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Charges Expected for Cleveland Kidnapping Suspects
Kidnapping Victim Arrives at Sister’s Home
(about 3 hours later)
CLEVELAND — Charges were expected to be filed here on Wednesday against the suspects arrested in connection with the imprisonment of three women in a house for about a decade.
CLEVELAND — Amanda Berry, who was imprisoned in a house here with two other women until they managed to escape earlier this week, returned to a family home on Wednesday for the first time since her disappearance about a decade ago.
As the authorities continued investigating, more details trickled out about what the women, who managed to escape on Monday, endured throughout their captivity. Chief Michael McGrath of the Cleveland police, told the “Today” show on Wednesday that the women had been tied up inside the house and that investigators found ropes and chains.
The years of captivity ended late Monday when Ms. Berry, who had not been seen since she left her job at a local Burger King on April, 21, 2003, when she was 17, appeared at the front door of 2207 Seymour Avenue, where the police said she and two other women were held. Accompanied by a young child as she tried to flee, she screamed: “I need help! I need help! I have been kidnapped for 10 years!” before fleeing with the help of neighbors.
On Wednesday, Ms. Berry’s sister’s home, about a 10-minute drive from the Seymour Avenue residence, was decorated with balloons, yellow ribbons and posters welcoming her back as crowds gathered across the street, as directed by the police, to await her return. Before noon, a motorcade escorted by police motorcycles, pulled up to the home, and several people hurried into the residence, with at least one person holding a child.
Ms. Berry, whose mother died when she was captive, was inside the house briefly before her sister, Beth Serrano stepped outside and spoke to a crush of reporters, saying Amanda and her daughter were home and wanted to “thank the public and media for their support.” Appearing to fight tears, she also requested privacy for her sister, her niece and herself as they recover and before they could make a further statement.
Charges were expected to be filed here on Wednesday against the suspects arrested in the case: Ariel Castro, 52, the owner of the house, and his brothers, Pedro, 54, and Onil, 50.
As the authorities continued investigating, more details trickled out about what the women endured throughout their captivity. Chief Michael McGrath of the Cleveland police, told the “Today” show on Wednesday that the women had been tied up inside the house and that investigators found ropes and chains.
Chief McGrath, asked about the reports that the women were physically bound, said: “We have confirmed that. We have confirmation that they were bound, and there were chains and ropes in the home.” But he said the investigators would have a better understanding of how often they were restrained when the interviews were completed on Wednesday. He also said they were “very rarely” allowed outside, or “released out in the backyard once in a while, I believe.”
Chief McGrath, asked about the reports that the women were physically bound, said: “We have confirmed that. We have confirmation that they were bound, and there were chains and ropes in the home.” But he said the investigators would have a better understanding of how often they were restrained when the interviews were completed on Wednesday. He also said they were “very rarely” allowed outside, or “released out in the backyard once in a while, I believe.”
One neighbor remembered occasional late-night deliveries of groceries to the boarded-up shoe box of a house where the women were kept, in a rough-edged West Side Cleveland neighborhood.
But it was at the Seymour Avenue neighborhood that people have been recalling their memories over the years as they tried to understand how the women could have been held there undetected so long. One neighbor had noticed occasional late-night deliveries of groceries to the boarded-up shoe box of a house where the women were kept, in a rough-edged West Side Cleveland neighborhood.
Another neighbor remarked on a porch light that burned at night, even though many of the windows were covered.
Another neighbor remarked on a porch light that burned at night, even though many of the windows were covered.
“Why would an abandoned house have a porch light on?” he recalled thinking.
“Why would an abandoned house have a porch light on?” he recalled thinking.
Still another said his sister had once seen a figure in an upstairs window, pounding on the glass.
Still another said his sister had once seen a figure in an upstairs window, pounding on the glass.
A stunned neighborhood learned that these were glimpses of a story that has grown more horrifying as details continued to trickle out on Wednesday. For about a decade, the police said, three women were imprisoned inside the home at 2207 Seymour Avenue.
After two neighbors freed Ms. Berry by kicking in the chained front door and helped her make an urgent call to 911, the three Castro brothers were arrested. Ms. Berry and the child, along with Gina DeJesus, who disappeared while walking home from a city middle school in 2004, and Michelle Knight, who vanished at age 20 in 2002, were treated at a hospital and reunited with their families.
Those years of captivity ended late Monday when Amanda Berry, who had not been seen since she left her job at a local Burger King on April, 21, 2003, when she was 17, appeared at the front door of the house accompanied by a young child and screamed: “I need help! I need help! I have been kidnapped for 10 years!”
An official said the F.B.I. had begun questioning the women late Tuesday and had taken photos and helped collect evidence from the house. Chief McGrath said he expected the “charging process” of the suspects to be completed on Wednesday.
After two neighbors freed her by kicking in the chained front door and helped her make an urgent call to 911, three men were arrested in connection with the case — Ariel Castro, 52, the owner of the house, and his brothers, Pedro, 54, and Onil, 50. Ms. Berry and the child, along with Gina DeJesus, who disappeared while walking home from a city middle school in 2004, and Michelle Knight, who vanished at age 20 in 2002, were treated at a hospital and reunited with their families.
Steven
Yaccino reported from Cleveland, and Christine Hauser from New York.
The conditions in the home, a law enforcement official said, were “abysmal at best.”
“They had no ability to leave the home or interact with anyone other than each other, the child and the suspect,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the continuing investigation.
Another official said the F.B.I. had begun questioning the women late Tuesday and had taken photos and helped collect evidence from the house.
Chief McGrath said he expected the “charging process” of the suspects to be completed on Wednesday.
The case recalled other kidnappings, like that of Jaycee Dugard, who was held prisoner in California for 18 years; Elizabeth Smart, who spent nine months in torment after being grabbed from her bedroom in Salt Lake City by Brian David Mitchell; and six women who were snatched, held and tortured in Belgium in the mid-1990s.
“These are some of the most catastrophic kinds of experiences a human being can be subjected to,” said Kris Mohandie, a forensic psychologist who has been a consultant in other long-term kidnapping cases.
The perpetrators of such crimes, Dr. Mohandie said, have been men “who have had longstanding fantasies of capturing, controlling, abusing and dominating women.”
Such men, he said, use a perverse system of rewards and punishments to create fear and submission in their victims, who quickly lose all sense of self and become dependent on their captors. “Total control over another human being is what stimulates them,” he said.
Angel Cordero, one of two men who helped Ms. Berry escape by kicking in the door, said that she had appeared ragged — her clothes dirty, her teeth yellowed and her hair “messy” — and that the child with her had looked “very nervous,” as though she had never seen anything outside the house before.
Mr. Cordero said he had held the child while Ms. Berry called 911, frantically telling the dispatcher: “I’m Amanda Berry. I’ve been in the news for the last 10 years.”
At a news conference on Tuesday, the authorities pleaded that the three women, now in their 20s and early 30s, be given space to recover from their ordeal.
Neighborhood residents spent the day shaking their heads in disbelief over what the police said had taken place inside the house. Public records show that the property was in foreclosure, and the Cuyahoga County prosecutor, Timothy J. McGinty, described it as in very bad shape.
But neighbors said Ariel Castro had appeared to be “a regular Joe,” who chatted with families on their porches, waved hello in the street and invited neighbors to clubs where he played bass with several Latin bands.
“He was not a troublemaker,” said Jovita Marti, 58, whose mother lives across the street from the house on Seymour Avenue.
But Zaida Delgado, 58, a family friend, said Ariel Castro also had a darker side.
“There was something not right about him,” she said. “He could be flaky and off the wall. He was also arrogant, like ‘I am Mr. Cool, I am the best.’ He had an attitude, like ‘I am God’s gift.’ ”
Some residents expressed anger at the police, who they said had not done enough to find the missing women.
“The Cleveland police should be ashamed of themselves,” said Yolanda Asia, an assistant manager of a store that rents furniture and appliances. “These girls were five minutes away. They were looking for years and years. They were right under their nose.”
One of the women may have been a close friend of Ariel Castro’s daughter, Arlene. Ms. Castro appeared on the Fox program “America’s Most Wanted” in 2005 to talk about her “best friend,” Gina DeJesus. Ms. Castro was identified on the program as the last person to have seen Ms. DeJesus before she disappeared, and she recounted on the program how they had been walking home from school together that day.
Ariel Castro had worked as a school bus driver but had a history of disciplinary problems. In 2004, he was interviewed by the police after “inadvertently” leaving a child on the bus. In 2009, he was called before a disciplinary hearing for negligence and disregard for the safety of passengers. He was fired in November 2012, after another “demonstration of lack of judgment,” according to school district records.
Israel Lugo, who lives three doors down from the Castro house, said Mr. Castro would often park the school bus outside the house between the morning and afternoon routes.
“He’ll go in the house, jump on his motorcycle, take off, come back, jump in the car, take off. Every time he switched a car, he switched an outfit,” he said.
Julio Cesar Castro, an uncle of the three brothers who owns the Caribe Grocery at Seymour and West 25th Street, said he and his brother, Ariel’s father, had migrated from Puerto Rico.
Julio said his brother died in 2004. Ariel had a wife and children, but the marriage ended.
In recent years Ariel had grown more withdrawn, his uncle said. “It could have been because of the hiding personality. He had to have two personalities,” he said.
Despite the three young women’s ordeal during a decade of captivity, their discovery was an uplifting moment for relatives, friends and the city.
At the home of Ms. DeJesus’s parents, bundles of balloons were tied to the front fence on Tuesday along with a banner that read, “Welcome Home Gina.”
Her cousin Cecily Cruz, 26, said she had heard about Ms. DeJesus’s rescue Monday from a customer while she was working as a local gas station attendant. She called her cousin’s family immediately and said she could hear Ms. DeJesus’s father in the background shouting: “She’s alive! They got my baby!”
Martin Flask, Cleveland’s director of public safety, said the endings of most missing persons cases were “usually tragic.” In this case, he said, “all of us are excited and pleased with the outcome. But when you look at what we suspect they experienced, our joy is tempered.”
Trip Gabriel reported from Cleveland, and Serge F. Kovaleski and Erica Goode from New York. Reporting was contributed by Steven Yaccino from Cleveland, Christine Hauser and Emma G. Fitzsimmons from New York, and Michael S. Schmidt from Washington. Research was contributed by Jack Begg and Sheelagh McNeill.
