The Lost Girls (28 page)

Castro was also asked if he had ever tried to abduct any other girls, and he said no.

At 11:31
A.M.
, after ten hours of interviews, Jacobs gave Ariel Castro a last opportunity to show some remorse for what he had done.

“I had explained to him that I wanted the statement to be in his words,” said Jacobs, “and if there was something that he wanted to put in the statement to include an apology, I would accommodate that.”

There was no response.

Then Ariel Castro signed a three-page written statement, summarizing what he had confessed to over the last two days. He also signed photographs of the three women, admitting they had been his victims.

Finally, at the end of the interview, Jacobs asked if he wanted to say anything to the families of his victims. Again, there was no response.

As Ariel Castro was signing his confession, Amanda Berry returned home in triumph, for the first time in ten years. Around a hundred friends and neighbors had gathered outside her sister Beth Serrano’s house on West 111th Street, where a huge banner reading,
WELCOME HOME AMANDA!
hung over the front door. Yellow ribbons adorned the trees outside, and on the porch lay flowers, party balloons and stuffed animals, left by well-wishers. A small army of TV cameras were positioned across from the house, and scores of reporters mingled with the crowd in the festival atmosphere.

At 11:35
A.M.
, a motorcade, escorted by a line of police motorcycles, drew up outside to the cheers of the crowd. Behind them was a black minivan, containing Amanda and Jocelyn. When it came to a stop outside the house, the rear door opened. Then, Amanda pulled a blanket over Jocelyn’s head to protect her from cameras, and they hurried into the house through a back door, without a word to reporters.

A few minutes later, a red-eyed Beth Serrano came outside to read out a statement, as a dazed-looking Amanda looked out of a window.

“I just want to say we are so happy to have Amanda and her daughter home,” said Beth, overcome by emotion. “I want to thank the public and the media for the support and encouragement over the years. But at this time our family would request privacy, so my sister and niece and I can have time to recover. Please respect our privacy until we are ready to make our statements. And thank you.”

FBI Special Agent Vicki Anderson, who had worked on the case for years, was overcome by emotion as she brought Amanda and Jocelyn home.

“There were tears of joy,” said Anderson. “I think everybody’s eyes were misty … [Amanda] was hugging everyone and she was a little quiet. She was just overwhelmed.”

Three hours later, Gina DeJesus came home too. Just before 3:00
P.M.
, an SUV pulled up outside her parents’ bungalow on West Seventy-first Street, as a huge crowd applauded. Then Gina, wearing a bright yellow hooded shirt, was escorted past a line of balloons, stuffed toys and banners into the house by half a dozen Guardian Angels. Gina then gave a thumbs-up to the large crowd, who were chanting, “Gina! Gina!” Her jubilant father pumped the air with his fist and hugged a police officer.

A
Fox News
helicopter hovered overhead, shooting Gina’s arrival, which was broadcast live. A few minutes later Gina’s smiling parents came out to the porch, joining Cleveland Police Commander Keith Sulzer for an impromptu press conference.

“I’m Gina’s father,” said an emotional Felix DeJesus, to a burst of applause. “I am the one that kept this family together. I’m the one that had the hardest role, to fight to see this day, because I knew my daughter was out there alive.”

Then Felix thanked the Cleveland police, the FBI and everybody involved with Gina’s, Amanda’s and Michelle’s cases.

“These people were by my side every day and every night and every hour,” he said. “I don’t know how they did it but they did.”

He then urged the community to be more alert, so no more girls like Gina would go missing.

“Too many kids these days come up missing,” he said, “and we always ask the question, ‘How come I didn’t see what happened to that kid?’ Why? Because we chose not to. Get up early in the morning. Go out walking with your dog. Do something while these kids are going to school. Because I thought that this problem that has happened to me, and this joyous day that I got my daughter back, would never happen to my family. But it came knocking on that door.”

Then an ecstatic Nancy Ruiz addressed the cheering crowd. She first thanked Charles Ramsey for helping Amanda Berry to escape, and not ignoring her pleas for help.

“These three women are at home,” she declared. “I want everybody to know that the three of them are doing great. Yes, I do thank the Lord for miracles. I want to thank everyone that believed, even when I said she was alive. I still want to thank … even the ones that doubted the most, because they’re the ones that made me stronger.”

While Gina’s and Amanda’s families celebrated their homecomings, Barbara Knight arrived at MetroHealth Medical Center with flowers for Michelle. She reportedly had a brief meeting with her daughter, before tempers flared and Michelle asked her to leave.

At 5:06 Wednesday afternoon, the City of Cleveland Chief Prosecutor Victor Perez held a press conference to announce that he had just signed criminal complaints charging Ariel Castro with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. No charges would be filed against Onil and Pedro, as there was no evidence of their involvement.

“The defendant will be arraigned tomorrow morning in Cleveland Municipal Court,” Perez told reporters, “and his case will be transferred over to the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas.”

He said the case, to be prosecuted by the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, would soon go before a grand jury. He expected Ariel Castro would be indicted on these seven charges as well as additional ones.

Then the prosecutor, who was born and raised in Puerto Rico, appealed for Cleveland’s Latin community not to be judged by this horrific case.

“I want everyone to know,” he said, “that the acts of the defendant in this criminal case are not a reflection of the rest of the Puerto Rican community here or in Puerto Rico.”

Then Ed Tomba took reporters’ questions, and was asked if Castro had drugged the women to stop them escaping.

“If they were drugged,” said Tomba, “that’s yet to be determined. The only opportunity … to escape was the other day when Amanda escaped. They don’t believe that they’ve been outside of the home for the last ten years respectively.”

Then a reporter wanted to know the little girl’s relationship with Ariel Castro.

“That is Amanda’s daughter,” said Tomba, “and as far as the relationship [with the defendant], that hasn’t been determined. There’s going to be a paternity test taken. There was a search warrant executed on the suspect to obtain his DNA.”

A TV reporter then asked if Charles Ramsey would be receiving any reward money.

“We are actually discussing that,” said the deputy chief, “but Mr. Ramsey does deserve something [and] a lot of credit. He is the true key to this case.”

Then
Channel 8 News
reporter Bill Sheil asked about Fernando Colon’s claims that he had told the FBI to investigate Ariel Castro after Gina DeJesus’s disappearance in 2004.

“We have obviously heard that same statement,” said FBI Special Agent Steve Anthony, “and with due diligence we have scrubbed our entire investigative file, and have no reason to believe that [Colon] made the comments that he’s purporting to the media.”

On May 8, two days after the girls’ escape, somebody leaked the official Cleveland police incident report to WKYC-TV investigative reporter Tom Meyer, who broke the story on that evening’s six o’clock newscast. It revealed how Michelle Knight had delivered Amanda Berry’s baby, as she lay in a plastic baby pool in the basement to contain “the mess.” When the baby stopped breathing Castro threatened to kill Michelle, as she breathed into the baby’s mouth and saved her life.

The sensational report, which would make headlines all over the world the next morning, also revealed that Michelle had been pregnant at least five times during her captivity, with Castro forcing her to abort each time.

“She stated that he starved her for at least two weeks,” it read, “then he repeatedly punched her in the stomach until she miscarried.”

Late that night, WOIO-TV news reporter Scott Taylor was leaked Ariel Castro’s 2004 four-page confession, which had been found in his kitchen. And over the next hour he began tweeting choice parts of it to his Twitter followers.

At 11:08, Taylor tweeted: “Castro writes ‘They are here against their will because they made a mistake of getting in a car with a total stranger.’”

One minute later, he tweeted: “Castro continues ‘I don’t know why I kept looking for another. I already had 2 in my possession.’”

At 11:10 came another: “Castro writes about wanting to kill himself and ‘give all the money I saved to my victims.’”

And his last tweet at 11:58 read, “Castro writes he was surprised how young Gina DeJesus really is cause he thought she was a lot older.”

That night was Gina DeJesus’s first at home in nine years, but she was too traumatized to sleep in her bedroom upstairs, as it reminded her of the room she had been imprisoned in.

“She says, “‘Mom, I don’t want to stay in a room,’” said Nancy Ruiz. “So I said, ‘You don’t have to anymore.’”

So instead, she slept on an inflatable mattress in the living room, with all her family.

On Thursday morning, the three Castro brothers were led into a Cleveland municipal courtroom. With his hands cuffed and chin buried in his dark blue jail jumpsuit, Ariel Castro stood by his two brothers with his eyes tightly shut, avoiding the row of photographers and TV cameras at the back of the courtroom.

After Pedro Castro pleaded no contest to an old open-container charge, and unspecified minor offenses against Onil were dismissed, Judge Lauren Moore freed both men on time served.

Then public defender Kathleen DeMetz, who had spent thirty minutes with Ariel Castro earlier, told Judge Moore that she was waiving examination on each case.

Cuyahoga County Assistant Prosecutor Brian Murphy told the judge that Ariel Castro was charged with three separate charges of kidnapping and rape, and a fourth charge of kidnapping.

“These charges against Mr. Castro,” said Murphy, “are based on premeditated, deliberate and depraved decisions to snatch three young ladies from Cleveland’s West Side streets, to be used in whatever self-gratifying, self-serving way he sought fit.”

The prosecutor said Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight had “endured this horrifying ordeal” for more than a decade, and Gina DeJesus slightly less.

“The ordeal grew to eventually include a little girl,” he said, “believed to have been born to one of the women while in captivity.”

He told the judge that during their imprisonment, all the women had suffered “repeated beatings,” as well as being “bound and restrained and sexually assaulted.” They never left Castro’s property the entire time.

“Then just as suddenly, unexpectedly and, quite frankly, inexplicably as they disappeared,” said Murphy, “they reemerged, thankfully, miraculously three days ago at the home of Mr. Castro.

“Today the situation’s turned, Your Honor. Mr. Castro stands before you captive, in captivity, a prisoner. The women are free to resume their lives that were interrupted … with the promise and hope that justice will be served.”

The prosecutor asked for bail to be set at five million dollars, to “protect the victims and the community that Mr. Castro manipulated and deceived.”

Judge Moore then set a $2 million bond on each of the charges, totaling $8 million, ordering the defendant to have no contact with his victims.

Then Ariel Castro was led out of the courtroom in shackles, showing absolutely no reaction.

Outside the court, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty, who had now been assigned the case, addressed the media.

“This child kidnapper,” he declared, “operated a torture chamber and private prison in the heart of our city. The horrific brutality and torture that the victims endured for a decade is beyond comprehension.”

He told reporters that he might seek the death penalty, relating to Michelle Knight’s alleged miscarriages she suffered at Castro’s hands.

“I fully intend to seek charges,” he said, “on each and every act of sexual violence, rape, each day of kidnapping, every felonious assault, all these attempted murders, and each act of aggravated murder he committed by terminating pregnancies, that the offender perpetuated against the hostages during this decade-long ordeal.”

McGinty asked the media to respect the victims’ privacy, while his office prepared the criminal case against Ariel Castro.

“These victims have gone through something few of us will ever understand,” he said. “They need a chance to heal before we seek more evidence from them. The women (and Amanda’s daughter) were courageous victims to outlast their tormentor.”

After leaving the courtroom, Ariel Castro was transferred to the Cuyahoga County Jail, where he was placed in isolation, remaining on suicide watch. Every ten minutes, guards checked his nine-by-nine-foot cell, containing a metal bed with a plastic-covered thin mattress, a mat, a metal sink and a safety mirror. Unlike his prisoners at 2207 Seymour Avenue, Castro had a window to look out of.

The first couple of hours after arriving he lay on the mat, but then at 11:30
A.M.
, he got up and started walking around his cell naked.

At 1:38
P.M.
, three detectives arrived to see Castro in his cell. They took a DNA swab, bringing it straight to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) for testing.

Then, Dr. Leslie Koblentz, a prison psychiatrist, arrived to interview Castro for half an hour. After he left, Castro started prowling around his cell naked.

Earlier that morning, an emotional Arlene Castro appeared on
Good Morning America
to apologize to Gina DeJesus. Anchor George Stephanopoulos asked for her reaction, as the last person to see Gina, when she learned her father was responsible.