Ariel Castro

Knight discussed some of her ordeals in an interview with People Magazine one year after her release, as well as her life leading up to her abduction. Since her rescue, she legally changed her name to Lily Rose Lee, and began to get several tattoos as her way of coping with the healing process. She also revealed that her son was adopted by his foster parents while she was in captivity and that she wanted to see him, but she does not want to bring him into the ordeal which she has had to deal with, and planned to see him after he becomes an adult. She planned to open a restaurant and dreamed of getting married, which she did in 2016, and hopes to adopt children, as her years of abuse and torture have made it unlikely for her to ever be able to give birth again. She also planned to reunite with Berry and DeJesus in the future, but began focusing on getting her own life back on track.

Berry and DeJesus received honorary diplomas from John Marshall High School in 2015. In an interview with WKYC-TV, DeJesus says that she is currently volunteering for the Amber Alert committee, offering comfort to families of abducted children. She remains in touch with Knight and her family. In February 2017, Berry joined the staff of WJW (Fox 8) in Cleveland, where she hosts short recurring segments in which she reports missing person cases. She does this to help families reunite with missing family members. In April 2019, Berry reunited with Charles Ramsey, six years since her rescue, at an interview that was broadcast by Fox 8.

The Ariel Castro kidnappings took place between 2002 and 2004, when Ariel Castro kidnapped Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Georgina "Gina" DeJesus and held them captive in his home in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The three girls were imprisoned until May 6, 2013, when Berry escaped with her six-year-old daughter, to whom she had given birth while imprisoned, and contacted the police. Police rescued Knight and DeJesus and arrested Castro within hours.

On May 8, 2013, Castro was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. He 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, he committed suicide by hanging himself with bed sheets in his prison cell.

On May 6, 2013, Berry was finally able to make contact with Castro's neighbors, leading to her escape with her 6-year-old daughter and the rescue of DeJesus and Knight by authorities. According to police, Castro left the house that day and Berry realized that he failed to lock the "big inside door", although the exterior storm door was bolted. She did not attempt to break through the outer door because she thought that Castro "was testing her", according to the police report. Previously, Castro had tested the women by leaving the house partially unlocked and exits unsecured. If they attempted to escape, he beat them. Instead, Berry screamed for help when she saw neighbors through the screen.

Castro was arrested on May 6, 2013. He was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape on May 8, which carry prison sentences of ten years to life in Ohio. Two of Castro's brothers were also initially taken into custody, but were released on May 9 after police announced that they had no involvement in the kidnappings.

Knight, Berry, and DeJesus released a video statement on July 9, 2013 thanking the public for their support. An attorney for Berry and DeJesus said that the women "still have a strong desire for privacy" and did not wish to speak to the media about their ordeal. The Cleveland Courage Fund is a bank account set up to help the women in their transition to independent life which had collected approximately $1.05 million at the time of the video's release. Before Berry's disappearance, her grandfather had promised to give her a classic Chevrolet Monte Carlo, built in the year when she was born. He kept the car after her kidnapping in case she was still found alive. He still had it for her when she was released, although it was in need of restoration from having been unused. Several automotive shops offered to perform the restoration for free.

As part of the plea bargain, the house where Castro had lived and held the women captive was demolished on August 7, 2013. Knight was present and handed out yellow balloons to spectators, which she said represented missing children. The balloons were released before DeJesus's aunt began the demolition with a swing of a crane. The house has been completely blurred out on the street view of Google Maps.

Castro was found hanging from a bed sheet in his detention cell at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient, Ohio, on the evening of September 3, 2013, one month into his life sentence. He was 53 at the time of his death. Prison staff performed CPR on him before he was taken to the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, where he was pronounced dead shortly after. The following day, Franklin County coroner Jan Gorniak announced that a preliminary autopsy had found the cause of Castro's death to be suicide by hanging.

On October 10, 2013, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction released a report which suggested that Castro may have died accidentally from auto-erotic asphyxiation rather than suicide. Gorniak rejected the possibility, standing by her ruling of suicide. The report also said that two prison guards had falsified logs documenting their observation of Castro hours before he was found dead. Castro was not on suicide watch at the time of his death but had been subjected to routine checks every 30 minutes due to his notoriety.

Robert Wolford was a prison inmate who had lived in Tremont, and he claimed in July 2012 that he had information about the location of Berry's body. He led police to an empty lot on Cleveland's West Side, where they conducted a fruitless search. He was sentenced in January 2013 to 4½ years in prison for obstruction of justice, making a false report, and making a false alarm.

DeJesus was featured in the America's Most Wanted segment which linked her to Berry. The disappearances received regular media attention into 2012, while the families held public vigils. Castro attended at least two of these vigils, reportedly participated in a search party, and tried to get close to the DeJesus family. Castro's son Anthony was a journalism student in 2004, and he interviewed DeJesus's mother for an article about the disappearances in the Plain Press. Police kept the investigation open and offered a $25,000 reward for information.

The rescue of the women also reignited hope for the family of Ashley Summers, another young woman who disappeared in the Cleveland area in early July 2007. after leaving her home after a dispute with her parents. Police initially believed that there could be other captives in the Seymour Avenue home, but found none. As of May 2020, Summers is still missing.

On July 12, a Cuyahoga County grand jury returned a true bill of indictment for the remainder of the period after February 2007. It brought the total to 977 counts: 512 counts of kidnapping, 446 of rape, seven of gross sexual imposition, six of felonious assault, three of child endangerment, two of aggravated murder, and one of possession of criminal tools. On July 17, Castro pleaded not guilty to the expanded indictment.

Berry was featured in a 2004 segment of Fox's America's Most Wanted (re-aired in 2005 and 2006), which linked her to Gina DeJesus, who by that point had also gone missing in Cleveland. Berry and DeJesus were profiled on The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Montel Williams Show, where self-proclaimed psychic Sylvia Browne told Berry's mother Louwana Miller in 2004 that her daughter was dead and that she was "in water". This pronouncement devastated her mother, causing her to take down pictures and give away Berry's computer. However, Miller continued to search for Berry before dying from heart failure in early March 2006. Later that year, on December 25, 2006, Berry gave birth to a daughter. DNA evidence has confirmed that Castro was the father of the child.

DeJesus was under the impression that Castro was picking her up to drop her off at home, and she trusted Castro because she was friends with his teenage daughter. No one witnessed her abduction, and an AMBER Alert was not issued, which angered her father. He said in 2006, "The Amber Alert should work for any missing child.… Whether it's an abduction or a runaway, a child needs to be found. We need to change this law".

On Christmas Day 2006, Castro allegedly ordered Knight to assist in the birth of Berry's child, which took place in a small inflatable swimming pool, and he threatened to kill her 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 him "daddy" and Castro's mother "grandmother". In 2013, he showed one of his adult daughters a picture of the child and said that she was his girlfriend's daughter from a previous relationship. He had told others that she was his granddaughter.

A Cuyahoga County grand jury returned a true bill of indictment against Castro on June 7. It contained 329 counts, including two counts of aggravated murder (under different sections of the Ohio criminal code) for his role in the termination of one of the women's pregnancies. The indictments covered only the period from August 2002 to February 2007. The county prosecutor, Timothy J. McGinty, stated that the investigation was ongoing, and that any further findings would be presented to the grand jury. McGinty said that pursuing a death penalty specification would be considered following completion of indictment proceedings.

Figueroa moved out of the home in 1996 and secured custody of her four children. Police assisted in the move and detained Castro, but they did not press charges. Castro continued to threaten and attack Figueroa after she left him, according to Caraballo. Figueroa filed charges in 2005 in Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court accusing him of inflicting multiple severe injuries on her and of "frequently" abducting their daughters. The court granted her a temporary restraining order against Castro, but it was dismissed a few months later. Figueroa died in 2012 due to complications from her brain tumor.

Georgina "Gina" Lynn DeJesus (b. February 13, 1990) went missing at age 14. She was last seen at a payphone around 3 p.m. on April 2, 2004, on the way home from her middle school at West 105th Street and Lorain Avenue. Figueroa and Castro's daughter Arlene had called Figueroa for permission to have a sleepover at DeJesus's house, but Figueroa replied that they could not and the two girls parted ways. Arlene was the last person to see DeJesus before her disappearance.

Amanda Marie Berry (b. April 22, 1986) disappeared on April 21, 2003, the day before her 17th birthday. She was last heard from around 8 p.m. when she called her sister to tell her that she was getting a ride home from her job at a Burger King at West 110th Street and Lorain Avenue. The FBI initially considered her a runaway until a week after her disappearance, when an unidentified male used her cell phone to call her mother. He said: "I have Amanda. She's fine and will be coming home in a couple of days".

Michelle Knight (b. April 23, 1981) disappeared on August 23, 2002 after leaving a cousin's house. She was 21 years old at the time. On the day of her disappearance, she was scheduled to appear in court for a child custody case involving her son Joey, who was in the custody of the state.

Castro met his girlfriend Grimilda Figueroa when his family moved into a house across the street from hers in the 1980s. They lived with both sets of parents, but moved into their own home at 2207 Seymour Avenue in 1992. Their home was a two-story, 1,400-square-foot (130 m), four-bedroom, one-bathroom house with a 760-square-foot (71 m) unfinished basement built in 1890 and remodeled in 1956. Figueroa's sister Elida Caraballo said that "all hell started breaking loose" when the couple moved into their new home. Caraballo and her husband Frank claim that Castro beat Figueroa, breaking her nose, ribs, and arms and causing a blood clot on her brain that resulted in an inoperable tumor. He also threw her down a flight of stairs, cracking her skull. In 1993, Castro was arrested for domestic violence but was not indicted by a grand jury.

Ariel Castro (July 10, 1960 – September 3, 2013) was born in Duey, Yauco, Puerto Rico, the son of Pedro Castro (1938–2004) and Lillian Rodriguez (born 1942). Castro's parents divorced when he was a child, and he moved to mainland United States with his mother and three full siblings. They settled in Reading, Pennsylvania, and then moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where Castro's father and other family members were living. Castro had nine siblings (both full and half) and graduated from Cleveland's Lincoln-West High School in 1979.