Every Town - Cleveland, OH - House of Horrors - Ariel Castro

Episode Date: September 3, 2021

“Want me to give you a ride?” This 7-word solicitous question may sound like an offer to help that deserves appreciation. But for three young women in Cleveland, Ohio who accepted the ride, it was a decision they would regret for a long time. The invitation turned out to be a bait for a kidnapping spree perpetrated by Ariel Castro, a self-confessed sex and pornography addict. He abducted and imprisoned three women in his home for a decade, and subjected them to constant physical  abuse, sexual assault, emotional battery, induced abortion and unwanted pregnancy. For Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, it was the nearest experience to living in hell, and the closest encounter with a devil on earth.💥 Watch This Episode On Youtube Here: https://www.youtube.com/scarymysteries💥 Exclusive Content Here: https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries 💥 More Creepy Podcasts From Us: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1235579💥 Contact Us [e-mail]  Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you love true crime, grab your favorite mug and pour yourself a dose of creepy true crime every single morning with a morning cup of murder. This short daily show is the perfect podcast to incorporate into your morning routine because in less than 15 minutes, you'll hear about a true crime that took place on a day's date in history. Each day's dark history lesson will kickstart your morning with intriguing tales of murder, abduction, serial killers, cults, and everything in between.

With over 20 million downloads, Morning Cup of Murder has something for every true crime lover. One listener describes the show as a small package with a powerful punch of crime. Another writes that the show is an absolute delight in the morning. Support yourself a piping hot cup of murder every single morning with Morning Cup of Murder. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Every town has a dark side. Today we head to the neighborhood of Tremont in Cleveland, Ohio, where we check out the kidnapping spree of Ariel Castro that happened between 2002 and 2004.

Want me to give you a ride? This seven-word question may sound like an offer to help that deserves appreciation. But for three young women in Cleveland, Ohio, who accept, accepted the ride, it was a decision that they would regret for a long time. The invitation turned out to be bait for a kidnapping spree perpetrated by one Ariel Castro, a self-confessed sex and pornography addict. The abducted and imprisoned three women in his home for a decade, and subjected them to constant physical abuse, sexual assault, emotional battery,

induced abortion and unwanted pregnancy. For Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina Dehazuse, it was the nearest experience to living in hell and the closest encounter with the devil on earth. Hi, I'm Andrew Fitzgerald and welcome to another riveting episode here on Everytown. This week's podcast highlights the Cleveland-Ohio kidnapping cases of Puerto Rican-born Ariel Castro that gripped the world with shock. How did Ariel manage to pull off his evil ploy,

and how did his three female captives survive the ordeal? You'll be amazed by this extraordinary tale from the details of the women's harrowing experiences inside Ariel's house of horrors to their unexpected escape and to the fate that awaited them afterward. Before Ariel Castro was sentenced to life plus 1,000 years in prison without the possibility of parole in 2013, he addressed the court saying,

I'm not a monster, I'm a happy person inside. But his actions show otherwise, and it'll probably give us a better perspective if we trace back Ariel's earlier life leading to its last despicable decade up until his death by suicide. a product of a broken family at a tender age. Ariel was born in Yakow, Puerto Rico, on July 10, 1960, and had three siblings. Later, the family separated and relocated to America. Mother and kids first settled in Reading, Pennsylvania, and then moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where Ariel's father and his half-siblings migrated.

He pursued his education there and graduated from Cleveland, Cleveland's Lincoln West High School in 1979. Ariel soon met Ramilda Figueroa, a woman who lived across their street. They found romance that led to a marriage and four children later. After living with their respective immediate families, the couple and their brood moved to their own house in 1992. Located at 2207, Seymour Avenue and Tremont on the west side of Cleveland, The 1400 square foot property had two stories, four bedrooms, one bathroom, and an unfinished basement. The neighborhood is one of the oldest parts of that state and was historically home to

many immigrant groups which probably made Ariel comfortable living there. So how can a man who provided a good home to his family ultimately be labeled a monster? It was precisely when Ariel's own family moved into the new house that his sickening, abusive, and violent sides started to surface. As attested by Grimilda's sister Alita, Ariel seemed to find pleasure in making his wife his punching bag. He subjected her to physical abuse that broke her nose, ribs, and arms. He cracked her skull and worst of all, it caused a blood clot in her brain which developed into an inoperable tumor. Its complications led to Grimilda's death ultimately in April of 2012. Ariel's assaults extended to his children, but his arrest for domestic violence was futile

as a grand jury failed to indict him. It was too much to bear for Grimilda, so she left their home in 1996 and secured custody of her four children with the assistance of the police. Ariel was detained, but was again lucky as police didn't press charges, so he continued to threaten and attack Rinaldo. In 2005, she filed charges against Ariel, accusing him of inflicting multiple severe injuries on her, and of frequently abducting their daughters to keep them away from her. The court granted her a temporary restraining order against Ariel, but it was dismissed just a few months later. It's likely that the time's authorities absolved Ariel from his abusive behavior hardened his criminal instincts and actually fed his revolting desires and twisted mind. Castro,

now left alone and perhaps lonely in his two-story Tremont House, felt the need to fill it up. Thus began his kidnapping spree in 2002, and he sustained his reign as the master of evil in his house of horror. While he derived pleasure from musing and abusing as female captives, Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina de Jesusus suffered undeserved pain in varying forms and degrees. Cleveland, Ohio native Michelle Knight was born on April 23, 1981, and dreamt as a young girl to become a firefighter, and later, a career in veterinary medicine influenced by her love for animals. nicknamed Shorty in school. She was bullied for being short and was also assaulted. Unfortunately, she became a teenage mother at 17 and decided to drop out of school.

Michelle devoted her time to her son Joey, who was taken away from her and placed in foster care at two years old. The reason was Joey got injured, possibly by an abusive boyfriend of Michelle's mother. It devastated Michelle, who promised to regain custody of her son, but her effort was derailed when Ariel Castro abducted her on August 23, 2002, while on her way to a social services appointment about regaining her son's custody. Michelle couldn't locate the building. Then, like a knight in shining armor, Ariel appeared and offered her a ride to her destination. She accepted after recognizing Ariel as her friend Arlene's father.

But instead of driving to the social services office, Castro headed to his Tremont house telling Michelle that he'd give a puppy to her son. When they reached the house and went to the second floor room where the puppies were allegedly kept, Ariel locked the door. And that was the start of Michelle's 11-year captivity. Castro ripped a photograph of Michelle's son in front of her and said she wouldn't be leaving the house for a very long time. Her hands and feet were tied up together and she was left in the tiny room there for three days without food. Her family reported her missing the next day,

but since Michelle was already 21 years old at the time, local police believed that she ran away willingly, perhaps out of stress or anger over losing her son's custody. In fact, 15 months after she vanished, Michelle's name was removed from the National Crime Information Center database. Sad but true, there was not an extensive investigative effort into Michelle's disappearance. And undoubtedly, Castro scored another victory for his wicked plan. Celebrating with loved ones is foremost in the mind of any girl eager to turn 17 years old, but getting kidnapped, definitely not.

And it never crossed Amanda Berry's mind on April 21st, 2003, the day before she was supposed to mark her 17th birthday. Like Michelle Knight, Amanda was also born in Cleveland, Ohio, on April 22nd, 1986. A hardworking teen, she helped her family by working at a local Burger King. On that fateful, April 21st, she got ready for work, but in the back of her mind, Amanda thought of calling work off since it was her birthday the following day. But she reported to work, and after her shift ended at 8 p.m., she called up her sister, telling her that she was looking for a ride home but without any luck. That's when Amanda encountered a familiar van in a driveway with a man and a girl her age inside. The girl looked familiar, so Amanda smiled at her.

While walking down the street later, Amanda was followed by the van and the man who was now alone, and he asked her if she needed a ride home. Amanda recognized that it was Ariel Castro, the father of Arlene Castro, who was her classmate in middle school. Thus, she hopped into the van without hesitation. When Castro asked Amanda if she would like to go with him to his house, and see Arlene. The unsuspecting birthday girl said yes. When they entered the home, Ariel said his daughter might be taking a bath, so he guided Amanda

around the house. Ariel took her upstairs and showed her a mystery woman sleeping in a bedroom in front of a television set. It was Michelle Knight, Ariel's captive, for almost a year by then. He brought Amanda in the next bedroom and raped her in the dark. He then took her down to the basement, taped her wrists and legs, and secured it further with a belt around her ankles. Amanda recalled what happened next.

He put a helmet over my head and he said, Just be quiet and don't make a noise and I'll take you home. Ariel chained her to a pole, shut off the light, and left her in the dark with a television. Amanda cried and screamed her lungs out for help, but her effort was in vain. I was so scared that I was going to die. I didn't think I was going to ever make it home, she said.

When her mother, Luana Miller, reported Amanda missing, the NBI said that they considered her daughter a runaway. But Luana argued that Amanda would never run away a day before her birthday. Then a week after Amanda went missing, an anonymous man called Luana using her daughter's selfie. phone and said, I have Amanda. She's fine and will be coming home in a couple of days. This convinced the authorities that Amanda was indeed missing. Luana exerted efforts to accord more coverage about her daughter's disappearance, but she died of heart failure in March of 2006

without seeing or talking to Amanda for the last time. Two's company, but three's a crowd. but Ariel Castro didn't seem to believe that. So on April 2nd, 2004, he set out to strike his unlikely third victim, a 14-year-old Georgina Gina de Jesus. And what audacity Ariel had in victimizing Gina, for she was a friend of his daughter, Arlene, and Gina's dad, Felix de Jesus, was Ariel's friend too. But unknowingly, Arlene became,

came her father's bait and abducting her friend Gina. On April 2nd, after their classes at Wilbur Wright Middle School, the two girls planned to sleep over at Gina's house. But Arlene wasn't permitted by her mother, so the two girls went their separate ways. Arlene was the last person Gina was seen with before she disappeared. Gina's mother usually gave her daughter bus fare for going home, but the teenager would instead save the money for her.

snacks. As she usually had done, Gina decided that afternoon to walk 40 blocks to their home, passing through commercial areas mixed with run-down areas frequented by prostitutes. Then, a maroon-colored vehicle pulled up on the curb, and behind the wheel was Ariel Castro. He asked Gina if she'd seen his daughter Arlene, to which he gave an affirmative answer. Can you help me find her? Was the next question of Ariel. Gina agreed because they were friends. At the same time, Gina also thought that Mr. Castro, a friend of her dad's,

picked her up to drop her off at home. Instead, though, they headed to the Castro house in the depressed Tremont area where Ariel started molesting her. Naturally, she protested and said, What are you doing? You could go to jail. Taking aback, Ariel told Gina she could go home, but home for almost 10 years was the basement of Ariel's house where Gina was chained up. An Amber Alert wasn't issued for her disappearance because of the absence of a witness which made Gina's family furious.

A year later, the FBI released a composite sketch of a possible suspect, while the police kept the investigation active and offered $25,000 in reward. award money for information about her disappearance. But nothing helpful came out of those efforts. What was clear, though, was Castro scored three victories in a row for kidnapping Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina Dehazuse without getting detected for 11 years since 2002. In a blink of an eye, the lives of three young women turned upside down in the hands of a monster who lorded it over them in his house of horror. It's an understatement to say that a decade of life in captivity is difficult.

It was hell, and the entries and the journals Michelle Amanda and Gina kept, summed up with their confined and controlled lives were in Ariel Castro's house. They 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 and desiring freedom. Ariel kept the girls chained in his basement for years before moving them to barricaded rooms upstairs Throughout their captivity, Castro restrained the women and subjected them to multiple physical and sexual assaults each and every day. Their living condition was insanely inhumane. They used plastic buckets as toilets, which their captor rarely emptied, showered twice a week at most, and ate a single meal per day.

What made matters worse was the mind games Ariel played with his victim. He would sometimes leave their door open to tempt them with freedom, and when he inevitably caught them, he'd punish the girls with a beating. Instead of birthdays, the three girls were forced to celebrate their abduction day, commemorating the anniversaries of their imprisonment. The women lived as if in a dollhouse, together yet separate, and always at the hand of the man in control who came and when as he pleased. Michelle was typically kept with Gina, but as the most defiant one, Michelle was often in trouble with Ariel. He withheld her food, restrained her through a support beam in the basement, frequently beat and raped her.

By her count, Michelle was pregnant at least five times, but had induced miscarriages with each of them. How? In savage ways, only an evil man like Ariel. could fathom. He hit her with dumbbells, punched her, and slammed her against walls. Michelle's one ear was impaired, and her face was partially deformed that later required facial reconstructive surgery. Meanwhile, Amanda was moved to an upstairs bedroom the size of a closet and chained to a radiator. She was repeatedly raped, which she recorded in her diary to determine the number of times. Eventually, Amanda got

pregnant and delivered her baby girl, Jocelyn, on Christmas Day in 2006. Amanda recalled, this is his kid, you know. How do I feel about that? And she resembled him a lot, and I would look at her, and I just felt like she's mine, she's mine. She taught her daughter how to read and write. Baby Jocelyn proved to be a distraction for the imprisoned women and for their torment her. Castro grew fond of his youngest child and allowed Jocelyn to play in the backyard or park, attend Sunday services with him, and visit Ariel's mother. Gina, as the youngest and the newest captive, was Ariel's favorite for a while.

She was treated better, fed first, and given a nicer room, but later on suffered the same physical and sexual abuse Michelle and Amanda had gone through. Gina was kidnapped on April 2nd, 2004, but she remembered Ariel raping her for the first time on May 7th, a too painful memory for her. The day Hizu's family continued searching for Gina, unaware that she was locked, not far away, in the house of a man that they knew. Ariel maintained a seemingly normal outside life while inflicting terror and pain to his three captives. When family members visited him, he used locks to keep them from going into the basement and other parts of the house. Once, when one of Castro's daughters visited, he forced Michelle, Amanda, and Gina to hide in the basement. It crossed their minds to call for help, but they didn't out of fear.

There was always a chance. What if he killed everybody, Gina said? Ariel continued to work as a school bus driver until he was fired in November of 2012 for various reasons that reflected neglect and bad judgment on his part. He lost the opportunity of earning $18.91 per hour when he was dismissed, and his house was in danger of getting foreclosed after three years of unpaid real estate taxes. His bad lock was starting to strike, and they come in threes, right? The third one, saved the best or worse for last. It finally happened in 2013. Amanda Berry's daughter, Jocelyn, may have been a product of Ariel Castro's insatiable sexual manipulation,

and some people see the innocent child as a disgrace. But she proved to be a great blessing and a savior on a miraculous spring day on May 6, 2013. Jocelyn was six years old by then and grew close to her father. That day, Ariel left the house for some errands and Jocelyn told Amanda she couldn't find her dad. My heart immediately started pounding because I'm like, should I chance it? If I'm going to do it, I need to do it now, Amanda thought. She found her bedroom door surprisingly unlocked.

Downstairs, Ariel forgot to lock the big inside door. door, which was wired to an alarm. Beyond it, the storm door was padlocked, but Amanda was still able to squeeze out an arm and scream for help when she saw neighbors through the screen. Finally, neighbor Charles Ramsey helped break down the door and called 911, where Amanda pleaded for help saying, I've been kidnapped and I've been missing for 10 years and now I'm free. She begged the dispatcher to send police to...

help her fellow prisoners at 22207 Seymour Ave. When the Cleveland PD arrived, they entered the home and found Michelle and Gina in two different rooms upstairs. Stepping outside the horror house, the three women plus Jocelyn, blinked in the Ohio sun, free for the first time in a decade. As Michelle later recalled, the first time I was actually able to sit outside, feel the sun. it was so warm, so bright. It was like God was shining a big light on me. The day Michelle, Gina, Amanda, and her daughter regained their freedom was also the day Ariel Castro lost his as police arrested

him. On May 8, 2013, he was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape, which carried prison sentences of 10 years to life in Ohio. On June 7th, the grand jury indicted him, on 329 total counts, but he pleaded not guilty and requested to forego a lengthy public trial to spare his victims from further trauma. On July 3rd, however, Ariel was deemed mentally competent to stand trial and began his pretrial hearings. DNA tests confirmed him as Jocelyn's father, but his request to see her was denied. On July 12th, a Chaya-Hawah. The Roca County grand jury returned a true bill of indictment and brought the total of 977 counts, 512 counts of kidnapping, 446 of rape, 7 of gross sexual imposition, 6 of felonious assault,

three of child endangerment, two of aggravated murder, and one of possession of criminal tools. He finally pleaded guilty on July 26th to 937 of those charges against him as part of a plea bargain, which called for consecutive sentences of life in jail plus a thousand years, all without parole. As part of the plea deal, Ariel forfeited his right to appeal and couldn't profit in any way due to his crimes. He also forfeited his assets, including his home, which prosecutors said would be demolished. During his trial, Castro, both defiant and remorseful, depicted himself and the three women as equal victims of his sexual addiction. He claimed that his crimes were not nearly as bad as they sounded and that his victims lived in some comfort with him as willing partners. Most of the sex that went on in the house, probably all of it was consensual.

These allegations about being forceful on them, that is totally wrong. Because there were many times where they'd even ask me for sex. And I learned that these girls were not virgins. From their testimony to me, they had multiple partners before me. Ariel testified. Alas, he was found guilty and sentenced on August 1, 2013. Ariel was now left completely alone. to rot in a jail cell. On September 2nd, 2013, 53-year-old Castro was found dead in his detention cell

at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient, Ohio. The next day, a preliminary autopsy determined that his death was a suicide by hanging, using a bed sheet despite a suggestion that he may have died accidentally from autoerotic asphyxiation rather than suicide. On December 3rd, a report officially concluded that all available evidence pointed to suicide, including a shrine-like arrangement of family pictures and a Bible in Castro's cell, an increasing tone of frustration in his prison journal, and the reality is spending the rest of his life in prison while subject to constant harassment. While Castro was overwhelmed by his cowardice and killed himself,

His former captives turned sex slaves found renewed courage and strength to rebuild their lives after reclaiming their freedom. Michelle Knight wrote a New York Times best-selling memoir about the ordeal titled Finding Me, a decade of darkness, before changing her name to Lily Rose Lee. She got married on May 6, 2015 and hoped to reunite with her son who was adopted during her absence. Michelle published her second book, Life After Darkness, My Journey to Happiness in May of 2018,

to commemorate the fifth anniversary of her rescue from captivity. Likewise, Amanda Berry and Gina Dehazuse published their own bestselling book, Hope, a memoir of survival in Cleveland. Both women also received honorary diplomas from John Marshall High School in 2015. While Amanda joined the staff of Fox 8 in Cleveland in February of 2017, where she hosts short reoccurring segments about missing persons cases, Gina has volunteered for the Amber Alert Committee, offering comfort to families of abducted children. Ariel Castro is dead, and there's no iota of trace of his Tremont Horror House after its

demolition on August 7, 2013. But his malevolence won't be thrown into oblivion as Michelle, Amanda, and Gina will always remind the world that the good ultimately triumphs over evil. So that's it for this week's episode of Everytown. Hope you guys enjoyed it. And tune in next week for another episode filled with scary, strange, and mysterious stories. Because who knows, maybe your town will be next.