Between 2002 and 2004, three young women—Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Georgina ""Gina"" DeJesus—were kidnapped by Ariel Castro and held captive in his home in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, in the U.S. state of Ohio. They were subsequently imprisoned in his house on Seymour Avenue until May 6, 2013, when Berry escaped with her six-year-old daughter and contacted the police. Knight and DeJesus were rescued by responding officers and Castro was arrested within hours.
On May 8, 2013, Castro was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. Castro pleaded guilty to 937 criminal counts of rape, kidnapping, and aggravated murder as part of a plea bargain. He was sentenced to life plus 1,000 years in prison without the possibility of parole. One month into his sentence, Castro committed suicide by hanging himself with bedsheets in his prison cell.
At first, when Knight was kidnapped, Castro took her upstairs, tied her hands and feet together, and pulled her up using her hands and feet, and also her neck. He left her there for three days and only then, on the third day, he fed her. Prosecutors at Castro's sentencing wrote that diaries kept by the women ""speak of forced sexual conduct, of being locked in a dark room, of anticipating the next session of abuse, of the dreams of someday escaping and being reunited with family, of being chained to a wall, of being held like a prisoner of war, of missing the lives they once enjoyed, of emotional abuse, of his threats to kill, of being treated like an animal, of continuous abuse, and of desiring freedom"". The women were kept in locked upstairs bedrooms, where they were forced to use plastic toilets that were ""emptied infrequently"". They were fed one meal a day, and allowed to shower, at most, twice a week.
Knight told police that Castro had impregnated her at least five times and had induced miscarriages each time through beatings: hitting with dumbbells, punching, and slamming her against walls. Starvation was also included. Knight's grandmother told reporters that Knight would require facial reconstruction surgery due to the beatings she endured; Knight also lost hearing in one ear. At one point, Knight had a pet dog while in captivity, but Castro killed the dog by snapping its neck after it bit Castro while trying to protect Knight. DeJesus told law enforcement she was raped but did not believe she was ever impregnated.
In December 2006, Castro allegedly ordered Knight to assist in the birth of Berry's child, which took place in a small inflatable swimming pool, and threatened Knight with death if the baby did not survive. At one point, the baby stopped breathing, but Knight was able to resuscitate her. Castro occasionally took the child out of the house, including to visit his mother; the girl called Castro ""daddy"" and Castro's mother ""grandmother"".
