DeJesus, 23, Amanda Berry, 27, and Berry’s 6-year-old daughter were welcomed into their family homes last week after an escape and rescue on Monday from the dungeon-like house.

“This is the best Mother’s Day I could ever have,” said Nancy Ruiz when asked by a reporter last week how this year’s celebration of motherhood would differ from those during the nine years her daughter was missing after she vanished while walking home from junior high school.

Mother’s Day has a changed meaning for Berry, who during 10 years in captivity lost her mother and conceived and bore her own child, who DNA indicates was fathered by accused kidnapper Ariel Castro, police and prosecutors said.

There was no homecoming for the fourth captive, Michelle Knight, 32, the longest-held, who slipped into seclusion after being released from a hospital on Friday. She shunned hospital visits from family members, some of whom believed she was a runaway when she disappeared 11 years ago after losing custody of her young son, her grandmother said.

The Cuyahoga County prosecutor is seeking murder charges, which could carry the death penalty, against Castro, 52, a former school bus driver who police said induced several miscarriages by beating and starving Knight.

Castro is being held on $8 million bail on charges he kidnapped and raped the three women while keeping them locked up in a rundown Cleveland home stocked with ropes and chains.

Knight was kidnapped in 2002 at the age of 20; Berry in 2003 the day before her 17th birthday; and DeJesus in 2004, when she was 14. Castro forced Knight to deliver Berry’s daughter, and he threatened to kill Knight if the baby died, according to a police report.

Berry told police her escape had been her first chance to break free in the 10 years she was held, seizing an opportunity during Castro’s momentary absence. With the help of neighbors, she and her daughter broke free, and police freed the other two women.

‘BIG HEALING PROCESS’

The community has rallied around the women, with offers of help pouring in from around the world and people offering cash, furniture and even use of a vacation home to help them rebuild their lives.

Three members of the Cleveland City Council have set up a fund to provide financial assistance to the women.

“It’s a big healing process that is beginning,” Councilwoman Dona Brady said on Saturday.

Since it was established last week, the fund has raised more than $50,000, said Cleveland Councilman Brian Cummins, who helped arrange the Cleveland Courage Fund, which is administered by a non-profit organization.

Cummins said the fund for the three women had received donations from people across the United States, as well as Canada, France and Australia.

The money will be distributed to organizations to help the women pay for therapy, doctor’s visits, housing and other expenses, Cummins said.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg, Mary Wisniewski and Peter Cooney)

Three members of the Cleveland City Council have set up a fund to provide financial assistance to Amanda Berry, 27, Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32.

“It’s a big healing process that is beginning,” Councilwoman Dona Brady said on Saturday.

Since it was established earlier this week, the fund has raised more than $50,000, said Cleveland Councilman Brian Cummins, who helped arrange the Cleveland Courage Fund, which is administered by a non-profit organization.

Ariel Castro, a 52-year-old former school bus driver, has been arrested and charged with kidnapping and raping the three women while keeping them locked up in a rundown Cleveland home.

DNA tests released on Friday identified Castro as the father of Berry’s 6-year-old daughter, who was born in captivity.

The Cuyahoga County prosecutor also plans to seek murder charges, which could carry the death penalty, against Castro because police say there is evidence Knight suffered forced miscarriages.

Berry and DeJesus, along with Berry’s daughter, left the hospital earlier this week and have been reunited with their families. Knight, who is estranged from some of her family members, according to her grandmother, was discharged from the hospital on Friday and went into seclusion.

Knight was kidnapped in 2002 at the age of 20; Berry in 2003 the day before her 17th birthday; and DeJesus in 2004, when she was 14. During their captivity, police said, the women endured beatings, rapes and at times confinement in ropes and chains.

Berry told police that her escape on Monday had been her first chance to break free in the 10 years she was held, seizing an opportunity during Castro’s momentary absence. With the help of neighbors, she and her daughter broke free, and police freed the other two women.

BUSINESSES, INDIVIDUALS PITCH IN

Cummins said the fund for the three women had received donations from people across the United States, as well as Canada, France and Australia.

The money will not go directly to the victims, but be distributed to organizations to help the women pay for therapy, doctor’s visits, housing and other expenses, Cummins said.

City officials said they were working to respond to a flood of emails with offers of assistance from companies, businesses and individuals.

Business owners have offered free healthcare, beauty and spa services and furniture, said Johanna Hamm, a City Council administrative official.

One offer was an all-expenses-paid stay at a lakeside vacation home, she said.

A Cleveland pizzeria said it planned to donate all the money from its sales on Thursday to the Cleveland Courage Fund. Workers at Angelo’s Pizza also said they intended to give their hourly wages that day.

In a message posted on the fund’s Facebook page, one woman said she hoped the women would one day recover from their horrific ordeal.

“If everyone donated just one dollar, it would make a difference in these girls’ lives,” said June Barter Green. “Maybe someday they can live a normal life.”

(Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Peter Cooney)

The tests did not link Castro to any other state cases, Attorney General Mike DeWine said in a statement.

Castro, 52, was arrested shortly after Amanda Berry, her 6-year-old daughter, and two other women Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, were found in his house in a run-down neighborhood of Cleveland on Monday.

DeWine’s statement said that forensic scientists obtained a sample of Castro’s DNA late Thursday afternoon and “worked throughout the night to confirm that Castro is the father of the six-year-old girl born in captivity to one of the kidnapping victims.”

Berry’s baby was born in a plastic inflatable children’s swimming pool on Christmas Day, 2006, authorities have said.

The FBI is checking Castro’s DNA sample against national cases, DeWine said. Local authorities have said Castro is not a suspect in other cases.

The Cuyahoga County prosecutor vowed on Thursday to seek murder charges that could carry the death penalty against Castro because police say there is evidence that Knight suffered forced miscarriages.

During their captivity, police said, the women endured beatings, rapes and at times confinement in ropes and chains.

Their imprisonment came to an end when neighbors, alerted by cries for help, broke through a locked door of Castro’s house and freed Berry, who had disappeared the day before her 17th birthday in 2003 on her way home from work at a fast-food restaurant.

DeJesus, 23, vanished at age 14 after school, and Knight, 32, was 20 when she went missing in 2002.

All three told police this week that they were abducted by Castro when they accepted his offers of a ride in the same West Side Cleveland neighborhood where they were found.

Castro made his first court appearance on Thursday to face three counts of rape and four counts of kidnapping brought by the city attorney’s office, and he was ordered to remain in custody on an $8 million bond.

County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty, who has jurisdiction over all felony cases for Cleveland, said he intends to expand the charges.

“I fully intend to seek charges for each and every act of sexual violence, rape, each day of kidnapping, every felonious assault, and each act of aggravated murder for terminating pregnancies that the offender perpetrated,” he said.

Under Ohio law, the crime of aggravated murder includes the unlawful termination of a pregnancy and is a capital offense.

Knight suffered at least five miscarriages that she told police were intentionally caused by Castro starving her and beating her in the abdomen, according to an initial police report.

The victims told investigators they recalled leaving the confines of the house just twice during their ordeal, ushered on both occasions into a separate garage on the property while disguised in wigs and hats.

Castro’s court-appointed lawyer, Kathleen DeMetz, said her client would be placed on a suicide watch in jail and was expected to be held in isolation.

In order to win release on bail, he would need $800,000 cash – 10 percent of the bond amount.

Berry told police that her escape on Monday had been her first chance to break free in the 10 years that she was held, seizing the opportunity during Castro’s momentary absence.

Berry and DeJesus went home with family members on Wednesday, while Knight remained in hospital, but in good condition.

(Additional reporting by Kim Palmer and Barbara Goldberg; Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Grant McCool)

The family of Ariel Castro, the man charged with kidnapping three women and raping them in captivity for nearly 10 years, was among the first wave of immigrants to settle Cleveland’s Puerto Rican community.

His case has drawn attention to a lesser-known part of the Puerto Rican diaspora, more often associated with larger communities in New York, Orlando, Philadelphia and Chicago.

Puerto Rico, with a population of around 3.7 million, is a former Spanish colony that is now a U.S. territory. Its people can migrate freely to the United States, giving the tiny island an outsized influence in Hispanic American culture.

A tightly knit group mostly from the same southern region on the Caribbean island, Puerto Ricans in Cleveland have cheered Monday’s rescue of the women. They also worry it will cast a long shadow over their community.

“No one shouted louder than I did when they announced the girls were found,” said Wanda DeLeon, a 27-year-old homemaker. “But I am already anticipating the stares.”

A judge has ordered Castro, a 52-year-old former school bus driver, held on a $8 million bond. He is charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. An Ohio prosecutor said on Thursday he would seek additional aggravated murder charges related to the forced miscarriages that police say Castro inflicted on one of the women.

The emergence of Castro as the suspect in the case stunned many Cleveland Puerto Ricans. The Castro family is well-known in the community and Castro’s uncle, Julio Cesar Castro, runs a mom-and-pop grocery store, or bodega, seen by many as a symbol of the city’s working-class Puerto Rican neighborhood.

Jose Feliciano, a prominent Cleveland lawyer whose parents also migrated from Puerto Rico in the 1950s, described Julio Cesar Castro as a “beloved” man who often helped new immigrants.

“He has given away more food from that bodega,” Feliciano said. “If people were short on rent or needed cash to get their car repaired, they knew they could always count on him for a loan or credit.”

Julio Cesar Castro, known by his nickname Cesi, said he had grown distant with his nephew in recent years. “In the last five or six years he separated from me,” he said. “I don’t know the reason. He appeared to be one thing, and was something else.”

STEEL AND CARS

The first Puerto Rican families arrived in Cleveland seeking work at factories for companies such as Republic Steel and automakers Chevrolet and Ford whose plants helped transform Cleveland into the sixth-largest city in the United States at the time.

“The city was teeming,” Feliciano said. Some Puerto Rican workers were even recruited because of a labor shortage.

Over the past several decades, as its manufacturing industry dwindled, Cleveland has seen a dramatic decline in its population from 1 million people to less than 400,000 today.

The number of Hispanics, who account for nearly 10 percent of the city’s population, has increased in recent years, with the vast majority coming from Puerto Rico, said Cleveland City Councilman Brian Cummins.

Many, like the Castros and the Felicianos, are from Yauco, a small southwestern coffee-growing town with few jobs. Others are from the nearby city of Juana Diaz.

The tragedy has heightened sensibilities about the perception of the Puerto Rican community, highlighted by city prosecutor Victor Perez’s announcement of the kidnapping and rape charges against Castro.

“As the chief prosecutor for the city of Cleveland, born and raised in Puerto Rico, I want everyone to know that the acts of the defendant in this criminal case are not a reflection of the rest of the Puerto Rican community here or in Puerto Rico,” he said.

The abductions have also brought attention to the economic toll the recent recession inflicted on the Puerto Rican community.

In west Cleveland, home to the Puerto Rican neighborhood and where the three women were found, many houses sit with their windows boarded up or covered by “No Trespassing” signs.

“The people are really hurting in this community,” Cummins said.

The case has been followed closely in Puerto Rico. Gina DeJesus, who went missing in 2004 and was rescued with Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight, also is Puerto Rican and has family ties to Yauco.

News commentators in Puerto Rico, meanwhile, voiced concern the case could reflect badly on the territory and its people.

Some took issue with media reports that highlighted Castro’s Puerto Rican background, pointing out that many reports noted a Puerto Rican flag flying in front of the house while an American flag also hung outside the home.

Veteran newscaster Carmen Jovet asked on a morning radio program: “Why is the fact that he is Puerto Rican important at all?”

(Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Frances Kerry and Paul Simao)

As two of the women received jubilant homecomings from loved ones on Wednesday and the third remained in hospital, authorities in Cleveland disclosed details of the isolation and brutal treatment the captives endured before they were freed earlier this week.

Officials said the three women were at times bound in chains or rope and endured starvation, beatings, sexual assaults and in the case of one of them, several miscarriages deliberately induced by their captor.

Their imprisonment came to an end on Monday after neighbors, drawn to the house by cries for help, broke through a door to rescue Amanda Berry, whose disappearance in 2003 the day before her 17th birthday was widely publicized in the local media.

The recording of her frantic emergency-911 call that evening, declaring, “I’ve been kidnapped and I’ve been missing for 10 years and I’m here. I’m free now,” has been replayed countless times on television news broadcasts around the world.

Rescued with Berry, now 27, was her 6-year-old daughter, conceived and born during her confinement, and two fellow captives – Gina DeJesus, 23, who vanished at age 14 in 2004, and Michelle Knight, 32, who was 20 when she went missing in 2002.

Their accused abductor and tormentor, Ariel Castro, 52, who was fired from his job driving school buses last fall, was formally charged on Wednesday with kidnapping and raping the women. He was scheduled to be arraigned in court on Thursday morning, prosecutors said.

His two brothers, Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50, were initially arrested as suspects in the case but were not charged after investigators determined they had no knowledge of the abductions or captivity of the women, police said.

MISCARRIAGES INDUCED

However, the two brothers also were slated to appear in court on Thursday on unrelated outstanding misdemeanor warrants.

Berry told police that her escape on Monday marked her first chance to break free in the 10 years that she was imprisoned, an opportunity occasioned by Castro’s momentary absence.

It also became clear that Berry’s pregnancy with her daughter was not an isolated incident, according to Cleveland City Councilman Brian Cummins, who based his information on a police report from the initial investigation and briefing by police department sources.

Cummins said one of the three women – he did not know who – had suffered at least five miscarriages that Castro is accused of having intentionally caused by starving her for weeks and beating her in the abdomen.

Berry’s baby was born in a plastic inflatable kiddy pool on Christmas Day, 2006, authorities said. A paternity test will be conducted to determine the girl’s father.

All three women were held in the home’s basement for long periods, restrained with ropes and chains and occasionally starved, according to Cummins. Authorities have described the condition of the home as squalid.

Cummins said the victims were kept apart in the house until their captor at some point gained sufficient confidence in his control over them to allow them to mingle. While separated in the house, the three women were isolated in different rooms but were aware of the others’ presence, police said.

Authorities said the women recalled leaving the confines of the house just twice during their captivity, ushered on both occasions into a separate garage on the small lot while disguised in wigs and hats.

The women also told police their abductions occurred when Castro offered them rides and they accepted, authorities said.

Cummins said much of their ordeal was recounted by the women as soon as they were freed.

“En route to the hospital there was just a flood of information shared by these victims immediately,” he said. “One can only imagine the mental distress and eruptions of joy and emotions.”

JOYFUL HOMECOMINGS

On Wednesday, after spending a day in seclusion following their hospital evaluations, Berry and DeJesus were each glimpsed by television cameras being whisked to celebrations with family members – Berry and her daughter at her sister’s house and DeJesus at her mother’s home.

Neither Berry, who was last seen leaving her job at a fast-food restaurant, nor DeJesus, who vanished while walking home from school, spoke publicly.

But DeJesus, clenched in a tight embrace by her sister Mayra and hiding her face in a yellow hooded sweat-shirt, raised her hand in a thumbs-up sign to spectators chanting “Gina, Gina.”

Knight remained in a Cleveland hospital, where she was listed in good condition.

Castro, owner of the modest, two-story house, had been thought by neighbors to live there alone.

Questions have mounted since the three women were freed as to how their captivity escaped notice for so long, despite what neighbors said were a number of suspicious incidents at the house in the low-income community of Cleveland’s West Side.

Investigators took some 200 pieces of evidence from his house but found no human remains on the site. Police were still searching a second house.

(Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta and Barbara Goldberg; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by John Stonestreet)

Ohio authorities on Wednesday revealed some of the grisly details of the years Berry, now 27, Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32, and a six-year old girl allegedly spent as prisoners of suspect Ariel Castro, who was charged with kidnapping and rape.

His brothers, who were originally arrested in the case, were not charged and had no knowledge of what Castro, 52, is accused of doing, according to police.

Castro, who owns the house where the women were found on Monday, was charged with three counts of rape, relating to the women, and four counts of kidnapping, said Cleveland city prosecutor Victor Perez at a news conference.

The charges came as police disclosed that the women, who were rescued after Berry fled with the help of a neighbor, had not seen any previous chances to escape in nearly ten years of captivity.

“The only opportunity, after interviewing the young ladies, to escape was the other day when Amanda escaped,” Cleveland Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba said at the news conference. “They don’t believe that they’ve been outside that home for the last 10 years respectively.”

Authorities said the women recalled leaving the house twice, only to go to the garage on the small lot, when they were disguised in wigs and hats.

Tomba said Berry, DeJesus and Knight had been kept separately in the house, where police have found ropes and chains.

“They were not in one room, but they did know each other and they did know each other was there,” he said.

Also rescued from the house was Berry’s daughter, who was born on December 25, 2006, during her mother’s captivity, authorities said. A paternity test will be conducted to determine the girl’s father.

As authorities readied their case against Castro, Berry and DeJesus went to their families’ homes on Wednesday. Knight was in a Cleveland hospital where a spokeswoman said she was in good condition.

Berry and her daughter could be seen from an aerial television camera arriving in a convoy of vehicles at her sister’s house and going in the back door.

Before Monday evening, Berry had last been seen leaving her job at a fast-food restaurant the day before her 17th birthday in April 2003. Her disappearance as a teenager was widely publicized in the local media.

DeJesus was rushed into the home she had not seen in nine years, clenched in a tight embrace by her sister Mayra. DeJesus hid her face in a yellow hooded sweat-shirt but raised her hand in a thumbs-up sign to spectators chanting “Gina. Gina.”

Her mother Nancy DeJesus came outside after a little while.

“I want to thank everybody that believed,” she said. “Even the ones that doubted, I still want to thank them the most because they’re the ones that made me stronger, the ones that made me feel the most that my daughter was out there.”

Neither Berry nor DeJesus, who vanished while walking home from school at age 14 in 2004, spoke publicly. Knight was 20 when she disappeared in 2002.

Castro, who is not a suspect in any other cases, faced arraignment on Thursday morning, the prosecutor said.

Investigators took some 200 pieces of evidence from his house, which Tomba said was “in quite a bit of disarray,” but found no human remains on the site. Police were still searching a second house.

The three brothers were arrested on Monday evening within hours of the women’s escape. However, there was no evidence Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50, were involved, the prosecutor said.

The two brothers would be appearing in court on Thursday on unrelated outstanding misdemeanor warrants.

“There is nothing that leads us to believe that they were involved or had any knowledge of this, and that comes from statements of our victims, their statements and the brothers’ statements,” Perez said, adding, “Ariel would have kept everybody at a distance.”

Berry can be heard naming Ariel Castro as the man she was fleeing on the frantic emergency call she made to a 911 operator after a neighbor heard her scream and helped her break through a locked screen door.

Born in Puerto Rico, Ariel Castro played bass in Latin music bands in the area. Records show he was divorced more than a decade ago and his ex-wife had since died. He is known to have at least one adult daughter and son.

In 2005, Castro was named in a complaint of domestic violence in a custody dispute with his ex-wife that accused him of breaking her nose twice, knocking out her tooth, dislocating her shoulder twice and threatening to kill her and her daughters several times.

The complaint was eventually dismissed.

(Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta, Barbara Goldberg; Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Paul Thomasch, Bernard Orr)

Castro’s two brothers Pedro and Onil, originally arrested in the case, were not charged, said prosecutor Victor Perez at a news conference.

The charges came as two of the newly freed victims, Amanda Berry, now 27, and Gina DeJesus, 23, had family homecomings after vanishing separately from their Cleveland neighborhood nearly a decade ago.

Castro, 52, faces four counts of kidnapping relating to Berry, DeJesus, Michelle Knight, and Berry’s 6-year-old daughter who was conceived and born during her mother’s captivity, authorities said.

Knight, 32, was in a Cleveland hospital on Wednesday where a spokeswoman said she was in good condition.

The rape charges against Castro relate to Berry, DeJesus and Knight, the prosecutor said.

He would be arraigned on Thursday morning, the prosecutor said.

There was no evidence Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50, were involved, the prosecutor said.

Neither Berry nor DeJesus spoke publicly as they were hustled inside their family’s homes, and relatives emerged instead to speak to the waiting crowds of spectators and media.

Berry and her daughter could be seen from an aerial television camera arriving in a convoy of vehicles at her sister’s house and going in the back door.

DeJesus was rushed into the home she had not seen in nine years, clenched in a tight embrace by her sister Mayra. DeJesus hid her face in a yellow hooded sweat-shirt but raised her hand in a thumbs-up sign to the crowd that was chanting “Gina. Gina.”

Her mother Nancy DeJesus came outside after a little while.

“I want to thank everybody that believed,” she said. “Even the ones that doubted, I still want to thank them the most because they’re the ones that made me stronger, the ones that made me feel the most that my daughter was out there.”

Police released some details about the search of the house where the women had been held, including the discovery of chains and ropes police said had been used to tie up the victims. Police said no human remains had been found.

Before Monday evening, Berry had last been seen leaving her job at a fast-food restaurant the day before her 17th birthday in April 2003. Her disappearance as a teenager was widely publicized in the local media.

She escaped from the Castro house with the assistance of a neighbour who heard her screaming and helped her call police.

DeJesus vanished while walking home from school at age 14 in 2004, and Knight, 32, was 20 when she disappeared in 2002.

Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation were searching through the house where the women were believed to have been held since vanishing, Police Chief Michael McGrath said.

Born in Puerto Rico, Ariel Castro played bass in Latin music bands in the area. Records show he was divorced more than a decade ago and his ex-wife had since died. He is known to have at least one adult daughter and son.

(Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta; Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Grant McCool, Toni Reinhold and Bernard Orr)

Neither Amanda Berry nor Gina DeJesus spoke publicly as they were hustled past crowds of spectators and media.

Berry, 27, and her 6-year-old daughter, who was conceived and born in captivity, could be seen from an aerial television camera arriving in a convoy of vehicles at her sister’s house and going in the back door.

DeJesus, 23, was rushed into the home she had not seen in nine years, clenched in a tight embrace by her sister Mayra. DeJesus hid her face in a yellow hoodie but raised her hand in a thumbs-up sign to the crowd that was chanting “Gina. Gina.”

“There are not enough words to say or express the joy that we feel for the return of our family member Gina, and now Amanda Berry, her daughter and Michelle Knight who is our family also,” DeJesus’ aunt Sandra Ruiz said outside the house.

“I want to say thank you, but I’m also going to put my foot down as the mean one of the family,” she said. “We are asking for your support to be patient with us. Give us time and privacy to heal. When we’re ready, I promise every single one of you guys that we’ll talk to you.”

Police released some details about the search of the house where the women had been held, including the discovery of chains and ropes police said had been used to tie up the victims. Police said no human remains had been found.

Three brothers identified by police as suspects were expected to be charged by the end of the day, police said.

One suspect, Ariel Castro, 52, who was fired from his school bus driving job in November for “lack of judgment,” was arrested almost immediately after the women escaped on Monday.

His brothers Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50, were taken into custody a short time later. Police have not said what role each man is suspected of playing, but Berry named Ariel Castro in an emergency call to 911 on Monday as the man from whom she was trying to escape.

Before Monday evening, Berry had last been seen leaving her job at a fast-food restaurant the day before her 17th birthday in April 2003. Her disappearance as a teenager was widely publicized in the local media.

Her sister’s two-story bungalow was festooned with dozens of colorful balloons, yellow ribbons and a huge sign reading “Welcome Home Amanda.”

It is in an ethnically mixed, working-class neighborhood about six miles from the house where Berry broke through a door with the assistance of a neighbor who heard her screaming and helped her call police.

Appearing on the lawn of the house, Berry’s sister, Beth Serrano, was greeted with shouts and cheers from a crowd of well-wishers who had gathered along with photographers, television crews and reporters.

“At this time, our family would request privacy so my sister and niece and I can have time to recover,” Serrano said, her voice quaking and appearing to choke back tears. “We appreciate all you have done for us for the past ten years. Please respect our privacy until we are ready to make our statement. And thank you.”

Berry was found with DeJesus, 23, who vanished while walking home from school at age 14 in 2004, and Michelle Knight, 32, who was 20 when she disappeared in 2002.

Berry told her grandmother in a telephone call played on local television that her daughter was born on Christmas Day.

DeJesus’s home, also in a working-class neighborhood, was decorated with flowers, balloons, welcoming signs and an array of stuffed animals.

Her father Felix DeJesus pumped his fist in the air as his daughter went inside. The DeJesus house is about three miles from the Castro house.

The three women had been hospitalized and released following their rescue. Knight was re-admitted to the hospital on Wednesday in good condition, a spokesman said.

Euphoria over the rescue of the women on Monday was giving way to mounting questions about how their imprisonment in a house on a residential street had gone undetected for so long.

Several neighbors said they had called police to report suspicious activity at the house in a dilapidated neighborhood on Cleveland’s West Side, but police denied those calls had been made.

“We have no record of those calls coming in over the last ten years,” Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath said on Wednesday on NBC’s “Today” show.

McGrath said he was confident police did not miss opportunities to find the missing women. “Absolutely, there’s no question about it,” he said.

Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation were searching through the house where the women were believed to have been held since vanishing, McGrath said.

“We have confirmation that they were bound, and there (were) chains and ropes in the home,” he said.

No human remains were found, Cleveland Safety Director Martin Flask said in a statement.

McGrath said the women had been allowed outside “very rarely” during their captivity. “They were released out in the backyard once in a while,” he said.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Johnson said on Tuesday that child welfare officials had paid a visit to the house in January 2004 because Castro was reported to have left a child on a school bus while he stopped for lunch at a fast-food restaurant. But no one answered the door and the ensuing inquiry found no criminal intent, officials said.

NEIGHBORS REPORT SUSPICIOUS INCIDENTS

Questions have mounted about why the women’s captivity escaped notice.

“We didn’t search hard enough. She was right under our nose the whole time,” said Angel Arroyo, a church pastor who had handed out flyers of DeJesus in the neighborhood.

Aside from the school bus incident in 2004, city officials said a database search found no records of calls to the house or reports of anything amiss during the years in question.

“We have no indication that any of the neighbors, bystanders, witnesses or anyone else has ever called regarding any information, regarding activity that occurred at that house on Seymour Avenue,” the mayor said.

Israel Lugo, a neighbor, said he called police in November 2011 after his sister saw a girl at the house holding a baby and crying for help. He said police came and banged on the door several times but left when no one answered.

About eight months ago, Lugo said, his sister saw Ariel Castro park his school bus outside and take a large bag of fast food and several drinks inside.

“My sister said something’s wrong … That’s when my mom called the police,” he said. Lugo said police came and warned Castro not to park the bus in front of his house.

Another neighbor said a little girl could often be seen peering from the attic window of the Castro house.

Born in Puerto Rico, Ariel Castro played bass in Latin music bands in the area. Records show he was divorced more than a decade ago and his ex-wife had since died. He is known to have at least one adult daughter and son. (Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta; Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Grant McCool, Toni Reinhold)

Berry, 27, had been expected to make a statement, but she did not. She and her 6-year-old daughter, who was conceived and born in captivity, could be seen from an aerial television camera returning to her sister’s house in a convoy of vehicles and going in the back door.

Police released some details about the search of the house where the women were held, including the discovery of chains and ropes police said were used to tie up the victims. Police said no human remains were found.

Three brothers identified by police as the suspects were expected to be charged by the end of the day, police said.

One suspect, Ariel Castro, 52, who was fired from his school bus driving job in November for “lack of judgment,” was arrested almost immediately after the women escaped on Monday.

His brothers Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50, were taken into custody a short time later. Police have not said what role each man is suspected of playing, but Berry named Ariel Castro in an emergency call to 911 on Monday as the man from whom she was trying to escape.

Before Monday evening, Berry had last been seen leaving her job at a fast-food restaurant the day before her 17th birthday in April 2003. Her disappearance as a teenager was widely publicized in the local media.

Her sister’s two-story bungalow was festooned with dozens of colorful balloons, yellow ribbons and a huge sign reading “Welcome Home Amanda.”

It is located in an ethnically mixed, working-class neighborhood about six miles from the house where Berry broke through a door with the help of a neighbor who heard her screaming and helped her call police.

Appearing on the lawn of the house, Berry’s sister, Beth Serrano, was greeted with shouts and cheers from a crowd of well-wishers who had gathered along with photographers, television crews and reporters.

“At this time, our family would request privacy so my sister and niece and I can have time to recover,” Serrano said, her voice quaking and appearing to choke back tears. “We appreciate all you have done for us for the past ten years. Please respect our privacy until we are ready to make our statement. And thank you.”

Berry was found with Gina DeJesus, 23, who vanished at age 14 in 2004, and Michelle Knight, 32, who was 20 when she disappeared in 2002.

Berry told her grandmother in a telephone call played on local television that her daughter was born on Christmas Day.

Euphoria over the rescue of the women on Monday gave way to questions of how their imprisonment in a house on a residential street went undetected for so long.

Several neighbors said they had called police to report suspicious activity at the house in a dilapidated neighborhood on Cleveland’s West Side. But police denied those calls from neighbors were made.

“We have no record of those calls coming in over the last ten years,” Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath said on Wednesday on NBC’s “Today” show.

McGrath said he was confident police did not miss opportunities to find the missing women. “Absolutely, there’s no question about it,” he said.

FBI agents were searching through the house where the women were believed held since vanishing, McGrath said.

“We have confirmation that they were bound, and there (were) chains and ropes in the home,” he said.

No human remains were found, Cleveland Safety Director Martin Flask said in a statement.

“A thorough search of the scene … did not reveal human remains,” he said.

McGrath said the women had been allowed outside “very rarely” during their captivity. “They were released out in the backyard once in a while,” he said.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Johnson said on Tuesday that child welfare officials had paid a visit to the house in January 2004 because Castro was reported to have left a child on a school bus while he stopped for lunch at a fast-food restaurant. But no one answered the door and the ensuing inquiry found no criminal intent, officials said.

NEIGHBORS REPORT SUSPICIOUS INCIDENTS

Questions have mounted about why the women’s captivity escaped notice.

“We didn’t search hard enough. She was right under our nose the whole time,” said Angel Arroyo, a church pastor who had handed out flyers of DeJesus in the neighborhood.

Aside from the school bus incident in 2004, city officials said a database search found no records of calls to the house or reports of anything amiss during the years in question.

“We have no indication that any of the neighbors, bystanders, witnesses or anyone else has ever called regarding any information, regarding activity that occurred at that house on Seymour Avenue,” the mayor said.

Israel Lugo, a neighbor, said he called police in November 2011 after his sister saw a girl at the house holding a baby and crying for help. He said police came and banged on the door several times but left when no one answered.

About eight months ago, Lugo said, his sister saw Ariel Castro park his school bus outside and take a large bag of fast food and several drinks inside.

“My sister said something’s wrong … That’s when my mom called the police,” he said. Lugo said police came and warned Castro not to park the bus in front of his house.

Another neighbor said a little girl could often be seen peering from the attic window of the Castro house.

But neighbor Charles Ramsey, who helped Berry escape, said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that he had lived next to the Castro house and had no inkling there was something wrong.

“Isn’t that scary?” he said. “So either I’m that stupid or his kind are that good.”

Born in Puerto Rico, Ariel Castro played bass in Latin music bands in the area. Records show he was divorced more than a decade ago and his ex-wife had since died. He is known to have at least one adult daughter and son.

(Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta; Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Grant McCool)

The Dolphins, owned by real estate tycoon Stephen Ross,
lobbied the state legislature for months to back a bill to
increase hotel taxes in Miami-Dade County to finance nearly half
of a proposed $350 million renovation of the Sun Life Stadium,
which is privately owned.

But a bill that passed the Florida Senate this week
proposing that the tax increase to 7 percent from 6 percent
stalled in the House of Representatives on Friday, the last day
of this year’s legislative session.

In a statement, Ross blamed House Speaker Will Weatherford,
a Republican, for failing to bring the legislation to the floor
for a vote.

“The Speaker single-handedly put the future of Super Bowls
and other big events at risk for Miami-Dade and for all of
Florida,” he said.

The Dolphins’ failure to win over lawmakers comes as public
scrutiny over publicly financed sports stadiums has heightened.

The issue has proved particularly controversial in Miami,
where the use of taxpayer money to pay three-quarters of the
cost of the new $550 million Miami Marlins baseball stadium has
proved highly unpopular.

After the Marlins’ inaugural season in the stadium last
year, the team’s owner, Jeffrey Loria, sold off many of the
team’s top players, angering fans.

The Dolphins pitched the overhaul of Sun Life Stadium in
suburban north Miami as crucial to securing high-profile
sporting events like the Super Bowl, arguing it would help
create 4,000 jobs and bring hundreds of millions of tourist
dollars to south Florida.

Miami and San Francisco are the finalists to host the 2016
Super Bowl. The Dolphins had hoped lawmakers would approve the
deal before a May 22 meeting where National Football League
officials are expected to announce which city will be awarded
the championship game.

Sun Life Stadium, where the Dolphins have played for 26
years, is one of the older stadiums in the NFL.

In a last-ditch effort to build lawmaker support for the
bill, the Dolphins asked Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino and
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to meet with lawmakers this week.

As part of an agreement with officials, Ross pledged to pay
$5 million to hold a voter referendum on whether state tax money
should be used to fund the stadium renovation. He also vowed to
keep the team in Miami for the next 30 years.

The referendum was scheduled to be held on May 14, but
Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said in a statement the
vote would now be canceled.

(Reporting by Kevin Gray; Additional reporting by Zachary
Fagenson; Editing by Eric Beech)