Totally amazing, emotional story.
I have a friend on another board who said she read an article where supposedly neighbors have been calling the cops for years because they suspected something going on at the house. Yet, everything I’ve read and heard so far says just the opposite, that no one had any idea there were women in the house. So what’s the straight dope at this point?
So far the local news reports two past calls to the house, one for noises and one for a naked woman crawling in backyard. Both times police responded but no one answered the door and there were no signs of anything going on.
I think the only thing I’ve read so far is that one of the brothers, a school bus driver, got in trouble for leaving a student on a bus. The cops or someone came to the house at one point to talk to him I think but no one answered. The brother got into trouble several more times and was eventually fired.
I guess the Cleveland Police have a database that logs calls, and their “preliminary” search on it showed that they were called twice to Ariel Castro’s house while women were imprisoned there. Once was when Castro himself called the police to report a fight on the street in front of his house. Another time was in response to an incident where Castro was reported to have left a child on his school bus while he left the bus for some reason. I guess that was potentially some sort of child endangerment charge or something, but was ultimately concluded to not be criminal at the time. Neither of these incidents did the police actually speak with him, and since they didn’t have an arrest warrant or anything it makes sense they just left after no one came to the door.
Now, there are neighbors all over claiming to have called police as well–but no reports that police ever responded to those calls. A neighbor child saw a naked woman in the back yard and told her parents, who say they called police. Additionally, some residents who live in an apartment building that has line of sight on the back yard reported seeing there naked women on leashes basically being walked on all fours around the back yard by men. They say they called that in as well, but nothing happened.
Other neighbors have also said they called the police when they heard banging/shouting from the windows and etc. Now, it’s possible people are just making this stuff up to reporters, but it’s strange if so because 4-5 independent people who live around the area are claiming they called the police at one point or another for extremely abnormal goings on at the house.
Did you notice the weird looking black guy standing behind Sandra(?)Ruiz’s(The aunt of Gina) right shoulder in the interview she gave?
…here is the original 9/11 call: warning bad language:
And the new hit single: Dead Giveaway.
Biggest front page story in every newspaper I’ve seen today, including some which don’t carry soccer news for The Rest Of Spain for political reasons.
I hope the families keep these girls out of the spotlight.
Jaycee Dugard’s mom moved into a house with her in a private location. iirc Jaycee granted no interviews at all the first year. Then there was one mag interview and a picture. It was a big deal because nothing had been published of her as an adult. It was another year or so before Jaycee did the Diane Sawyer interview and published her book. Great book that I read three times. It was really smart avoiding the media frenzy that first two years. Elizabeth Smart’s dad kept her away from the press too for a year or so.
Someone with almost no human contact for 10 years needs that private space. Gradually acclimate back into society. Walk the streets anonymously, shop at Walmart without being mobbed. Jaycee seems to have really adjusted well and its because she got those two years of privacy.
I really hope so. There’s a quote that I keep seeing in the news here:
FBI Special Agent Stephen Anthony said: “The nightmare is over. These three young ladies have provided us with the ultimate definition of survival and perseverance. The healing can now begin.”
I suspect the nightmare is far from over for them. 
Michelle Knight’s case is particularly sad. She was already an adult when taken. Doesn’t sound like she’s got much of a family to return too. Plus she’s developmentally slow.
Here is an article from July of the police digging up an empty lot looking for one of the girls.
One of the kidnappers is there to comment (on video) that it was a “waste of money.”
Anthony Castro’s mother was abused and separated from Ariel Castro in the 90’s. She moved out and took her kids. That left the house empty except for Castro and the kidnappings started a few years later.
Interesting family photos from inside the house. Showing a padlocked basement door.
One news site reported that there was originally a fourth woman held, who vanished one day. There was a “Rest In Peace, [name]” written on the basement wall.
I’ve only seen THAT detail published in one article, though.
I also heard that prior to her disappearance, Michelle Knight had a child and also lost her parental rights shortly before her disappearance.
Diane Sawyer opened the News tonight with the Joyous homecoming of the women. Then breathlessly warns us the next details are upsetting. :dubious: We told in rather graphic detail that the women were repeatedly raped and endured multiple pregnancies over the decade of captivity.
Really Diane? Do you honestly believe any human being over the age of 10 needs a map drawn to figure it out? I’m sure the teen girls were fantastic cooks, fastidious housekeepers, and of course play a mean game of Rubber Bridge. 
But somehow I think there’s another reason they were abducted and held captive for ten years. The six year child is a good clue for the naive.
Kind of sad that even ABC News takes the exploitative road. They could have at least avoided the breathless warning and avoided making the rape story the centerpiece of the segment. I can remember when Diane Sawyer, the former America’s Junior Miss was quite the classy lady.
Why is this in mpsims it should be in great debates, threading it here patronizes their suffering
tv news had reports of victim interviews that they were only to the garage a couple times in disguise. they were never taken out to the backyard.
And the debate here is… what?
The forum may be called “Mundane and Pointless” but a lot of the threads here are anything but, they just don’t fit anywhere else. The huge as it happened thread on the Boston bombings is in this forum.
Is anyone disputing this was anything other than a horrific crime with a miraculous outcome?
I hope Michelle Knight has somewhere safe and secure to go. It sounded like there was some issues locating her family? Or perhaps, her family may be unequipped to take her in?
I was watching the local news with the sound off today, at my brother’s house, and they were speaking to Knight’s mom amidst a group of people (perhaps at one of the other girls’ homecomings?) So the mom is around. This article says their relationship was strained before she went missing, so it’s unsure whether or not she wants to reunite with her mom I guess.