Authorities were forced to admit on Tuesday they had twice visited a house in Cleveland where three women were apparently held captive for a decade, as questions were asked about how the victims remained undetected for so long.
Two of the women, who were teenagers when they went missing, had been the subject of long-running national media coverage, and neighbours say they reported suspicious behaviour at the home over the years.
Police arrested three brothers, one of whom lived at the house in which the women were found. A six-year-old girl, born to one of the victims after she had been captured, was also freed.
The mayor of Cleveland, Frank Jackson, stood before the media at police headquarters and admitted that the case was disturbing. "We are happy that they are returned to us. But we have several unanswered questions. Why were they taken, how were they taken and how did they remain undetected in the city of Cleveland for this time?"
The ordeal of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight ended with a frantic 911 call on Monday afternoon, police said. The owner of the house, Ariel Castro, 52, had gone out, and Berry managed to alert neighbours by hammering on the front door. Police said they were at the scene within minutes and rescued the girl and two other women, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight.
Police said Knight vanished in 2002 at age 20. Berry, now 27, disappeared at age 16 on 21 April 2003, when she called her sister to say she was on her way home from her job at Burger King. About a year later, DeJesus vanished at age 14 on her way home from school. They were discovered just a few miles from where they disappeared.
Residents recounted the dramatic rescue scenes. One neighbour, Charles Ramsey, told a local television station that he heard screaming and saw Berry, whom he did not recognise, at a door that would open just wide enough to fit a hand through. He said she was trying desperately to get out and pleaded for help to reach police, so he kicked down the door to free her.
Neighbours then helped her to make a 911 call. A recording of the call was released on Tuesday, in which she said: "I'm Amanda Berry. I've been on the news for the last 10 years." She begged for police officers to come to the home before a man who had taken her returned. "I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years," she told the dispatcher. "And I'm here. I'm free now."
Officials said the women appeared to be in good health and were taken to a hospital to be evaluated and reunited with relatives. They were released from Metro Health Medical Center on Tuesday morning. An FBI agent, Vicki Anderson, said she had met the three women a few hours after their escape. "They looked good," she told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "Thinner than their pictures and with big deer eyes, but they were all smiles. They were very happy to be with their families."
Ed Tomba, the deputy police chief of Cleveland, said there were emotional scenes at the hospital when the women were reunited with their families. "You can only imagine the scene last night at the hospital, with the family and the friends. It was chaotic," he said.
Stephen Anthony, head of the FBI office in Cleveland, said: "For Amanda's family, for Gina's family, for Michelle's family, prayers have finally been answered. The nightmare is over. These three young ladies have provided us with the ultimate definition of survival and perseverance. The healing can now begin."
Police identified the three suspects as the homeowner Ariel Castro, 52, his brothers Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50. No charges were immediately filed. Authorities did not say whether the women had been sexually assaulted and added that, given the trauma of what the women had endured, they were trying to be delicate with their investigation.
Neighbours said they had previously reported suspicious activity at the house to police. Elsie Cintron, 55, who lives three doors away from the Castro home, told the Guardian that about a year ago, her granddaughter reported seeing a a naked woman crawling on her hands and knees out of the house. The woman returned to the house, but the granddaughter called the police. Cintron said she believed they failed to act upon the information.
Juan Perez, 27, who lives two doors down from Ariel Castro's home, said that he and his mother heard a scream coming from the basement about three years ago. "It was the kind of scream that made you uncomfortable, so my mom called the police," he said.
Officials did not address those incidents at a press conference on Tuesday but admitted that they had visited the Castro house twice in the past 15 years. Martin Flask, the director of public safety in Cleveland, said Ariel Castro reported a fight in the street in 2000, before the women disappeared, but no arrests were made. In 2004, officers went to the home after child welfare officials reported that Castro, who was a school bus driver, had apparently left a child unattended on a bus. Flask said no one answered the door; police later talked to Castro and concluded that no crime had been committed.
The women's friends and relatives said they had never given up hope of seeing them again. A childhood friend of DeJesus, Kayla Rogers, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper: "I've been praying, never forgot about her, ever."
