Cleveland 911 police ambulance are fire hey check this out I just came from McDonald's right this is trying to bre out the [ __ ] house next door to me she like this [ __ ] didn't kidnapped me and my daughter and we been in this [ __ ] she s sir you have to calm down and slow down is she still in the street yeah I'm looking at her she right now she calling y'all she on another phone1 you need you need police fire ambulance I police okay and what's going on there I've been
kidnapped and I've been missing for 10 years and I'm I'm here I'm free now the street I'm using the phone okay stay there with those neighbors talk to the police when they get there okay okay talk to the police when they get there okay hello yeah talk to the police when they get there okay are I right now I need we're going to as soon as we get a car open no I need them now before he gets back can you ask her if she needs an ambulance you need UL she need everything she's she
in panic bro I guess she been kidnapped so you know put yourself on her shoes the chilling 911 calls you just heard were made in 2013 after a woman made a daring Escape after nearly a decade in captivity the news shocked not only the Cleveland Ohio neighborhood where the woman had been held but the world as more unbelievable details about the House of Horrors were uncovered the nightmare first began in 2002 when 21-year-old Michelle Knight left the home of a family member on August 23rd Michelle had been on her way to a case management meeting
about the custody of her 2-year-old son Joey when she got lost while trying to figure out where exactly she was Michelle was stopped on the street by a man who she quickly recognized as the father of one of her friends trusting this man was the worst mistake of her life growing up Michelle had a difficult home life where her family struggled to get by she spent much of her time helping to care for her siblings but claimed to have been abused as a child and teen at only 14 it all became too much for her
and she ran away from home choosing to live on the streets instead eventually Michelle decided to move back home and returned to high school then at 18 Michelle became pregnant allegedly as a result of an assault soon after she gave birth to her son Joey though she wanted to be the best mother possible for her son Michelle eventually lost custody of a in 2002 after an incident reportedly involving her mother's boyfriend allegedly the Man became intoxicated and fractured Joey's knee the young boy was then moved from the house and placed in foster care she was
on her way to a meeting hoping to regain custody of Joey when then 42-year-old Ariel Castro pulled over to offer her a lift to the hearing because Michelle knew him casually through one of his four children she agreed Castro worked as a school bus driver for the Cleveland metropolitan school district and was a local musician in the car the two got to talking and Castro offered Michelle a puppy the young mom was thrilled thinking a puppy would make for a great present to Joey Castro told her they could pick up the puppy from his house
before they continued to the meeting but there was no puppy Castro had likely been thinking about abducting someone for a long time when he saw Michelle walking alone and she agreed to get in the car he was presented with the perfect opportunity to carry out his fantasy when they got to Castro's 2207 SE Avenue home and Michelle went inside she had no idea that she would never be allowed to leave once in the home Castro struck he wrapped an extension cord around her neck binding her arms and legs and shoved a sock into her mouth
to prevent her from screaming for help Castro told her you're not going to leave for a long time and began taking off his clothes terrified Michelle started to beg him to let her go telling him that she needed to get her son Castro's response was to tear the photo of Joey she carried into tiny pieces it was the only picture she had of him he told her that she would never see her son again he kept her chained in the dark basement for days and put a motorcycle helmet over her head to muffle her screams
this was just the first of repeated unimaginable Horrors that Castro inflicted upon Michelle he assaulted and beat her multiple times a day to keep her cries from being heard he played loud music to drown them out at some point Castro had allowed Michelle to have a pet dog a pitbull puppy she named named Lobo but she claimed that when the dog bit him trying to protect her from him he broke its neck in front of her Castro felt a huge rush of power in those first few days with Michelle he had complete control he dictated
when she could eat what she wore where she slept what items she was allowed to have and what happened to her own body killing the dog in front of her was another show of power and likely a scare tactic as well he wanted her to be afraid and know that he was in charge Castro lived alone so there was no chance of anyone else stumbling upon Michelle hidden there though he had four children none of them lived with him his EXC common-law wife had custody of the children and she moved out of Castro's home in
1996 it was her mother Barbara Knight who filed the missing person report about Michelle the report describes what she was last seen wearing and states that she had a mental condition and that she confused her surroundings a lot which may have been what happened just before Castro found her despite being kidnapped in broad daylight the police belied that because Michelle had run away before she might have done it again they assumed that because she had lost custody of Joey she decided to leave this assumption may have greatly impacted any search efforts to find her Michelle's
case was eventually forgotten her name was taken off the missing person's database only 15 months after she was reported missing though she didn't know it her mother still continued to search for her however some reports claim that her family made very little attempt to find her I would give her a big hug and kiss and say I love you mis yes when there was no sign of what had happened to Michelle her son was eventually adopted by another family on at least one occasion Michelle tried to escape the House of Horrors where Castro kept her
confined during her attempt her neck and back were hurt so badly she was afraid to try again she said we had no way to get out of that house and even if we tried we got hurt 7 months after Michelle had been kidnapped and held captive 16-year-old Amanda Barry got up and got ready for work at a fast food restaurant on April 21st 2003 she thought about calling in since the next day was her 17th birthday her entire life would have been different if she hadn't gone to work that day it was during her walk
home only a few blocks from her house that everything went horribly wrong there was a vehicle sitting in a driveway at an angle where she had to go around Amanda remembered smiling at the people inside the vehicle a man and his daughter because the daughter looked familiar to her she believed it was one of her friends she had known in middle school but then the vehicle started following after her as she walked the man pulled up to her and asked if she wanted to ride home and Amanda realized that the girl was no longer inside
when Amanda commented that the girl wasn't with the man anymore he told her that his daughter was at his house and asked Amanda if she wanted to see her believing that the man was the father of her friend friend and therefore trustworthy Amanda told him yes a choice she would come to deeply regret Amanda had gone to school with two of Castro's daughters but what she didn't know was that neither lived with him and in fact they lived in a different neighborhood with their mother though it isn't entirely clear it appears that Castro had been
dropping off one of his daughters before he spotted Amanda and took advantage of the fact that she knew his daughter to lure her to his house when they arrived at the house on Seymour Avenue the man told her that the girl his daughter must have been in the bath as they waited he started to show her around the house a house she could never be allowed to leave Castro took Amanda upstairs and showed her where another young woman was fast asleep Amanda didn't know it at the time but the other woman was now 22 year-old
Michelle Knight The Nightmare only got worse from there Castro forced Amanda into the next bedroom where he told her to pull her pants down after Amanda's wrists and ankles were bound with tape Castro went one step further and added a belt over the tape around her ankles she was chained to a pole in the basement as Castro put a helmet over her head and told her that if she was quiet he would take her home it was a lime the initial Rush of power and excitement for Castro after he abducted Michelle had likely faded somewhat
after 7 months so he took Amanda to feel that huge rush again just like with Michelle Amanda happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time Castro saw the opportunity and he acted on it that first day Amanda was left in the dark with only a TV for company as much as she cried and screamed no one came to save her her family reported that she was missing soon after and she watched on TV in Castro's basement as her mother and sister made pleas for her safe return any whereabouts or anything of my
daughter Amanda Barry thank you all very much for being here I appreciate it Amanda Barry's mother's pleading for anyone with information about her daughter's disappearance to come forward she's been missing since late April after being in the house for 4 days Castro brought Amanda back upstairs where he chained her to a radiator in a bedroom eventually Castro asked her if there was anything she wanted to pass the time and Amanda asked him for something she could write in he brought her a diary with a tiny lock and key in one of her first entries she
wrote You Never Know What You Got Till It's Gone I just can't wait to go home I'm 17 now but don't have a life but he told me I'm young and will go home before summer another two months it was another lie a week after abducting Amanda Castro called her family to taunt them about how he had taken her he referred to her as Mandy a nickname that only those close to her ever used which especially Disturbed her family Castro also claimed that Amanda wanted to be with him this call was almost Castro's downfall he
was literally two blocks away from being caught around this time the FBI had developed technology capable of tracking a cell phone location but it only worked if the phone was turned on authorities were able to narrow down the call to within two blocks of where Castro lived and they staked out the area for weeks hoping for a sign of Amanda but Castro never turned the phone back on and so they eventually gave up there were thousands of reported sightings of Amanda over the years there were even times when people reported that she had died but
her family kept hope because her body was never found over the years that she was held captive Amanda addressed almost all of her diary injuries to her mother Lana Miller she died at 43 in 2006 from heart failure though her family said she died of a broken heart after losing Amanda who she searched for relentlessly she never learned what became of her daughter it isn't known for sure how Amanda found out her mother had died but the women sometimes had access to a TV or VCR where they frequently saw updates in their own missing person's
cases so she may have seen the death announced on the news after after she still addressed her diary entries to her but wrote mother in heaven when Amanda was first taken Michelle only saw her for a few minutes but then didn't see her again for months Castro likely kept the girls separate so they wouldn't be able to band together against them if they were together when he wasn't around he wouldn't know what they were discussing especially what they were saying about him and this would make him feel like he was not in control everything Castro
did was about control even with two women already held hostage in his house Castro wanted more a year after he took Amanda he went looking for another victim Castro promised Amanda that if he got another girl into the house then he would finally take her home it was another lie again Castro was searching for the high of that initial abduction because it is worn off after a year as time passed Castro began to anticipate the next Abduction the more he thought about doing it the more he wanted to he likely felt a huge thrill and
Rush of power each time he took a new girl it seems that with each kidnapping Castro felt more confident and more dangerous as he captured younger women each time just five blocks from where Amanda had been taken Castro ran into someone he knew on April 2nd 2004 Castro's daughter Arlene Castro was walking home from school with 14-year-old Gina De Jesus the girls were going to hang out but when Arlene's mother said no Gina started on the long walk to her house alone she called her own mother and told her she was on her way but
she would never make it Arlene was the last person to see Gina before she went missing Castro also knew Gina's father so when his vehicle pulled up next to her on the sidewalk she wasn't too alarmed to see him Castro asked Gina if she had seen Arlene and when she said she had he asked for her help locating her the request didn't seem out of the ordinary for the teen so she agreed and got into the car with him but Castro didn't take her to find Arlene instead he brought her to his house where he
asked her to to help him move some equipment by now Gina was understandably alarmed then Castro's Behavior changed instead of telling her what equipment he needed help with he started to groom himself in front of her trimming his eyebrows mustache and nose hairs he shifted his attention to her and began inappropriately touching her Gina warned him he could go to jail because she was so young and he responded that she could leave however he had one stipulation she had to leave out a different door than the one she came in and to use the basement
dorm likely just feeling relieved that she could leave Gina didn't ask any questions once in the basement Castro pounced and tried to chain her up at first the chains weren't tight enough and Gina managed to get loose she tried to run Castro caught her and overpowered her but she managed to land a few hard kicks on him Gina screamed for help but he had turned up the volume of the radio in his basement and the radio in the living room so no one could hear her he managed to tie her up and left her in
his basement the day she went missing Gina's mother Nancy Ruiz called police to report that she had disappeared yet investigators didn't immediately look into Gina's disappearance as a missing child because they assumed she may have run away from home when the search for Gina finally began something especially Twisted happened Castro joined in the efforts all the while he knew exactly where Gina was because Castro was friends with Gina's father he helped pass out flyers about her disappearance and even comforted Gina's mother while at of vigil for her a year after she'd gone missing Castro likely
joined the search to gain access to information about the case and any possible leads he may have also wanted to ensure that he was not a suspect since Gina was last seen with his daughter and finally he likely felt excitement that he was helping with the search and that no one but him knew the truth for the first few weeks the Castro held Gina captive he mostly left her alone but on May 7th 2004 he assaulted her for the first time horrifically he continued to do so regularly he chained up Michelle and Gina together in
the same room where they had to share a mattress they would remain together in that room during their entire captivity on a few occasions Michelle tried to intervene when Castro attempted to assault Gina which resulted in her being assaulted and beaten more often herself he would assault each of them while the other was still in the room Castro had kidnapped all three women within 20 months in a roughly five block area inside the home the women were forced to live in filthy and cramp conditions they were chained up tortured and starved all suffered from depression
sickness and bed bugs during the first winter she was there Michelle was left naked for months with just a thin sheet to keep warm she also wasn't allowed to shower for the first 8 months after she was taken Amanda was kept in a room the size of a closet with a dirty and old mattress she had to go to the bathroom and a bucket which was kept in the room with her and smelled terrible anytime Castro showed them any kindness it always came with disturbing conditions Amanda recalled that whenever he allowed her to shower she
had to shower with him Castro frequently assaulted the women in order to muffle any sounds of their cries for help he used the sound system to play loud music so no one would hear him Amanda said she tried to numb herself but she secretly kept track of each instance of assault with a number at the top of the pages in her diary with the hope that one day he would be caught and punished Michelle became pregnant on four or five occasions but Castro forced her to miscarry each pregnancy by beating her so severely the injuries
were so damaging that they left Michelle unable to have any more children he ensured none could Escape by boarding up the windows and locking all of the doors Castro also psychologically manipulated them testing them to see if they would try to escape he sometimes pretended to leave the house and then would sneak back in without the women knowing that way they could never really trust he was gone he would check that they hadn't tried to leave and warn that if he ever caught them attempting to escape that he would kill them other forms of Castro's
manipulations were calculated gifts and deprivation to pin the girls against each other Castro used a domestic economy to hand out rewards to the women he would give them cash allowances that they could use to buy food and other necessities which he could also take away in order to ensure the women didn't trust each other he intentionally played mind games with them often between Amanda and Michelle when he first took Gina he gave her the nicest room and let her eat first which caused some resentment between the women buying occasional little gifts for the girls was
a manipulation tactic to gain their trust and cooperation when you have had literally everything taken away from you such as Michelle Amanda and Gina did a small item takes on a larger meaning making sure the girls didn't trust each other was Castro's way of ensuring they didn't join forces against him it was another form of control one of the [Music] cruestv but in a resistance streak Gina also wanted a chance to pull the trigger while the gun was aimed at Castro she wanted to kill him she pulled the trigger but nothing happened Michelle was the
most outwardly resistant to Castro she often talked back to him refusing to use his name when she spoke to him instead she called him dude Castro disliked her the most out of his captives because she refused to break Michelle later said he wanted to break me and that's something he couldn't do because you can't break someone who's already broken you can only make them stronger something that all the women held on to was hope whether it was Finding strength in the belief that their families would never give up on them them or even resistance by
fantasizing that they could kill Castro with rat poison at first the three women were kept separate from each other in different rooms of the house but then on May 23rd 2004 Castro brought them all together just so they could watch a show it was America's Most Wanted and featured both Amanda and Gina's missing person's cases this was especially painful because the families of both girls were interviewed Gina said that after this she couldn't stand him but had to act as though was friends with Castro in order to survive following Michelle's abduction there was very little
if any TV or news coverage about the case Castro used this lack of effort to find her to torture Michelle telling her it was because no one was looking for her this was made all the worse when Amanda Barry's mother appeared on the news frequently begging for her daughter to be returned Castro would twist this to make Michelle feel even more alone in comparison did you ever imagine that she would be found not really I didn't even think that we would ever see her again we were still looking for watching out see if you seen
her on the street but we like I said we NE really never publicized it Michelle said it would hurt because I knew my family didn't care Castro even said to her ain't you glad I took you after bringing the women together to watch TV they started to talk to each other well they spoke to each other whenever they had the chance because Castro actually forbade them from speaking speaking among themselves he put gates up to keep them apart but they could still speak and when he closed the doors to stop them they communicated through pictures
and notes carefully slid under doors whenever Castro left them in the house alone which was very infrequently the women would sometimes pretend like everything was okay dancing and singing together or watching The Vampire Diaries on TV attempting to Fain any kind of normaly on occasion Castro would allow the women to go outside of the home but only to the yard or the garage and whenever they were out of the house he made them wear disguises such as a helmet or a wig like the one shown here everything became all the more disturbing when Amanda turned
20 she began to suspect that she was pregnant for some reason instead of forcefully terminating her pregnancy as Castro had with Michelle he allowed her to carry the baby to term on Christmas Day 2006 Amanda went into labor Castro had purchased a baby pool for her to give birth in the home and had Michelle help her deliver the baby while she was in labor Castro sat in a rocking chair and read a book on babies rather than offer an aid the birth wasn't easy not only because she had to give birth without any professional help
but the child wasn't breathing at first Castro apparently threatened to kill Michelle if she didn't save the Baby Michelle managed to get the child to Breathe by blowing air into her mouth and thanks to her efforts the baby survived Amanda named her daughter Joselyn the baby became a very welcome distraction and source of joy for the three young women according to Michelle Castro began calling Amanda his wife after the child was born he even referred to them all as a family for the most part Joselyn was as hidden from the outside world as the others
but unlike the three women Castro would occasionally let her outside in the backyard to the park or to Sunday services with him he even took Joselyn to visit his family including his mother Lillian Rodriguez apparently Joselyn called her grandmother Rodriguez never revealed where she thought the young girl came from or who she thought her mother was all the while Amanda worried Castro might possibly do something to her daughter and what might be one of the strangest turn of events for the women they also watched the breaking news in August 2009 of JC dugard's escape from
captivity after 18 years the three women were fascinated by the story and watched for any updates it must have been particularly surreal to see the evidence of someone escaping a situation so similar to the one they were currently in and yet when talking about the man who had held JC captive Philip gito Castro made the comment that guy was crazy though it may seem like Castro was at least willfully ignoring any similarity between himself and gito when one of the women said that what happened to jai was just like their situation he asked him if
they were going to write a book about this Castro must have felt extremely confident that no one would ever discover the women because he occasionally had friends and family members come over to the house on one occasion the women were almost able to alert Castro's daughter that they were were there while Arlene visited the home they were hidden away in the basement they were close to shouting for help but they were too afraid that Castro would kill them if they did they had another chance to call for help when the house next door to castros
was raided by police in 2010 but again they were too afraid on another occasion when he had family over he hid the women in a van there were many close calls over the years when police were investigating Gina's disappearance they looked at connections with her friends including Arlene Castro but instead of investigating her father they became suspicious of her stepfather Fernando cologne cologne claimed that during an interview with police he told them that the person they should really be looking into was Castro as he also knew Gina he alleges that he even said that Castro
was known to be violent however nothing ever came of the tip and the FBI claims that they have no written record of cologne saying this another close call for the women in Castro's house quite literally involved Castro's other daughter Angie who found a weird message on her answering machine the message sounded like it was left after her number had been pocket dialed but the frightening part was that she could hear the voice of a young woman screaming and shouting get away from me concerned about what she had heard Andie reported the message to the police
who traced the call but instead of tracing it to Castro they believe the call came from a different phone Gina's mother would later assert that some kind of mistake must have been made when the call was traced because she believes it had come from Castro at one point the police believe that Amanda case was solved when Robert Wolford a man already convicted of murder in 2007 admitted in 2012 that he had also killed Amanda Barry this was of course a lie but investigators didn't know that at the time not only did Wolford pass a lie
detector test a notoriously unreliable measurement of truth but he claimed that he could lead the police to Amanda's remains even though it wasn't the conclusion anyone was hoping for with Amanda's case the police and her family had their hopes up that they would finally have answers oddly the area where Wolford told the police they could find her body was nearby to where Amanda was actually trapped alive in Castro's home investigators didn't find any remains as the excavation was filmed by the news Castro's brother Pedro was actually seen pointing at the efforts and saying that's a
waste of money the police dug up one other backyard in their search for Amanda everything changed on May 6 2013 Joselyn who had more freedom in the house than the women went down downstairs before she ran back up to tell Amanda that I don't find daddy Daddy's nowhere around and there was something else for the first time Amanda's bedroom door had been left unlocked Amanda isn't sure if the unlocked door is another test left by Castro but she immediately knew it was their chance at this point she'd been held captive for 10 long years she
made her way downstairs Joselyn was right there was no sign of Castro the front door had an alarm on it but it was the storm door beyond that proved to be the issue it was padlocked shut but Amanda was determined she pulled the door open just enough that she could stick an arm through she started screaming for help while this was happening Gina feared that Castro had caught Amanda and out of Terror told Michelle to stay with her upstairs instead of running to help Amanda 75-year-old Aurora Marty heard the calls for help and as an
arm reached out from behind the door Marty ran over to the house across the street from hers on Seymour Avenue the girl behind the door says to her I'm Amanda Barry Marty doesn't speak much English but she still recognized the name she said you can't be Amanda Amanda's dead because of her arthritis Marty struggles to help Amanda pull the door open there are conflicting accounts about what happens next but either way Amanda begs for help getting the door open and then Charles ramsy sees her arm hey check this out I just came from McDonald's right
this BR is trying to break out the [ __ ] house next to me he grabs the other side of the door and starts pulling trying to get it open when that doesn't work he kicks at it telling Amanda to do the same thing on the other side and she does the bottom panel in the storm door gives way and she can crawl through sir sir sir sir sir you have to calm down and slow down is she still in the street yeah I'm looking at her she right now she calling y'all she on another
phone with her six-year-old daughter in her arms Amanda ran to a neighbor's house to call 911 the entire time she was terrified that Castro would return and hurt her even though she was surrounded by people her call goes through at 5:52 p.m. hello please help me I'm Amanda Berry I've been kidnapped and I've been missing for 10 years and I'm I'm here I'm free now want across the street I'm using the phone okay stay there with those neighbors talk to the police when they get there okay I have a call tier on the phone with
a female who says her name is Amanda Barry and that she had been kidnapped 10 years ago still hasn't on the phone right now she's saying that the male is Ariel Castro police were sent immediately to the house they arrived at 5:54 about 2 minutes after Amanda called for help as they arrive they are flagged by a woman with a small child in her arms they quickly realize that this isn't some prank call but that it's real she's the girl from the missing person Flyers Amanda Barry this might be for real and then Amanda tells
the police that she isn't alone might be others in the house two officers forced their way through the crack in the door that Amanda had escaped through they managed to open the storm door so more officers can follow after them they check the basement but it's empty then an officer climbs the stairs and shouts Cleveland Police Michelle had no idea what was going on downstairs but when she finally worked up the courage to go and find out she opened the door to a police officer shouting 23 radio go ahead found them we found them as
soon as she realized it was the police Michelle runs into the officer's arms and hugs them shouting you saved me you saved me she told them to never let her go the officer couldn't help but tear up when he asks if there's anyone else Gina De Jesus comes out of another bedroom GE might be in this house also for the first time since they were taken the three women were outside of the house Michelle is now 32 Amanda 27 and Gina 23 the police broadcast the description of Castro's vehicle and he was found just as
he pulled into a McDonald's parking lot he was arrested and handcuffed on the spot at 6:16 p.m. one of his male relatives was in the car with him not long after this the police announced that the they had arrested two other men on suspicion of kidnapping Castro's Brothers Pedro and O'Neal all three were arrested one reason the brothers fell under suspicion was that O'Neal was with Castro at the time of his arrest however only Castro was charged and Pedro and O'Neal were released though it's hard to imagine no one who knew Castro had any idea
that he had kidnapped three women and held them captive in his house for over 10 years investigators stated that neither Brother appeared to have been involved they also said that neither had any knowledge about the three women generally speaking most people are under no legal obligation to report a crime whether they knew about it in advance witnessed its commission or found out about it after the fact however there are exceptions to this law some examples would be mandated reporters if you Aid in a bet in the crime or if you willfully conceal the commission of
a felony federal offense the latter can result in a charge of mispress of a felony which is a form of obstruction of justice the shocking rescue made worldwide news instead of celebrating her release after 11 years Michelle was rushed to the hospital she complained to the police about having chest pains and trouble breathing she is a small woman but at the time that she was found she only weighed around 84 lbs she was so tiny that the police thought she was actually a child at the hospital Michelle found out that she had a bacterial infection
in her stomach and only had days to live if she hadn't been freed from Castro's house when she was she would have died she eventually recovered but that wasn't the worst of it Michelle has been left with lifelong physical damage on top of never being able to have children because of Castro's physical assaults Michelle's eyesight has been permanently altered after spending so much time trapped in the dark she also suffered from damage to her facial Bones from the repeated beatings to her head on one occasion Castro broke her jaw with a barbell none of this
compares to the Mental effects of Castro's torture during those long years of captivity Michelle occasionally contemplated taking her own life but her will remained strong when she thought about her son once the women were rescued Castro's house was boarded up after the women were discovered people started to come forward with stories about the house on Seymour Avenue Elsie Centron who lived three houses away from Castro claimed that several years earlier her daughter had spotted a naked woman crawling in Castro's backyard she said she called police about it but they didn't take it seriously in a
similar incident another neighbor Israel Lugo claimed he heard pounding on the doors coming from inside Castro's house and called the police in 2011 when the police showed up Lugo alleged that they knocked on the door and when no one answered they left the police admitted that they'd been at the Castro house twice in the last 15 years but they maintained those visits had nothing to do with the women's disappearances in contrast to this after his arrest other neighbors came forward to say that Castro always appeared to be happy and respectful disturbingly the kids and parents
in the area trusted him and he was known to take the children on rides on motorcycle what may be most horrifying of all is the fact that Castro was almost stopped on multiple occasions before he had the chance to hold three women captive for a decade he had a long history of abuse and several run-ins with the police including an incident involving the owner of a house neighboring his own in 1994 Ernesto Santiago had come to check on his property when he realized a chain link fence was missing he asked Castro about it and according
to the police report Castro became upset and picked up a shovel and attempted to hit the victim with it in 2004 while Castro was working as a bus driver he was charged with child endangerment and abduction he' allegedly left a 13-year-old boy on the bus unsupervised when he got back on the bus he drove it to Wendy and once there allegedly told the child to lay down [ __ ] while he went inside the restaurant to eat he denied ever saying that when he was interviewed about the incident Castro said I just totally forgot he
was there I didn't check the bus he was suspended for 60 days but the charges were unsubstantiated due to insufficient evidence he was eventually fired in 2012 after leaving the bus unattended in a fire lane for hours as well there is a long trail of police reports recording Castro's physical assaults against his common law wife Figaroa dating back to 1989 after an incident she called the police to report Castro but never went through with pressing charges because he allegedly threatened a kill her and their children if she did another police report states that in a
different incident Figaroa asked Castro where he was going and he became violent and slapped her when she tried to get away from him he slammed her into the wall and against a washing machine her shoulder and arm were both injured in the assault Castro made another threat when Figaroa eventually lodged a formal complaint against him after a horrific incident where he reportedly stomped on her head with his boots on in front of their children Figaro's son ran from the house and Castro chased after him giving her a chance to lock him out of the home
when the police arrived Castro tried to flee but they caught him according to a court petition figuroa had suffered a broken nose broken ribs two dislocated shoulders and a lost tooth at the hands of Castro Figaroa also developed a brain tumor from the multiple head injuries she had when Figaroa went to take the stand at the courthouse about the incident Castro allegedly threatened her at the entrance and she never testified because of this he was never indicted as there wasn't enough evidence it's not uncommon for victims of domestic violence to become uncooperative after filing charges
with the police this may be due to fear battered women's syndrome or because they don't think the violence will happen again police and prosecutors always try to take as many photos as possible statements and any other evidence they can collect so that if the victim becomes uncooperative they can still prove the charges while it's obviously more difficult to get a conviction without the victim's testimony or cooperation it is still often done it was only after Amanda's daring Escape that Castro was brought to justice during his trial Castro claimed to have an addiction to adult content
and said I'm not a monster I'm sick he also made claims that went directly against the evidence police found in the home such as the chains and ropes used to restrain the women Castro said that he treated the girls well and claimed any intercourse with them was consensual when asked about terminating Michelle's multiple pregnancies he admitted that he had but only after alleging it was always a mutual decision Castro refused to take responsibility for what he did by using excuses such as that he's sick or that he treated the girls well he knew exactly what
he was doing when he abducted and tortured the girls over the course of 10 to 11 long years we'd like to enter a plea of not guilty we will wave the reading of the indictment wave the 24-hour period and uh just enter the plea Mr Castro currently faces hundreds of years in prison with the current charges and it is our hope that we can continue to work toward a resolution to avoid having an unnecessary trial about aggravated murder and the death penalty Castro is a classic narcissist and exhibited several traits of narcissistic personality disorder including
a Grose sense of self-importance is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success power brilliance beauty or ideal love requires excessive admiration as a sense of entitlement is interpersonally exploitative I.E takes advantage of others to achieve his own ends lacks empathy shows arrogant hotty behaviors and attitudes he was also sadistic meaning he derived gratification from the physical and emotional suffering he caused in other people Castro eventually admitted he would have been easily caught at the beginning if the police had only seen the surveillance footage from Wilbur Wright Middle School near where he took Gina in a bold
statement of stomach churning irony Castro said if they would have questioned me it's possible that it would have ended right there I feel that the FBI let those girls down Castro's arrogant statement about how the FBI let those girls down is another example of his narcissism not only does he deflect any responsibility but he is also actually blaming the FBI only Michelle attended Castro's sentencing hearing she told him I spent 11 years in hell now your hell is just beginning on August 1st 2013 Ariel Castro was sentenced to life in prison after he plad guilty
to 937 counts of kidnapping and assault in exchange to avoid the death penalty his sentence was extended to include a thousand more years Castro never even came close to serving his sentence the 937 counts were charges because each individual assault kidnapping Etc of each victim was charged as a separate offense on an indictment while in prison he complained frequently about the prison food even believing it had been tampered with and said that the prison guards were negligent less than 2 months into his sentence on September 3rd 2013 Castro was found dead in his prison cell
after he had taken his own life by hanging records from the jail show that Castro was listed as requiring special observation because he was believed to be at risk of taking his own life Castro had complete power over multiple people for years being in jail was a total loss of control for him and he couldn't stand that he wasn't calling the shots anymore officers found his body 27 minutes after their last check on him kneeling with a bed sheet tied around his neck and attached to a window hinge oddly his shorts were found around his
ankles and he wasn't wearing underwear because of this detail at first it was incorrectly believed that Castro may have died as a result of autoerotic asphixiation which would have made his death an accident however after speaking to other inmates it became clear that Castro had lost weight while incarcerated causing his pants to frequently slip down this explained why his shorts were down when he died Castro left a note behind where he cited scripture and wrote that those who confessed with their heart will be saved and another note he wrote my kids and grandkids and Drew
a heart around the words other Doodles on the page were some of his family members names more Hearts flowers and music notes on one hand Castro's death robbed the women of the satisfaction of knowing that he was being punished for his many crimes but on the other hand their nightmare was officially over all three women were eager to begin their lives after captivity but reintroduction into society wasn't easy for any of them after a decade being held hostage the women suffered from complex post-traumatic stress disorder after years of abuse Michelle was the first to speak
publicly about the horror she faced is the one who had been held by Castro the longest I'm learning that I'm more stronger I am able to Define who I am not by the situations that are surrounding me I learned in life it's e it's better to forgive but you'll never forget what happened to you but for your healing process it's better to forgive though Michelle had hopes of gaining custody of her son she did not still his adoptive parents send her photos and updates about him it's a very difficult situation but it would have been
extremely disruptive for Joey to be uprooted from the only home he has known for most of his life as part of moving on Michelle changed her name to Lily Rose Lee she has published two books under her birth name about her life during and after those 11 years titled finding me and life after Darkness on the anniversary that she escaped May 6 2016 she got married Amanda has been able to raise Joselyn in a healthy and safe environment since she was taken as a teen Gina said that one of the things she always wanted to
do was learn to drive she now has her driver's license and went back to school Amanda and Gina collaborated on a book with two Pulitzer prizewinning Washington Post reporters and published their own book called hope in 2015 Amanda and Gina are still friends to this day but they are no longer in contact with Michelle Gina explained that all three women liked each other at one point in the beginning but their relationship was fractured now it appears that the ways Castro attempted to turn the women against each other had lasting effects on them he often played
Amanda and Michelle off of each other so they never really got along while Amanda and Gina grew close and shared a lot with each other over the years Amanda simply said that she and Michelle were two different people both Amanda and Gina have stated that they wish the best for Michelle when Michelle was asked why she no longer speaks to The Other Women she said Gina was like a sister to her but their lives have pulled them in different directions she hasn't directly commented about Amanda today all three women work in some way to help
survivors highlighting missing persons cases or help the families of missing persons Michelle founded Lily's Ray of Hope to help victims find housing clothing and access to education Amanda began hosting a segment on the news about Cleveland's missing persons cases in 2017 Gina became an ambassador for the northeast Ohio amber alert and founded the Cleveland Family Center for missing children and adults all three women have proven their courage perseverance and unbelievable ability to survive
