Latest / The conspiracy / Ten Years of Suffering: The True Story of an Unimaginable Ordeal

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Ten Years of Suffering: The True Story of an Unimaginable Ordeal · The conspiracy

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: He was the last person anyone suspected. To the people
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: who passed him on the street, he was no one
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: to fear. Just a familial face in the neighborhood. No
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: one looked at him and would have guessed what he
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: was or what he was capable of. But behind that
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: ordinary face and behind the closed doors of his house,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: something sinister was taking shape. and they would pay a
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: horrible price. This is the story of Ariel Castro and
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the Cleveland Three. Crime, conspiracy, cults, serial killers, and murder,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: all things that I love to consume, and I know
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: you do too, you sick, distributed, beautiful, intellectually-minded freak. And
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: today we're talking about a very infamous case, and a
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: case I feel like doesn't get covered to its full extent.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: So without further ado, let's unbuckle our seat belts, go
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: mock fight on the highway, slam on the brakes, and
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: bustle the windshield into this infamous case together. I want
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: to take a quick pause to tell you a little story.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: I got a text last week saying a package was
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: stuck and I owed $ 2. 14. Just $ 2. And that's the
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: whole trick. Make it small enough that you don't stop
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: and think. But luckily, I didn't fall for it. And
• 1:22
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  Speaker 1: slash legal slash podcast for disclosures. Thank you so much
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• 2:34
  Speaker 1: And let's get back to it. Ariel Castro was born
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: on July 10th, 1960 in Dewey, a mountain village outside
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Yauco in Puerto Rico's coffee country. And the Castro family
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: held much of the land in a stretch called La Para,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: which had made them the leading family in the area
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: for generations. However, their standing did not spare them from poverty.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: And Ariel was born in his father's wooden shack at
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: the top of a hill with no electricity and no plumbing.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: and his father had to make a jeep run to
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: a distant well in the mornings so the family could
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: drink and wash. Now, his father was named Pedro Castro,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: also known as Nona, and his mother was Lillian Rodriguez.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: And Ariel was their third child in a lineup of four.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: He had an older sister and a brother, Marisol, Alicia,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: and Pedro Jr., and a younger brother, O'Neal. So when
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Ariel was small, his father took up with a woman
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: who lived close by and secretly split his life between
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: the two households for years. And Lillian found out in 1962,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: and Pedro left for good, moving in with the other
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: woman and marrying her not long after. And Lillian moved
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: to Reading, Pennsylvania, to live with her father, leaving her
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: four small kids behind to live with their grandmother. So
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: they just got abandoned right out the gate. And Ariel
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: eventually wrote that both his father and his mother had
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: abandoned him, and that his grandmother raised him. And years later,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Castro would tell a psychiatrist that an older boy had...
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: abused him at the age of five for more than
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: a year. And after he was asked why he never
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: reported it, he said, quote, people who are abused keep quiet,
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  Speaker 1: so I did, unquote. So Lillian would eventually send for
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Ariel and his siblings to come live with her in
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  Speaker 1: Reading in 1966, and they did. And Ariel said that
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: she beat him almost daily with belts, sticks, and an
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: open hand, along with verbal abuse as well. And he
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: prayed for her to die. And Pedro moved to Cleveland
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: in 1968 along with his other family. And he had
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: relatives there and opened a used car lot that soon prospered.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: And his brothers followed suit, opening a grocery store on
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Seymour Avenue and the city's first Latino record store. And
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  Speaker 1: Lillian brought her children to Cleveland in 1970. By which point,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: the Castros became one of the city's leading Puerto Rican families,
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  Speaker 1: just like they were back in Puerto Rico. And they
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  Speaker 1: even bankrolled a social club and a yearly festival honoring
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: the town they came from. But in 1971, federal agents
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: raided one of the family stores in an illegal lottery
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: sting and seized cash and guns from 11 relatives, including Pedro.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: So some shady dealings were happening. And in school, Ariel's
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: performance was below average as a student, but he made
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: up for it with his extracurricular activities. He wrestled, played softball,
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  Speaker 1: and joined the band. His behavior left much to be desired, though.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: In a junior high, he was suspended for touching a
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  Speaker 1: girl's breast and disciplined for fighting. Music was the exception
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: for him, though. And an uncle gave him a guitar
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: one Christmas, and he fell in love with it. And
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  Speaker 1: he demonstrated natural musical ability and entertained at Castro family gatherings.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: And he taught himself bass, and the family noticed his
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: gift pretty early on. And his uncle, Ceci, who gave
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: him the guitar, said, quote, he had the smarts. There
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: are very few people who can teach themselves how to
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: play bass. Now, at Lincoln West High, he joined his
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: first Latin band and played in local churches. And classmates
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: remembered him as an outgoing, well-liked kid with a good family.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: And he graduated in 1979 near the bottom of his class,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: mind you, and then drifted through a number of routine jobs.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: And while working and living at home with his mom
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  Speaker 1: and two brothers, he also spent his time making a
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: name as one of the city's rising young Latin musicians.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: And the music brought money, and he spent it on cars, motorbikes,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: sharp clothes, and instruments. And in early 1980, Lillian moved
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: the family to a house on Burr Avenue, a mile
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  Speaker 1: away from the previous living space. And across the street
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  Speaker 1: lived a shy Puerto Rican girl named Grimilla or Nilda Figueroa.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: And Castro would compliment her whenever they passed. And she
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  Speaker 1: liked being noticed by him. Now, Nilda was 17 when
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Ariel began really pursuing her. And he invited her to
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: see one of his shows, and within a week, they
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  Speaker 1: were together. And she went to see him play a
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  Speaker 1: number of times in the weeks that followed and was
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: smitten with him. And one evening, she decided to give
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: him her virginity, only to have her mother waiting for
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  Speaker 1: the two of them when he drove her home. And
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: she had a talk with Ariel and told him, quote unquote,
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  Speaker 1: now you have to take her. And she moved into
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: his room that night. and she would stay with him
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: as his common-law wife for well over a decade. Some
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: moms ground their kids, but he had to literally basically
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: get married to the woman. My goodness. And they soon
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: moved into their own place after Nilda first became pregnant.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: And together, they had four children. First, a son named
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Ariel Anthony Castro Jr., who they called Anthony. and eventually
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: three daughters, Angie, Emily, Lisette, and Arlene. Now, Ariel was
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: overjoyed with his first child, and he regularly had Nilda
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: bring him to the shows to show him off. And
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  Speaker 1: Nilda's sister, Alita, said, quote, he was a nice guy.
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  Speaker 1: He was really good to my sister at the beginning, unquote.
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  Speaker 1: And the rest of the family liked him, too. But
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  Speaker 1: his behavior towards Nilda shifted shortly after Anthony was born.
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  Speaker 1: And Alita said further, quote, he just started being too controlling,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: too possessive, and he would abuse her. I think having
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: the child made him feel she was his property, unquote.
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  Speaker 1: And the violence was a fixture of the relationship almost
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  Speaker 1: from the start, and it continued for years. And the
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: injuries started to pile up. Broken noses, broken ribs, teeth
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  Speaker 1: knocked out, shoulders dislocated. head injuries, etc. And the abuse
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  Speaker 1: even surfaced in police records more than once. And on
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  Speaker 1: September 30th, 1989, Nilda called police after Castro slapped her
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  Speaker 1: and threw her against a wall and a washing machine
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  Speaker 1: multiple times. And she was treated for a bruised shoulder
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  Speaker 1: and said he had assaulted her before. And on December 26th, 1993,
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  Speaker 1: she reported him again. He threw her to the ground,
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  Speaker 1: struck her head and face, and kicked her. And Anthony,
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  Speaker 1: their now 12-year-old son, ran from the house and Castro
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  Speaker 1: chased him. But almost nothing came of it. And after
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: the 1989 report, the case went to prosecutors and no
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: charge was ever filed, which is so incredibly sad. The
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  Speaker 1: system completely failed Nilda. And after the 1993 assault, he
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  Speaker 1: was arrested, but he pleaded guilty only to disorderly conduct.
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  Speaker 1: Anilda did not want to press charges, but a prosecutor
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: did anyway, luckily. And when a grand jury weighed the
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: domestic violence charge, they declined to indict, unfortunately. And other
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: complaints against him, including threats to neighbors, were also referred
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  Speaker 1: to prosecutors and went nowhere. And in April 1992, Castro
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  Speaker 1: would eventually buy a house of his own, and the
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: family moved in together. And the house was 2207 Seymour Avenue,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: a two-story wood frame home built in 1892. with four
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  Speaker 1: bedrooms and about 1,400 square feet. And for a century,
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  Speaker 1: it had been a working class address, first built by
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  Speaker 1: a Cleveland firefighter on a street that had shifted from
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  Speaker 1: a German enclave to the heart of the city's Puerto
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Rican community. And Castro had bought it from his uncle, Edwin,
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  Speaker 1: who owned a record store nearby. And under that roof,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: the abuse would unfortunately escalate, and Castro controlled the household
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  Speaker 1: from the beginning. He sealed off parts of the house fully,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: nailing windows shut and putting locks on the basement, attic,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: and garage. And he also made the house hard to
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: see into. And a chain-link fence and an eight-foot wooden
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: barricade walled off the backyard. And a neighbor, Verity Adams, said, quote, unquote,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: you couldn't see anything. he made sure he couldn't see
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: into his backyard. But regardless of this extremely shitty and
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: shifty behavior, Castro wore a pretty friendly face out and about.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: He drove a Cleveland school bus for work, played bass
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: in a local band, and went to church on Sundays.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: And relatives and acquaintances called him polite and quote-unquote cool.
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  Speaker 1: He was a bass player, a sweet and happy person,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: they would say. And neighbors would see more of a private,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: quiet man. And Aurora Marty would say he was easygoing.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: But she noticed the windows never opened, with blinds over
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: the big ones and plywood over small. Quote, at nighttime,
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  Speaker 1: the only light you would see would be the porch light,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: but nothing inside, no lights at all, unquote. And Anthony
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Westry noted he would let neighbors ride his three and
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: four wheelers in the snow, but he'd always be waiting
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: outside for them to return. Quote, he was always creepy, standoffish,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: but never to the point where you'd be overly suspicious.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: I just thought he was a very private person. I
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: thought he was depressed from going through a divorce or whatever.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: You lose your family, you know, unquote. Because Nilda finally
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: got out of the relationship in 1996. She moved out
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: and brought the children with her, luckily. And by 1997,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: she had full custody. But Castro did not let her
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  Speaker 1: go easily. And he would still abuse her and take
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: their daughters back with him. And in 2005, she sought
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: a protection order telling the court he had threatened the
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: lives of her and her kids, though she chose not
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: to pursue it and moved with them to Indiana. So
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: she at least got some distance from him. But unfortunately,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Milda died in 2012. And accounts of the cause differ,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: with one citing an accidental overdose of painkillers and another cancer.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: But back in 2002, across town, a young mother was
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: fighting to get her son back. Michelle was born in
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: April 1981 and grew up on Cleveland's West Side. And
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: her family had almost nothing. And in her own words, quote,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: we didn't have a couch to sit on. We didn't
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: have a stove. Just to give us a hot, warm meal,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: I had to cook on a space heater. It takes
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: four hours for a hot dog to cook, unquote. And
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: she took on the role of caregiver for her younger siblings,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: holding the household together. And her brother, Edward, said, quote,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: she has always been there to help us, unquote. And
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: when she wasn't planting vegetables in the yard, she was
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: next door feeding a neighbor's pet pony. And at a
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: young age, she had also survived abuse by a male relative.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: And of her childhood, she would say, quote, unquote, you
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: name it, I went through it. And at 14, she
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: couldn't take any more. Quote, I got to the point
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: where I said I'm more safer on the streets than
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: I am living in my own home. So I basically
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: ran away, unquote. So on the streets, she lived in
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: a garbage can with a blanket taken from a porch.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: And she sheltered near a bridge where the vibrations of
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: passing cars helped keep her calm. And a local Baptist
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: church became her refuge, where they took her in and
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: fed her, gave her clothes and a place to walk.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: And she was originally drawn in from the music, which
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: she found beautiful. Quote, I was a little bit embarrassed
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: because I didn't smell too pretty. I stood in the
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: back and singing along with every hymn that they were singing, unquote.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: And at one point, a churchgoer recognized her and told
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: her father, who made her return to school. Now there,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: classmates would bully her. And at four foot seven, she
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: was nicknamed Shorty. At 18, Michelle had a son directing
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: her to drop out of school. And she named her
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: son Joey. And despite everything, motherhood became the thing she
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: really wanted to get right. Saying, quote, I wanted to
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: be the best mom. I wanted to be better than
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: my mom. It was difficult because I didn't have very
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: much money, unquote. And she made up her mind to
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: get through school and build something stable for her son.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: She also loved animals, and at a young age, after
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: helping her mother deliver a litter of Shih Tzu puppies,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: the experience planted the dream of becoming a veterinarian in
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: her head. But of everything that school had to offer
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: while she attended, art class was what she looked forward
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: to most. And for everything she had been through, she
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: said she loved growing up in Cleveland, just despised her
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: home life. But unfortunately, custody of Joey would be taken
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: from her, and her mother's boyfriend, drunk, had broken the
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: toddler's leg and the boy was placed in foster care
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: and losing him just left her desperate. So in August
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: of 2002, Michelle had a meeting she could not afford
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: to miss because it was with social services about the
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: one thing that was on her mind. reclaiming her son, Joey.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: She had spent nearly four hours lost in the city
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: trying to find the place. Keep in mind that this
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: was years before smartphones were popularized, so she's just trying
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: to figure it out on her own. So exhausted, she
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: ducked into a family dollar, grabbed a soda, and asked
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: around for directions. But no one around seemed to be
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: able to help. So she was about to give up
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: when a man's voice cut in, saying he knew exactly
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: where she needed to go. And she recognized him. And
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: she said, quote unquote, oh my gosh, you're Emily's dad.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: She had only ever seen him in photos, but that
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: was enough to make the connection. Quote, he said, I
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: know where it's at. I can take you straight to it.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: It'll only take me five minutes. And she thought, okay,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: I'm going to make it. This is going to happen, unquote.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: And that man was Ariel Castro. She followed him out
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: to his car. an orange Chevy cluttered with fast food wrappers,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: grateful for the help. But rather than driving to the meeting,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: he said he had one quick errand at his house
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: before they went, and they got to talking about Joey,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: and Castro mentioned his dog had recently had a litter.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: So Michelle thought to herself, quote, so I was like, okay,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: I could take one home to my son because unfortunately
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: his dog had passed away, unquote. But when he finally
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: parked outside the house on Seymour Avenue, he had talked
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: her into coming in for a puppy. Quote, just come
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: in for a little while. The puppies are upstairs. You
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: can take one home to your son, unquote. But unfortunately,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: there would be no puppies. And he would lock her
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: in an upstairs room, bind her with an extension cord,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: and a day later took her down to the basement.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: And Michelle's family reported her missing. But before long, they
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: decided she had simply left. And her grandmother later explained
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: how the family had come to see it. Michelle had
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: just walked out on her own, bitter over losing Joey.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: And police and social workers took the same view. And
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: in November of 2003, 15 months after that report, Cleveland
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: police had taken her out of the FBI's database of
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: missing people. And the reason they gave was that they
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: could not, quote, find a parent, guardian, or other reporting
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: person to confirm that Miss Knight was still missing. Unquote.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: That makes no sense to me. You can't find any
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: evidence that she isn't missing. So why the are you
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: taking her out of the database? This is an infuriating case,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: but that just drives me insane. It's just awful. But
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: on paper, her case would stay open and the police
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: said they checked it as late as 2012, but it
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: drew little notice. And for all practical purposes, no one
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: was really looking for Michelle Knight. Amanda Marie Berry was
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: born on April 22, 1986, and grew up in and
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: around Cleveland. She went to John Marshall High School, and
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: by her late teens, she had a job at a
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: local Burger King. The people who taught her remembered a
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: very resilient kid. One teacher called her a tough cookie.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: a girl who stood her ground in science class even
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: when the boys wouldn't leave her alone. And she dreamed
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: of graduating and making something of herself, saying, quote, unquote.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: And she had a sister, Beth Serrano, but the center
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: of her world was her mother, Luana Miller. So Regina Brett,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: a Cleveland plane dealer columnist who spent time with the family,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: described their bond. Quote, they were more than just mother-daughter.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: I think that Luana Mandy was like her best friend.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: You know, they were like sisters, unquote. And Luana called
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Amanda Mandy. And Luana was not the typical image you
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: would expect of a mother. And Brett said of her, quote,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: she's an old-fashioned, you know, whiskey-drinking, chain-smoking, don't-get-in-the-way-of-my-daughter-and-me, you know,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: you're going to have to pay, unquote. And Brett also
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: admitted the woman scared her a little bit. But there
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: was no mistaking what drove her. Quote, So in the
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: spring of 2003, Amanda was just about to turn 17
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: years old. And on April 21st, Amanda had almost stayed
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: home from her shift at Burger King. And she said, quote,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: But she would go anyway. And when her shift ended,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: she called her sister Beth to say she was heading home.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: And on her way back, Amanda noticed a car trailing
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: her down the street. And the driver leaned out and
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: asked her if she wanted a ride. She knew him.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: Castro drove an elementary school bus and he was the
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: father of Amanda's friend, Emily, a girl she had gone
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: to Wilbur Wright Middle School with. And he said, referring
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: to his daughter, quote unquote, well, she's at my house.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Would you like to go see her? And Amanda said, yeah, sure.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: and got in the car with him. And once they
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: had arrived at the house on Seymour Avenue, Castor said
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: his daughter was probably in the bath and Amanda called, quote,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: so he said, we'll just wait. So he started showing
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: me around the house, unquote. But as we know, his
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: daughter didn't even live with him and she was not
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: in the bath. She was across town with her mother
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: and Amanda was now trapped. And a week later in
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: the middle of the night, the phone rang at Amanda's
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: family home. And the call was coming from Amanda's own
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: cell phone. And her sister Beth remembered saying, quote, He
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: called and said, I have Mandy, which nobody called her Mandy,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: but people who knew her. She wants to be with me, unquote.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: And the man on the line also said Amanda was
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: fine and would be home in a couple of days.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: So at that point, the FBI was building new tools
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: that could pinpoint where a cell phone was, as long
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: as someone switched it on. So agents would trace Amanda's
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: phone to a stretch of 30 to 40 blocks, That's
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: a lot of blocks. And agent Tim Kolenik said they
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: sat in that area around the clock for about a
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: week nonstop, waiting for the phone to come back on.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: But it never did. And Castro would not turn it
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: on for a second time. He basically just did it
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: to taunt because he's a f * * *. Monster.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: And the FBI would not disclose the call publicly until
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: that November. And no one could tell, even then, whether
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: it had been real. And Amanda's disappearance set off the
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: kind of search Michelle never got. And it drew national publicity,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: organized searches on the ground, and a 25K FBI reward
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: for information on her whereabouts. And the FBI posted 10
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: separate notices about her case on its site. And America's
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Most Wanted aired a segment on her disappearance in November
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: of 2004. And there were posters and yellow ribbons put
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: up all over. And meanwhile, there was nothing at all
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: about Michelle on the FBI's website. I mean, she was
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: taken out of the database, for God's sake. So one
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: young woman got 10 federal postings in a primetime broadcast,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: and the other got silence. The same world that had
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: quietly closed Michelle's case as a runaway was the one
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: Luana fought to keep away from her daughter. Now, Luana
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: pointed out that Amanda had left $ 100 sitting on her dresser.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: No teenager runs away and leaves the cash behind or
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: the phone charger or walks off the day before her
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: 17th birthday party still wearing her Burger King uniform. So
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: for three years, finding Amanda was Luana's whole life. She
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: sat for interviews with local reporters and telephoned the police,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: the FBI, and every newsroom that would pick up again
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: and again. Just anything to keep her daughter's face on
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: the news. And she showed support for visuals and rallies,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: and she kept buying Amanda Christmas presents, certain she would
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: be home to open them. And she told the reporter, quote,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: I want her on the news. She faded away from
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: the whole world. It just kills me. This is killing me, unquote.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: And in 2004, Luana took her search onto national television,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: appearing on the Montel Williams show. And the show's in-house psychic,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Sylvia Brown, told her the thing she was hoping to disprove. Quote,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: she's not alive, honey. Your daughter's not the kind who
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: wouldn't call, unquote. And Luana broke down in tears on
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: the show. And she later said she believed 98%. of
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: what Brown told her. And a friend, Art McCoy, watched
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: it break something within her. Quote unquote, I think she
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: had given up. Luana's health had been failing for years,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: and pancreatitis and other illnesses put her in hospital for months,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: and her condition steadily got worse over time. And on
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: March 2nd, 2006, Luana died of heart failure, three years
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: into the search for her daughter. And Donna Brady, a
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: Cleveland councilwoman who had spent countless hours at her side,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: told the Associated Press, quote unquote, she literally died of
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: a broken heart. Georgina de Jesus, known to everyone as Gina,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: was born in 1990 and grew up on the west
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: side of Cleveland on West 71st Street. She was the
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: youngest child in a tight-knit family, including her father, Felix
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: de Jesus, and her mother, Nancy Ruiz, and her sister, Mayra,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: and her brother, Ricardo. Gina was a shy girl, and
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: she had grown up bilingual, speaking English and Spanish at home.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: And she went to Wilbur Wright Middle School, almost 40
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: blocks from her house. And her mother would give her
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: fare for the bus, but Gina pocketed the change and
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: walked anyway, ducking into a store along the way for
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: a piece of gum or a bag of snacks. At school, though,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: Gina was one of three. She, Arlene Castro, and Kayla
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Rogers were best friends, so close that they were referred
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: to as the Three Musketeers. And Kayla had known Gina
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: since elementary school, and the two of them met Arlene
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: once they reached middle school. And they ran the same
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: west side blocks, hung around on Gina's porch, and had
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: sleepovers together. And Gina loved dancing, and her afternoons were
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: filled with Spanish music and rap. And the girls stayed
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: on the phone for hours, traded gossip, and talked about boys.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: And Kayla said, quote, we were gossips, gossip girls, unquote.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: And each day after class, the three of them walked
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: home together. Now, Arlene's father, Ariel Castro, was no stranger
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: to the de Jesus family. And he and Felix knew
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: each other the way parents in the same neighborhood do
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: when their daughters are inseparable. Gina had seen him around
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: and heard his name regularly. And to her, he was
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: simply her best friend's father. So in the spring of 2004,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Gina was 14 years old. And April 2nd was a
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: school day. And at the end of it, Gina left
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Wilbur Wright and started the walk home. And her mother
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: had given her $ 1. 25 for the bus, but Gina had
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: kept it for snacks as had become something of a routine.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: And she got as far as the payphone on Lorraine
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Avenue and Arlene Castro was with her. And she wanted
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: to spend this afternoon at Gina's house. So Gina handed
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: her 50 cents to call home and ask. And the
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: answer was no. And Arlene said, quote, I told her
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: I couldn't. And she said, well, okay, I'll talk to
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: you later. And she walked, unquote. And she went along
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: on foot, alone now, somewhere between a quarter to three
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: and three o'clock. And a car would pull up beside her.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: And the man behind the wheel was Arlene's father, Ariel Castro.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: And he asked if she'd seen his daughter. And in
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: Gina's words, quote, he asked me, you seen my daughter?
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: I said, yeah, she's right around the corner. And he
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: was like, can you help me find her? And I said, sure, unquote.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: She knew him. She didn't think there was any danger.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: He was her best friend's dad, a friend of her
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: own father's, a face from the neighborhood. So she got in.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: And he drove her to 2207 Seymour Avenue. And inside,
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: he asked her to help him move a stereo. And
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: something about him started to unnerve her. And Michelle had
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: been inside almost 20 months at this point, and Amanda
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: nearly a year. And Gina would now be joining a
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: new group of three. And when Gina didn't come home,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: her family went straight to the police. But no Amber
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Alert went out. And the police were the situation the
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: same way they had Michelle two years before. A teenager
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: who had just run off, maybe with a boyfriend. And
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: the delay left the family to start searching on their own,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: which is heartbreaking. And Jessica Ponce had walked part of
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: the way home with Gina that afternoon and she said, quote,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: she called her mom and told her mom she was
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: on her way home and that's the last time I'd
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: seen her, unquote. And the family poured everything into the search,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: papering the neighborhood with flyers and holding visuals. And the
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: FBI joined in as well. And a year later, America's
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Most Wanted ran Gina's case alongside Amanda's, pointing out that
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: both girls had been taken from nearly the same point
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: on Lorraine Avenue. And one of the people who spoke
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: on the broadcast was Arlene, the last to see Gina
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: at the payphone. So all three of them had vanished
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: from the same road, Lorraine Avenue, within 20 months. Michelle
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: in August of 2002, Amanda in April of 2003, and
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Gina in April of 2004. But the police somehow never
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: seemed to tie the cases to one another. And three
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: months before Gina was taken, in January of 2004, officers
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: had actually come to 2207 Seymour Avenue, but the call
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: had nothing to do with the women. And Child Welfare
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: had reported that Castro had left a child alone on
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: a bus he drove, and no one answered the door.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: So officers spoke with Castro afterward and didn't see any
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: criminal intent involved. And in the years Gina was gone,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: Castro even participated in the search for her. And he
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: handed out flyers with her face on them. And he
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: played music at a fundraiser thrown in her name. And
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: at a candle vigil for Gina, a man named Antonio
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: Quiroz saw him stand with her mother and comfort her.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: And Khalid Samad, an activist and a friend of the family,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: also acknowledged, quote, When we went out to look for Gina,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: he helped pass out flyers. You know, he was friends
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: with the family, unquote. And Gina's uncle, Tito de Jesus,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: had been a longtime bandmate with Castro, sharing stages for
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: 20 years, and had been inside the house on Seymour
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Avenue without ever noticing a thing. And one day, while
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: investigators dug up a nearby yard looking for the missing girls,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: a neighbor named Francisco Cruz stood next to Castro and said,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: And Castro turned to him and said, quote, they're not
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: going to find anyone there, unquote. Three young women taken
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: from the same few blocks of one street and one
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: house three miles off was holding all three of them.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: And not a single dot was connected. And for the
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: next nine years, the world moved on. But inside 2207
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: Seymour Avenue, time stopped. All right, I want to take
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: a quick pause to confess. I will spend six hours
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: going down the rabbit hole on plenty of different cases.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: I will not, however, call the doctor's office. It's just
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: something about that phone tree, the hold music, and the transfer,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: and the, our next appointment is in March. When it's
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: So I just don't do it. I put off one
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: appointment for over a year once. And a year of
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: putting something off isn't a plan. It's avoidance with extra steps.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: And I don't want you doing that version of it.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: And that's why I now use ZocDoc. a soft dock
• 30:55
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• 30:58
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• 31:02
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• 31:05
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• 31:08
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• 31:15
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• 31:19
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• 31:24
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• 31:27
  Speaker 1: Z-O-C-D-O-C dot com slash CCCM. Thank you so much to
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: ZocDoc for supporting the channel and sponsoring the video, and
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: let's get back to it. So from their first days,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: the rules of that house were set with restraints and silence.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: Michelle was restrained with an extension cord looped around her legs,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: her arms, and her neck. And a sock was forced
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: into her mouth so no one could hear her. And
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: Castro turned the music up loud to cover whatever noise
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: the sock did not. And he would assault her several
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: times a day. And Amanda spent her first three days
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: in that basement. And on the fourth, he brought her
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: upstairs to a bedroom and fixed a chain to a
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: radiator and its other end around her stomach. And she
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: would describe it saying, quote, going to sleep at night,
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: you know, if you wanted to toss on your back,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: you couldn't do that. You would have to take the
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: whole chain and move it to the front of your
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: stomach so that you're not laying on a big lock
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: on your back, unquote. And the room was barely the
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: size of a closet. and she would sleep on a
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: filthy mattress with a bucket in the corner as a bathroom.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: And once a day, some food arrived, usually chips or crackers.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: And even the weekly shower had a steep cost because
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: she could only take it with him. And when Gina
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: arrived a year later, Castro put her in the nicer room.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: And the small unfairness of this stung because it appeared
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: she was the favorite. Quote, He seems to treat me
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: better than the other girls. I have the nicer room,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: Gina would say. And Amanda said of the difference in
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: her treatment, quote, it was just simple things. But when
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: you don't have anything, you're like, well, why don't I
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: have that? I want that, unquote. So he made sure
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: to keep the three of them apart and would not
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: let them speak. Gina said it felt like he knew
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: everything because he was always watching. Sometimes he pretended to
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: leave the house, then waited outside and punished anyone who
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: had tried to call out or run. And the rules
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: inside were obsessive. The whole sink of dishes had to
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: be washed with a single drop of soap. When cooking,
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: the pan had to sit dead center on the stove. Quote,
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: it couldn't be a little to the left, a little
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: to the right, unquote, Amanda would say. And he reminded
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: Michelle over and over that no one was coming. Just
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: to add more insult to injury to the fact that
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: the other girl's families were constantly on the news and
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: hers were not. And Castro said to her, quote, your
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: families don't care about you. Ain't you glad I took you, unquote. Quote,
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: I felt like he hated me the most because I
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: was the one that stood my ground, unquote, she would say.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: And the regime did not stay fully fixed though. And
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: as the years passed, the women were allowed a bit
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: more freedom on the second floor, even though they were
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: still abused behind locked doors. And they each found ways
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: to survive the torment. Michelle taught herself to leave her
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: own body, saying, quote, anytime he was doing anything to me,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: I had to put myself in a different place, unquote.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: And Amanda kept a diary wherever she could in notebooks,
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: on napkins, and fast food bags. And at the top
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: of each page, she wrote a string of numbers, a
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: private code counting how many times Castro had written that
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: day so that someone might read it one day and
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: make him answer for what he had done. And Gina
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: held on to a particular piece of paper. One day,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: Castro carried a missing person flyer into the house with
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: her own face on it, handed to him by her
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: own mother during a search. And Gina asked if she
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: could keep it. It was the last thing her mother
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: had touched, and she wanted to show her one day
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: that she still had it. And their one link to
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: the world outside was a small black and white TV.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: And in the early months, Amanda watched her own mother
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: and sister on it, searching for her. It was the
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: one thing that kept her going, saying, quote, you know what?
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: I'm going to make it home to you. As long
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: as you fight, I'm going to fight, unquote. And she
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: was watching the day her mother, Luanna, went on the
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: Montel Williams show to ask Sylvia Brown whether her daughter
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: was still alive and heard the woman tell her, she
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: was dead. And Amanda naturally broke down. Quote, I couldn't
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: believe she said that. And then my mom broke down crying.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: So that hurt even worse. Unquote. But she was obviously
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: still alive and then trapped in this house still when
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: her mother died in the spring of 2006. And over
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: the years, Michelle had become pregnant five times. And each time,
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: Castro ended it in brutal ways until she could never
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: carry a child again. But he would not do the
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: same to Amanda, who realized she was pregnant on her
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: 20th birthday. Quote, I was terrified how, I mean, I
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: barely eat and I'm chained to a wall and I
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: have a bucket for a bathroom. So on Christmas day
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: of 2006 in an inflatable pool set on the floor,
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: Amanda gave birth with Michelle helping to bring the baby
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: into the world. But the newborn girl was not breathing
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: and Castro told Michelle he would kill her if the
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: baby died. So she breathed into the little girl's mouth
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: until the baby took a breath of her own. and
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: Amanda named her Jocelyn. And the baby looked like Castro,
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: and Amanda didn't care. Quote, I would look at her
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: and I just felt like she's mine, she's mine, unquote.
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: For all three women, the child became something to hold onto.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: Gina would describe, quote, when I was playing with Jocelyn,
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: Jocelyn made me forget everything, unquote. And Jocelyn grew up
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: seeing the chains on Amanda, who was taught to call
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: them bracelets. And when she had grown to the age
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: of two or three, he finally took Amanda's chains off
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: of her. And that was all thanks to Jocelyn. And
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: as she got older, he gave her things that he
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: denied the women, including playing outside in the backyard, going
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: to the park and Sunday services at church. Quote, she
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: loved him and he loved her, unquote, Amanda would say.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: But under those words, she carried a fear she could
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: never set down of what he might one day do
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: to the child. Quote, I was nervous. Like, would he
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: touch her? Would he ever think about touching her? Because,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: you know, he had his problems, unquote. But despite everything
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: happening in the house, outside of those walls, Castro was
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: a familiar, friendly face. He played bass at clubs around Cleveland,
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: performing like a man with nothing to hide. And he
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: went about his work as a bus driver. And even
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: the people closest to him were kept out of parts
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: of the house. And his son Anthony said there were
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: areas that no one was allowed in. The basement, the attic,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: and the garage all stayed locked at all times. And
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: on a chaotic block, his boarded-up house stayed among the quietest,
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: one of the last to ever draw a police call.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: And in that almost decade, the block drew some 1,100
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: police calls, equivalent to about one every three and a
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: half days. Then in all of those years, they came
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: to Castro's own door only twice, and neither visit had
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: anything to do with the women. And the first was
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: the school bus complaint back in early 2004 that we
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: talked about, And the second time, in 2009, Castro was
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: the one who called to report a fight in the street.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: So they were forever just steps away from these poor,
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: poor girls. Three days after Michelle vanished, police were two
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: doors down over a stolen phone. And nine days into
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: Amanda's captivity, an abandoned car brought them to the same address.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: And the day after Gina disappeared, another call put them
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: only a block away. And twice, a neighbor down the
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: street thought she'd heard something. A woman screaming up front
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: in 2003, and in 2008, a muffled voice crying, get
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: off me, with a baby somewhere behind it. And officers
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: came each time and each time nothing was found. In
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: 11 years the women were let outside exactly twice. in
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: wigs and sunglasses with their heads down. Then slowly the
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: structure of Castro's own life began to give. And he
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: had driven the Cleveland school bus since 1991. And in
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: the fall of 2012, he left it parked and unattended
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: and was fired that November after 21 years. And his
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: house was sliding toward foreclosure. and he owed thousands in
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: back taxes. So with the job gone, nothing pulled him
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: out of the house on a schedule anymore. And by 2013,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: Jocelyn was now six years old and taking in everything
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: around her. The chains had been off Amanda for years,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: and the grip that had kept that house shut for
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: a decade was quietly beginning to loosen. So May 6,
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: 2013 was an ordinary afternoon. That is until Jocelyn noticed
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: her father was nowhere to be seen around the house.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: And Amanda checked her bedroom door and found that Castro
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: had left it unlocked for the first time. And Gina remembered, quote,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: so Jocelyn goes downstairs and then she runs back up
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: and she says, I don't find daddy. Daddy's nowhere around, unquote.
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: And Amanda recalled the precious moment saying, quote, she's like, mom,
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: daddy's car is gone. Like my heart immediately started pounding
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: because I'm like, should I chance it? If I'm going
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: to do it, I need to do it now, unquote.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: And she made it down the stairs and reached the
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: front door. It was tied to an alarm, but it opened.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: And the storm door just beyond it was padlocked shut,
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: so she pushed an arm through the gap and waved. Quote,
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: Somebody please, please help me. I'm Amanda Berry. Please, I
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: could die any moment. I'm so terrified, unquote. and a
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: neighbor saw her and was too scared to get involved.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: And for a moment, she thought it was over. Quote,
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: after I got to the locked door and the guys
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: didn't help me, I was like, he's going to come
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: home and this is just going to be the end, unquote.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: And then a man... crossed the street. Angel Cordero had
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: been visiting a porch nearby when he saw the woman
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: clawing at the door and he kicked at the bottom
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: of it. Charles Ramsey, who lived next door, heard the
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: shouting and came over as well. And as Amanda remembered it,
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: Ramsey urged her on saying, quote, he like kind of
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: kicks it and he's like, there you go, finish kicking
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: it out and you can get out, unquote. And the
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: bottom of the door gave and Amanda pushed through, then
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: ran back inside for Jocelyn and came out with a
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: girl in her arms. And the two men would give
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: differing accounts of who reached her first. And more importantly,
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: Amanda crossed to a neighbor's house and called 911. Quote,
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: help me, I'm Amanda Berry, unquote. And when asked what
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: was wrong, she said, I've been kidnapped and I've been
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: missing for 10 years and I'm here, I'm free now.
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: And when dispatcher said police would come as soon as
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: a car opened up, she cut in saying, quote, no,
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: I need them before he gets back, unquote. And she
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: named Ariel Castro. And she kept insisting on who she was,
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: that her face had been all over the news for
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: a decade. I got, I got that deer, they would answer.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: So officers Anthony Espada and Michael Tracy were near the
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: Westside Market when the highest priority call came over the radio. Quote,
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: we kind of looked at each other like deer in headlights. Like,
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: is that for real? Unquote, Espada would say. And they
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: turned onto Seymour and a woman approached them carrying a child.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: And she looked like an older version of the girl
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: on the old missing posters. And Espada knew her by
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: the eyebrow piercing. Quote, I think this is for real, unquote,
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: he said on the radio. And Amanda told them there
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: were two more women inside. And Tracy pulled at the
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: front door, found it chained from within, and kicked it
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: until it gave out. And inside, the house was dark.
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: And Espada climbed the stairs with his gun drawn, calling
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: out Cleveland police. and upstairs he found mattresses on the floor,
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: chains in the closets, and a hole cut in each
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: door where food had been pushed through. And Michelle and
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: Gina had heard the noise and thought Castro had caught Amanda.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: And Gina almost bolted, quote, I turned to Michelle and
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: I'm like, we could run, we could do this. But
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: then once Michelle gets pumped, I'm like, no, I talked
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: her out of it, unquote. They were terrified that they
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: were next for what they believed to be Castro's anger.
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: And then came the word police. And Michelle threw the
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: door open and ran to their arms. I see a badge,
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: she said. And she jumped up and held on. Please
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: don't let me go. Please don't put me down. Michelle
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: was so small that Espada mistook her for a child.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: And she took him and she told him she had
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: been in that house for 11 years and that they
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: had saved her. And Gina came to the realization of
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: what was happening a bit slower due to shock, not
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: really believing the men were real. Quote, I thought they
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: were people in costumes, unquote, she would say. And Espada
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: recognized her from the posters and asked her name. And
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: when she said, Georgina de Jesus, he told her, we've
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: been looking for you for a long time. And the
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: officer's faces fell. Officer Barbara Johnson, whose arms Michelle jumped into, said, quote,
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: it was just like getting smacked in the face. Like,
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: holy cow, she's still alive after all of these years, unquote.
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: And then over the radio came the words so many
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: had waited to hear. We found them. We found them.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: And Michelle dropped to the ground outside and kissed it. Quote,
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: I didn't care how dirty it was. I kissed that
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: ground and thank God that he helped us get out
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: of there, unquote. And the three women and Jocelyn kept
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: reaching for one another in the ambulance. It was like,
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: it's real. Amanda would say, we're going home. Gina's mother,
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: Nancy Ruiz, was just a few blocks away when she
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: spotted one of the FBI agents from her daughter's case.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: And she ran to him and asked, just tell me
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: if it's her. And he told her, yes. And they
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: held each other and cried. And Felix de Jesus said
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: the reunion felt like a dream he needed someone to
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: wake him up from. And Gina recalled, I'm hugging everybody.
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: Then the first thing I pulled out was this flyer
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: and I showed my mom. Now she could finally give
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: it back to her. And at the hospital, Amanda and
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: her sister Beth held each other tight. And Beth would say,
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: she was just really skinny and had short hair, but
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: she was still beautiful. She had the biggest smile that
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: she always had. And Jocelyn, who had never known anything
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: but the house, hugged her new family. like she knew
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: them forever, running around cracking jokes. And Michelle's homecoming was
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: not like the others, though, because she was in the
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: worst shape of the three, and doctors gave her only
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: days to live at this point. Though difficult news to receive,
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: she wouldn't let it win, saying, quote, I was singing,
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: I was dancing, I was trying to make the best
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: of the life I had left. They put me on
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: 14 different medications before I was actually better, unquote. And
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: though she was finally free at the age of 32,
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: she was, in a way, the others were not. And
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: that was alone. She had no family to return to,
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: no friends, and no home. So she went to live
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: in an assisted living facility outside the city. And she
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: called herself a forgotten one and then said, quote, So
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: while the women were being attended to, police were already
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: out looking for Castro. And before she left, Michelle had
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: handed officers a photo of him from the refrigerator. And
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: it wasn't long until they found him in his blue
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: Mazda Miata and arrested him. And his brothers, Pedro and O'Neill,
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: were arrested. were picked up too with the belief that
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: they might have been part of it as well. And
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: two days later, prosecutors cleared them as they had nothing
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: to do with what had happened in that house. So
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: on May 9th, Ariel Castro was charged with four counts
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: of kidnapping and three counts of rape, and his bail
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: was set to $ 8 million. And over the weeks that followed,
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: the full scope of his crimes came into focus through
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: a grand jury process that explained the charges twice. The
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: first indictment on June 7th carried 329 counts. Then a
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: grand jury indicted Castro on 977 counts on July 12th,
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: including 512 counts of kidnapping and 446 counts of rape,
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: along with seven counts of gross sexual imposition and six
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: counts of felonies assault and three counts of child endangerment.
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: and two counts of aggravated murder for the pregnancies he
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: had forced to end. And finally, one count of possessing
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: criminal tools. And Ohio law reserved the death penalty for
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: aggravated murder alone, of which he had two counts. And
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: on July 26, he took a deal. And he pleaded
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: guilty to 937 counts, and the state agreed not to
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: seek the death penalty. And the sentence was recommended to
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: be life without the possibility of parole. And the deal
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: also made it so the women would not have to
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: testify at the trial. So on August 1st, 2013, Castro
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: was brought to court to be sentenced. And as the
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: case was laid out, the inside of the house told
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: its own story. And FBI agent Andrew Burke testified that
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: Castro had rebuilt the place to keep the women hidden.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: An alarm sat on the back door, curtains and bedspreads
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: blocked the sight lines, and a porch swing had been
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: set in front of the stairs that led to the
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: rooms where he kept them, and he chained them to
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: a pole in the basement, and in Amanda's room, the
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: doorknob had been taken off and a lock was put
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: on the outside, with a hole cut through the door
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: for air because the windows were boarded over. And detectives
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: told the judge that the women had lived through years of...
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: and beatings and hunger and a gun produced as a
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: tool of control and even forced rounds of Russian roulette,
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: which if you're not familiar, that's when a loaded gun,
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: usually only with one bullet, is put to people's head
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: or somewhere on them and the trigger is pulled and
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: it might go off and it might not. It's... a horrifically,
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: psychologically up. I don't even wanna, it's not a game,
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: it's life or death. And he used to do this
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: to them. And Burke also told of a letter Castro
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: had written out by hand in which he said he
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: had been abused as a child and called himself That's quoted.
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: And all three women had kept diaries through the years,
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: and those pages filled in much of the record. And
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: Amanda and Gina would not come to the hearing. And instead,
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: they sent family to read their words for them. Michelle
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: did show up in person to say her words to
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: his ugly face. And she spoke about Joey. Quote, I
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: missed my son every day. I wonder if I was
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: ever going to see him again. He was only two
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: and a half years old when I was taken. I
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: cried every night. I was so alone. Days turned into nights.
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: She said Castro had told her over and over that
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: her family did not care about her, even on holidays,
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: and that Christmas was the hardest because she never got
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: to spend it with her boy. Then she spoke about Gina, quote,
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: And then she turned to the man who had taken
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: it all, saying, quote, you will die a little every day.
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: The death penalty would be so much easier. You don't
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: deserve that. You deserve to spend life in prison. After
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: 11 years, I am finally being heard and it's liberating, unquote.
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: In what Michelle described, the experts confirmed. And Dr. Frank
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: Ockburn wrote that she had suffered the longest and most
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: severely of the three and that it was Michelle who
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: had been, quote, doctor, nurse, midwife, and pediatrician, unquote, at
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: Jocelyn's birth, who, quote, breathed life into that infant when
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: she wasn't breathing, unquote, and who had put herself between
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: Castro and Gina, absorbing abuse meant for her friend. And
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: he also said that, quote, each survivor had a will
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: to prevail and use that will to live through the ordeal, unquote.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: And another doctor asked whether Castro was mentally ill, said
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: that an examination showed no psychiatric illness whatsoever. So, he
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: was completely of sound mind when he was doing all
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: of these atrocities. And when Castro was given his chance
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: to speak, he used it to defend himself. And he insisted, quote,
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: I'm not a monster. I'm just sick. I have an
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: addiction just like an alcoholic has an addiction. Why is
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: he even allowed to speak is my question, honestly. And
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: he would claim the women had not been virgins and
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: that they had wanted the sex and that there had
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: been harmony in a happy household. And he had said
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: he had never beaten or tortured anyone, that he had
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: only kept them so they could not leave. And Judge
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: Russo answered him saying, quote, In your mind, there was
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: harmony and a happy household. I'm not sure there's anyone
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: else in America who would agree with you. At the end,
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: Castro turned toward the victims' families and would say, quote,
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: Thank you, victims. Please find it in your heart to
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: forgive me. Unquote. And then Judge Michael Russo handed down
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: his sentence, which was life plus a thousand years. You
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: don't deserve to be out in our community. You're too dangerous,
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: he would say. But unfortunately, a month into this pathetic
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: shit stain of a human, on September 3rd, 2013, guards
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: would find Ariel Castro dead in his cell, having himself
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: with a bed sheet. And he left no note and
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: photos of his family were set out and a Bible
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: lay open beside him to chapters two and three of
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: the Gospel of John. He took the easy way out
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: and basically had to do no time for the abhorrent
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: crimes that he committed and just the hell that he
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: put these three women through. And I hope he's rotting
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: in hell for it. And at this point, the house
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: itself was already gone. Six days after the sentencing, a
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: backhoe had torn into the roof of 2207 Seymour Avenue
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: And the neighbors cheered as it came down. And Michelle
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: was there. And she let go of dozens of yellow
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: balloons meant for every child who had been taken and
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: never found and said a prayer. Nobody was there for
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: me when I was missing. And I want the people
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: to know that they can have strength, they can have hope,
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: and their child will come back. And Castro had forfeited
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: money to help pay Tear Down the House. as part
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: of the plea deal. So the women were offered it
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: and asked that it go to the neighborhood instead. And
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: Michelle said she hoped someone would plant a garden where
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: the house had stood. And when it was over, there
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: was only an empty lot. Let's take a quick pause
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: to talk about my cat. Okay, specifically Baby. Baby is
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: my Maine Coon cat, and she is the love of
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: my life. But she has exactly one personality trait, and
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: that is that she inhales her dinner like she's being
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: timed on the regular, and then returns it to me
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: on the rug on the regular, if you know what
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: I mean. I call it the scarf and barf. And
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: this has happened for months and months, but then we
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: switched to Smalls. Small's is fresh cat food, protein-packed recipes
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: made with preservative-free, 100% human-grade ingredients you'd find in your
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: own fridge. And it's delivered right to your door. And
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: since switching, her coat is absolutely softer, and there's way
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: less shedding, and her poops are a lot less stinky,
• 55:53
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  Speaker 1: you so much to Smalls for sponsoring the video and
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  Speaker 1: supporting the channel, and let's get back to it. So
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: the three women who walked out of the house each
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: set about rebuilding their life. Michelle Knight became someone new
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: down to her name. She took the name Lily Rose Lee,
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: left Cleveland, and on May 6, 2016, three years to
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: the day after her escape, She would get married, and
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: under the name she was born with, she wrote two books,
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: Finding Me and Life After Darkness. And she started a foundation,
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: Lily Rays of Hope, to help other survivors find their
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: footing with housing, clothing, and a way back into school.
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: And Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus wrote a book together
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: called Hope, and it became a number one bestseller. And
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: Amanda turned her worst years into something useful. And she
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: has hosted a segment on Cleveland's Fox 8 since 2017
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: called Missing with Amanda Berry, putting the faces of the
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: missing on the news, the way her own mother once
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: begged the news to show hers. And she lives with
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: her sister Beth and talks to students at school. And now,
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: 10 years out, she said that against everything, she was happy. Quote,
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: I never thought I was going to be able to
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: trust and love somebody. It's been a good 10 years, unquote.
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: And Gina had to learn her own life all over again.
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: And she relearned the Spanish she had lost during her captivity,
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: learned to drive, and let her cousin take her to
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: a prom she never got to experience. And then she
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: and her cousin, Sylvia Colon, opened the Cleveland Family Center
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: for Missing Children and Adults, a place to help the
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: families of the missing. And they put its headquarters on
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: Seymour Avenue. Quote,' I wanted to bring something positive to
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: the street,' If I can be on that street, then
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: anybody else can be on that street too, end quote.
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: And both she and Amanda finally received the high school
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: diplomas they had been robbed of, honorary degrees from John
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: Marshall High School. And Amanda's daughter, Jocelyn, grew up out
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: of the spotlight, and the women meant to keep it
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: that way. And her family has guarded her privacy, letting
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: the public know little more than the milestones. And by
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: the end of 2022, she had turned 16, the same
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: age Amanda had been the night Castro took her. But
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: long before this rescue, the system had already failed them.
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: Michelle had been an adult when she disappeared, and the
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: police wrote that she had a mental condition and might
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: have wandered off. And most of her family assumed she
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: had left on her own. And she was taken off
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: the FBI's missing persons list within about a year while
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: she was still inside of that house. And part of
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: why Gina's family opened their center was the way the
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: police had treated them in 2004. And when officers first
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: assumed their 14-year-old had just run off. Some of the
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: center's work now is teaching officers how to answer a
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: missing person call with more care. And what happened to
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: Michelle was not unusual. Every year, more than half a
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: million people are reported missing in the United States. And
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: the ones who make the news are not chosen at random.
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: One study of thousands of missing person stories found that
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: a young white woman draws roughly 10 times the coverage
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: a black man from the same city gets. And nine
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: out of 10 missing children of color, one advocate said,
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: are written off by police as runaways. So no alert
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: goes out and no cameras come. and they stay missing
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: far longer than anyone else. Quote, if you go missing
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: and the press devotes a lot of attention to it,
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: the editor and publisher of the Columbia Journalism Review said,
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: you have a better chance of a decent outcome, whereas
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: you don't if they ignore it, unquote. And the three
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: women knew that better than anyone. And for years, they
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: were the missing. And Michelle was the one almost no
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: one came looking for. And now they spend their days
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: looking for other people's daughters and sons. Michelle said the
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: missing were not forgotten in her eyes. And the question
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: the case leaves behind is whether they are forgotten in ours.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: Who do we search for? And who do we let?
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: just disappear. I will make sure to link all of
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: the foundations and outreach programs that I spoke about in
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: the description below if you want to look at them
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: or give back in any way. But a lot of
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: you guys requested me looking into this case, so I
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: really appreciate that. And please let me know what other
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: cases you want me to deep dive into. There's no
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: little or too big or just any case. I really,
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: really appreciate it. And that is it for today. And
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: I will see you in the next one. I'll see you,
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: beautiful face. Please stay safe out there.