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Neighbors: Police Ignored Warnings About Ohio Home Where Captives Were Freed

HeadlineMay 08, 2013

Details are beginning to emerge in the case of three kidnapped women freed this week from a decade of captivity in Cleveland, Ohio. Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight had all vanished in seemingly separate cases when they were between the ages of 14 and 21. They were discovered at a home in a low-income neighborhood Monday after Amanda Berry managed to escape and call 911. The three were allegedly subjected to years of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of the three brothers who held them captive inside. The brothers are in custody and have been identified as Ariel Castro, Pedro Castro, and Onil Castro. Berry gave birth to a daughter after being raped by one of her captors. Up to five pregnancies resulted from rapes inside the home, but only Berry’s baby survived. Questions are now being raised about whether police negligence prolonged the victims’ captivity. A neighbor, Israel Lugo, says he and others called police three times between 2011 and 2012 alone to report alarming activity. One group of neighbors say police never arrived, even after the neighbors reported seeing three females crawling on all fours naked with dog leashes around their necks. Police apparently visited the Castro home after another call but never went inside.

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