UPDATE: Ariel Castro Accepts Plea Deal to Avoid Death Penalty

[catlover79]

http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/loc...us-found-alive

Posted: 7:00 PM
Last Updated: 2 minutes ago

By: Jen Steer, newsnet5.com

CLEVELAND - Missing Cleveland teenagers Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus have been found, police say.

Cleveland police dispatch told NewsChannel5 that officers at the scene of 2207 Seymour Ave. said Berry and DeJesus are there. The families of both are at MetroHealth Medical Center waiting for the women to arrive.

“I heard screaming… And I see this girl going nuts trying to get outside,” said Charles, a neighbor would found the women. “I go on the porch and she said ‘Help me get out. I’ve been here a long time.’ I figure it was domestic violence dispute."

“She comes out with a little girl and says ‘Call 911, my name is Amanda Berry’… When she told me, it didn’t register.” He said he made the call and gave Berry the phone. When police arrived, officers asked him if he knew who he rescued.

Berry was last seen in 2003 when she was called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from work at the Burger King on West 110th Street and Lorain Avenue. She was set to turn 17 the day after her disappearance.

On April 2, 2004, 14-year-old DeJesus went missing while walking home from Wilbur Wright Middle School. She was last seen around West 105 Street and Lorain Avenue.

Her mother, Nancy Ruiz, said she believed DeJesus was sold into human trafficking.

“I always said it from the beginning; she was sold to the highest bidder,” Ruiz said in April 2012.

Last summer, there was a break in Berry case that turned out to be an inmate’s hoax. Robert Wolford, 26, told authorities that Berry’s body was in a vacant lot in Cleveland. Police searched at West 30th Street and Wade Avenue in July with backhoes, but nothing was found.

Wolford was sentenced to four and half years in prison after pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, making a false report and making a false alarm.

Keep checking newsnet5.com for more information.

Copyright 2013 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[catlover79]

PRAISE GOD!!!!!

[McGillicuddy]

This is great news! First I saw the scroll across the television, and I thought I was misreading it. Turned in to the news, and SURE ENOUGH! I live in Lakewood, just a few miles from where they were abducted.

[catlover79]

A photo speaks a thousand words - Amanda Berry (center) is finally reunited with her sister, Beth, after a decade of separation. The little girl is believed to be Amanda's daughter.

We all here in Northeast Ohio are rejoicing tonight!!

[janet42]

That's great news. I'm glad the girls were found safe. I'm sad that one of the girl's mom died before her daughter was found.

[catlover79]

So am I - the poor woman died in 2006 at the age of 44, and family and friends said it was essentially of a broken heart.

[Marvo301]

I'm very glad for these families but I also realize they still have a long road ahead of them dealing with the emotional and mental scars inflicted on them by their ordeal.

[MrCleveland]

I'm glad that the women are safe, this actually happened in an area that I would hang-around at!

[catlover79]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/n...,4929290.story


By Michael Muskal and Alana Semuels

May 7, 2013, 6:30 a.m.

CLEVELAND -- Three women, missing after they were kidnapped a decade ago, were released from a hospital Tuesday, hours after they were freed from their captivity, authorities said.

Police said they believed that the three women -- Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight -- were imprisoned for years in a Cleveland house after they were abducted when they were in their teens and early 20s.

After their rescue Monday, all were hospitalized overnight and released Tuesday morning to be reunited with their families, according to the hospital.

“We join the community in celebrating the safe return of these three women,” the hospital, MetroHealth, said in a statement.

Cleveland police are scheduled to hold a news conference Tuesday morning to give more details of the case and the arrest of three brothers who are the main suspects in the case.

What is apparently the ending chapter of the years-long saga began Monday with a gasping voice on a telephone line crying for help. Officials on Monday released the 911 tapes that set off the sequence of events that led to a city exulting in what authorities said was the end of one of Cleveland’s worst crimes.

“Help me. I'm Amanda Berry,’ the quivering voice tells police operators.

“You need police, fire, ambulance?” the dispatcher asks.

“I need police,” the woman responds.

“OK, and what's going on there?”

“I've been kidnapped and I've been missing for 10 years, and I'm, I'm here, I'm free now,” the woman says.

In addition to the three women, a 6-year-old also was found in the home, authorities said, but police didn't disclose the child's identity or relationship to anyone in the home.

Berry was 16 when she disappeared on April 21, 2003. She had called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at a Burger King.

About a year later, DeJesus, then 14, disappeared on her way home from school. Police said Knight disappeared in 2002 and is now 32.

[catlover79]

http://www.people.com/people/article...698059,00.html

Elizabeth Smart's Message to Rescued Women: Don't Blame Yourself

By Mike Fleeman and Cathy Free

05/07/2013 at 01:50 PM EDT

Very few people can truly understand what the three women rescued from years in captivity can be feeling today – and what they may face in the years to come.

Elizabeth Smart is one of them, and she has a message.

"First of all, I'd make sure these young women know that nothing that happened to them is their fault," Smart tells PEOPLE. "They still have the same worth. They're still valuable. They haven't lost any of their worth to what's happened."

Smart was kidnapped from her home at age 14 in 2002 and forced to be a sex slave for nine months. She's now a newlywed and advocate for missing children.

"They can still do whatever they want in life," Smart says. "They should never feel like they can't do something because of what's happened to them. There is still so much more to life than what happened to them the last 10 years. They have so many years to go forward and be happy, I'd encourage them to not feel restricted."

The women, teenagers when they disappeared a decade ago, were rescued this week in Cleveland after one of them called 911. A 6-year-old believed to the daughter of the one of the women also was rescued. Three brothers have been arrested.

Smart says that what the women now need is rest – and their space.

"I hope everyone can respect their privacy," she says. "Obviously, they have been through so much and we shouldn't even begin to speculate on what's been happening the last 10 years, why they could escape now and why they couldn't then. We really have no right to ask these questions we'll never understand because we weren't there.

"The best thing anybody could give them is to certainly celebrate the miracle that happened," she continues, "but give them their privacy and allow them to find their bearings and reconnect to the lives that they lost. I encourage everyone to give them their space and time. Just allow them to be."

http://www.people.com/people/article...697993,00.html

Jaycee Dugard on Women Rescued in Ohio: Give Them Time to Heal

By Tim Nudd

UPDATED 05/07/2013 at 12:00 PM EDT • Originally published 05/07/2013 at 10:30 AM EDT

Few people could understand what the three women rescued this week from apparent captivity in Cleveland must have gone through better than Jaycee Dugard.

Abducted herself in 1991 at age 11 and held captive for 18 years, Dugard is cautioning the public to give these women time and space to begin healing. At the same time, she adds, the women's survival shows the power of human resolve.

"These individuals need the opportunity to heal and connect back into the world. This isn't who they are. It is only what happened to them," Dugard tells PEOPLE in a statement.

She adds: "The human spirit is incredibly resilient. More then ever this reaffirms we should never give up hope."

The three women discovered Monday in a house near downtown Cleveland, identified as Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, had been missing for a decade.

Authorities are only just beginning to piece together what happened to them, but Berry apparently gave birth to a child, now 6, during that time – much like Dugard, who had two daughters while being held captive by Phillip and Nancy Garrido.

[gilligan fanatic]

Saw this on the TV at work today, pretty amazing! Its nice to see stories like this

[catlover79]

Definitely a miracle!!!

[robyrob]

wow, pretty shocking story - glad to hear that they are safe and sound now.

[James"Thunder"Early]

So many years of their lives lost in captivity, it is so sad. I am glad that they are free and that their families are getting their loved ones back.

[Regulus]

Praise the Lord they're all right. Pray for Justice!