8 Twisted Facts You Didn’t Know About the Ariel Castro Cleveland Kidnappings
After 10 years in captivity, Amanda Berry, Gina Dejesus, and Michelle Knight escaped. Their memoirs highlight poor police work and how the birth of Jocelyn Berry saved them all.
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Sexual predator Ariel Castro (53) kidnapped three young women and kept them in captivity in his home in Cleveland, Ohio for ten years.
Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina Dejesus were held captive between 9–11 years before Amanda Berry’s brave escape and infamous 911 call on May 6, 2013.
Memoirs Hope written by Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus and Finding Me written by Michelle Knight detail 8 twisted facts that the media missed in Ariel Castro’s house of horrors.
Particularly, the fact that five-year-old Jocelyn Berry miraculously saved the women from captivity.
Fact #4 might enrage you.
Michelle Knight’s Story Based on Finding Me
Michelle Knight (now known as Lily Rose Lee) was the first kidnapping victim and reportedly suffered more abuse than the other two women.
Twenty-one-year-old Michelle Knight was kidnapped on August 23, 2002, at a local dollar store by Ariel Castro. Knight was lost and was looking for directions to the family courthouse when Ariel Castro offered her a ride. Knight accepted the ride because she personally knew his daughter Emily and recognized him as her father.
Michelle Knight thought she would be walking out of the courthouse with her four-year-old son Joey who had been removed from her care by child protective services months prior.
Instead, she was lured into a sexual predator’s home and held captive for 11 torturous years.
Twisted Fact #1: Michelle Knight Looked 14, Making Her a Target for Castro
Michelle Knight’s family initially did file a missing person’s report. However, the Cleveland police convinced her family that Michelle Knight likely “ran away.”
If police looked into her case…
