Tuesday 7 May 2013

Dividend Chaser in 3 women found alive after missing for a decade

(From Article)

Three women who went missing in separate cases about a decade ago were found alive in a residential area of Cleveland on Monday, and police said three brothers were arrested in the case.

Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath says he thinks the women were tied up in the house where they were found and had been there since they disappeared.

A hospital physician said all three are in "fair condition."

McGrath said the brothers, ages 50, 52 and 54, are being held in the city jail awaiting charges.

Cheering crowds gathered Monday night on the street near the home where police said Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were found earlier in the day.

"This isn't the ending we usually hear to these stories, so we're very happy,'' said Gerald Maloney, an emergency room physician at the Cleveland hospital where all three were being treated.

"They are able to speak with us. Beyond that, I can't go into any further details,'' Maloney said.

Cleveland police released the frantic 911 call Berry made after escaping from the house where she had been living.

"I'm Amanda Berry ... I've been missing for 10 years and I'm here -- I'm free now," she said, her voice distraught and quick, according to an audio recording of the call released Monday night.

Cleveland Police said the women were being kept in a house in the 2200 block of Seymour Avenue near West 25th Street, WKYC reported.

Police didn't immediately provide any details of how the women were found but said they appeared to be in good health and had been taken to a hospital to be reunited with relatives and for evaluation.

McGrath said late Monday that three people have been arrested after three women missing for years were found in a home and one said she'd been kidnapped.

McGrath says a 6-year-old also was in the home.

Dozens of police officers and sheriff's deputies remained at the scene late Monday awaiting a warrant to search the building.

Berry disappeared at age 16 on April 21, 2003, when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at a Burger King. DeJesus went missing at age 14 on her way home from school about a year later. They were found just a few miles from where they had gone missing.

Police said Knight went missing in 2002 and is 32 now. They didn't provide current ages for the other two women.

Loved ones said they hadn't given up hope of seeing the women again.

Amanda Berry's aunt, Gale Mitchell, told CNN, "You don't give up hope. You just pray and pray and pray."

Berry's cousin Tasheena Mitchell told the The Plain Dealer. she couldn't wait to have Berry in her arms.

"I'm going to hold her, and I'm going to squeeze her and I probably won't let her go," she said.

Berry's mother, Louwana Miller, who had been hospitalized for months with pancreatitis and other ailments, died in March 2006. She had spent the previous three years looking for her daughter, whose disappearance took a toll as her health steadily deteriorated, family and friends said.

Mayor Frank Jackson expressed gratitude that the three women were found alive.

"We have many unanswered questions regarding this case, and the investigation will be ongoing," he said in a statement.

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