For Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight.
With Amanda Berry’s 30th birthday having been this past April 21st, I assumed it would be a good idea to highlight the strength she and her friends had, continue to have, and to review the case that shocked the entire nation. On May 6, 2013, neighbors noticed a dilapidated Cleveland, Ohio house where a woman was frantically trying to escape. Little did the neighbors know what horror would be uncovered as soon as Amanda started calling out for help. The doors and windows were always locked, but she managed to squeeze one arm through the screen to capture the attention of neighbor Charles Ramsey. Although she was severely malnourished, Ramsey was in disbelief that Amanda Berry, who had been missing for over a decade, was actually alive as she crawled out of captivity with a female child clinging to her arms.
As Amanda’s child cries out for the remaining two kidnap victims inside the Horror House and for the child’s “daddy,” Ramsey notices a quiver of fear arise in Amanda as she realizes her capturer will soon return, so Ramsey offers her his phone to contact the police. Amanda had been Ariel Castro’s second kidnapping victim stolen the day before her 17th birthday, locked in his house for ten years. As the police dispatch officer waited for her name and location, listeners around the world heard in disbelief as she revealed, “My name is Amanda Berry, I’ve been here for ten years, I’m free, I’m free now.” Her voice is noticeably disheveled because for ten years the country and Cleveland as a city had basically given up on returning Amanda home alive, despite her mother continuously searching day and night for her daughter. (The police call Amanda made had been recorded and is now posted on youtube.com for all viewers to listen to.) The police broke into the house, owned by the then-52 year old Ariel Castro, and discovered Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus hiding from within the house. All three women had been held captive (being chained to walls) for about a decade, barely being allowed outside and being forced to say goodbye to their families and to their previous lives. All three women (underage or underage looking at the time of abduction) were offered a ride off of Lorain Avenue, Ohio by Ariel Castro. He lured them into his house where he restrained them, tied them up, starved, tormented, beat, and raped each woman, sometimes several times day. This crime against humanity took place secretly, with the whole world and the Cleveland Police Department completely unsuspecting of such horrific injustice, which unfortunately lasted over eleven years.
Michelle was the first kidnap victim stolen at age 21 (assumed by Castro as a 15 year old girl) in 2002, imprisoned for over four thousand days: she originally came from a background of further childhood abuse history and family court appearances. Michelle’s biological mother forced Michelle out of school claiming her daughter had intellectual /developmental disorders in order to receive government security checks, so Michelle eventually ran away for the final time before being kidnapped. Michelle, while held captive, was impregnated via rape by Ariel Castro at least five times (Western Daily Press, 2014). The number of forced abortions Michelle Knight endured at the hands and equipment of Ariel Castro have ceased any chance of Michelle ever becoming a mother. She has needed cosmetic surgery to correct the physical scarring Castro caused once she gained her freedom back, and she spent more days hospitalized following her discovery than the other two kidnap survivors needed for medical reasons not released to the public.
According to the prosecutors involved in the Cuyahoga County court case, Gina DeJesus, Amanda Berry, and Michelle Knight each wrote in diaries “of forced sexual conduct, of being locked in a dark room, of anticipating the next session of abuse, of the dreams of someday escaping and being reunited with family, of being chained to a wall, of being held like a prisoner of war, of missing the lives they once enjoyed, of emotional abuse, of his threats to kill, of being treated like an animal, of continuous abuse, and of desiring freedom” (Johnson, 2013). They would be fed once a day and were allowed to shower at most twice a week. On the top corner of Amanda’s personal journal, she recorded the number of times she was raped each day by Castro, written in secret code as such: “X-1” or “X-3.” Michelle Knight had been forced into aborting the five or more embryos conceived through Castro’s sexual abuse via starvation and/or physical punishment, eventually leading to his charge of aggravated murder once the case was brought to court. Michelle was shaved bald during her eleven year imprisonment, and had witnessed Castro kill one of her pet dogs by snapping its poor neck. Amanda Berry got impregnated through rape and was forced to deliver a baby girl in an inflatable swimming pool within the house, with Michelle Knight acting as Amanda’s inexperienced medical midwife. The child born by Amanda was kept as safe as possible considering the harsh living conditions the mother and other kidnap victims were forced to deal with.
Gina DeJesus was kidnapped at 14 years old while walking home from school. She had recognized Castro as a classmate’s father, so she willingly accepted a car ride from him not imagining in her wildest nightmares that she would become imprisoned in his Horror House for nine years. Gina was first raped on May 7, 2004 about a month into her captivity at the young age of fourteen. She still asks the public to respect her privacy and to not question her on individual details. I find it worth mentioning also that Gina DeJesus neither made an appearance to court when asked for a victim testimony nor did she send a representative to speak on her behalf. After fifty-two days locked in the Horror House, Castro admits to the theft of Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight- Gina had believed for 50+ days that she was alone in the Horror House. Each woman was locked in separate locations throughout the house until Gina and Michelle were tied up in the same room together while Amanda had the unfortunate circumstance of having her own room. Castro fancied Amanda due to her blonde hair, and would refer to her in person as his wife or lover.
In the Cuyahoga County Grand Jury Courtroom, Ariel Castro was charged with over nine hundred and fifty counts, including counts of kidnapping, rape, gross sexual imposition, felonious assault, child endangerment, aggravated murder, and possession of criminal tools (Johnson, 2013). That is 977 counts of criminal activities, totaling over 1,000 years deserving imprisonment. Unfortunately, Ariel Castro hung himself one month into his prison sentence using his bedsheets (pathetic because he accepted a plea bargain to avoid serving the death penalty in Ohio); nevertheless, the women today are all just happy to finally be free. No physical remnants of the 2207 Seymour Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio Horror House remain to eradicate creepy curiosity. The survivors appreciate their privacy, and the identity of Amanda and Ariel’s daughter shall remain unknown to the general public for her continued protection and privacy.
The kidnap victims were allotted by Castro a small television that would replay the news station, and Gina and Amanda eventually watched their families being recorded as vigils and searches were annually held. The fact that their families refused to give up searching probably propelling their hope to eventually escape. Memoirs are in the process of being published by Amanda & Gina collectively; while Michelle Knight’s memoir Finding Me is on bookshelves being sold around the world. I find it astonishing that Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight were able to survive not only the trauma, but the trauma attached to confessing each incident in court, and to re-incorporate their lives into the current world. All three survivors still live in Ohio and are very grateful to the authorities and the investigators who helped keep their case afloat in court and after all these years. Their strength is a source of admiration and courage for all.
