Kidnapped women return home in Cleveland

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Cleveland (CNN) -- Two of the three women rescued from a Cleveland home where they'd been held for about a decade or more returned home Wednesday while police readied charges against the men accused of keeping them captive.

Well-wishers from the neighborhood cheered as a gray van carrying Amanda Berry and the 6-year-old daughter she gave birth to during her captivity pulled up. The porch was decorated with balloons and stuffed animals and draped with a red banner that read, "Welcome home Amanda."

"We are so happy to have Amanda and her daughter home," her sister, Beth Serrano, told reporters. "I want to thank the public and media for their support and courage over the years."

A similar scene played out at the home of Gina DeJesus a few hours later. Family members embraced as DeJesus, wearing a neon-green hooded sweatshirt, was escorted into the home she hadn't seen since 2004.

DeJesus, Berry and a third woman, Michelle Knight, were rescued Monday evening from the Cleveland home of 52-year-old Ariel Castro, police said. Knight was in good condition in a Cleveland hospital Wednesday.

"There are not enough words to say or express the joy that we feel for the return of our family member Gina, and now Amanda Berry, the daughter, and Michelle Knight, who is our family also," DeJesus' aunt, Sandra Ruiz, told reporters.

Authorities expect to file charges Wednesday against Castro and his two brothers, Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50, a police spokeswoman said.

City officials said ropes and chains have been found inside the home. While Public Safety Director Martin Flask said investigators haven't confirmed how the ropes and chains were used, police Chief Michael McGrath told NBC's "Today" that they were used to restrain the missing women.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/08/us/ohio-missing-women-found/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

 

What's puzzling me about this whole thing here is why the cops barely did anything when people called in about the screams and the pounding on the windows. If the cops had simply done their jobs and searched the whole house, those women could've been home years ago. But anyway, I'm just glad these three women can now live in peace again. And as for their captors, well....I hope they rot in prison.