Three US women missing for years rescued in Ohio

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**reds8n**

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22430145

Three young women who vanished about a decade ago in the US state of Ohio have been found and are in hospital in a fair condition, officials have said.

Amanda Berry disappeared aged 16 in 2003, while Gina DeJesus went missing at the age of 14 a year later.

They and Michele Knight, 32, who vanished in 2002 at the age of 20, were found in a house in the city of Cleveland, police confirmed.

Three brothers have been arrested in connection with the case.

Cleveland police said the suspects are Hispanic, aged 50, 52 and 54, and one of them had lived at the house on Seymour Avenue.

Gina DeJesus' uncle said they were in shock but very grateful for her discovery.

"In all this time, 10 years, nobody never figured nothing about where she was at and this has come to an end and it's right here on Seymour," he said.

Meanwhile, a doctor confirmed the three women were being kept in hospital for observation.

"This isn't the ending we usually hear to these stories," said Dr Gerald Maloney in a brief news conference outside Metro Health hospital in Cleveland. "We're very happy."

Speaking amid cheers from spectators, he added the women were able to speak to hospital staff but he declined to give further details.

The BBC's Jane Little says it was assumed the girls were dead, and the mother of one victim said she believed her daughter had been sold into slavery.

At least one of the women is reported to have a baby.

'Here a long time'
In a frantic call to police released to the news media, Ms Berry identified her captor as Ariel Castro. She said she had escaped after he had left the house.

Local news stations say Mr Castro is one of the men in police custody.

"I am thankful that Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight have been found alive," Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said.

"We have many unanswered questions regarding this case and the investigation will be ongoing."

A neighbour said he had seen a woman screaming for help at the front door of the house.

Photos of Berry (left) and DeJesus were distributed widely after they went missing
Charles Ramsey said he suggested the woman open the door and exit, but she told him it was locked.

"We had to kick open the bottom," he said. "Lucky on that door it was aluminium. It was cheap. She climbed out with her daughter."

Mr Ramsey then sheltered the woman, who said there were others in the house.

Ms Berry was last heard from when she called her sister on 21 April 2003 to say she would get a lift home from work at a Burger King restaurant.

In 2004, Ms DeJesus was said to be on her way home from school when she went missing.

Their cases were re-opened last year when a prison inmate tipped off authorities that Ms Berry may have been buried in Cleveland. He received a four-and-a-half-year sentence in prison for the false information.

Amanda Berry's mother, Louwana, died in March 2006, three years after her daughter's disappearance.

Although much is still not yet known about this case, it recalled a series of recent high-profile child abduction cases.

Jaycee Lee Dugard was 11 years old when she was dragged into a car as she walked to a bus stop near her home in South Lake Tahoe, California in 1991.

She was discovered in August 2009, having spent 18 years held captive in the backyard of Phillip and Nancy Garrido in Antioch, some 170 miles from South Lake Tahoe. She had two children.

In Austria, Natascha Kampusch was abducted on her way to school at the age of 10. She was held for eight years by Wolfgang Priklopil in the windowless basement of a house in a quiet suburb of Vienna.

She managed to escape in 2006 while Priklopil was making a phone call. He committed suicide hours after she had fled.

Elizabeth Smart was 14 when she was taken from the bedroom of her Utah home in June 2002 and repeatedly raped during nine months of captivity.

She was rescued in March 2003 less than 20 miles from her home. Her abductor, Brian David Mitchell, was jailed for life in 2011.

10 years !

Awful story, least it's kinda had a happy ending.

**Frazzled**

Thats just crazy. As a dad this is a personal nightmare. Give those fethers the needle on public tv.

**Alfndrate**

Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry (2 of the 3 girls) have been in the local news at least once a year, hoping that something positive would come of the case...

To give some humor to the situation... the Neighbor that helped "find" them has become an overnight internet sensation as "Dead Giveaway Guy"...

Glad all three of those ladies are safe and sound

**Snrub**

Sons of bitches... I'm not normally in favour of the death penalty but i think i'd make an exception for these scum suckers.

Nice to see the three women were alive. What state of mind or physical well being they're in is an entirely different matter.

**Alfndrate**

Snrub wrote:
Sons of bitches... I'm not normally in favour of the death penalty but i think i'd make an exception for these scum suckers.

Nice to see the 3 women were ok (within reason that is).

Apparently one of them had a 6 year old kid... Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus were under 18 when abducted... Edit: Apparently it's Amanda Berry's child, a 6yr old girl.

**kronk**

Jesus...

I have no idea what the penalty for this should be, but it should be... severe.

**Snrub**

Alfndrate wrote:
Snrub wrote:
Sons of bitches... I'm not normally in favour of the death penalty but i think i'd make an exception for these scum suckers.

Nice to see the 3 women were ok (within reason that is).

Apparently one of them had a 6 year old kid... Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus were under 18 when abducted... Edit: Apparently it's Amanda Berry's child, a 6yr old girl.

Yes on 2nd thought that was a rather silly assumption. I'd imagine you would be anything but ok after 10 years locked in a basement or something. I might just remove that....

kronk wrote:
Jesus...

I have no idea what the penalty for this should be, but it should be... severe.

You know a more fitting punishment might be to lock them in the dankest, darkest hole available and let them rot there for the rest of their worthless exsistance. They certainly don't deserve an easy way out.

**Dreadclaw69**

I'm glad the ladies are finally free, but I can't help but feel sorry for the mother who died without knowing her daughter's fate.

No punishment will ever be equal to the harm inflicted on the ladies and their families, but that should not stop these responsible from being punished severely.

**Barksdale**

It was pretty heart-wrenching to read that story this morning. I'm glad to know those women are safe. I just hope that they can find some peace now. Frazz sums up my further thoughts nicely:

Frazzled wrote:
Give those fethers the needle on public tv.

**reds8n**

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/amanda_berry_is_dead_psychic_t.html

query then :

can this mother now sue the "psychic" who told her that her daughter was dead ?

... I assume then that the psychic concerned will enlighten us all as to why she was wrong.. any time now...

**Melissia**

Sad... kidnapped for the prime years of their young lives, they'll have problems integrating in to society again...

reds8n wrote:
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/amanda_berry_is_dead_psychic_t.html
query then :
can this mother now sue the "psychic" who told her that her daughter was dead ?
... I assume then that the psychic concerned will enlighten us all as to why she was wrong.. any time now...

I sure as hell hope so.

So-called "psychics" are nothing more than charlatans preying upon the unfortunate. No exception.

**Alfndrate**

Too bad Amanda Berry's mother passed away 3 years after she was kidnapped... :-\

**daedalus**

People are so horrible to each other.

**KalashnikovMarine**

That's... disturbing to say the least. I disagree with Frazz though. The needle's too good for'em. Feed them to something large, angry and carnivorous.

**Dreadclaw69**

KalashnikovMarine wrote:
That's... disturbing to say the least. I disagree with Frazz though. The needle's too good for'em. Feed them to something large, angry and carnivorous.

Do you want to wait until we make Jurassic Park a reality?

**KalashnikovMarine**

Nah, we have ligers we can feed them to.

**djones520**

Dreadclaw69 wrote:
KalashnikovMarine wrote:
That's... disturbing to say the least. I disagree with Frazz though. The needle's too good for'em. Feed them to something large, angry and carnivorous.

Do you want to wait until we make Jurassic Park a reality?

We could chain them to the raised platform that draws the T-Rex out.

**Ardaric_Vaanes**

One of the most horrifying thoughts of this world is the idea of being held captive in a basement or someone's house for years at another persons else's mercy, with dozens of people walking by each day completely ignorant of your plight.

Frigging scary stuff.

**Alfndrate**

KalashnikovMarine wrote:
That's... disturbing to say the least. I disagree with Frazz though. The needle's too good for'em. Feed them to something large, angry and carnivorous.

How about small, angry, and bitey... I hear the Legionnes Wiennes are available for hire... the Great Wiene's Angels of Death.

**Frazzled**

While normally I am a jokester, not on this thread. Best wishes to them and their relatives. Best curses to the vermin that kidnapped them. May they reap what they have sown.

**Alfndrate**

Frazzled wrote:
While normally I am a jokester, not on this thread. Best wishes to them and their relatives. Best curses to the vermin that kidnapped them. May they reap what they have sown.

I'm not joking either... I'm trying to find something crueler than a small horde of angry dachsund ripping you apart...

**skyfi**

This is horrendous. I'm so glad the women are safe now but... I have to agree with the notion that these guys don't deserve an easy way out.

Lock em up with tougher criminals, and let the tougher criminals teach them the importance of the golden rule.

**Frazzled**

Alfndrate wrote:
Frazzled wrote:
While normally I am a jokester, not on this thread. Best wishes to them and their relatives. Best curses to the vermin that kidnapped them. May they reap what they have sown.

I'm not joking either... I'm trying to find something crueler than a small horde of angry dachsund ripping you apart...

Good point.

**hotsauceman1**

Sometimes Dakka can scare me with the punishments they think of. You all cant be serious? Can you? Isnt "Cruel and unusual punishment" part of the constitution? Y'know the thing this country if founded on.

**daedalus**

hotsauceman1 wrote:
Sometimes Dakka can scare me with the punishments they think of. You all cant be serious? Can you? Isnt "Cruel and unusual punishment" part of the constitution? Y'know the thing this country if founded on.

daedalus wrote:People are so horrible to each other.

To be fair though, some people are horrible enough that it invites to others the desire to be horrible back onto them.

Those people could have the worst happen to them, and it still be better than they deserve.

**Gitzbitah**

hotsauceman1 wrote:
Sometimes Dakka can scare me with the punishments they think of. You all cant be serious? Can you? Isnt "Cruel and unusual punishment" part of the constitution? Y'know the thing this country if founded on.

What punishment would be cruel and unusual for someone who locked away 2 children and a woman for 10 years to keep for their own depraved use, whatever that may have been? These three adult males (I won't call them men) have caused over 36 years of torment to these 3 women, and the child born in captivity. Stacked up against that it is very hard to think of a fitting punishment. That poor 6 year old has never known a life outside of captivity! I find it even harder to conceive of anything that would be regarded as cruel and unusual in comparison to the crime.

**daedalus**

I've always been a large fan of immolation. I cannot think of a more horrible sounding way to go.

**hotsauceman1**

The idead behind it is so you do not become just as cruel as them. How is releasing animals on them not making you cruel?

**Frazzled**

hotsauceman1 wrote:
Sometimes Dakka can scare me with the punishments they think of. You all cant be serious? Can you? Isnt "Cruel and unusual punishment" part of the constitution? Y'know the thing this country if founded on.

Cruel and unusual punishment applies to the government. We're not limited. I'll note the needle is current practice in Texas, or just dying of old age on death row.

**daedalus**

hotsauceman1 wrote:
The idead behind it is so you do not become just as cruel as them. How is releasing animals on them not making you cruel?

You're thinking justice. ITT we have vengeance.

The major difference is how savage you get to be about it..