In Tremont, Cleveland there was a huge tragedy. On May 6, 2013 three missing girls were found in Seymour Avenue, Tremont, Cleveland, Ohio. They had been kidnapped by a 54 year old man, Ariel Castro. The three girls weren’t kidnapped on the same day or the same year. Yet they were held captive for over a decade. They had been kidnapped over a period of years.

The three girls that were kidnapped were Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Georgina “Gina” DeJesus. The first girl to be kidnapped was Michelle Knight. Michelle was 21 years old when she was kidnapped on August 23, 2002 . In interviews she states that she was lied to and led to Ariel Castro’s home by himself. At the time she had a two year old son. He wasn’t in her custody, the state had custody of him. The day she went missing she was supposed to go to court to fight for custody of him.

The second was Amanda Berry. She went missing April 21, 2003. A year after Michelle went missing. She was reported missing a day before her 17th birthday. She was also misled by Ariel Castro himself. She was just getting out of work when Ariel Castro offered to give her a ride home. She was last heard from by her sister whom she called to let know she would be getting a ride home. While being held captive she was impregnated by Ariel Castro which she gave birth to a baby girl December 25, 2006 named Jocelyn. 

The third and final girl he was able to kidnap  was Georgina “Gina” DeJesus. She went missing at age 14 on April 2, 2004 on her way home from school. Ariel Castro used the friendship Gina and his daughter Arlene Castro had to lure her to his home. She was under the impression that Ariel Castro was picking his daughter up and he asked her for help looking for his daughter. 

Some of the actions he did were attending the girls’ vigils, search parties, and tried to get close to the DeJesus family. His son Anthony at the time was a journalist student in 2004. He ended up interviewing Ginas mother for an article about the disappearances in the Plain Press. Some of the things Ariel Castro did to the girls was rape them, impregnate them, beat them, starve them, emotionally abuse them, and chain them to the walls. Michelle Knight was the one who got the worst punishments and abuse. Castro impregnated Knight at least five times but forced her to have miscarriages by beatings, hitting her with dumbbells, punching her, starving, and slamming her into walls.

On may 6, 2013 the girls finally escaped. Amanda Berry’s daughter let her know Castro wasn’t home and she finally took the chance to escape and rescue the rest of the captive girls. Thankfully Ariel Castro was charged with 512 counts of kidnapping, 446 counts of rape, 7 of gross sexual imposition, 6 of felonious assault, 3 of child endangerment, 2 of aggravated murder, and one of possession of criminal tools on August 1, 2013. Since he pleaded guilty he got a plea bargain which he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He died September 3, 2013 after suicide by hanging. The house of Ariel Castro was demolished August 7, 2013 as part of his plea bargain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_Castro_kidnappings