Finding Me: A Decade of Darkness, a Life Reclaimed: A Memoir of the Cleveland Kidnappings

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Miller, Donna J. (April 2, 2012). "Vigil today for Gina DeJesus, missing for eight years". The Plain Dealer. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013 . Retrieved May 13, 2013. Leger, Donna Leinwand (May 13, 2013). "Details emerge on Cleveland kidnap suspect's history". USA Today. Archived from the original on May 14, 2013 . Retrieved May 15, 2013. Creitz, Charlie (May 15, 2013). "Ariel Castro Relatives in Puerto Rico Say He Is 'Evil' And There Is 'Demon' Inside Him". Latin Times. Archived from the original on October 21, 2013 . Retrieved September 9, 2013. On May 6, 2013, Amanda Berry made headlines around the world when she fled a Cleveland home and called 911, saying: “Help me, I’m Amanda Berry. . . . I’ve been kidnapped, and I’ve been missing for ten years.” a b "Judge sends Ariel Castro to prison for abduction, rape of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight (slideshow)". The Plain Dealer. August 1, 2013. Archived from the original on August 4, 2013 . Retrieved August 6, 2013.

Michelle Knight -- now known as Lily Rose Lee -- captured the world's attention in May 2013, when she and two fellow kidnapping victims were found and freed after being held for more than a decade by notorious Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro. I ask whether she ever tried to make sense of what Castro was doing. Yes, she says, he considered the girls a surrogate family. If they were family, what was their relationship to him? "Wives," she says simply. He would tell them he wanted them to be happy. In court, he said: "I hope they can find it in their hearts to forgive me because we had a lot of harmony going on in that home."On August 23, 2002, Knight left her cousin's house and subsequently disappeared. Her family reported her as missing, but most eventually came to believe that Knight, distraught over losing her son and unable to deal with the negative turn her life had taken, had run away on her own. Though her mother continued to post fliers about her daughter, Knight was removed from the FBI's database of missing persons in 2003.

Dissell, Rachel (May 7, 2013). "Suspect's daughter said in 2004 she was the last to see Gina DeJesus". The Plain Dealer. Archived from the original on May 9, 2013 . Retrieved May 13, 2013. Eversley, Melanie; Alcindor, Yamiche (May 9, 2013). "Reports: Knight lived troubled life before abduction". USA Today. Archived from the original on May 10, 2013 . Retrieved May 13, 2013. Anderson Cooper interview with Charles Ramsey". CNN. May 7, 2013. Archived from the original on June 8, 2013 . Retrieved May 8, 2013. Before reading this book, I didn't know that Knight's life had been so tough before her abduction. She ran away from both sexual abuse and parental ambivalence about her welfare. Living under a bridge in a trash can was preferable to living in her home. Finding religious sustenance while on the streets no doubt helped her survive her nightmare with "the dude". Throughout the narrative she refers to him as the dude, refusing to give him the respect of a name. Castro kidnapped Berry a year after he took Knight, one day before Berry's 17th birthday. A year later he kidnapped 14-year-old Gina DeJesus. (Knight is convinced she was kidnapped only because Castro thought she was far younger than 21.) Was there any comfort in knowing there were other girls in the house? Yes, she says, but her overwhelming feeling was pity. "I felt they didn't deserve to be here. I didn't deserve to be here. Everything that happened from that day was just going to be a big old mess. It's a tragedy because you know exactly what she's going to go through, and she ain't going to like it. And you don't know how she will react to it." All three girls had known Castro's children.

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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. [47] [58] He was sentenced in January 2013 to 4 + 1⁄ 2 years in prison for obstruction of justice, making a false report, and making a false alarm. [59] Gina DeJesus [ edit ] 2004 FBI sketch of a suspect in DeJesus's disappearance Michelle Knight, kept in captivity for over 10 years, reveals her marriage on "Dr. Phil" ". CBS News. April 10, 2018. Archived from the original on April 11, 2018 . Retrieved April 11, 2018. Protected by Lucy and propelled by a strong sense of fury at injustice, Michele passed through children’s homes as she grew into a troubled teenager who ran wild through the squats of London’s Brixton, seeking annihilation from the pain of her past and present through drink and drugs. Her many adventures led her through the darkest side of human nature and allowed her to experience the best and worst of what people can do to each other, yet, even when Lucy finally withdrew, telling Michele that she could no longer be by her side, Michele never lost her faith in the power of love or her ability to transform her own life. Through many miraculous meetings and synchronicities, Michele was able to use her extraordinary gifts to begin to heal her own pain and to help others, eventually demonstrating her powerful talent as an astrologer and psychic on Britain’s favourite TV shows and in magazines.

And you wanted those babies?""Yes. Not under any circumstances would I kill a child like that. No matter what I went through." In her teens she ran away, and lived on wasteland under a bridge. She stole a wheelie bin and made it her home. "I had my own little room, I didn't need to share it with anybody. I didn't have to hear my mother yelling, I didn't have to hear glasses breaking, things being thrown at the wall. If I wanted to sing, I didn't have to listen to my mum saying, 'You're a horrible singer, shut up.' "

Zicari, Peter (April 1, 2008). "Six long days, Gina still missing Parents, police, city officials focus on case at community meeting". The Plain Dealer. Archived from the original on May 17, 2013 . Retrieved May 13, 2013. Berkman, Fran (August 6, 2013). "Ariel Castro's House Blurred Out on Google Street View". Mashable . Retrieved March 7, 2020. 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. [134] 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. [134] [135] [136] 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. He was later cremated. [137]