In an outcome that has shocked the city of Cleveland, two missing teen girls and a young woman have been found alive 10 years after their disappearance.
Amanda Berry went missing in 2003 the day before her 17th birthday. She was last heard from when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at a Cleveland Burger King.
Gina DeJesus was last seen walking home from school a year later in 2004, when she was 14-years-old. Extensive searches for both teens and long-running investigations never produced results.
According to Cleveland police, Berry and DeJesus, now young women, were both found alive today in the same house where they have reportedly been held captive since their disappearance. A third missing person, Michelle Knight who disappeared in 2002 at age 20, was also found alive in the home. The house is not far from the locations of their disappearances.
Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus.
“I heard screaming… And I see this girl going nuts trying to get outside,” a neighbor who found the women told WEWS. “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. The man also said Berry was with a young child.
A Hispanic man in his 50s, reportedly a bus driver, is in custody. He is being identified as Ariel Castro. His two brothers are also in custody.
The women were treated for dehydration at a Cleveland hospital.
Read interviews with investigators who spent years trying to solve these cases.
DeJesus’ cousin says Gina was held captive just two blocks from her aunt’s house on same street.
