CLEVELAND - A Cleveland man arrested after three women missing for a decade were found alive at his home was charged Wednesday with kidnapping and raping them.
Ariel Castro, 52, was charged with four counts of kidnapping - covering all three captives and the daughter born to one of them while she was held - and three counts of rape against the three women. The former school-bus driver owns the peeling, run-down home where the women were rescued Monday, after one escaped with the help of neighbors.
Castro’s brothers, Pedro, 54, and Onil, 50, also were arrested after the women were rescued, but there was no evidence they had any part in the crime and they were not charged, Cleveland Prosecutor Victor Perez said.
At a news conference, authorities gave few details on the women’s ordeal, but police said earlier in the day that the women apparently were bound with ropes and chains. A city councilman briefed on the case, Brian Cummins, said they were subjected to prolonged sexual and psychological abuse and suffered miscarriages.
Police Chief Michael McGrath of the Cleveland police said the women were “very rarely” allowed outside, or “released out in the backyard once in a while, I believe.”
Deputy Chief Ed Tomba said a paternity test on Castro was being done to establish who fathered the 6-year-old child of captive Amanda Berry.
Castro was in custody and couldn’t be reached for comment. A brother-in-law has said the family was “shocked” after hearing about the accusations.
Two of the young women, meanwhile, were welcomed home by jubilant crowds of loved ones and neighbors with balloons and banners Wednesday. The families of Berry and Gina DeJesus took them inside, past hundreds of reporters and onlookers. Neither woman spoke, and their families pleaded for patience and time alone.
“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.
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 three women were rescued after Berry, 27, got neighbors’ attention and help in breaking through a chained 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.”
On NBC’s Today show, McGrath said he was “absolutely” sure police did everything they could to find the women over the years. He disputed claims by neighbors 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 neighbors 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.
DeJesus, who disappeared in 2004 and is in her early 20s, arrived home in the afternoon Wednesday to chants of “Gina!Gina!”
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 neighborhoods - 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,” Felix DeJesus said.
Berry arrived at her sister’s home, about a 10-minute drive from the Seymour Avenue residence where she had been held. She was greeted by dozens of colorful balloons and signs, one reading “We Never Lost Hope Mandy.”
Berry, whose mother died while she was captive, was inside the house briefly before her sister, Beth Serrano, stepped outside and spoke to reporters, saying Amanda and her daughter were home and wanted to “thank the public and media for their support.” She also requested privacy for her sister, her niece and herself as they recover.
Meanwhile, the aunt of a 14-year-old girl who disappeared in 2007 near the house where Berry and the others 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 simply would leave.
The FBI did not immediately return a call about the case and whether it was connected to the three missing women or Castro.
A 2005 domestic-violence filing in Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court accused 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 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 bond. A grand jury did not return an indictment against him, according to court documents, which don’t detail the allegations.
Information for this article was contributed by Meghan Barr, Thomas J. Sheeran, Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Jesse Washington, Mike Householder, John Coyne, Mitch Stacy, Dan Sewell, John Seewer, Rhonda Shafner and Jennifer Farrar of The Associated Press and by Steven Yaccino, Christine Hauser, Erica Goode and Emma G. Fitzsimmons of The New York Times.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 05/09/2013