Ariel Castro kidnappings
21st-century kidnappings
Between 2002 and 2004, Ariel Castro abducted Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus from the roads of Cleveland, Ohio, United States, and later held them captive in his home at 2207 Seymour Avenue in the city's Tremont neighborhood. All three young women were imprisoned at Castro's home until 2013, when Berry successfully escaped with her six-year-old daughter, to whom she had given birth while captive. Neighbors Charles Ramsey and Angel Cordero helped Amanda Berry escape from a Cleveland house on May 6, 2013, after she cried for help from a locked door. Ramsey and Cordero assisted her and her young daughter in breaking through the door, and Ramsey provided a phone to call 911. Police arrested Castro a few hours later.
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 imprisonment plus 1,000 years in prison without the possibility of parole. One month into his life sentence, Castro died by suicide by hanging himself with bedsheets in his prison cell.
Kidnapper background
Ariel Castro (July 10, 1960 – September 3, 2013) was born in Duey, Yauco, Puerto Rico, to Pedro Castro and Lillian Rodriguez.
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