Run-down street 'perfect hiding place'

Fox News reports that police are investigating the 911 dispatch handling of the Amanda Berry call as well as digging for evidence. Fox News

THE RUN-down houses and derelict buildings near Ariel Castro's house made it easier to hide a secret, his neighbours said.

Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight, who all went missing separately about a decade ago, were found on Monday in a home in Cleveland, Ohio.

Those who live near the modest home where the women were kept, say their neighbourhood has a dark side which may have helped the main suspect keep the three women from prying eyes.

"That was a perfect place for him because people couldn't hear any noise," community organiser Khalid Samad told NBC News.

Mr Samad said main suspect Ariel Castro had accompanied him on local searches for the missing women.

The 52-year-old's job as a bus driver also made him relatively well- off in a neighbourhood where many houses are boarded up and others have been foreclosed on in an area that has clearly seen better days.

"In terms of money he probably made more money than anyone else on the street when he was driving the bus," he said.

Neighbours and relatives say they didn't have a clue about Ariel Castro's suspected crimes, even as his own daughter was interviewed in 2005 on Americas Most Wanted. Fox News

Jennifer Faykus who knew Gina DeJesus' sister, moved from the area because she felt it had lost its sense of community.

"In this kind of neighbourhood you don't [pry] because you're afraid to talk to your neighbours," she said.

Did Castro target his daughter's friend?

Ariel "Anthony" Castro said he fears his father may have targeted the 14-year-old who went missing in April 2004 as she was such a close friend of his daughter Arlene. She was the last person to see Gina before she disappeared.

The 31-year-old told The Daily Mail he thinks it is "conceivable" that Gina got into his father's car instead of walking home as she recognised the elder Mr Castro as her best friend's father.

"That's one of the thoughts that went through my head because Gina disappeared in broad daylight on a very busy street. It's probably the busiest street on the west side of Cleveland," he said.

Fox News reports that the three brothers under arrest will be facing multiple charges for the ten year period of captivity and assault they subjected three young women to. Fox News

"It make you think how could she possibly disappeared without any trace. If she was abducted forcefully somebody would have seen it."

It is thought the teenager knew the person who took her and initially willing went with that individual on the day she disappeared.

Victims say they are fine

Close relatives of the three abducted women have told of how they're coping as more details emerge about their horrific life over the last decade.

Amanda Berry's grandmother Fern Gentry said Amanda told her that she's "fine" and that the six-year-old girl named Jocelyn also rescued from the Cleveland home is hers.

"I love you honey, thank God," her tearful grandmother said, in a call recorded by CNN affiliate WJHL. "... I've thought about you all this time. I never forgot about you."

The sister of 23-year-old Georgina "Gina" DeJesus said 'Gina' is in "good spirits."

Local police efforts are in question after calls were made by several neighbours over the past years, and was the suspect deliberately trawling for younger and younger girls? Fox News reports

Five pregnancies

As the world waits to see what will happen to Ariel Castro and his brothers Pedro and Onil who were arrested, relatives have told of their shock, painting Ariel Castro as a recluse and violent man at times.

Sources told WKYC that as many as five pregnancies occurred in the house. They were also told the captors would beat the pregnant girls and that the babies didn't survive.

Police in Cleveland have been reportedly searching a property for "possible aborted babies" after finding the three women who had been kidnapped and held as sex slaves.

According to local reporter Scott Taylor of 19 Action News, "investigators are looking for possible aborted babies in the backyard" of the residence where three brothers allegedly held three young women.

There are reports that the three women were also tied up with chains and tape and kept in separate rooms, The Daily Mirror reports.  One of the women is thought to have suffered three miscarriages due to malnutrition.

Police to gently quiz victims

Reluctant hero Charles Ramsey tells how he helped rescue Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight ending the women's kidnapping ordeal. Courtesy WKYC3

Since the three women have found their freedom, questions have been raised about abductions in the local area, including whether 14-year-old Ashley Summers is the fourth victim of the kidnapping.

She vanished from the same Cleveland neighbourhood where Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight went missing.

FBI investigators have removed vehicles and items from the home where the women were held captive.

FBI spokeswoman Vicki Anderson said. An FBI child victim specialist has interviewed all three abducted women as well as Berry's 6-year-old daughter in a "comfortable setting."

The three brothers arrested in the abduction case will be interviewed tomorrow local time, likely by both federal and local law enforcement officers.
 

FBI forensic personels remove evidence from the house where three women were held captive for a decade, May 7, 2013 in Cleveland, Ohio. AFP PHOTO/Emmanuel Dunand Source: AFP

A photo of Ariel Castro released by the Cleveland Police Department following his arrest.

FBI forensic personnel remove evidence from the house where three women were held captive for a decade on May 7, 2013 in Cleveland, Ohio. AFP PHOTO/Emmanuel Dunand Source: AFP

Suspects' lives in spotlight

More photos and details of the suspects have also emerged as locals have come to show their support for the women.

Investigators removed a number of items from the Cleveland home of Ariel Castro, including an amplifier, a storm door and black trash bags full of items.

Young residents come to show their support near the house where three women were held captive for a decade, May 7, 2013 in Cleveland. AFP PHOTO/Emmanuel Dunand Source: AFP

 New photos of Ariel Castro have also surfaced.

This undated combination photo released by the Cleveland Police Department shows from left, Pedro Castro and Onil Castro.

 911 call reviewed

Cleveland officials are now reviewing the actions of the 911 dispatcher who took Amanda Berry's call.

The call-taker asked the name of Berry's captor, his age and ethnicity. But the dispatcher's repeatedly told her: "Talk to the police when they get there."

Cleveland Department of Public Safety Director Martin Flask said police were dispatched and on scene in the west side neighbourhood in less than 2 minutes.

"While the call-taker complied with policies and procedures which enabled a very fast response by police, we have noted some concerns which will be the focus of our review, including the call-taker's failure to remain on the line with Ms Berry until police arrived on scene," Flask said in a statement.

Audio has been released of the frantic emergency call Amanda Berry made after escaping a kidnapping lasting ten years.

Amanda Berry's family prepare a warm welcome. Picture: Twitter.

Locked house at centre of case

In another strange twist one of the brothers, Pedro Castro, was filmed by Fox News in July last year as excavating crews dug through an empty lot after a tip from an Ohio inmate that Ms Berry's body was buried there.

"That's a waste of money," Castro told Fox.

And even more bizarrely the son of suspect Ariel Castro, wrote a journalism piece in 2004 as a student on the disappearance of Ms DeJesus.  It is not believed that Ariel "Anthony" Castro knew she was locked up in his father's house.

Anthony Castro has also given an insight into the house where the three women were held captive.

"The house was always locked," he told The Daily Mail. "There were places we could never go. There were locks on the basement. Locks on the attic. Locks on the garage."

Amanda Berry, left, and Gina DeJesus have been found alive after disappearing in the US city of Cleveland about a decade ago. Picture: AFP

Amanda, Michelle and Gina according to sources were also gagged for years in the basement before moving to separate rooms.

WKYC says the windows had garbage bags over them so no one could see in or out.

Even more chillingly, Anthony Castro says he had a conversation two weeks ago in which his dad asked him if he thought the police would ever find Amanda Berry.

He responded that he assumed she was dead because she had been missing for a decade, to which his father responded "Really? You think so?"

'He doesn't deserve to have his own life anymore. He deserves to be behind bars for the rest of her life. I'm just thankful they're alive.'

Three brothers have been arrested in connection with three kidnapped US women found after being missing.

His account came as neighbours revealed they reported seeing a girl crawling on her hands and knees in a backyard but police did nothing.

Previous calls to the house

In a Tuesday morning media conference (midnight AEST) police said they had received no calls to the house other than a 911 call in March, 2000, after a fight broke out in the street, and again in January 2004, when child welfare authorities attended the home after Ariel Castro left a child on the school bus that he drove for work. Authorities deemed there was no case to answer and that the child had been left on the bus accidentally.

However, two neighbours said they were alarmed enough by what they saw at the house to call police on two occasions.

Elsie Cintron, who lives three houses away, said her daughter once saw a naked woman crawling on her hands and knees in the backyard several years ago and called police. "But they didn't take it seriously," she said.

A house where three women escaped is shown Tuesday, May 7, 2013, in Cleveland.

Other neighbours have reportedly seen naked women crawling in the backyard of his house on all fours with dog leashes around their necks and three men controlling them, The Daily Mail reports.

Another neighbour, Israel Lugo, said he heard pounding on some of the doors of Castro's house, in November 2011. Mr Lugo said officers knocked on the front door, but no one answered. "They walked to side of the house and then left," he said.

Neighbours also said they would see Castro sometimes walking a little girl to a neighbourhood playground. And Ms Cintron said she once saw a little girl looking out of the attic window of the house.

First taste of freedom

The three women have been enjoying their first day of freedom after being released from hospital at about 8am (10pm AEST).

Ms Berry was the one to raise the alarm, getting the attention of neighbour Charles Ramsey, and making a frantic call to 911 in which she told the dispatcher, "I'm free now."

Neighbour Charles Ramsey speaks to media near the home on the 2200 block of Seymour Avenue, where three missing women were rescued in Cleveland.

Heartwarming: Sisters reunited after a decade

Mr Ramsey, told WEWS-TV that he saw Berry, whom he didn't recognise, at a door that would open only enough to fit a hand through.

"I heard screaming," he said. "I'm eating my McDonald's. I come outside. I see this girl going nuts trying to get out of a house."

Anna Tejeda, who lives across the street, said Ms Berry was nervous, crying and appeared dressed in pajamas and old sandals after she kicked out the screen in a door to escape and call police. Ms Tejeda speaks Spanish, and a friend translated her comments to The Associated Press.

On a recorded 911 call Monday, Ms Berry declared, "I'm Amanda Berry. I've been on the news for the last 10 years."

"I'm free now." Amanda Berry, centre, with her sister and a young girl believed to be her daughter, told police she had been kidnapped and held for 10 years.

She said she had been taken by someone and begged for police officers to arrive at the home on Cleveland's west side before he 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."

Ms Berry disappeared at age 16 on April 21, 2003, when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at a Burger King. Ms DeJesus went missing at age 14 on her way home from school about a year later. They were found just a few kilometres from where they had gone missing.

Police said Ms Knight went missing in 2002 and is 32 now. They didn't provide current ages for Ms Berry or Ms DeJesus.

Police said Ariel Castro, 52, lived at the home, and Onil, 50, and Pedro, 54, lived elsewhere. Ms Berry also identified Ariel Castro by name in her 911 call.

Mr Ramsey, the neighbour, said he'd barbecued with Ariel Castro and never suspected something was amiss.

"There was nothing exciting about him - well, until today," he said.

Juan Perez, 27, who has lived two houses down from the home in question since he was 5, and has known the arrested man, Ariel Castro, since he was a child, he told US ABC News.

"My heart is feeling rough right now to know that this happened two houses from me and that none of us noticed anything," Mr Perez said. "I feel ashamed of myself and my community right now and this neighborhood that we didn't see anything."

Mr Perez said Castro was well known on the block as a "charismatic" guy who always wanted to take the neighbourhood kids on bike rides up and down the block.

Attempts to reach Ariel Castro in jail were unsuccessful. Messages to the sheriff's office and a jail spokesman went unanswered, and there was no public phone listing for the home, which was being searched by dozens of police officers and sheriff's deputies.

The uncle said Ariel Castro had worked as a school bus driver. The Cleveland school district confirmed he was a former employee but wouldn't release details.

Charles Ramsey said he heard a girl screaming before helping her escape the house she was being held captive in. Courtesy Fox News

Loving families never gave up hope

The women's loved ones said they hadn't given up hope of seeing them again.

A childhood friend of DeJesus, Kayla Rogers, said she couldn't wait to hug her.

"I've been praying, never forgot about her, ever," Ms Rogers told The Plain Dealer newspaper.

Ms Berry's cousin Tasheena Mitchell told the newspaper she couldn't wait to have her in her arms.

"I'm going to hold her, and I'm going to squeeze her and I probably won't let her go," she said.

Ms Berry's mother, Louwana Miller, had been in hospital for months with pancreatitis and other ailments, died in March 2006. She had spent the previous three years looking for her daughter, whose disappearance took a toll as her health steadily deteriorated, family and friends said.

Councilwoman Dona Brady said she had spent many hours with Miller, who never gave up hope that her daughter was alive.

"She literally died of a broken heart," Ms Brady said.

Mayor Frank Jackson expressed gratitude that the three women were found alive. He said there are many unanswered questions in the ongoing investigation.

At Metro Health Medical Centre, Dr Gerald Maloney wouldn't discuss the women's conditions in detail but said they were being evaluated by appropriate specialists.

"This is really good, because this isn't the ending we usually hear in these stories," he said. "So, we're very happy."

In January, a prison inmate was sentenced to 4 1/2 years after admitting he provided a false burial tip in the disappearance of Ms Berry. A judge in Cleveland sentenced Robert Wolford on his guilty plea to obstruction of justice, making a false report and making a false alarm.

Last summer, Wolford tipped authorities to look for Ms Berry's remains in a Cleveland lot. He was taken to the location, which was dug up with backhoes.

Two men arrested for questioning in the disappearance of Ms DeJesus in 2004 were released from the city jail in 2006 after officers didn't find her body during a search of the men's house.

One of the men was transferred to the Cuyahoga County Jail on unrelated charges, while the other was allowed to go free, police said.

In September 2006, police acting on a tip tore up the concrete floor of the garage and used a cadaver dog to search unsuccessfully for Ms DeJesus' body. Investigators confiscated 19 pieces of evidence during their search but declined to comment on the significance of the items then.

No Amber Alert was issued the day Ms DeJesus failed to return home from school in April 2004 because no one witnessed her abduction. The lack of an Amber Alert angered her father, Felix DeJesus, who said in 2006 he believed the public will listen even if the alerts become routine.

"The Amber Alert should work for any missing child," Felix DeJesus said then. "It doesn't have to be an abduction. Whether it's an abduction or a runaway, a child needs to be found. We need to change this law."

Cleveland police said then that the alerts must be reserved for cases in which danger is imminent and the public can be of help in locating the suspect and child.

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