VIDEO: Cleveland Police discuss the charges against Ariel Castro
CLEVELAND – Kidnapping and rape charges were filed Wednesday against a man arrested after three women missing for about a decade were found alive at his home.
Homeowner Ariel Castro was charged while his brothers, Pedro and Onil Castro, were held but faced no immediate charges.
The men were in custody and couldn’t be reached for comment. Their brother-in-law has said the family is “shocked” after hearing about the women at the home.
The three women were subjected to prolonged sexual and psychological abuse and suffered miscarriages, a city councilman briefed on the case said Wednesday.
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Two of the young women, meanwhile, were welcomed home by jubilant crowds of loved ones and neighbours with balloons and banners Wednesday.
Watch raw video of Amanda Berry returning to her sister’s home in Cleveland on Wednesday morning:
The families of Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry protectively took them inside, past hundreds of reporters and onlookers. Neither woman spoke, and their families pleaded for patience and time alone.
Watch video of Berry’s sister, who spoke to the media shortly after her arrival:
Watch video of Gina DeJesus arriving home Wednesday afternoon, followed by her aunt thanking the community:
“Give us time and privacy to heal,” said Sandra Ruiz, DeJesus’ aunt. Ruiz thanked police for rescuing the women and urged the public not to retaliate against the suspects or their families.
Watch as Gina DeJesus’ mother reacts to her daughter’s return on Wednesday:
The third captive, Michelle Knight, 32, was reported in good condition at Metro Health Medical Center, which a day earlier had reported that all three victims had been released. There was no immediate explanation from the hospital.
The Associated Press does not usually identify people who may be victims of sexual assault, but the names of the women were widely circulated by their families, friends and law enforcement authorities for years during their disappearance.
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In a development that astonished and exhilarated much of Cleveland, the three women were rescued on Monday after Berry, 27, broke through a screen door at the Castro house and told a 911 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.”
AUDIO: Amanda Berry’s 911 call
Law enforcement officials left many questions unanswered, including how the women were taken captive and who fathered Berry’s 6-year-old daughter.
Neighbours said that Ariel Castro took part in the search for one of the missing women, helped pass out fliers, performed music at a fundraiser for her and attended a candlelight vigil, where her comforted her mother. As recently as 2005, Castro was accused of repeated acts of violence against his children’s mother.
On NBC’s “Today” show, Police Chief Michael McGrath said he was “absolutely” sure police did everything they could to find the women over the years. He disputed claims by neighbours that officers had been called to the house before for suspicious circumstances.
“We have no record of those calls coming in over the past 10 years,” McGrath said. On Tuesday, some neighbours said that they had told police years ago about hearing pounding on the doors of the home and seeing a naked woman crawling in the yard.
READ MORE: Police visited Cleveland house at least twice before, say neighbours
DeJesus, who disappeared in 2004 and is in her early 20s, arrived home in the afternoon Wednesday to chants of “Gina! Gina!” Wearing a bright yellow hooded sweatshirt, she was led through the crowd and into the house by a woman who put her arm around the young woman’s shoulders and held her tight.
Her father pumped his fist after arriving home with his daughter, and he urged people across the country to watch over the children in their neighbourhoods – including other people’s kids.
“Too many kids these days come up missing, and we always ask this question: How come I didn’t see what happened to that kid? Why? Because we chose not to,” he said
Berry arrived at her sister’s home, which was similarly festooned with dozens of colorful balloons and signs, one reading “We Never Lost Hope Mandy.” Hundreds cheered wildly but weren’t able to get a glimpse of Berry as she went in through the back.
INTERACTIVE MAP: 3 missing women found alive in Ohio case
A 2005 domestic-violence filing in Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court accused Ariel Castro of twice breaking the nose of his children’s mother, knocking out a tooth, dislocating each shoulder and threatening to kill her and her daughters three or four times in a year.
The filing for a protective order by Grimilda Figueroa also said that Castro frequently abducted her daughters and kept them from her.
In 1993, Castro was arrested on a domestic-violence charge and spent three days in jail before he was released on bail. A grand jury did not return an indictment against him, according to court documents, which don’t detail the allegations. It was unclear who brought the charge.
Meanwhile, the aunt of a 14-year-old girl who disappeared in 2007 near the house where the missing women were found said the girl’s mother has spoken with the FBI.
“We’re hoping for our miracle, too,” said Debra Summers, who described her niece, Ashley Summers, as not the type of girl who would leave without coming back.
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The FBI did not immediately return a call about the case and whether it was connected to that of the three missing women.
The Castros’ brother-in-law Juan Alicea said the arrests of his wife’s brothers had left relatives “as blindsided as anyone else” in their community. He said he hadn’t been to the home of his brother-in-law Ariel Castro since the early 1990s but had eaten dinner with Castro at a different brother’s house shortly before the arrests were made Monday.
Associated Press writers Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Jesse Washington and Mike Householder and freelance reporter John Coyne in Cleveland; Mitch Stacy in Columbus; Dan Sewell in Cincinnati; John Seewer in Toledo; and news researchers Rhonda Shafner and Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed to this report.
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