Amanda Berry broke the bottom of a screen door and held out her arm and screamed, and a neighbor, who thought it was domestic violence came over to help kick in the locked door to get her out.
“Help me, I am Amanda Berry,” the 27-year-old woman told police in a 911 call from a neighbor’s house. “I’ve been kidnapped and I’ve been missing for 10 years. And I’m here, I’m free now.”
Berry’s escape with a 6-year-old girl led to the freedom of two other women, Georgina “Gina” DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32, who have been held captive inside the Cleveland house for 10 years.
Police have arrested former school bus driver Ariel Castro, 52, who lived at the house and was identified by Berry on the 911 call. His brothers, Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50, were also arrested and all three are jailed pending charges, according to Reuters.
Cleveland’s Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba said Tuesday the little girl, who came out with the three girls, is as Berry’s daughter, but it is uncertain who her father is. However, Berry told a witness that her captor was the child's father, according to NBC News.
In the last decade, authorities did not have any indication anything suspicious was going on at the home on Seymour Avenue with a Puerto Rican flag hanging from the porch.
However, in two separate incidents, neighbors said they had called police in recent years after hearing a yelling at the house, and, in another incident, seeing a naked woman walking in the backyard, according to CNN.
Nina Samoylicz, who lives nearby, told CNN that she called police about two years ago after spotting a naked woman walking around the backyard of Castro's house, and called out to her. She said a man told the woman to get in the house, then ran in himself.
"She was just walking around, and naked," Samoylicz said. "We thought that was weird. We thought it was funny at first, and then we thought that was weird so we called the cops. They thought we was playing, joking, they didn't believe us."
About a decade ago, these three women were reported missing from the same Cleveland street - Lorain Avenue. It is located just three miles from the home in which they were found Monday, according to New York Daily News.
Amanda Berry was last seen on April 21, 2003, which was the day before her 17th birthday.
“Gina” DeJesus disappeared nearly a year later, on April 2, 2004. She was 14.
Michelle Knight vanished on August 22, 2002, according to Cleveland Public Safety Director Martin Flask. She was 21 year old at the time, said the police.
The rescued victims were treated for dehydration and malnourishment at Cleveland's Metro Health Medical Centre and released on Tuesday morning. The three women tearfully reunited with members of their family when they arrived at the hospital on Monday night.
"If you don't believe in miracles, I suggest you think again," DeJesus' aunt Sandra Ruiz said to reporters on Tuesday in Cleveland. Her comments were televised by local station WJW.
"This is a miracle," Ruiz said. But she added: "Watch who your neighbor is because you never know."
