Ariel Castro kidnappings

In the early 2000s, Ariel Castro was a 52-year-old bus driver for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. One day on shift, he made an illegal u-turn while he had children on the bus. He was later fired for ‘bad judgment.’ Once Ariel missed his high-paying job, his appearance took a turn for the worse.

Michelle Knight

 

On August 23, 2002, Michelle Knight who was 21-years-old at the time, was leaving her cousin's house and rushing to court. She was late for a child custody case regarding her son Joey, who was in the detention of the state of Ohio at the time.

Along the way, Michelle got lost and went into a dollar store to ask for directions. There, she saw a man whom she knew as the father of her friend Arlene. He proposed her a ride but said he would need to stop at his house first to pick up Arlene, and if she went along he would show her his new litter of puppies.

Michelle jumped at this chance because her son's dog had just recently passed away and she wanted to get him another one. Since she recognized this man was her friend Arlene's father, she trusted him and got into his car. That man was Ariel Castro.

Once Michelle was inside Ariel’s house she quickly understood there were no puppies, and that she had just made a very big mistake.

All of a sudden, Ariel’s true colors came out. He told Michelle she would not be leaving for a very long time and got undressed. Michelle began to beg for him to let her go, telling him that she had a son to take care of. She even showed him a picture of her son, the only picture she had of him. Ariel broke it up.

Ariel kept Michelle locked in the basement, where she was gagged and tied to a pole. After many months, Ariel moved Michelle upstairs and locked her in a small pink room where she was chained, often nude, to a wall.

For the next 11 years, Michelle endured numerous beatings and rapes at the hands of Ariel. She was tortured and starved.

Michelle was Ariel’s first victim, but she would not be his last.

 

Amanda Berry

 

On April 21, 2003, Amanda Berry was just one day shy of her 17th birthday. She had just finished a shift at Burger King when Ariel drove by and told her his daughter Arlene was home and that Amanda could spend the rest of the day with her at his house.

Once again, Amanda believed him because he was her friend Arlene’s father.

Ariel only targeted women that were friends with his daughter Arlene, because he knew they would trust him.

In reality, Arlene was living at her mother’s house in a different neighborhood.

Ariel and Arlene’s mother were separated due to the many attacks he made on her. She would finally die in 2012 from complications tolerated from an attack by Ariel. She was another one of his victims.

Once Ariel got Amanda into his house, he took her into a dark bedroom and then into a large closet. Once in the closet, he told Amanda to take her pants off. It was at this point she knew she should not have gotten into his car.

Once he was finished raping her, Ariel tied her to a pole in the bedroom and left her there. She cried out until she had no voice left. No one would hear her except for Michelle, who was chained up in the next room.

A week after Amanda vanished, Ariel used her phone to call her family and taunt them, telling them that he had ‘mandy’ and that she wanted to be with him. Her family later reported that no one called Amanda ‘mandy’ except for the people that knew her.

Gina DeJesus

 

On April 2, 2004, Ariel would abduct his third and final victim. This victim would be 14-year-old Gina DeJesus, Arlene Castro’s best friend.

 

 

Gina and Arlene were walking home together from middle school when Gina gave Arlene 50 cents to use the payphone and ask her mother if Gina could come over. Arlene's mother said no so Gina and Arlene said their goodbyes and went their separate ways.

Gina usually took the bus home, but she had given the last of her change to Arlene. A block away from home, Ariel approached Gina and proposed her a ride. Instead of driving her home, he took her to his house and never let her leave.

Captivity, Abuse & Survival

 

Castro tied Gina and Michelle together on a mattress in a small room and raped both of them continually while the other watched. Sometimes they held hands while Ariel assaulted them, for support.

Castro only gave the girls one meal per day and two showers each a week at the most.

Amanda finally became pregnant as a result of one of Ariel’s many rapes and gave birth while in imprisonment. They named her Jocelyn. The girls loved having Jocelyn around, Amanda felt she finally had someone to love that would love her back while in captivity, and the other victims enjoyed having a child around to talk with.

Jocelyn and Ariel loved each other very much. Ariel didn’t treat Jocelyn like his victims, he loved her. Ariel sometimes took Jocelyn out to his mother’s house whom she called grandma. He would tell his mother and his daughters that Jocelyn was his girlfriend’s daughter. He would tell others that Jocelyn was his granddaughter. He even threw her a birthday party one year.

Jocelyn only thought of Ariel as her sweet loving father. She did not know of the devil he truly was.

During her time in imprisonment, Michelle was impregnated by Ariel 5 times. She never gave birth because he forced her to have miscarriages by beating her with dumbbells and famish her.

Michelle was beaten so badly by Ariel over 11 years that once she was freed, she had to go through facial reconstruction surgery and lost hearing in one of her ears.

Gina was also raped many times by Ariel but later reported that she was never impregnated by him.

After some time, Ariel would give the girls more freedom and liberties. They would no longer be chained up but he would keep his eyes on them at all times.

The abductions were all over the media. Sometimes the girls would be able to hear their names on the TV that Ariel kept on in another room. They would hear their families pleas for their daughters to be returned home safely.

The public held candlelight vigils for the girls. Ariel partook in each vigil. His daughter Arlene also went on the news and made a plea to Gina’s captor, asking them to let her go. Little did she know, Gina was locked away in her own father's house with two other women.

When Ariel’s son Anthony Castro spoke to his father that he thought the missing girl on the news, Amanda Berry, was likely dead, his father reacted, ‘Really? You think so?’

Anthony later stated that when he visited his father's home the basement, the attic, and the garage were always padlocked and he was not allowed to go to certain parts of the house.

 

The Brave Escape

 

On May 6, 2013, Jocelyn told her mother that Ariel was nowhere to be found in the house. Amanda knew that this was her chance. She went to the front door and saw that Ariel had missed locking the screen door, though the main door was still bolted shut. She looked through the screen door and began shouting as loud as she could until she got the attention of one of the neighbors; Angel Cordero.

Angel could not understand Amanda because he didn’t speak much English. Neighbour Charles Ramsay soon heard the noise and came over as well. Amanda said that she had been abducted and needed help. Together, Cordero and Ramsay kicked the bottom of the door until Amanda was able to crawl through with Jocelyn.

Once she was freed, Amanda phoned 911 and said:

“Help me, I’ve been abducted. I’ve been missing for ten years. And I’m here. I’m free!”

 

She told them there were two other victims still in the house.

Soon Ariel’s house was crowding with police. They drew their guns and braced themselves. Michelle was recused first, and then Gina. All 3 women and Jocelyn were taken to a local hospital. Amanda and Gina were released the same night, but Michelle would not be released until another four days had passed.

 

 

The Arrest of Ariel Castro

 

Ariel was imprisoned on the same day the girls were freed. Initially, he was charged with four counts of abduction and three counts of rape. Other charges were pending such as annoyed killing stemming from the induction of Michelle’s many miscarriages.

In the end, Ariel was charged with 977 counts. These charges included aggravated murder, rape, and abduction. His bail was set at a total of $8 million.

Ariel entered an appeal of ‘not guilty on July 17th.

About a week or so later, Ariel rewrote his appeal to ‘guilty’ to 937 of the 977 counts as part of a plea bargain. He missed his rights to appeal and renounced his assets including the house where he held all four victims captive. The house would ultimately be crushed.

On August 1, 2013, Ariel was convicted to life in prison without the chance of parole plus 1,000 years. At his sentencing, Ariel spoke for 20 minutes about his habit of sex and pornography. He declared that he wasn’t a devil and that the victims had sex with him consensually.

At first, he criticized the FBI for failing to catch him, then he blamed the victims for getting into his car. At one point he made this statement about the victims:

“I hope they can find in their hearts to forgive me because we had a lot of harmony going on in that home.”

The court also heard from Michelle, Amanda, and Gina who put out the following statement to Ariel:

“You took eleven years of my life away. I spent eleven years in hell, now your hell is just beginning. I will overcome all that has occurred, but you will face hell for eternity. I will live on, you will die a little every day as you think of the eleven years of horrors that you smashed on us … I can forgive you, but I will never forget.”

Ariel was found dead in his prison cell one month into his life sentence. He had hung himself with his bedsheet.

 

Recovery & Aftermath

 

 

In 2013 the victims put out an opinion thanking the public for their support. A bank account was set up to help the women transition into their normal independent lives, free of Ariel.

Michelle fairly changed her name to help her move on from the traumatic ordeal she had suffered. She got married in 2016 which was her dream. She did several high-profile interviews and even wrote a book about her story of survival.

In 2017, Amanda joined Fox 8 News in Cleveland where she regularly hosts a segment reporting on missing person cases. In 2019 Amanda interviewed Ramsay, one of her rescuers, on the same segment. Amanda’s daughter Jocelyn is now a few months shy of her 14th birthday.

Gina began joining the Amber alert committee. Both Amanda and Gina received honorary high school diplomas.

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