Post date: May 07, 2013 12:11:25 PM
Police say three suspects have been arrested after three missing women were found alive in an Ohio home.
CLEVELAND, OHIO, UNITED STATES (MAY 07, 2013) (NBC) - Three Ohio women believed abducted separately about a decade ago were found alive on Monday (May 6) at a Cleveland house near where they were last seen, and three brothers were arrested as suspects in their disappearances, police said.
"It's just truly, truly amazing and it's a blessing to the community and to the members of the police department and their families that they are alive. So I can't tell you how happy we are. We have alot of work to do yet but this is a great, great outcome that we have them still with us," Ed Tomba, Deputy Cleveland Police Chief said.Police said they were alerted to the whereabouts of the women by a frantic emergency call from Amanda Berry, who was freed from the house by a neighbor who said he heard screaming and came to her assistance.
"Help me! I'm Amanda Berry. ... I've been kidnapped and I've been missing for 10 years and I'm here. I'm free now," Berry, 26, is heard frantically telling a 911 operator in a recording of the call released by police and posted on the website of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
During the call, she gave the name of her alleged abductor, said he was "out of the house" and urged police to come quickly. She indicated that she knew her disappearance had been widely reported in the media.
The two women found with Berry were identified by authorities as Gina DeJesus, 23, who vanished in 2004 at age 14, and Michelle Knight, who was reported to have been 20 when she disappeared more than a decade ago.
The suspects, ages 50, 52 and 54, were arrested based on information given to investigators by the three women after their rescue, according to Deputy Cleveland Police Chief Ed Tomba, who said the women had probably been held in that house since they vanished.
One of the men was identified earlier as Ariel Castro, 52, a bus driver for Clevelandpublic schools.
"Well there is three in custody, they are all brothers and one of them lived in the house. Well one of them had on his driver's license the Seymour address and the other two had addresses in the lower West side area," Tomba said.
Crowds on the street where the women were found cheered as police cars drove into the cordoned-off area around the house.
Berry was last seen leaving her job at a fast-food restaurant to go home on the day before her 17th birthday.