3 long-missing women freed in Cleveland: Latest developments
May 8, 2013 -- Updated 2234 GMT (0634 HKT)
(CNN) -- Three long-missing women -- Amanda Berry, 27; Georgina "Gina" DeJesus, 23; and Michelle Knight, 32 -- and a 6-year-old daughter apparently born to Berry in captivity were found alive Monday in Cleveland, police said. The women are believed to have been abducted years ago -- in 2002, 2003 and 2004 -- and held captive at a Cleveland man's home, according to police.
Three suspects, all brothers, including the home's main resident, Ariel Castro, 52, were arrested. On Wednesday, a prosecutor said that Castro is being charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. His brothers are not being charged in the case.
Here are recent developments:
New developments:
-- The three women held captive in a Cleveland home before they were freed Monday "relied on each other for survival," a law enforcement source with firsthand knowledge of the investigation said. The three interacted during their captivity, though they were typically kept in separate rooms, according to the source.
-- When 27-year-old Amanda Berry escaped Monday evening from the Cleveland home in which she was captive, the two other young women also being held in the house could have run but chose not to, a law enforcement source with firsthand knowledge of the investigation said. None of the three women was bound, according to the source. The two other women who did not flee had "succumbed" to "their reality," the law enforcement source said, describing them as brainwashed and fearful.
Previously reported developments:
-- The three women and the child were rescued Monday after, according to a neighbor, screaming was heard coming from the home.
-- Neighbors Charles Ramsey and Angel Cordero say they responded to the screaming by helping to kick in the door to help her escape.
-- Ramsey and Berry called 911, authorities said. "Help me, I am Amanda Berry," she begged the operator. "I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years. And I'm here, I'm free now."
-- In addition to Berry, police found DeJesus and Knight at the home; all three said they were held captive there, according to authorities.
-- Police later arrested Ariel Castro, who's identified as a former school bus driver, and his two brothers. Police believe Ariel Castro was the only one of the brothers who lived at the home, Cleveland's Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba told reporters late Monday.
-- Ariel Castro faces charges on four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape, Victor Perez, chief assistant prosecutor for the city of Cleveland, said late Wednesday afternoon. He will be arraigned Thursday morning, according to the prosecutor.
-- Two brothers of Ariel Castro will not be charged, Perez said. Pedro and Onil Castro were arrested after the four were freed, but authorities have found "no evidence" that Pedro and Onil Castro were complicit in their captivity, Perez said.
-- Knight, of Cleveland, had been last seen on August 22, 2002, and was reported missing by a family member the next day, city Public Safety Director Martin Flask said. She was 21 at the time, according Cleveland police.
-- Berry was last seen after finishing her shift at a Burger King in Cleveland in 2003. It was the eve of her 17th birthday.
-- DeJesus, of Cleveland, disappeared nearly a year later, in April 2004. She was 14.
-- Police believe that the women were bound while they were in captivity in the home, McGrath told NBC's "Today" show Wednesday. "We have confirmation that they were bound, and there (were) chains and ropes in the home," he said. McGrath said investigators will continue to interview the women Wednesday.
-- Michelle Knight's missing persons report from the Cleveland Police Department describes her as having "mental abnormalities"; many family members seemed to be unaware that she was missing.
-- The mother of Michelle Knight told NBC on Wednesday that she cried when she heard her daughter was found. Barbara Knight told NBC that she had been looking for her daughter during the years she was gone. "She's probably angry at the world because she thought she would never be found but thank God that somebody did." She was asked what she would say to Michelle if and when she got to see her. "I love you and I missed you all this time," she said.
-- Michelle Knight was at Cleveland's Metro Health Medical Center on Wednesday morning, hospital spokeswoman Tina Shaerban-Arundel said. The spokeswoman did not say what Knight was being treated for, but did say that Knight "is in good condition." On Tuesday, the hospital said that it had released all three rescued women. Shaerban-Arundel said Wednesday that the hospital stood by its Tuesday statement, but she did not elaborate.
-- Gina DeJesus spent Tuesday reuniting with family members. Balloons dotted the front yard. Also present: a sign that was first hung on a fence outside the home when she was first reported missing nine years ago. Her 32-year-old sister, Mayra DeJesus, told CNN's Poppy Harlow Tuesday that Gina -- for all the hell she's gone through -- is in "good spirits."
-- Gina DeJesus was greeted by cheers when she returned Wednesday afternoon to a family home in Cleveland.
-- Her father said that he never doubted that his daughter was alive and never stopped looking for her. "I knew she needed me and I never gave up, I never gave up searching for her," Felix DeJesus said, moments after his daughter arrived.
-- Her aunt, Sandra Ruiz, expressed thanks Wednesday afternoon for those who supported the family over the years. "There are not enough words to say or express the joy that we feel ... for the return of ... Gina," Ruiz said.
-- The aunt also asked the community not to forget Ashley Summers, who was last seen in July 2007. "Now we need to... rally together to look next door and bring .... Ashley Summers, home," Ruiz said, adding that her family feels connected in spirit to missing people like Summers.
-- Amanda Berry told her grandmother, Fern Gentry, that she's "fine" and that the 6-year-old girl also rescued Monday from a Cleveland home is indeed her own. "I love you honey, thank God," her tearful grandmother said, in a call recorded by CNN affiliate WJHL on Tuesday. "... I've thought about you all this time. I never forgot about you."
-- Late Wednesday morning, authorities escorted Berry, her daughter and her sister, Beth Serrano, to Serrano's Cleveland house. Serrano came outside and talked to reporters briefly, saying: "Our family would request privacy so my sister, niece and I can have time to recover. ... Please respect our privacy until we are ready to make our statements." Police initially said Berry would address the media, but it was later announced that she would not speak publicly Wednesday.
-- A fund has been set up -- the Cleveland Courage Fund -- to raise money for the long-missing women and others affected, the city of Cleveland announced Wednesday on Twitter. Money will go toward supporting those who have been held captive and organizations that assist them.
-- A thorough search of Ariel Castro's Cleveland house did not reveal human remains, Cleveland Public Safety Director Martin Flask said Wednesday.
-- Law enforcement authorities on Wednesday afternoon searched a boarded-up house and detached garage two doors down from the Cleveland home of Ariel Castro.
-- FBI agents in protective suits were on site, accompanied by dogs. Some of the agents could be seen carrying shovels.
-- Nina Samoylicz, who lives near Ariel Castro's home, said she called police about three years ago after spotting a naked woman in the backyard of Castro's house. Samoylicz said when she called out to the woman, a man told the woman to get in the house, then ran in himself. "(The police) thought we was playing, joking, they didn't believe us," Samoylicz said.
-- Faliceonna Lopez, Samoylicz' sister, told a slightly different version of events Tuesday on CNN's "Piers Morgan Live." She said after seeing the naked woman, they told their mother, not police. The mother, Annita Lugo, told Morgan that she didn't call police, either, saying, "I definitely would have called then but it was hours later and I really -- I really didn't -- you know, I was just stuck. I was dumbfounded, didn't know how to take it, you know?"
-- Sgt. Sammy Morris, a Cleveland police spokesman, told CNN that the department had no record of a 911 call reporting a naked woman at Castro's address. And Wednesday, a city spokeswoman said flatly that there was no truth to claims that any reports were made.
-- Another neighbor, Israel Lugo, said he heard yelling in the house in November 2011 and called police to investigate, but that they left after no one answered the door. Police took to Twitter on Wednesday to deny that they received a call about "women held or women banging on windows."
-- Officials have no indication that anybody living near the Cleveland home ever called authorities about anything suspicious there, Flask said Tuesday. Flask said that assessment is based on an initial review of city databases; officials will continue to examine the databases, he said.
-- Since the first woman's disappearance, police were called to the home once -- in January 2004 -- Flask said. Investigators were there at the request of Children and Family Services to investigate a complaint that Castro left a child on a school bus while he was working as a school bus driver, Flask said. Investigators knocked on the home's door but were "unsuccessful in making contact." The matter was later dropped when investigators determined that Castro had no criminal intent in the bus incident, he added.
-- Tito DeJesus, a man who says he played in a band with Cleveland abduction suspect Ariel Castro, told CNN's Brooke Baldwin on Tuesday that Castro's house seemed like "a normal environment." DeJesus said he was last at the home two years ago. During the brief visit, DeJesus was only in the living room and the front of the house, he said. "It was quiet. It was like it was empty, nobody was in there. As if it was only him living in there," DeJesus said.
-- A few years ago, Tito DeJesus recalled that Castro asked him if his "cousin" had been found. DeJesus said he eventually realized that Castro was referring to Georgina "Gina" DeJesus, one of the three women who police said were rescued from the home Monday. Tito DeJesus said that he doesn't believe he's related to Georgina, although he's known her family for years.
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