3 women freed decade after abduction

Three women, who disappeared in separate incidents in the state of Ohio about a decade ago, were found alive on Monday in a house in Cleveland, close to where each of them was last seen. Three brothers, one of whom lived at the house, have been arrested.

The police were alerted to the whereabouts of the women by a frantic emergency call from one of them

"Help me! I'm Amanda Berry. ... I've been kidnapped and I've been missing for 10 years and I'm here. I'm free now," Berry, now 26, is heard telling a 911 operator in a recording of the call released by police.

In her call Berry identified her kidnapper as "Ariel Castro" and said he had left the house. She urged the police to come quickly before he returned.

She made the call moments after she was freed from the house by a neighbor, who said he heard her screaming.

The neighbor, Charles Ramsey, said when he arrived, Berry appeared desperate to get through the door, which did not open properly.

"I see this girl going nuts trying to get outside," he said, adding that he was astonished when she identified herself. "I thought that girl was dead."

Berry was last seen leaving her job at a fast-food restaurant the day before her 17th birthday in April 2003.

The two other women were identified by the police as Gina DeJesus, 23, who vanished in 2004 while walking home from school, and Michelle Knight, who was reported to have been between 18 and 20 when she went missing in 2002.

All three women were taken to a hospital, MetroHealth Medical Center, where Dr Gerald Maloney told a news conference they were all safe and "appear to be in fair condition".

"This isn't the ending we usually have to these stories, so we're very happy. We're very happy for them," Maloney said.

A six-year-old was also found at the house, but police have not yet disclosed the child's identity or relationship to anyone in the house.

Families grew up

Police Chief Michael McGrath said he thinks Berry, DeJesus and Knight were tied up at the house and held there since they were in their teens or early 20s.

At the time, the disappearance of Knight did not attract the same local media attention as the Berry and DeJesus cases, because police and social workers thought she had run away.

But her mother Barbara Knight, who now lives in Florida, said she never believed her daughter would have vanished on her own, and she kept searching long after the police gave up looking for her.

"I'm praying that if it is her, she will come back with me, so I can help her recover from what she has been through," the mother said. "So much has happened in these 10 years. She has a younger sister she hasn't met."

An atmosphere of jubilation pervaded the city as word spread that the missing women had been found alive, especially in the blue-collar, heavily Latino neighborhood where dozens of residents clustered near the modest, two-story house, which was cordoned off with crime-scene tape. Cheers from the crowd erupted periodically as police cars entered the area.

Deputy Cleveland Police Chief Ed Tomb said the suspects, aged 50, 52 and 54, were arrested based on information given to the police by the women after their rescue.

The suspects' uncle, Caesar Castro, who owns a grocery store on the same street, said members of his family and the family of DeJesus "grew up together".

"Everyone is shocked," he said, adding Ariel Castro, who owned the house where the women were found, was "a good guy".

(China Daily 05/08/2013 page10)