Charges were filed by Cleveland authorities today in the decades-long kidnapping and abduction of three women that were discovered Monday night at a house in western Cleveland.
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Charged in the case was 52-year-old Ariel Castro, former bus driver and owner of the home that the women were kept in all these years. Castro was charged with three counts of rape and four counts of kidnapping. The extra charge of kidnapping stems from the continued captivity of Amanda Berry’s daughter, who was conceived and born while Berry was in captivity.
Although Castro’s brothers, Onil and Pedro Castro continue to be in custody, not charges were leveled at them in connection in the case as yet.Cleveland Councilmember Brian Cummins reported that although many of the details in the case are unclear, the captive women, Amanda Berry, 27, Georgina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32, prolonged sexual abuse, psychological abuse and several miscarriages while being held by Castro. The women underwent beatings and abuse during their pregnancies. There are no specific number of miscarriages suffered by the women.
The three women and Berry’s six-year-old child were discovered on Monday night after a neighbor heard, then saw, Berry frantically trying to escape the house in Western Clevelland where she had been held for years. Kicking out the bottom portion of the door, the man, Charles Ramsey, made possible her escape. She called 911 shortly after and the other captives in the house were rescued by police.
The victims have not yet been interviewed extensively by authorities, and will not be until they are able to adjust to their new-found freedom after years of captivity and abuse. But, the investigation at the scene has uncovered hundreds of bits of evidence in the case including ropes and chains in a hall where the women were bound during their forced stay at the closed up residence.
Amanda Berry and Georgina DeJesus were welcomed by community members amidst of hundreds of balloons as they returned to their respective homes. Michellle Knight still remains at a Cleveland hospital.
Ariel Castro will be arraigned on rape and kidnapping charges on Thursday morning.