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CLEVELAND (AP) — One neighbor says a naked woman was seen crawling on her hands and knees in the backyard of the house a few years ago. Another neighbor says he heard pounding on the doors and noticed plastic bags over the windows.

Police showed up at the house both times, the neighbors say, but never went inside.

Now, after three women who vanished separately about a decade ago were rescued from the peeling, rundown house Monday in a discovery that exhilarated and astonished the city, Cleveland policeare facing questions about their handling of the case and are conducting an internal review to see if they overlooked anything.

Police Chief Michael McGrath said Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesusand Michelle Knight had apparently been held captive in the house since their teens or early 20s.

Authorities arrested three brothers, ages 50 to 54. One of them, former school bus driver Ariel Castro, owned the home, situated in a poor neighborhood dotted with boarded-up houses. No immediate charges were filed.

The break in the case came when the 27-year-old Berry kicked out the bottom of a locked screen door at the home and used a neighbor's telephone to call 911. Choking back tears, she breathlessly told the dispatcher: "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."

Police arrived to find the two other women, along with a 6-year-old girl who authorities said was believed to Berry's daughter. Police would not say who the father was or where the child was born.

"Prayers have finally been answered. The nightmare is over," said Stephen Anthony, head of the FBI in Cleveland. "These three young ladies have provided us with the ultimate definition of survival and perseverance. The healing can now begin."

He added: "Words can't describe the emotions being felt by all. Yes, law enforcement professionals do cry."

Authorities would not say how the women were taken captive, whether they were restrained inside the house or if they had been sexually assaulted. Police said they were trying to be delicate in their questioning of the women, given their ordeal.

Cleveland police came under heavy criticism in a separate case a few years ago following the discovery of 11 bodies in a man's home and backyard in another poor section of the city. Neighbors had long complained about foul odors, and the victims' families charged that police didn't take the reports of missing women seriously.

As for whether police this time overlooked hints about the women's fate, city Safety Director Martin Flask said Tuesday morning: "At this point, I can confirm that we have no indications that any of the neighbors, bystanders, witnesses or anyone else has ever called regarding any information, regarding activity that occurred at that house."

However, he said authorities were still checking all databases of calls to police, fire and emergency services.

Two neighbors said Tuesday that they were alarmed enough by what they saw at the house to call police on two occasions.

Elsie Cintron, who lives three houses away, said her daughter once saw a naked woman crawling on her hands and knees in the backyard several years ago and called police. "But they didn't take it seriously," she said.

Another neighbor, Israel Lugo, said he heard pounding on some of the doors of Castro's house, which had plastic bags on the windows, in November 2011. Lugo said officers knocked on the front door, but no one answered. "They walked to side of the house and then left," he said.

Neighbors also said they would see Castro sometimes walking a little girl to a neighborhood playground. And Cintron said she once saw a little girl looking out of the attic window of the house.

In the murder case from four years ago, the homeowner was eventually sentenced to death. In the wake of public outrage over the killings, a panel formed by the mayor recommended an overhaul of the city's handling of missing-person and sex crime investigations.

The three rescued women appeared to be in good health and were briefly evaluated at a hospital and reunited with relatives. A photo released by Berry's family showed her smiling with an arm around her sister. Police said they were taken to an undisclosed location in the suburbs.

A sign outside the home of DeJesus' parents read "Welcome Home Gina."

Her aunt Sandra Ruiz told reporters that she was able to see all three. She asked that the family be given space.

"Those girls, those women are so strong," she said. "What we've done in 10 years is nothing compared to what those women have done in 10 years to survive."

Investigators celebrated the news almost as much as the families.

The disappearances of Berry and DeJesus never left the minds of police. Investigators twice dug up backyards looking for Berry and continued to receive tips about the two every few months, even in recent years. But few leads ever came in about Knight, who was the first of the three to disappear, in 2002.

Police said Knight disappeared at age 20 and is 32 now. Berry vanished at age 16 on April 21, 2003, when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at a Burger King. About a year later, DeJesus was last seen at age 14 on her way home from school. They were found just a few miles from where they disappeared.

Police identified the three suspects as Ariel Castro, 52; Pedro Castro, 54; and Onil Castro, 50. Attempts to reach Ariel Castro in jail were unsuccessful.

Police did go to the house twice in the past 15 years, but not in connection with the women's disappearance, officials said.

In 2000, before the women vanished, Ariel Castro reported a fight in the street, but no arrests were made, Flask said.

In 2004, officers went to the home after child welfare officials alerted them that Ariel Castro, aschool bus driver, had apparently left a child unattended on a bus, Flask said. No one answered the door, according to Flask. At some point in the investigation, police talked to Castro and determined there was no criminal intent, he said.

The women's loved ones said they hadn't given up hope of seeing them again.

Berry's cousin Tasheena Mitchell told The Plain Dealer newspaper: "I'm going to hold her, and I'm going to squeeze her and I probably won't let her go."

Berry's mother, Louwana Miller, who had been hospitalized for months with pancreatitis and other ailments, died in 2006. She had spent the previous three years looking for her daughter, whose disappearance took a toll as her health steadily deteriorated, family and friends said.

___

Associated Press writer Kantele Franko in Columbus contributed to this report.

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 5/7/2013 9:21:48 PM
	Three women missing for a decade found alive in Cleveland home By Kim Palmer \| Reuters – 42 mins ago RELATED CONTENT View Photo Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus in … View Photo Amanda Marie Berry, missing since … By Kim Palmer CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Three Cleveland women, found alive after vanishing for about a decade in their own neighborhood, were freed from a house that authorities tried to visit several years ago, police said on Tuesday. Three brothers, one of them a school bus driver who owns the house in Cleveland, Ohio where three women and a child were found on Monday, are under arrest, police said at a news conference. Police identified them as Ariel Castro, 52, Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50. Amid jubilation over the discovery, authorities and residents quickly questioned whether the women had been held inside the house for years without anyone noticing. All three young women vanished separately - in 2002, 2003 and 2004 - within a few blocks of the house where they were found. Authorities attempted to visit the home in 2004 on a matter unrelated to the disappearances but were unable to enter, police said. Monday evening's rescue, described as a "miracle" by one family member, unfolded with a frantic emergency call from a woman who told a 911 operator she was Amanda Berry, who disappeared in April 2003 and was the subject of years of searches. She had escaped from the modest, two-story house in the low-income neighborhood on Cleveland's West Side with the help of a neighbor who told police he heard screaming and helped her kick out a locked screen door. Police arrived to find Berry, now 27, along with Gina DeJesus, 23, who vanished in 2004, andMichelle Knight, now 32, who went missing in 2002, police said. They also found a 6-year-old girl who police said was Berry's daughter. She would have been conceived and born during Berry's captivity. SEARCHES OVER THE YEARS The disappearances of Berry and DeJesus were well known in Cleveland, although Knight's disappearance had attracted less attention, police said. Just last month a vigil was held to mark the ninth anniversary of DeJesus' disappearance. Anthony Quiros, 24, who grew up next door to the house where the women were found, said bus driver Ariel Castro had been an onlooker as police dug up a Cleveland lot looking for remains in the case on a tip that proved false. "He also came to a vigil and acted as if nothing was wrong," said Quiros. He said he saw Castro comforting DeJesus's mother about a year ago. Born in Puerto Rico, Castro played bass in Latin music bands in the area. Neighbors said he sometimes parked his school bus in front of the house at lunchtime and would take multiple bags of fast food inside. They said he was divorced more than a decade ago and his ex-wife had since died. On a Facebook page believed to belong to Castro, he said last month that he had just become a grandfather for a fifth time. Court records show Ariel Castro was arrested in 1993 on a domestic violence charge that was subsequently dismissed. I Tito DeJesus, who said he used to play Latin music with Castro, said on CNN he had been in the house two years ago and saw nothing suspicious. He said the living room was filled with bass guitars. Berry had last been seen leaving her job at a fast-food restaurant the day before her 17th birthday in April 2003, and Gina DeJesus was last seen walking home from school. Authorities said they were trying to determine if there had been any clues they were in the house, located in a neighborhood where houses are typically separated only by a driveway. Two houses to one side of the Castro house were boarded up on Tuesday. Children and Family Services authorities went to the house in January 2004, more than a year after Knight disappeared and eight months after Berry went missing, because Ariel Castro had left a child on a school bus, Mayor Frank Jackson said at the news conference. They "knocked on the door but were unsuccessful in connection with making any contact with anyone inside that home," he said. Police said Castro had been interviewed extensively during that investigation and no criminal intent was found regarding the child left on the bus. "We have no indication that any of the neighbors, bystanders, witnesses or anyone else has ever called regarding any information, regarding activity that occurred at that house on Seymour Avenue," the mayor said. After their rescue, the three women were taken to a nearby hospital, where they were reunited with family and friends, and released on Tuesday. "If you don't believe in miracles, I suggest you think again," DeJesus' aunt Sandra Ruiz said to reporters on Tuesday in Cleveland. Her comments were televised by local station WJW. "This is a miracle," Ruiz said. But she added: "Watch who your neighbor is because you never know." The case is not the first time Cleveland has witnessed a horrific story close to home that raised questions about the thoroughness of police investigations. In 2009, police discovered a home in Cleveland where Anthony Sowell had imprisoned and killed 11 women. Family members of some victims filed suit against the city, complaining about the police's handling of the case. Sowell was convicted in 2011 and is on death row. A man who helped to look for DeJesus, Pastor Angel Arroyo, said he and her family members had handed out flyers years ago in the neighborhood where she was found. "We didn't search hard enough. She was right under our nose the whole time," Arroyo said. FBI and other law enforcement officials were searching the house as well as other properties, said police, who did not elaborate. During her 911 call, Berry can be heard giving the dispatcher Ariel Castro's name and urging police to come quickly. She indicated that she knew her disappearance had been widely reported in the media. "Help me! I'm Amanda Berry. ... I've been kidnapped and I've been missing for 10 years and I'm here. I'm free now," Berry can be heard saying in a recording of the call released by police. The discovery of the three women was reminiscent of the case of Jaycee Dugard, who was snatched from her northern California home at age 11 by a convicted sex offender, Phillip Garrido, and kept in captivity for 18 years before being rescued in 2009. During that time she was repeatedly raped by her abductor and gave birth to two girls fathered by him. Dugard released a statement on Tuesday. "As simple as it sounds, these women need the opportunity to have the privacy to heal and reconnect." "I know individuals are strong in spirit and can be resilient in crisis. I wish them the best in their journey," she said. (Additional reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Grant McCool) Cleveland Police stand outside a home where they say missing women were found (AP Photo/Plain Dealer, Scott Shaw)
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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 5/7/2013 9:33:34 PM
	Authorities visited home of Cleveland man accused of holding 3 women captive By Jeff Stacklin and Jason Sickles \| The Lookout – 2 hrs 30 mins ago Hear a recording of the 911 call that led to the rescue of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, all of whom disappeared a decade ago in Cleveland. Video: Amanda Berry's frantic 911 call to police *Updated 4:55 pm ET* CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Police visited the home of Ariel Castro, the man who police say held three young women captive for the past decade, at least once while they were being held inside. But it wasn’t until Monday when one of the women, 27-year old Amanda Berry, managed to escape and phone 911 that officers came and got them to freedom. With Ariel Castro, 52, and brothers Pedro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50 in custody and awaiting charges, authorities have come under scrutiny for how they missed clues that Berry and two other young women were being kept as prisoners in the rundown home in the city's west side neighborhood. Berry, whom police called a hero for breaking out of the house Monday and summoning help, had disappeared in 2003. Michelle Knight went missing in 2002, when she was 20. Gina DeJesus, then 14, was reported missing in 2004. Police, along with officials of the Children and Family Services department, visited the house in January 2004 to following up on a report that Castro, a former bus driver for the Cleveland public schools, had left a child on a bus while he ate lunch. Police say they investigated that incident, but felt there was no criminal wrong-doing and the matter was dropped. “He was interviewed extensively due to that investigation,” deputy Cleveland police chief Ed Tomba told reporters at a news conference Tuesday. Other reports said neighbors had called police after seeing suspicious activity at the house over the years. This undated combination photo released by the Cleveland Police Department shows from left, Onil Castro, Ariel …Officials said Ariel Castro had called police to his home in March 2000, when he reported a fight in the street outside his home on Seymour Avenue on the city’s west side. But that was before any of the women were missing. Shortly before 6 p.m. ET Monday, Tomba said, Berry, with the help of neighbors, was able to break out of the house and summon police. She was reported missing on April 21, 2003, after vanishing on the way home from her job at a local Burger King. After Berry called 911, police responded to the home at 5:52 p.m. DeJesus and Knight were found inside. Berry escaped the house along with a 6-year old girl. Police confirmed the child was Berry's daughter but would not say who the father was. While police would not comment publicly on whether the women had been abused or raped while held captive, several publications quote police sources as saying the women had been forced to have sex with their captors, resulting in multiple pregnancies. The stories of Berry and DeJesus have captivated the city of Cleveland for a decade. They have been the subject of numerous vigils and city searches. Police have followed leads over the years, including digging up two backyards seeking their remains. On Monday, crowds gathered in the neighborhood where they were found and at the hospital where they were taken later. “Our prayers have finally been answered—this nightmare is over,” said Stephen Anthony, special agent in charge of the Cleveland office of the FBI. While much has been written about Berry and DeJesus, and the efforts to find them, not much has been written about Michelle Knight. "She has been the focus of very few tips," Tomba said. Police said all three women appeared healthy, other than needing a good meal. They were taken to a Cleveland hospital, where they were reunited with their families—a scene police described as "chaotic." According to public records, Ariel Castro has owned the home where the kidnapped women were found since 1992. Records also show Castro has at least one adult son and a grown daughter living two to three hours from Cleveland. Several media outlets also report that a younger daughter, Emily Castro, is in an Indiana prison for slashing the throat of her then-10-month-old daughter in 2007. Indiana prison records confirm Emily Castro is currently serving 25 years for attempted murder. At Emily Castro’s trial, defense attorney Zachary Witte argued that she suffered from paranoid delusional thoughts. At the time of the attack, she feared that her family was trying to kill her and take her baby away. The child survived the attack. Witte told Yahoo News on Tuesday that he didn’t recall his client saying much about her father. “I think she was astranged from her dad,” Witte said. Photos on a Facebook page show the man believed to be Castro’s son visiting Emily Castro in prison earlier this year. “A Father's Love for his Children is like none other,” reads a comment on the photo from a man who identifies himself as Ariel Castro on Facebook. Mayor Frank Jackson said housing and building records also have been reviewed and no reports of violations were found. Outside the Castro home Tuesday, which police are still treating as an active crime scene, an American flag and a Puerto Rican flag hung above the front door. The Puerto Rican flag bothered Lucy Delgado, a nearby resident with family living in the largely Puerto Rican neighborhood. "It doesn't deserve to be there," Delgado said of the flag. "This is like, oh my God crazy stuff like this should never happen here." Delgado described the community as tight knit. "Everybody knows each others business," she said. Police declined to provide specific details about the home where the women were kept or its condition upon their arrival on Monday. They said the home is an active crime scene and detectives were processing it through the night. Asked if they believe the kidnappings were part of a larger operation, police officials said they were looking into every possible angle. It appears that Berry, DeJesus and Knight were the only victims. Click image to see more photos. (AP/Cleveland Police Dept.)
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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 5/7/2013 9:51:13 PM
	'Nightmare is over': 3 missing Ohio women rescued By THOMAS J. SHEERAN and JOHN COYNE \| Associated Press – 1 hr 50 mins ago RELATED CONTENT Play Video FBI: Girls' 'nightmare Is Over' Play Video 3 Ohio Women Found 'A Definition of Survival' CLEVELAND (AP) — One neighbor says a naked woman was seen crawling on her hands and knees in the backyard of the house a few years ago. Another neighbor says he heard pounding on the doors and noticed plastic bags over the windows. Police showed up at the house both times, the neighbors say, but never went inside. Now, after three women who vanished separately about a decade ago were rescued from the peeling, rundown house Monday in a discovery that exhilarated and astonished the city, Cleveland policeare facing questions about their handling of the case and are conducting an internal review to see if they overlooked anything. Police Chief Michael McGrath said Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesusand Michelle Knight had apparently been held captive in the house since their teens or early 20s. Authorities arrested three brothers, ages 50 to 54. One of them, former school bus driver Ariel Castro, owned the home, situated in a poor neighborhood dotted with boarded-up houses. No immediate charges were filed. The break in the case came when the 27-year-old Berry kicked out the bottom of a locked screen door at the home and used a neighbor's telephone to call 911. Choking back tears, she breathlessly told the dispatcher: "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." Police arrived to find the two other women, along with a 6-year-old girl who authorities said was believed to Berry's daughter. Police would not say who the father was or where the child was born. "Prayers have finally been answered. The nightmare is over," said Stephen Anthony, head of the FBI in Cleveland. "These three young ladies have provided us with the ultimate definition of survival and perseverance. The healing can now begin." He added: "Words can't describe the emotions being felt by all. Yes, law enforcement professionals do cry." Authorities would not say how the women were taken captive, whether they were restrained inside the house or if they had been sexually assaulted. Police said they were trying to be delicate in their questioning of the women, given their ordeal. Cleveland police came under heavy criticism in a separate case a few years ago following the discovery of 11 bodies in a man's home and backyard in another poor section of the city. Neighbors had long complained about foul odors, and the victims' families charged that police didn't take the reports of missing women seriously. As for whether police this time overlooked hints about the women's fate, city Safety Director Martin Flask said Tuesday morning: "At this point, I can confirm that we have no indications that any of the neighbors, bystanders, witnesses or anyone else has ever called regarding any information, regarding activity that occurred at that house." However, he said authorities were still checking all databases of calls to police, fire and emergency services. Two neighbors said Tuesday that they were alarmed enough by what they saw at the house to call police on two occasions. Elsie Cintron, who lives three houses away, said her daughter once saw a naked woman crawling on her hands and knees in the backyard several years ago and called police. "But they didn't take it seriously," she said. Another neighbor, Israel Lugo, said he heard pounding on some of the doors of Castro's house, which had plastic bags on the windows, in November 2011. Lugo said officers knocked on the front door, but no one answered. "They walked to side of the house and then left," he said. Neighbors also said they would see Castro sometimes walking a little girl to a neighborhood playground. And Cintron said she once saw a little girl looking out of the attic window of the house. In the murder case from four years ago, the homeowner was eventually sentenced to death. In the wake of public outrage over the killings, a panel formed by the mayor recommended an overhaul of the city's handling of missing-person and sex crime investigations. The three rescued women appeared to be in good health and were briefly evaluated at a hospital and reunited with relatives. A photo released by Berry's family showed her smiling with an arm around her sister. Police said they were taken to an undisclosed location in the suburbs. A sign outside the home of DeJesus' parents read "Welcome Home Gina." Her aunt Sandra Ruiz told reporters that she was able to see all three. She asked that the family be given space. "Those girls, those women are so strong," she said. "What we've done in 10 years is nothing compared to what those women have done in 10 years to survive." Investigators celebrated the news almost as much as the families. The disappearances of Berry and DeJesus never left the minds of police. Investigators twice dug up backyards looking for Berry and continued to receive tips about the two every few months, even in recent years. But few leads ever came in about Knight, who was the first of the three to disappear, in 2002. Police said Knight disappeared at age 20 and is 32 now. Berry vanished at age 16 on April 21, 2003, when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at a Burger King. About a year later, DeJesus was last seen at age 14 on her way home from school. They were found just a few miles from where they disappeared. Police identified the three suspects as Ariel Castro, 52; Pedro Castro, 54; and Onil Castro, 50. Attempts to reach Ariel Castro in jail were unsuccessful. Police did go to the house twice in the past 15 years, but not in connection with the women's disappearance, officials said. In 2000, before the women vanished, Ariel Castro reported a fight in the street, but no arrests were made, Flask said. In 2004, officers went to the home after child welfare officials alerted them that Ariel Castro, aschool bus driver, had apparently left a child unattended on a bus, Flask said. No one answered the door, according to Flask. At some point in the investigation, police talked to Castro and determined there was no criminal intent, he said. The women's loved ones said they hadn't given up hope of seeing them again. Berry's cousin Tasheena Mitchell told The Plain Dealer newspaper: "I'm going to hold her, and I'm going to squeeze her and I probably won't let her go." Berry's mother, Louwana Miller, who had been hospitalized for months with pancreatitis and other ailments, died in 2006. She had spent the previous three years looking for her daughter, whose disappearance took a toll as her health steadily deteriorated, family and friends said. ___ Associated Press writer Kantele Franko in Columbus contributed to this report.
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