, who wasn't immediately available for interviews Tuesday.
But the third woman held in captivity for a decade was someone else, not Ashley, authorities announced.
"I was upset, but I was happy at the same time that they found the third girl," Debra Summers said.
Now the Summers family is hoping that the investigation into the three women's decade-long captivity -- allegedly by three brothers -- will yield information about Ashley, who disappeared on July 6, 2007.
"We're hoping that it's connected, and they knew where she was," Summers said of the investigation. "We're hoping for a miracle."
Investigators will speak to the three discovered women to see if they know anything about Summers' disappearance, said Special Agent Vicki Anderson, of the FBI Cleveland Division.
The discovery of the three women might prompt someone who has information -- but never said anything -- to call authorities, she said.
"We're really very dependent on the public's assistance on things such as this, for them to be aware of people around them, to report things that are suspicious, to take a look at the pictures of these individuals who are missing and see if they recognize them," Anderson said.
Since Ashley Summers disappeared, "there's been no legitimate sightings, no accessing social media, anything," Anderson said.
Former FBI agent Jennifer Eakin said authorities have long believed in a link in the disappearances of Summers and two of the women discovered this week -- Amanda Berry and Georgina "Gina" DeJesus. Eakin is now a case manager at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which in 2008 held a comprehensive review of the cases with the FBI and Cleveland police.
"We did in fact believe there was an association between the Berry case and the DeJjesus case as well as the Summers case," Eakin said.
In 2009, CNN reported how the FBI was investigating connections between the three missing Cleveland teens. "We kind of put all three of these cases together to work them to see if there's any connection," FBI Special Agent Scott Wilson, in the agency's Cleveland Division, said then.
At the time, authorities said Ashley Summers was initially reported as a runaway after a family argument. Problem was, she never contacted her family again, authorities said.
"She's considered an endangered juvenile who may have been a runaway and possibly abducted," Anderson said.
The Summers family is also renewing their efforts to publicize Ashley's disappearance. The FBI's missing person website says Ashley Summers has a tattoo of "Gene" enclosed in a heart on her upper arm, and her birthday is June 16, 1993, making her 19 years old.
Jennifer Summers, a restaurant cook, has seven other children, whose ages range from 2 to 16, and Ashley is her oldest, said Debra Summers, a shipping clerk who lives in Parma, Ohio.
Debra Summers last saw her niece two weeks before she disappeared.
"She just hanged around the house and talked about her boyfriend and the usual stuff," Debra Summers said. "She actually wanted to move in with me, and I said yeah, but she never came."
Ashley Summers left her mother's home, where four younger siblings were then also living, and instead moved to her great-uncle's residence, so she could be closer to friends, Debra Summers said.
Then she vanished.
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