Amanda Berry: Three captive women chained up in grim dungeon for a decade gave birth to five babies

Three women held captive in a dungeon for a decade gave birth to five babies during the ordeal.

Gina DeJesus, 23, Michelle Knight, 30, and Amanda Berry, 26, and her six-year-old daughter fled the house in Cleveland, Ohio.

Ariel Castro, 52, and his two brothers have been arrested.

Frantic Amanda choked back tears as she told police “I’m free” after she escaped the dungeon.

Amanda fled the hell-hole thanks to a hero neighbour before her dramatic 911 call ended the victims’ ordeal.

It had been feared that Amanda and the other captives – Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight – had been murdered.

After escaping the house on Monday just three miles from where they each went missing between 2002 and 2004, they named their captor as 52-year-old Ariel Castro, who tonight was in custody with his two brothers.

The women, who were aged between 14 and 22 when they disappeared, spent today in hospital before being given the all-clear by doctors and returning to their overwhelmed families.

Amanda, now 26, was joined by her six-year-old daughter – who she gave birth to during the years in the dungeon – as she hugged her weeping relatives.

Her older sister, Beth Serrano – who said she had never given up the search – could hardly control her emotions as she hugged Amanda.

And Amanda’s cousin Tasheena Mitchell said: “I’m going to hold her, and squeeze her and I probably won’t let her go.”

Read more @ http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/amanda-berry-three-captive-women-1875026

Charles Ramsey, the neighbour who helped save three abducted women in Ohio

AMERICA always needs heroes. Its national narrative is built around heroes and villains.

Usually those heroes are square-jawed, muscular characters. Not this time. This time the hero is a dentally-challenged dishwasher called Charles Ramsey.

Ramsey is the middle-aged Cleveland neighbour who kicked in a door and helped set free three women held captive in a basement in the house next to his.

His colourful TV interviews and above all, his bravery and willingness to help, have captured the heart of the world. Quite rightly, Charles Ramsey is being hailed as a hero. But the man himself is playing down all the attention.

"I don't even want it, I'm not looking for it bro," he told an American breakfast TV show host, who probably doesn't get called 'bro' too often.


"Let me tell you something. I'm American, and I'm a human being. I'm just like you. I work for a living.

"There was a woman in distress, so why turn your back on that? My father would have whupped the hell out of me if he had found out that I cowered out.

"I'm the definition of a man, bro."

It's that last line, above all others, which has endeared Charles Ramsey to America and the world.

Before yesterday, few would have said that the definition of the ideal American male is a bloke in a dirty T-shirt with bad teeth, wild unkempt hair and the inability to speak a sentence without a liberal smattering profanities.

Sure, you could have said it was an accurate depiction of about half the population. But no one would have held up that sort of character as the ideal.

But if anyone has ever reminded us that what counts is on the inside, not the outside, it's Charles Ramsey.


Read more @ http://www.news.com.au/world-news/north-america/charles-ramsey-the-neighbour-who-helped-save-three-abducted-women-in-ohio/story-fnh81jut-1226636696130

Castro's daughter jailed for trying to kill baby

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/2013/05/08/14/06/castros-daughter-jailed-for-trying-to-kill-baby

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us."  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~