I have a calltick on the phone with a female
who says her name is Amanda Berry and that she
had been kidnapped 10 years ago. She's at this
location now. It's a code 1. The cat is 0149.
0149. She still has on the phone right now. She's
saying that the male is Ariel Castro. 52 year
old Hispanic male that lives at 2207 Seymour
and that he's been holding her here for 10 years.
Go ahead. We found them. We found them. We also
have a Michelle Knight in the house. I don't
know if you want to look that up in the radio.
Hi, my name is Tanya and this is day nine of
my 100 days of growth for my podcast Bloom Talks.
Three separate days, three moments when life
should have gone on as normal. Instead, each
moment ended the same way. A door closed, a lock
clicked, and childhood freedom safety just disappeared.
For nearly a decade, three young women were held
captive inside a house on Seymour Avenue in Cleveland,
Ohio. Their names were Michelle Knight, Amanda
Berry, and Gina DeJesus. For nearly a decade
these women would be held captive. This is the
true story of how they were taken, how they survived,
and what they did with their lives after the
world finally found them again. Michelle Knight's
was born in 1981. Her childhood was already marked
by hardship, instability, foster care, poverty
and abuse. By adulthood, she had already learned
how to survive difficult circumstances long before
captivity even begun. On August 22, 2002, Michelle
was 21 years old. She was walking near downtown
Cleveland when a man approached her. His name
was Ariel Castro. He told her he could help her
and look for her missing son and she believed
him but instead he drove her straight to his
house. Once inside the true revealed itself immediately.
Michelle was beaten, restrained, assaulted and
locked inside. She would not leave that house
again for nearly 11 years. For a long time she
was completely alone and slowly the world stopped
looking for her. On April 21st, 2003, Amanda
Berry would disappear. She was only 16 years
old. Amanda had just finished a shift at Burger
King and was waiting for her sister to pick her
up. A man she recognized pulled over, Ariel Castro.
He lived nearby, she had met him before and he
offered her a ride. She accepted this ride and
minutes later she was inside the same house.
Amanda was again assaulted and locked away. Now
there were two girls kept separate, isolated
from one another, controlled through fear. On
April the 2nd, 2004 Gina De Geus vanished. She
was only 14 years old. She had a whole life ahead
of her, all these girls did. She was just walking
home from a friend's house when Castro approached
her. Once again, trust was exploited. Gina was
taken to the same house and she would spend her
teenage years, her entire adolescence, in captivity.
Now there were three. three lives unfolding in
parallel rarely allowed to interact this is the
hardest part of the story and it matters inside
that house life was defined by absolute control
all three girls were locked in rooms restrained
with chains threatened with death and subjected
to repeated assault Windows were boarded shut,
doors were reinforced, music was played loudly
to drown out any noise. They were denied privacy,
denied dignity. Michelle Nye endured the longest
captivity and often the harshest treatment. She
was frequently beaten, starved and psychologically
broken down. She suffered forced miscarriages
and extreme neglect. Amanda Berry and Gina lived
under constant threat, learning to read moods,
anticipate danger and survive moment to moment.
This was not survival driven by hope. It was
survival driven by endurance. In 2006, Amanda
Berry became pregnant. She gave birth to a daughter
while in captivity. This moment changed everything.
Amanda later said that her daughter gave her
a reason to stay alive. She protected her fiercely.
She taught her to read and write using television
captions, scraps of paper, and repetition. She
tried to create a version of childhood inside
a locked house. Michelle and Gina helped when
they could, small acts of care in an environment
designed to erase humanity. Years passed, birthdays
passed, and the girls grew older behind locked
doors. Outside the house, families searched.
Amanda Berry and Gina De Jesus. became high profile
missing persons cases. Michelle Knight unfortunately
did not. Many believed she had simply disappeared.
Inside the house, the women learned not to expect
rescue. Hope became dangerous. Escape felt impossible.
Until one day that was. Imagine this. The house
is quiet, Castro leaves, and Amanda notices the
door is not fully secured. She breaks part of
the door frame. She screams, she pounds and a
neighbor hears her. With help, Amanda escapes,
carrying her daughter. Police arrive and they
enter the house. And one by one, after nearly
a decade, Michelle walks outside. Gina follows
her. All three women step into the daylight alive.
Ariel Castro was arrested and charged with kidnapping,
sexual assault and aggravated murder related
to forced miscarriages. He pleaded guilty and
he's sentenced to life in prison plus a thousand
years. He died by suicide in prison in 2013,
but his victims lived on. Freedom did not, of
course, erase that trauma. Healing was slow,
personal and different for each woman. Michelle
Knight's later changed her name to Lily Rose
Lee. She wrote the memoir, Finding Me, reclaiming
her identity in her own words. She became an
advocate for missing and exploited children.
She built a family, married and spoke openly
about survival after long term captivity. Amanda
Berry focused on raising her daughter. She co
-wrote the memoir, Hope. She became a missing
persons investigator and radio host, helping
families find loved ones. turning her experience
into purpose and Gina DeJesus returned to her
family and chose a quieter path. She co -authored
Hope and participated in advocacy while prioritizing
privacy, healing and rebuilding her life in her
own terms. Each woman reclaimed their future
differently and every path was valid. This story
is not inspirational because of what happened,
it's inspirational because of what didn't destroy
them. They survived that loss of freedom and
years of isolation, that psychological terror
and the threat of their youth. They endured without
knowing if rescue would ever come. And when it
did, they chose life. Their stories remind us
that survival is strength. That healing is not
linear and that victims are not defined by what
was done to them. Yes, they lost 10 years of
their life, but still they chose to live fully
once rescued. They're not just survivors, they're
women who came home and this is the story of
Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Jean Kerr.
Thank you for listening to another episode of
Bloom Talks with Tanya Bloom. If you enjoyed
this episode, be sure to subscribe and join us
next time for another incredible journey of resilience.
Until then, stay safe, keep growing and take
care.