In 2013, the nation was shocked to hear that 3 women, Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, who had been missing for between 9-11 years were found in Cleveland, Ohio in the home of Ariel Castro, a 53-year-old recently fired school bus driver. Alongside these 3 women was a 6-year-old girl that had been born to Amanda Berry while she had been held captive. 

The details coming from the women about what their life had been like while living in Ariel’s House of Horrors was truly disturbing. We will discuss factors such as what would drive Ariel to capture and abuse these 3 girls for so long, how the three girls banded together to survive the unthinkable and how they have rebuilt their lives after spending many tragic years trapped inside his house. 

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Sources:

Glatt, John (2015). The Lost Girls: The True Story of the Cleveland Abductions and the Incredible Rescue of Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus. London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-1250036360.

Berry, Amanda; DeJesus, Gina; Jordan, Mary; Sullivan, Kevin (2015). Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland. London: Penguin. ISBN 978-0698178953.

Knight, Michelle; Burford, Michelle (2014). Finding Me: A Decade of Darkness, a Life Reclaimed: a Memoir of the Cleveland Kidnappings. New York: Weinstein Books. ISBN 978-1602862579.