The Kidnapping And Abuse of Three Women By Ariel Castro

The story of a man who kidnapped, and tortured three women for more than a decade.

By Rare StoriesPublished 2 years ago • Updated 18 days ago • 4 min read

Ariel Castro in court

Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Georgina "Gina" DeJesus were abducted from the streets of Cleveland, Ohio, by Ariel Castro, who later imprisoned them at his house at 2207 Seymour Avenue in the city's Tremont district.

The Disappearance Of The Victims

The first of the three women to go missing was Michelle Knight, who vanished on August 23, 2002, at the age of 21. Knight had a two-year-old kid at the time, but the state had gained custody of him.

She was supposed to appear in court on the day she vanished for her son's custody hearing, but she never did. Knight was last seen visiting the home of her relative. Given that Knight was an adult when she was kidnapped, local police assumed that she had left of her own volition, either under stress or in retaliation for losing custody of her kid. As a result, there was little effort put into investigating her disappearance.

Michelle Knight was 21 when she was abducted on August 23, 2001.

The day before her seventeenth birthday, on April 21, Amanda Berry was abducted after telling her sister that she had been offered a lift home from her work at Burger King.

Berry's mother argued that she would never run away just before her birthday, even though investigators at first thought she was a runaway. A week after Berry vanished, her mother got a call that would alter the investigation's direction. A man answered the phone and stated, "I have Amanda. She is in good condition and is scheduled to return home soon.

Since Berry's picture had been displayed on TV that day, Berry's mother initially believed the call to be a joke. However, police found that Amanda's cell phone was the source of the call. After that, the FBI was no longer convinced Berry had fled. Berry's mother passed away from heart failure in 2006; she had no idea what had happened to her daughter.

Gina DeJesus, at 14 years old, vanished on her way home from school on April 2, 2004. After receiving money from her mother to ride the public bus home from school, DeJesus decided to walk instead. At first, it was unclear to detectives if DeJesus' disappearance was related to Berry's.

Their Experience In Captivity

Castro kidnapped Michelle Knight, took her to the top floor of his home, and tied her hands and feet together. He denied her meals for three days.

The women were held in secured bedrooms and given one meal a day. They were permitted to take showers no more than twice per week.

Knight told the police that Castro had impregnated her at least five times during her captivity and had caused miscarriages on each occasion by abusing her, punching her, slamming her with dumbbells, and smashing her against walls. According to Knight's grandma, Knight needed facial reconstruction surgery and had hearing loss in one ear, all as a result of the abuse.

The House of Horror where Castro kept his victims

Castro ordered Knight to participate in Berry's birth on Christmas Day in 2006 while threatening to kill her if the child did not survive. The birth took place in a small inflatable swimming pool. Berry's daughter was occasionally taken out of the house by Castro, including visits to see his mother. She called Castro "daddy".

Castro worked as a bus driver for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District for 22 years before being fired in November 2012 for breaking several laws, including inappropriate driving and leaving kids alone on board.

The Escape

Ariel Castro forgot to lock the "large interior door" of the house when he left on that fateful day in May 2013, but he had remembered to secure the exterior storm door. Berry made the risky decision to yell for assistance from behind the storm door. She admitted to investigators that she didn't try to open the other door that day because she thought Castro was just trying her.

She shouted until she attracted the attention of Charles Ramsey, a neighbor, who heard her cries as he was inside his house eating dinner. The storm door was then forced open by Ramsey and a different neighbor, Angel Cordero until Berry and her 6-year-old daughter could crawl out.

The three women who were held captive by one man for more than a decade

After that, Berry was able to phone 911 and identified herself as Amanda Berry. "I was abducted, and I've been gone for ten years". Knight and DeJesus were found upstairs in two different rooms when the police arrived.

The Arrest and Sentencing of Ariel Castro

Ariel Castro was apprehended on May 6, 2013. Also detained for questioning were two of Castro's brothers, who were later freed on May 9.

Castro was identified as Berry's daughter's father through a DNA test. In addition, Knight informed authorities that Castro had starved her and punched her in the stomach to make her miscarry at least five times while she was imprisoned. All three of the women acknowledged that Castro had repeatedly raped them over the years.

On August 1, 2013, Castro was sentenced to life in prison and an additional 1,000 years without any possibility of parole.

Just a month into his prison sentence, Castro killed himself.

Castro hanged himself in his cell with bed sheets one month after being given a life sentence.

On August 7, 2013, the home where Castro had resided and imprisoned the women was destroyed. During the event, Knight distributed yellow balloons to the audience, explaining that they represented the miscarried children. Before DeJesus' aunt started the demolition with a crane swing, the balloons were freed. On the Google Maps street view, the horror house has been completely erased.