Police: three rescued Cleveland women, 6-year-old are in good health

[GandD 5,966]

Three young women and a six-year-old girl rescued from a house in Cleveland Monday night after years in apparent captivity have been medically evaluated and are in good health, police said Tuesday morning.

The little girl is believed to be the daughter of Amanda Berry, the woman who triggered the rescue of herself and her fellow captives by flagging down a neighbor and begging him to call police.

Frantic call leads police to 3 missing women in Cleveland home: Three women who vanished separately a decade ago were found living in a house near downtown Cleveland. One escaped and called police. Authorities arrested three brothers.

Law enforcement officials said at a briefing on Tuesday that there had been no prior reports of suspicious or criminal activity at the house where the women and girl were found.

Berry, now 27, disappeared in April 2003, a day before her 17th birthday, after calling her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at Burger King. Gina DeJesus went missing just under a year later, at age 14, while walking home from middle school. The oldest of the women, Michelle Knight, disappeared in August 2002, when she was 20 years old.

All three were found at the home of Ariel Castro, a 53-year-old former school bus driver, after Amanda Berry flagged down a neighbor, convinced him to help her slip through an obstructed front door by removing a screen and placed a frantic call to 911.

“I’m Amanda Berry. I’ve been kidnapped, and I’ve been missing for 10 years,” she told the dispatcher tearfully, according to a recording played repeatedly on news channels Tuesday. “And I’m here. I’m free now.”

Castro was arrested, along with his brothers Pedro Castro, 54, and Oneil Castro, 50. Pedro and Oneil Castro have addresses elsewhere in Cleveland, police said.

The brothers are in custody and must be charged within 36 hours, law enforcement authorities said. They declined to specify what charges the men are likely to face, or detail how they were placed under arrest.

“The real hero here is Amanda. She’s the one who got this rolling,” Cleveland Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba said. “We’re just following her lead.”

Ariel Castro came to police attention in 2004, when he apparently left a child unattendedon his school bus, but authorities who investigated the incident determined that it was accidental, law enforcement authorities said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/police-three-rescued-cleveland-women-6-year-old-are-in-good-health/2013/05/07/dd65ea5e-b719-11e2-aa9e-a02b765ff0ea_story.html

This is a crazy story.

[TBoneTX 45,288]

*** Thread moved from P&R to Off Topic -- news story is not political or religious. ***

[Darnell 8,478]

yikes. I was watching the news about this, this morning,

and the newscaster never say Ohio. I've no clue why I thought Cleveland, TX.

After a bit of 'round the world' newsfeeds, I sussed out it was Ohio.

Apologies, that bit isn't important.

A bus-driver did this? Ye Gods.