The Cleveland Abductions


 

The discovery of three missing women in the home of Ariel Castro really shook up the world. When others were found alive in the past, many people may have just thought it was a fluke that they were alive. I knew I felt that way about Jaycee Dugard in 2009. But four years later in 2013, Amanda Berry got the chance to break free of her captor’s home and call 911 from the home across the street. 

The best documentary on these three is here. 

Michelle Knight was the first to be abducted in 2002. Since she was a legal adult with a history of running away, police didn’t do much to search for her. 

A year later in 2003, Ariel also kidnapped Amanda Berry. Amanda was about to turn 17 the next day. Her abduction caused a media frenzy. She was walking home from her job at Burger King and never made it home. 

Another year later in 2004, he kidnapped 14 year old Gina DeJesus on her way home from school. The community now lost two girls from the same street only a year apart and a connection was made. Most people figured the two cases were connected, but most people also assumed they were dead. 

If you’ve seen the Lifetime Movie about them, you’ll see Amanda telling a neighbor, “I’m Amanda Berry!  I’ve been on the news for the last ten years!”  The woman says, “You can’t be Amanda! She’s dead!”  Amanda confirmed that this conversation did go that way. No one was searching for them alive anymore. Any searches were recovery efforts, efforts to find bones. The belief that a missing person is dead within 72 hours led them to nothing but recovery efforts.  Neighbors didn’t recognize the women, but calls to law enforcement were made about suspicions they had and things they witnessed.  All calls went ignored  

The main reason the community in Cleveland was so amazed was because of the assumption that they were deceased. I remember watching scenes of cop cars trying to go down Ariel Castro’s street with them inside, and there were hundreds of people in the street cheering. Gina’s homecoming was the most emotional for me because of her thumbs up 👍🏻 

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