Three young women held captive for more than a decade were found alive in a house on Cleveland’s near west side.
The widespread search effort and investigations were closely followed by local news outlets, such as The Plain Dealer, since they disappeared in 2002, 2003 and 2004.
Here is a look at the key events:
Aug. 23, 2002 — 21-year-old Michelle Knight is last seen at her cousin’s house near W. 106 St. and Lorain Ave.
April 21, 2003 — Amanda Berry, a day before her 17th birthday, calls her sister shortly before leaving her part-time job at a Burger King at W. 110th St. and Lorain Avenue. She is last seen about 7:30 p.m. leaving in a car with an unidentified driver. One week after the disappearance, someone calls Berry’s mother, Louwana Miller, with the teen’s cellphone.
April 2, 2004 — Gina DeJesus, a 14-year-old student with special needs, disappears walking home from school in the same area.
April 2004 — The Cleveland Police Department is inundated with tips about DeJesus’ whereabouts. Some callers claim to have supernatural abilities but none help find her.
November 2004 — A psychic tells Miller on “The Montel Williams Show” that Berry is dead: “She’s not alive, honey.”
March 2006 — Miller dies of heart failure at 44, without ever knowing what happened to her daughter. Friends and family say Berry’s disappearance caused Miller’s health to deteriorate.
September 2006 – Police arrest Mathew Hurayt, a 35-year-old registered sex offender, after receiving a tip that DeJesus’ body is buried in his garage. City workers break the cement floor and dig nearly five feet but turn up empty-handed. Hurayt is released among protests.
July 6, 2007 — Another girl, Ashley Summers, 14, disappears from the same neighborhood after running away from a relative’s home on Holmden Ave.
September 2009 — DNA testing reveals that a body deer hunters found in a Wisconsin field is not Berry’s, despite salient similarities.
April 2009 — The FBI broadens its investigation to include Summers.
July 2012 — Police search for Berry’s body in a vacant lot with a large backhoe.
May 6, 2013 — Berry, now 27; DeJesus, 23; Knight, 30, and a young girl, 6, are found in a house on Seymour Ave. in Cleveland’s near west side. Three brothers — ages 50, 52 and 54 — are arrested.
When the middle brother, Ariel Castro, a school bus driver who owns the home, leaves to eat at a local McDonalds, Berry starts screaming to get the attention of someone outside. Charles Ramsey hears Berry’s cries for help and helps kick in a door to let her and the small girl with her — possibly a daughter she had while held captive — escape.
Berry calls 911 and tells officers the location of the home. Police raid the home and find the other missing women — all of whom are taken to the MetroHealth Medical Center.
Summers is still missing.
Original Story: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/timeline-cleveland-kidnappings-found-article-1.1336980
