The Cleveland Captive Teens Case

Son of Kidnapping Suspect Speaks Out

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...son-article-1.1337753?localLinksEnabled=false

Ariel Castro is the chief suspect in the kidnapping of three Cleveland women rescued Monday. His son, Anthony, said his dad recently asked whether one of the women, Amanda Berry, would ever be found.

The son of the chief suspect in the decade-old kidnappings of three Cleveland women who were rescued Monday says his dad bizarrely asked him recently whether one of the women would ever be found.

Anthony Castro, 31, a banker in Columbus, Ohio, said he was stunned by the question two weeks ago from his father, Ariel, 52, who was arrested with his two uncles after the rescue of the women from his childhood home.

Anthony Castro said he told his dad that the woman, Amanda Berry, was likely dead, prompting his father to respond, eerily, “Really? You think so?” He said the twisted conversation occurred when he paid a rare visit to his dad’s house on Seymour Ave. in Cleveland. He said he didn’t notice anything amiss during the brief visit because his father was always secretive.

“The house was always locked,” Anthony said, recalling his days living there before he and his three sisters moved out of the house in 1996 when his parents split up.

“There were places we could never go. There were locks on the basement. Locks on the attic. Locks on the garage.”

He described his father as a controlling, abusive and often drunk ogre who once nearly beat his mom, Grimilda Figueroa, to death as she was recovering from brain surgery.

He said his mother died last year following an illness.

Police have revealed that while in captivity, Berry, now 27, gave birth to a girl, a 6-year-old rescued with her and two other long-missing women, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight.

“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,” Anthony Castro said of his father.

“He doesn’t deserve to have his own life anymore. He deserves to be behind bars for the rest of his life.”

In another bizarre link to the cold cases, Anthony Castro wrote a newspaper story on the disappearance of DeJesus when he was a journalism student at Bowling Green University in 2004.

He even interviewed DeJesus’ mother, Nancy Ruiz, on the search for her daughter. Little did he know at the time that his father had allegedly added DeJesus to his sick collection of victims he was hiding in padlocked rooms.
Click to expand...

Anthony Castro wrote an article about the disappearance of victim Gina DeJesus as a student at Bowling Green State University.
20130508-094007_www.nydailynews.com.jpg
 
She made an oblique reference Tuesday to the Cleveland case as she accepted an award in Washington from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Click to expand...

You know the world has become obsessed with achievements when people get awards for being kidnapped.
 
Transfixed by the Horror of Ten years of Captivity

Ten years after watching Amanda Berry walk out of work for the last time, Darrell Ford stood transfixed behind a US police barricade imagining the horrors she must have endured.

"For ten years -- what was he doing to her?" Ford asked Tuesday as FBI forensic experts scoured the house in Cleveland, Ohio where Darrell and two other women were held captive for a decade until Berry's dramatic escape.

"It's just crazy," he told AFP.

Like Berry, Ford was just a teenager when they worked at together at a Burger King restaurant in a working class neighborhood. He was working the night she disappeared: April 21, 2003, the day before her 17th birthday.

"She was supposed to get a ride home," the slight young man said as his three year-old son played with their dog at his side.

"We thought she was dead the whole time."

While he's grateful Berry is alive, Ford said he's worried that she will have a hard time recovering from her ordeal.

FBI agents could be seen moving in and out of the house, removing evidence and recording the scene.

Police have released few details about what Berry and fellow captives Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight endured.

They have confirmed that Berry, now 27, has a six-year-old daughter, apparently born while she was in captivity.

DeJesus was 14 when she vanished on her way home from school on April 2, 2004. Knight, who was 20 at the time of her disappearance, was last seen at a cousin's house on August 23, 2002, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

They were found in the home of Ariel Castro, 52, a school bus driver who has been arrested along with his brothers: Pedro, 54, and Onil, 50.

The house is shockingly ordinary.

American and Puerto Rican flags hang from the porch, which has rails that are stripped as though they're about to be repainted.

At least one window is boarded up, but that is not particularly unusual on a low-income street with several abandoned homes and problems with crime.

What is unusual is the twisted metal where the bottom of the front door was yanked by neighbor Charles Ramsey after he heard Berry's cries for help.

Residents at the scene told AFP that they were shocked and had no idea that the man who would sometimes grill food in his yard and share it with neighbors could have had such a grim secret locked away.

Bill McNutt, 71, said he is used to crime on the street. When he heard the sirens on Monday he thought it was another drug bust. He was stunned when a neighbor told him that three women had been held captive just up the road.

"They must have kept them chained up, because ten years, gosh," the retired computer programmer said as he leaned on the fence of a rooming house he has run since 1973.

McNutt said he didn't know Castro, but had been told by other neighbors that he always parked his truck in the back of the house and never went in the front door that was Amanda Berry's eventual escape route.


Source : Sapa-AFP /aw
Date : 08 May 2013 00:19
 
Celine said:
for me i feel the problem with this case is that little madelaine was so young when she was abducted, she may not remember much as she grows older.
Click to expand...

If she is still alive, she may indeed not remember much, but that has no bearing on her parents wanting her to be found (if that is indeed the case).
 
Chains and Ropes found in House

US police investigating the decade-long kidnap of three Ohio women found ropes and chains in the house where they were held, Cleveland police chief Michael McGrath told NBC television on Wednesday.

"We have confirmation they were bound and there were chains and ropes in the hall," he said on the Today Show, after the three missing women were rescued and three brothers were arrested on suspicion of holding them prisoner.


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 08 May 2013 15:12 OrigID : LP208444
 
blunomore said:
If she is still alive, she may indeed not remember much, but that has no bearing on her parents wanting her to be found (if that is indeed the case).
Click to expand...

What's the difference between Pope John Paul II and Madelaine McCann?
 
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/08/justice/ohio-rescued-women-developments/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

CNN) -- Three long-missing women -- Amanda Berry, 27; Georgina "Gina" DeJesus, 23; and Michelle Knight, 32 -- and a 6-year-old daughter apparently born to Berry in captivity were found alive Monday in Cleveland, police said. The women are believed to have been abducted years ago -- in 2002, 2003 and 2004 -- and held captive at a Cleveland man's home, according to police.

Three suspects, all brothers, including the home's main resident, Ariel Castro, 52, were arrested and are awaiting charges, police said.

Here are the most recent developments in the case:

New developments:

-- Authorities escorted Amanda Berry, her daughter and her sister, Beth Serrano, to Serrano's Cleveland house late Wednesday morning. Serrano came outside and talked to reporters briefly, saying: "Our family would request privacy so my sister, niece and I can have time to recover. ... Please respect our privacy until we are ready to make our statements." Police initially said Berry would address the media, but it was later announced that she would not speak publicly Wednesday.

-- Michelle Knight was at Cleveland's Metro Health Medical Center on Wednesday morning, hospital spokeswoman Tina Shaerban-Arundel said. The spokeswoman did not say what Knight was being treated for, but did say that Knight "is in good condition." On Tuesday, the hospital said that it had released all three rescued women. Shaerban-Arundel said Wednesday that the hospital stood by its Tuesday statement, but she did not elaborate.

Previously reported developments:

-- The three women and the child were rescued Monday after, according to a neighbor, screaming was heard coming from the home.

-- Neighbors Charles Ramsey and Angel Cordero say they responded to the screaming by helping to kick in the door to help her escape.

-- Ramsey and Berry called 911, authorities said. "Help me, I am Amanda Berry," she begged the operator. "I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years. And I'm here, I'm free now."

-- In addition to Berry, police found DeJesus and Knight at the home; all three said they were held captive there, according to authorities.

-- Police later arrested Ariel Castro, who's identified as a former school bus driver, and his two brothers. Police believe Ariel Castro was the only one of the brothers who lived at the home, Cleveland's Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba told reporters late Monday.

-- The names and ages of Ariel Castro's arrested brothers are Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50, Cleveland police said Tuesday.

-- Charges against the Castro brothers are expected to be filed Wednesday, Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath said Wednesday morning. Investigators began questioning them Tuesday night, an FBI spokeswoman said.

-- Knight, of Cleveland, had been last seen on August 22, 2002, and was reported missing by a family member the next day, city Public Safety Director Martin Flask said. She was 21 at the time, according Cleveland police.

-- Berry was last seen after finishing her shift at a Burger King in Cleveland in 2003. It was the eve of her 17th birthday.

-- DeJesus, of Cleveland, disappeared nearly a year later, in April 2004. She was 14.

-- Police believe that the women were bound while they were in captivity in the home, Police Chief Michael McGrath told NBC's "Today" show Wednesday. "We have confirmation that they were bound, and there (were) chains and ropes in the home," he said. McGrath said investigators interviewed the women Tuesday and will continue to interview them Wednesday.

-- Michelle Knight's missing persons report from the Cleveland Police Department describes her as having "mental abnormalities" and many family members seemed to be unaware that she was missing.

-- The mother of Michelle Knight told NBC on Wednesday that she cried when she heard her daughter was found. Barbara Knight told NBC that she had been looking for her daughter during the years she was gone. "She's probably angry at the world because she thought she would never be found but thank God that somebody did." She was asked what she would say to Michelle if and when she got to see her. "I love you and I missed you all this time," she said.

-- Gina DeJesus spent Tuesday reuniting with family members. Balloons dotted the front yard. Also present: a sign that was first hung on a fence outside the home when she was first reported missing nine years ago. Her 32-year-old sister, Mayra DeJesus, told CNN's Poppy Harlow Tuesday that Gina -- for all the hell she's gone through -- is in "good spirits."

-- Amanda Berry told her grandmother Fern Gentry that she's "fine" and that the 6-year-old girl also rescued Monday from a Cleveland home is indeed her own. "I love you honey, thank God," her tearful grandmother said, in a call recorded by CNN affiliate WJHL on Tuesday. "... I've thought about you all this time. I never forgot about you."

-- A thorough search of Ariel Castro's Cleveland house did not reveal human remains, Cleveland Public Safety Director Martin Flask said Wednesday.

-- Nina Samoylicz, who lives near Ariel Castro's home, said she called police about three years ago after spotting a naked woman in the backyard of Castro's house. Samoylicz said when she called out to the woman, a man told the woman to get in the house, then ran in himself. "(The police) thought we was playing, joking, they didn't believe us," Samoylicz said.

-- Faliceonna Lopez, Samoylicz' sister, told a slightly different version of events Tuesday on CNN's "Piers Morgan Live." She said after seeing the naked woman, they told their mother, not police. The mother, Annita Lugo, told Morgan that she didn't call police, either, saying, "I definitely would have called then but it was hours later and I really -- I really didn't -- you know, I was just stuck. I was dumbfounded, didn't know how to take it, you know?"

-- Sgt. Sammy Morris, a Cleveland police spokesman, told CNN that the department had no record of a 911 call reporting a naked woman at Castro's address. And Wednesday, a city spokeswoman said flatly that there was no truth to claims that any reports were made.

-- Another neighbor, Israel Lugo, said he heard yelling in the house in November 2011 and called police to investigate, but that they left after no one answered the door.

-- Officials have no indication that anybody living near the Cleveland home ever called authorities about anything suspicious there, Cleveland Public Safety Director Martin Flask said Tuesday. Flask said that assessment is based on an initial review of city databases; officials will continue to examine the databases, he said.

-- Since the first woman's disappearance, police were called to the home once -- in January 2004 -- Flask said. Investigators were there at the request of Children and Family Services to investigate a complaint that Castro left a child on a school bus while he was working as a school bus driver, Flask said. Investigators knocked on the home's door but were "unsuccessful in making contact." The matter was later dropped when investigators determined that Castro had no criminal intent in the bus incident, he added.

-- Tito DeJesus, a man who says he played in a band with Cleveland abduction suspect Ariel Castro, told CNN's Brooke Baldwin Tuesday that Castro's house seemed like "a normal environment." DeJesus said he was last at the home two years ago. During the brief visit, DeJesus was only in the living room and the front of the house, he said. "It was quiet. It was like it was empty, nobody was in there. As if it was only him living in there," DeJesus said.

-- A few years ago, Tito DeJesus recalled that Castro asked him if his "cousin" had been found. DeJesus said he eventually realized that Castro was referring to Georgina "Gina" DeJesus, one of the three women who police said were rescued from the home Monday. Tito DeJesus said that he doesn't believe he's related to Georgina, although he's known her family for years.




there was a fourth teen abducted in the same area. i was hoping that something would come of this that this teen would be found even if she had met her demise, just to put everything to rest. but no human remains found on the property it would seem. so where is the fourth one. i'm sure they are going to question this monster about her.
 
Suspect charged with Kidnap, rape.

The former school bus driver accused of kidnapping and raping three women missing for about a decade will make his first public appearance in court Thursday after emerging as the lone suspect.

Puerto Rican-born Ariel Castro, 52, was charged with four counts of kidnapping - covering all three captives and the daughter born to one of them while she was held - and three counts of rape against the three women. Prosecutors brought no charges against his brothers, Pedro, 54, and Onil, 50, saying there was no evidence they had any part in the crime.

Councilman Brian Cummins said many details remained unclear, including the number of pregnancies and the conditions under which the miscarriages occurred. He said the women were kept in the basement for some time without having access to the rest of the house. Police said they were apparently bound with ropes and chains.

"It sounds pretty gruesome," Cummins said.

The women's plight has riveted the U.S. since 27-year-old Amanda Berry kicked through a screen door at the house Monday, used a neighbor's telephone to call authorities and told a police dispatcher, "I'm free now." An officer showed up minutes later, and Berry ran out and threw her arms around the officer, a neighbor said.

Neighbors in the largely Puerto Rican neighborhood said Ariel Castro had taken part in the search for one of the missing women, performed music at a fundraiser for her and attended a candlelight vigil, where he comforted her mother.

Two of the women were welcomed home Wednesday by jubilant crowds. Neither Berry nor Gina DeJesus, about 23, spoke publicly, and their families pleaded for patience and time alone.

The third captive, Michelle Knight, 32, was reported in good condition at a local hospital.

The Associated Press does not usually identify people who may be victims of sexual assault, but the names of the women were widely circulated by their families, friends and law enforcement authorities for years during their disappearance.

All three women apparently had been held captive in the house since their teens or early 20s, police said. Law enforcement officials left many questions unanswered, including how the women were taken captive.

Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba told a news conference that a paternity test on Ariel Castro was being done to establish who fathered Berry's now 6-year-old child.

Police Chief Michael McGrath earlier told NBC he was "absolutely" sure police did everything they could to find the women over the years. He disputed claims by neighbors that officers had been called to the house before for suspicious circumstances.

"We have no record of those calls coming in over the past 10 years," McGrath said.

Neighbors and those who know Ariel Castro said he joined in the search for DeJesus nearly a decade ago and comforted her mother just a year ago at a vigil.

"When we went out to look for Gina, he helped pass out fliers," said Khalid Samad, a community activist who said Castro was friends with DeJesus' father.

As recently as 2005, Castro was accused of repeated acts of violence against his children's mother. A domestic-violence court filing at the time accused Ariel Castro of twice breaking the nose of his children's mother, knocking out a tooth, dislocating each shoulder and threatening to kill her and her daughters three or four times in a year.

Neighbors say Castro played bass guitar in salsa and merengue bands and gave neighborhood children rides on his motorcycle.

Juan Perez, who lives two doors down from the house, said Castro was always happy and respectful. "He gained trust with the kids and with the parents. You can only do that if you're nice," Perez said.

Another neighbor, Francisco Cruz, said he was with Castro the day investigators dug up a yard looking for the girls. Castro told Cruz, "They're not going to find anyone there," Cruz recalled.


Source : Sapa-AP /pk
Date : 09 May 2013 09:04
 
Emotional Homecoming for Kidnap Victims

Two of the three young American women who were rescued this week after a decade spent imprisoned and tormented in a kidnapper's house made an emotional return to their families on Wednesday.

The third remained in hospital, as police interrogated three men suspected of abducting the Ohio women, chaining them and holding them for 10 years, during which time one of them give birth to a now six-year-old daughter.

A shiver of anticipation ran through the massed ranks of reporters camped outside the Cleveland family home of 27-year-old Amanda Berry, the mother of the child, when police said she was expected to make a statement.

But in the end, the emotion of the day proved too much and it was Berry's diminutive sister Beth Serrano who emerged through banks of balloons and "welcome home" messages to be engulfed in a forest of microphones.

Her voice breaking, she delivered a brief speech before erupting in tears.

"I want to thank the public and media for their support and courage over the years. At this time our family would request privacy so my sister and niece and I can have time to recover," she said.

"We appreciate all you have done for us throughout the past 10 years. Please respect our privacy until we are ready to make our statements."

The crowd broke into applause and one woman gasped: "Oh, that poor girl."

Berry was the first of the women to escape, having managed to attract the attention of a neighbor who kicked in the door of the modest working class home where they were being held.

Next home was 23-year-old Gina DeJesus, helped into her home sheltered under a yellow hooded top and a relative's arm, as her father pumped his fist, well-wishers chanted "Gina, Gina, Gina!" and camera shutters clicked.

She looked overwhelmed, but managed a brief wave to the crowd.

Gina's aunt, Sandra Ruiz, read a statement.

"Thank you, again, for your prayers and support. There are not enough words to say or express the joy that we feel for the return of our family member Gina," she said, paying tribute to her niece's fellow captives.

Ruiz also issued a plea for a fourth Cleveland woman, still missing.

"Now we need to, as a whole, to rally together, to look next door, and bring our other family member that is missing, Ashley Summers, OK?" she said.

The dramatic end to the decade-long ordeal triggered a wave of emotion in the city, and hundreds of local residents came out in the streets to cheer.

Rosa Garcia, one of DeJesus's second cousins, said she had spoken to the family but not yet seen them.

"She's real quiet," the 50-year-old told AFP outside the Berry house. "She's really not saying much. We want to give them some space because they've had a hard time."

Her daughter Miriam, a 25-year-old nurse, spoke for many in the crowd when she said how sorry she was that Berry's mother had not survived to see her daughter and unknown granddaughter freed.

"It's a miracle this is the outcome because it doesn't usually turn out this way," she said.

Carol Pippin, 69, brought two little crochet boxes she made for Berry and stood watching from the lawn next door. "I'm so glad she made the attempt to get out and that the neighbor heard her," she said.

Jessica Duna, a 50-year-old housekeeper, came to lend neighborhood support and felt overwhelmed as the black SUV with FBI agents and a police motorcycle escort brought Berry back to her sister's home.

"Oh my God, it just stopped my heart," she said. "It's just sad that her mother isn't here right now. It's heartbreaking."

There was no family homecoming for 32-year-old Michelle Knight, who spent 10 years with Berry and DeJesus in the non-descript Cleveland home owned by suspect Ariel Castro, who was in police custody awaiting charges.

Reportedly in worse condition following the ordeal than the others, her family has been divided by the tragedy, and she remains in hospital.


Source : Sapa-AFP /dm
Date : 08 May 2013 21:44
 
One of three women held captive in Cleveland said she was pregnant at least five times but was starved and punched until she miscarried, according to an incident report in the case: http://on.cnn.com/10kv7TB
 
Suspect Jailed on 8 Million Dollar Bond

Unemployed US bus driver Ariel Castro was ordered held on an eight-million-dollar bond on Thursday on charges he kidnapped and raped three women and held them in his home for a decade.

In his first court appearance since the revelation of a crime that has shocked and disgusted a nation, the 52-year-old suspect did not enter a plea and was sent to county jail, where he is to be placed on suicide watch.

Castro was arrested on Monday after a 27-year-old Amanda Berry managed to call out to a neighbor who kicked in the door to the suspect's Cleveland home and rescued her and the six-year-old daughter she bore during her captivity.

Police arrived on the scene and entered the house, finding two more women, 23-year-old Gina DeJesus and 32-year-old Michelle Knight. All three had been snatched in separate incidents around a decade earlier.

He was presented to the court by public defender Kathleen DeMetz, who said he was "charged with kidnapping and rape on one charge, kidnapping and rape on the second, kidnapping and rape on the third, and kidnapping on the fourth."

After the hearing she told reporters: "I would imagine the county will place him in a single cell under a suicide watch and in protective custody where nobody has access to him."

She said Castro could not meet the bail terms, as he would have to provide 800,000 dollars in cash, and said that it was normal that no plea be entered at a preliminary municipal court hearing on a felony charge.

Arguing for an astronomically high bail bond that would effectively ensure that Castro is not freed pending his trial, county prosecutor Brian Murphy told the court that the suspect had "manipulated and deceived."

"The charges against Mr Castro are based on premeditated, deliberate, depraved decisions to snatch three young ladies from Cleveland West Side streets to be used in whatever self-gratifying, self-serving way he saw fit," he said.

"Two of the victims incurred a horrifying ordeal for more than a decade, a third for close to a decade, and the ordeal eventually resulted in a little girl believed to have been born to one of the women while in captivity.

"And also, along with captivity, there were repeated beatings. They were bound and restrained and sexually assaulted, basically never freed to leave this residence," he said.

Castro kept his head bowed impassively through much of the hearing, chewing on the collar of the dark-blue uniform issued to him during his detention.

Municipal court judge Lauren Moore set the bond terms -- two million dollars in each of the four cases -- and instructed that Castro was to have no contact with any of his alleged victims.

Castro's brothers -- 54-year-old Pedro and 50-year-old Onil -- were also arrested on Monday following the women's rescue, but prosecutors say they have found nothing to link them to the kidnapping case.

They appeared in court just ahead of their brother to plead no contest to outstanding warrants against them dating back more than 10 years relating to minor charges that they had drunk alcohol in public.

That three women could be held for so long in such a nondescript house in an unremarkable working class street has astounded local residents, and led to suggestions that Cleveland police had missed chances to find them.

But senior officers have defended the force, and underlined the careful steps Castro allegedly took to conceal the women.

The captives are believed to have only been allowed to leave the home briefly on two occasions, both times to go into the house's garage "in disguise," Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba told reporters on Wednesday.

"They don't believe they've been outside of the home for the last 10 years," he said. "They were not in one room, but they did know each other and they did know each other was there."

Tomba refused to comment on reports that Castro had impregnated Knight at least five times and would punch her in the stomach until she miscarried.

Castro, a former school bus driver whose family hails from Puerto Rico, has been described as a friendly neighbor who raised few suspicions but who also kept to himself, rarely if ever allowing anyone inside his home.

"Ariel kept everybody at a distance," Tomba said. "He ran the show."

Castro was accused in a 2005 family court filing of beating his ex-wife Grimilda Figueroa, who passed away last year, and of "frequently" abducting their two daughters, but he was never charged.

DeJesus, Berry and Berry's six-year-old daughter Joceleyn have returned to their families. Knight is still receiving treatment after her ordeal.


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 09 May 2013 16:01
 
Captive woman suffered 5 miscarriages

Prosecutors may seek the death penalty against Ariel Castro, the man accused of imprisoning three women at his home for a decade, as police charged that he impregnated one of his captives at least five times and made her miscarry by starving her and punching her in the belly.

The allegations were contained in a police report that also said another one of the women, Amanda Berry, was forced to give birth in a plastic kiddie pool.

Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said Thursday his office will decide whether to bring aggravated murder charges punishable by death in connection with the pregnancies that were terminated by force.

"Capital punishment must be reserved for those crimes that are truly the worst examples of human conduct," he said. "The reality is we still have brutal criminals in our midst who have no respect for the rule of law or human life."

Castro, a 52-year-old former school bus driver, is being held on $8 million bail under a suicide watch in jail, where he is charged with rape and kidnapping.

McGinty said Castro will be charged for every act of sexual violence, assault and other crimes committed against the women, suggesting the counts could number in the hundreds, if not thousands.

Among the chilling details in the police report:

- Berry, now 27, told officers that she was forced to give birth in a plastic pool in the house so it would be easier to clean up. Berry said she, her baby, now 6, and the two other rescued women had never been to a doctor during their captivity.

- Michelle Knight, now 32, said her five pregnancies ended after Castro starved her for at least two weeks and "repeatedly punched her in the stomach until she miscarried." She also said Castro forced her to deliver Berry's baby under threat of death if the baby died. Knight said that when the newborn stopped breathing, she revived her through mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

- All three women said Castro chained them up in the basement but eventually let them live on the home's second floor. Each woman told a similar story about being abducted after accepting a ride from Castro.

During his brief arraignment Thursday, Castro tried to hide his face, tucking his chin inside his shirt collar. He appeared to close his eyes during the hearing and awkwardly signed documents while handcuffed. He did not speak or enter a plea.

In court, prosecutor Brian Murphy said Castro used the women "in whatever self-gratifying, self-serving way he saw fit."

Kathleen DeMetz, a public defender assigned to represent him at the hearing, didn't comment on his guilt or innocence or object when prosecutors recommended bail be set at $5 million. The judge, instead, ordered Castro held on $8 million.

Castro was arrested Monday, when Berry broke out of his run-down house and called police while he was away. Police found the two other women inside. The women had vanished separately between 2002 and 2004, when they 14, 16 and 20.

Berry and former captive Gina DeJesus, 22, went home with relatives on Wednesday. Knight was reported in good condition at a Cleveland hospital.

The police report gave a detailed account of their escape, beginning with Berry's discovery that a door was unlocked, leaving only a bolted outer door between her and freedom.

Berry feared it was a test: She said Castro occasionally left a door unlocked to test them. But she called to neighbors on a porch for help and was able to get out.

Police then entered the house and found the other women, who threw themselves into the officers' arms.

Castro's two brothers, who were arrested with him but later cleared of involvement in the case, appeared in court on unrelated charges Thursday and were released.

Years before the women's abductions and abuse, Castro terrorized the mother of his children, beating her and locking her indoors, her relatives said in interviews Thursday with The Associated Press.

Relatives of Grimilda Figueroa, who left Castro many years ago and died after a long illness last year, described Castro as a "monster." He once shoved her into a cardboard box and closed the flaps over her head, said Elida Caraballo, her sister.

"He told her, 'You stay there until I tell you to get out,'" Caraballo said.

Monica Stephens, Castro's former daughter-in-law, who now lives in Florida, met Castro's son in 2002. They married in 2004 but split up in 2006. Stephens on Thursday recalled conversations with her ex-husband in which he said he and his mother were beaten by Castro.

"They were like hostages in their own house," she said.

A musician who often practiced at Castro's house said he was there last week and heard noises "like banging on the wall." Ricky Sanchez said he asked Castro about it and Castro blamed it on dogs. He also said Castro, a bass guitarist in merengue and salsa bands, liked to play his music loud.

On his most recent visit, Sanchez said, a little girl came out from the kitchen and stared at him but didn't say anything. He said he also noticed there were four or five locks on the outside door.

"When I was about to leave, I tried to open the door. I couldn't even, because there were so many locks in there," he said.

Dozens of area residents gathered Thursday night at a church half a block from the house where the women were found. They received briefings on ways to help the women and applauded the police for their handling of their disappearances.

---

Associated Press writers Meghan Barr, Mike Householder and freelance reporter John Coyne in Cleveland; Brendan Farrington in Florida; and Dan Sewell in Cincinnati contributed to this report.


Source : Sapa-AP /aw
Date : 10 May 2013 07:36
 
Prsecutors mull Death Penalty in kidnapping case

A US prosecutor on Thursday accused the Cleveland man charged with kidnapping three women of forcefully terminating their pregnancies, and warned he may seek the death penalty.

"The county will pursue charges for each and every act of sexual violence and all attempted murders and for each act of aggravated murder he committed by terminating pregnancies," Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy McGinty said.


Source : Sapa-AFP /pd
Date : 09 May 2013 23:20
 
for each act of aggravated murder he committed by terminating pregnancies," Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy McGinty said.
Click to expand...

Wait what? Sure he deserves the harshest penalty possible but forced abortion shouldn't be classified as murder.
 
Ninja'd said:
Wait what? Sure he deserves the harshest penalty possible but forced abortion shouldn't be classified as murder.
Click to expand...

In the manner in which he carried out the "abortions" I think it is a fitting charge. I am pro-choice but they need to nail this evil POS with anything they can! Is Abortion legal in Ohio?

/goes to Google
 
Ohio Law. In Ohio, abortion is legal through 24 weeks. There are steps a person has to take in order for it to be legal, like visits to a physician etc. I can't open any links because I am capped.
 
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