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HOUSE OF TERROR – I was held hostage for 10 years

Three brave women came through a harrowing ordeal
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  • High school student Amanda Berry was walking home from school when she was abducted by school bus driver Ariel Castro
  • He held her captive in his home along with his other victims, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus
  • The women were subjected to 10 years of horror before they escaped, along with Amanda’s daughter, who was conceived in captivity

Finishing her shift at the fast-food restaurant about 8pm, high school student Amanda Berry was about to walk home as usual.


Then, in the street nearby, she saw a girl in a van who looked like one of her classmates, and she was with her dad, the local school bus driver.

Smiling, the dad asked if Amanda wanted a ride and, walking over, Amanda rang her sister Beth at home to tell her she was getting a lift. Oddly though, when Amanda reached the car, her classmate had disappeared.

Jumping in anyway, Amanda was told by the dad, Ariel Castro, that his daughter would be at home and asked if Amanda might like to visit her.

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Amanda Berry smiling at the camera. taken before she was kidnapped
Amanda was just about to turn 17 when she was kidnapped


‘I said, “Yeah, sure”,’ Amanda later told ABCNews.

Pulling up at his house, he started showing her around.

And then, she says, ‘I never got back out’.

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That night he tied Amanda up and sexually assaulted her. It was the night before her 17th birthday.

In shock, Amanda didn’t know it then, but the evil Castro already had a prisoner in his large, two-storey house with a basement. Her name was Michelle Knight, a single mother. She’d been 21 when she was kidnapped and imprisoned by Castro the year before.

Michelle Knight was kidnapped. Credit ABC
Michelle Knight was already a prisoner in Castro’s house ABC

And, horrifically, Amanda and Michelle were not the last prisoners.

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A year after Amanda was taken, Castro kidnapped Gina DeJesus, then only 14, subjecting her to the same despicable treatment.

Gina DeJesus, left, and Amanda Berry in downtown Cleveland 2015
Gina DeJesus, left, and Amanda Berry. Getty Images

Meanwhile, Amanda’s mother, Louwana Miller, was doing everything she could to find her daughter, who police had thought might have run away.

But as years went by, bringing no news, sadly Louwana passed away without ever knowing what happened. ‘She literally died of a broken heart,’ said Dona Brady, a local councillor who’d tried to help.

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Unbelievably, more years passed and the girls’ imprisonment and physical and sexual assaults continued. How could no-one notice something strange at Castro’s house, which was just metres from neighours in a residential suburb?

It turns out that some people did realise something was up, but to no avail. One neighbour reported to police that her daughter saw a naked woman crawling in the Castro’s backyard. Another reported hearing pounding on some of the doors of the house.

They were chained by their ankles to the wall.

But the police responding to the calls, and knocking on Castro’s door, left when there was no answer.

They couldn’t have imagined the hell inside, with alarms attached to the front and back doors, a garden swing blocking the stairway, and other doors with no handles, but with padlocks and deadbolts instead.

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Then there were the chains fastened to bedroom walls. Amanda, Michelle and Gina were chained by the ankles and fed only one meal a day.

During their long years of imprisonment, Amanda became pregnant and had to give birth in a small inflatable pool without medical help. She called her baby daughter Jocelyn, and was allowed to care for her.

Other pregnancies among the women ended in miscarriages brought on by Castro’s mistreatment.

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Then, in May 2013, 10 years after Amanda’s kidnapping, Castro made a mistake – he left one of the two front doors unlocked.

Courageously taking her chance, Amanda, holding onto her daughter, banged on the other door, screaming.

Neighbour Charles Ramsey helped Amanda and her daughter to escape
Neighbour Charles Ramsey helped Amanda and her daughter to escape

She attracted the attention of neighbour Charles Ramsey, who helped her and Jocelyn, then six, get out of the house and call the police.

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‘Help me, she pleaded. ‘I’m Amanda Berry … I’ve been kidnapped and I’ve been missing for 10 years. I’m here, I’m free now.’

Police raced to the house and rescued Michelle and Gina. Soon after, Castro was arrested.

In July that year, Castro pleaded guilty to 937 charges, including rape, murder and kidnapping, and agreed to life in prison without parole, plus 1000 years, to avoid the death penalty.

CLEVELAND, OH - AUGUST 1:  Ariel Castro pleads to Judge Michael Russo during his sentencing on August 1, 2013 in Cleveland, Ohio. Castro se,ntenced to life without parole plus one thousand years for abducting three women between 2002 and 2004 when they were between 14 and 21 years old. Castro told Judge Michael Russo, "I'm not a monster, I'm sick...I'm a happy person inside." (Photo by Angelo Merendino/Getty Images)
Ariel Castro in court. Getty Images
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Judge Michael Russo, in Cuyahoga County Court, US, told Castro, ‘There’s no place in this world for people who enslave others, those who sexually assault others, those who brutalise others. You felt you were dominating them but you were incorrect. You did not take away their dignity. They prevailed.’


And in court Michelle Knight bravely told him, ‘I spent 11 years in hell… now your hell is just beginning.’

In September 2013, Castro died by suicide in his prison cell.

After their incredibly traumatic ordeal, Amanda, Michelle and Gina went their separate ways.

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But in 2015, Amanda and Gina told their story in a book .

There’s no place in this world for people who enslave others

Judge Michael Russo

Amanda went on to work with media outlets to draw attention to missing people. Her daughter celebrated her 16th birthday in 2023.

‘I hope she has a great life and does everything she wants to,’ Amanda told Fox8.

In 2018, Gina launched a family centre for missing children and adults.

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‘It’s like she brings that one message of hope that, you know what? There’s a chance,’ Police Chief John Majoy, who works with Gina through the Missing Center, told Fox8.

Michelle, now known as Lily Rose Lee, gave her own account of the imprisonment in her book, , which became an international bestseller. Netflix true crime movie Cleveland Abduction is based on the book.

Now married Michelle and husband Miguel run a non-profit that help pets in need find loving homes, partly because of the day Castro killed an animal in front of her.

‘That day I vowed if I ever made the decision to rescue animals that I would call it Unleashed Animal Rescue,’ she told spectrumnews1.com. ‘Because I wouldn’t want them to feel caged all the time. I would want them to be free.’

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Compiled by Mari Gibson

If you’ve been affected by this story, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 (Aus) or Safe To Talk on 0800 044 334 (NZ)

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