The voice was frantic, pleading, sounding even more frightened than the usual call to 911.
(Reuters) – Cleveland resident Ariel Castro was charged on Wednesday with kidnapping and raping three women who were rescued from his house on Monday after nearly a decade in captivity.
Castro’s two brothers Pedro and Onil, originally arrested in the case, were not charged, said Cleveland city prosecutor Victor Perez at a news conference.
The charges came as police revealed that the women, who were rescued on Monday after one of them, Amanda Berry, fled with the help of a neighbor, had not seen any previous chances to escape in nearly ten years of captivity.
“The only opportunity, after interviewing the young ladies, to escape was the other day when Amanda escaped,” Cleveland Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba said at the same news conference.
“They don’t believe that they’ve been outside that home for the last 10 years respectively,” he said.
“They were not in one room, but they did know each other and they did know each other was there,” he added.
Police said earlier that they found ropes and chains in the house that had been used to hold them prisoner. No human remains were found, they said.
Castro, 52, faces four counts of kidnapping relating to Berry, now 27, Gina DeJesus, 23, Michelle Knight, 32, and Berry’s 6-year-old daughter who was conceived and born during her mother’s captivity, authorities said.
A paternity test will be conducted to determine the girl’s father, Tomba said.
Castro is not a suspect in any other cases, he said.
Authorities were searching a second house in relation to the case, Tomba said.
Berry and DeJesus went to their families’ homes on Wednesday, while Knight was in a Cleveland hospital where a spokeswoman said she was in good condition.
The rape charges against Castro relate to Berry, DeJesus and Knight, the prosecutor said. He would be arraigned on Thursday morning, the prosecutor said.
Castro and his two brothers were arrested on Monday evening within hours of the women’s escape from his house.
However, there was no evidence Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50, were involved, the prosecutor said.
Investigators took some 200 pieces of evidence from the Castro house, which Tomba said was “in quite a bit of disarray.”
Neither Berry nor DeJesus spoke publicly as they were hustled inside their family’s homes, and relatives emerged instead to speak to the waiting crowds of spectators and media.
Berry and her daughter could be seen from an aerial television camera arriving in a convoy of vehicles at her sister’s house and going in the back door.
DeJesus was rushed into the home she had not seen in nine years, clenched in a tight embrace by her sister Mayra. DeJesus hid her face in a yellow hooded sweat-shirt but raised her hand in a thumbs-up sign to the crowd that was chanting “Gina. Gina.”
Her mother Nancy DeJesus came outside after a little while.
“I want to thank everybody that believed,” she said. “Even the ones that doubted, I still want to thank them the most because they’re the ones that made me stronger, the ones that made me feel the most that my daughter was out there.”
Before Monday evening, Berry had last been seen leaving her job at a fast-food restaurant the day before her 17th birthday in April 2003. Her disappearance as a teenager was widely publicized in the local media.
DeJesus vanished while walking home from school at age 14 in 2004, and Knight, 32, was 20 when she disappeared in 2002.
Born in Puerto Rico, Ariel Castro played bass in Latin music bands in the area. Records show he was divorced more than a decade ago and his ex-wife had since died. He is known to have at least one adult daughter and son.
(Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta, Barbara Goldberg; Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Grant McCool, Toni Reinhold and Bernard Orr)
Thank you Reuters.
Beth Berry Serrano, the sister of kidnap victim Amanda Berry, speaks to the press after the arrival of Berry at her home May 8 in Cleveland. Emmanuel Dunand, AFP/Getty Images
Neighbors and friends celebrate as Amanda Berry arrives at her sister’s home. Tony Dejak, AP
A police officer delivers balloons and flowers. Emmanuel Dunand, AFP/Getty Images.
A poster of Amanda Berry is pinned on a tree outside the home of her sister, Beth Serrano, in Cleveland. Tony Dejak, AP.
Balloons hang on a street pole near the Burger King restaurant where Amanda Berry worked and was last seen a decade ago. Emmanuel Dunand, AFP/Getty Images.
People decorate the family home of Gina DeJesus on May 7 in Cleveland. Emmanuel Dunand, AFP/Getty Images.
An FBI forensic investigator removes evidence from a home owned by Ariel Castro. He and his two brothers are accused of kidnappings the three women. Emmanuel Dunand, AFP/Getty Image.
The family home of Gina DeJesus was decorated by well wishers. Emmanuel Dunand, AFP/Getty Images.
People decorate the home belonging to Amanda Berry’s sister. Emmanuel Dunand, AFP/Getty Images.
The front door is broken open at a home where three women who disappeared years ago were discovered alive. Bill Pugliano, Getty Image.
Sheriff’s deputies guard a house in Cleveland. Tony Dejak, AP.
Charles Ramsey, a neighbor, speaks to the media near the home on Seymour Avenue where three missing women were rescued. Ramsey helped Berry escape. Scott Shaw, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, via AP.
Robin Webb, USA TODAY8:03 p.m. EDT May 8, 2013
Cleveland homeowner Ariel Castro charged with kidnapping and rape, but two brothers not charged.
Ariel Castro, the man who owned the Cleveland home where three women escaped this week after nearly a decade of captivity, was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape.
The kidnapping charges include the 6-year-old daughter of Amanda Berry, who was conceived and born in the house on the city’s west side. DNA tests are being conducted to determine the child’s father.
Castro will be arraigned Thursday morning.
His two brothers, Pedro and Onil, will not be charged. Cleveland prosecutor Victor Perez said there was no evidence they were involved in the crime or had any knowledge of it.
No other victims are expected from the case.
Other revelations:
• Berry and Gina DeJesus were welcomed back to their family homes. The third victim, Michelle Knight, remained hospitalized Wednesday.
• Berry was reunited with relatives at her sister’s home in Cleveland. Her sister, Beth Serrano, made a brief statement thanking the public for their support and requesting privacy so that Berry can “heal” and “recover.”
• DeJesus hid her face with a hoodie and gave a thumbs-up sign as she arrived home.
• DeJesus reportedly told investigators she was abducted when she accepted a ride home from school, according to NBC News.
• DeJesus is in “good sprits,” according to a CNN interview with a family member.
• DeJesus was a friend of Ariel Castro’s daughter as a young teen, WKYC-TV reports.
• Ariel Castro helped search for DeJesus when she went missing, and Castro was friends with the girl’s father, Khalid Samad, a friend of the DeJesus family, told the Associated Press. Samad also said Castro helped pass out missing-persons fliers.
• AP reported that Castro also comforted DeJesus’ mother at a candlelight vigil for her missing daughter.
• Victims’ family members told CNN that survivor Michelle Knight, the longest held captive, was “malnourished and weak.”
• Metro Health Hospital spokeswoman Tina Shaerban-Arundel confirmed Knight was still hospitalized Wedneday, in good condition.
• Cleveland Safety Director Martin Flask said no human remains had been found at the site where Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight escaped. Authorities had been drawn to disturbed soil in the yard — and previously told WKYC-TV that the three women were forced to have sex with their captors, that the pregnant women were beaten and that the babies didn’t survive.
• One victim reportedly suffered up to three miscarriages because she was so malnourished, according to Cleveland’s WEWS-TV.
• One of the brothers is believed to have fathered the 6-year-old girl found at the home with Berry, now 27, according to Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba. DNA tests are being conducted to verify paternity.
• Berry give birth in an inflatable swimming pool inside the house, police told The Plain Dealer. The girl’s name is Jocelyn.
STORY: Disturbing tale of Cleveland captivity
• WKYC-TV reports Berry’s family is “excited” to meet their grandchild and is eager to “embrace Berry’s daughter as their own.”
• Police sources said the 6-year-old-girl was occasionally taken out of the house and would visit suspect Ariel Castro’s mother, Lillian Rodriguez, whom she called “grandmother.”
• The women were restrained by ropes and chains and occasionally had been allowed into the backyard, Police Chief Michael McGrath said.
• WKYC-TV spoke with Ariel Castro’s son, who said his father was “secretive” and that there were padlocks on doors to the attic, basement and garage in his father’s home. Castro’s son said he was not close to his father.
• Investigators are talking with relatives of at least one other missing woman from the neighborhood, AP reported. Ashley Summers, a 14-year-old girl, disappeared in 2007 near the house where Castro lives.
• McGrath told NBC’s Today show that the physical condition of the three women was “very good considering the circumstances” and the women were allowed in the backyard of the suspect’s home “once in a while.”
• McGrath said police did everything they could to find the women since they went missing, denying claims by neighbors that officers had been called to the house for suspicious circumstances from time to time in the past 10 years.
• Cleveland neighbor Israel Lugo said that other neighbors had seen women crawling on all fours behind Castro’s house, and that the men were controlling the women, according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail Online.
• Suspect Ariel Castro speaks both English and Spanish. Brothers Pedro and Onil Castro speak only Spanish, according to WKYC-TV.
• FBI Special Agent Vicki Anderson told ABC-TV that the three woman “had a bond, that they had been through this together.”
Ariel Castro On Facebook.
miracles really do happen, God is good
I know “quality” when i see it, very nice.
Congrats to my Rosie Arlene. Wishing you a fast recovery.
She gave birth to a wonderful baby boy. That makes me Gramps for the fifth time, (2boys 1girl 2boys. Luv you guys!
True that
This is absolutely amazing.
I rather look at Mr. Castro this way………
A Cleveland Police Department photograph of Ariel Castro. Cleveland Police Department via AP
\
Jueseppi B.
