Cleveland Kidnapping House Had Chains, Ropes, Locks
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Bill Pugliano/Getty Images(CLEVELAND) — Chains, locks and lengths of rope were discovered inside the Cleveland home where three kidnapped woman were held in captivity for 10 years, suggesting an added element to the horror of a decade spent imprisoned.
Investigators have not yet confirmed if and how the materials were used, Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath told ABC News.
FBI investigators have completed their search of the home, the chief said, as teams of interrogators get to work questioning the freed women and the three brothers who are suspects in the women’s disappearances and imprisonment.
Those men, Ariel Castro, 52, who owned the home on Seymour Avenue, and his brothers Onil Castro, 50, and Pedro Castro, 54, are expected to be charged sometime on Wednesday.
“The interview process with the victims and the suspects started last night and is continuing this morning,” McGrath said. “The investigative team will come together later today and package what they have and present it to the city prosecutor.”
The women — Michelle Knight, 32, Gina DeJesus, 23, and Amanda Berry, 27, as well as a 6-year-old daughter Berry conceived while in captivity — dramatically broke free from the home on Monday evening, screaming from behind a locked door until neighbors helped kick down the door.
All three women and the girl, Jocelyn, were taken to Metro Medical Center on Monday night.
DeJesus, Berry and Jocelyn were discharged and reunited with their families on Tuesday. Knight remains in the hospital in “good condition,” according to authorities.
The women, McGrath said, are currently “doing very well under these circumstances.”
“It really is amazing,” he said. “It has to be a tribute to the girls to be perfectly honest with you. They must be some really, really strong individuals.”
The women were given a brief reprieve to meet with the friends and family members who have searched for them for a decade before a specialized unit of FBI agents trained in questioning victim-witnesses began interviewing them.
Since being discharged from the hospital, Berry and DeJesus were taken to safe houses and given FBI protection.
Family members said they have been calling and visiting with the women, who some people gave up for dead years ago.
All three women were abducted independently between 2002 and 2004. Berry vanished in 2003 when she was 16 while on her way home from a job at Burger King.
DeJesus, then 14, disappeared the following year while walking home from school, and Knight vanished in 2002 when she was 20.
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