Frantic 911 Call Reveals ‘Three Girls Kidnapped Nearly a Decade Ago’

A miraculous discovery was made yesterday, as three girls who had been kidnapped and held for nearly a decade were all found alive in a house in Cleveland, OH. Amanda Berry (left) disappeared at age 16 on April 21, 2003, on her way home from her job at Burger King. Gina DeJesus (right) vanished at age 14 on her way home from school, about a year after Berry’s disappearance. Michelle Knight was also found in the house; she had disappeared in 2002 at age 20 and is 32 now. They were found just a few miles from where they had vanished.

It was late Monday night when neighbor, Anna Tejeda, was sitting on her porch with friends when they heard someone across the street kicking a door and yelling. Tejeda and one of her friends, Charles Ramsey, went over to investigate (video interview here). When they came upon the house, Ramsey said that the female inside was “going nuts on the door,” trying to open it. The girl was screaming, “Help me get out…We been in here for a long time.” Ramsey looked and saw that the door was locked and there was a small hole big enough to reach a hand through to grab the mail. 

At first Tejeda said she didn't believe who the young woman was Amanda Berry, "Amanda Berry is dead,” Tejeda told her. But the young girl insisted, saying, “I'm Amanda Berry. I've been on the news for the last 10 years.” She said she had been taken by someone and begged for police officers to come to the home on Cleveland's west side before the man returned.

Tejeda then gave her the telephone to call police. “Help me. I'm Amanda Berry,” she told a 911 dispatcher in a frantic voice. “I've been kidnapped and I've been missing for 10 years and I'm, I'm here, I'm free now.” Police arrived within minutes and then took the other women from the house. Authorities later arrested three brothers. One of them, Ariel Castro, aged 52 and a former school bus driver for Cleveland schools, owned the home. His brothers were identified as Onil Castro, 50, and Pedro Castro, 54. Police Chief, Michael McGrath, said he thinks Berry, DeJesus and Knight were held in the house since they were in their teens. 

A 6-year-old also was found in the home, and Cleveland police Deputy Chief Ed Tomba said Tuesday that the girl is believed to be Berry's daughter. He declined to say who the father was or where the child was born. The women appeared to be in good health, according to police. But Mr. Ramsey emphatically disagreed with that assessment, claiming that they looked like they were severely suffering from malnutrition. The girls were taken to a hospital to be evaluated and reunited with relatives. They were released to their families early this morning. Police said they were trying to be delicate in their questioning of the women, given the trauma they endured and that they want to give the women time to recover before debriefing them.

Police are actively seeking clues in the home, and the house will remain an active crime scene for several days. Police are expected to charge the men soon.

The Shane Todd Case: An International Corporate Conspiracy

Back in June of 2012, Montana native, Shane Todd [31], was found dead in his apartment in the Southeast Asian city-state of Singapore. Police ruled the death a suicide, reporting that Todd had concocted an elaborate pulley system involving a series of ropes and screws in the bathroom wall where he hung himself. Shane’s parents, Rick and Mary Todd; however, believe something very different happened to their son: they believe he was murdered. Shane Todd moved to Singapore for work; he was an engineer working for a top technology firm, Institute of Microelectronics (IME), in the island nation. Just before his death, Shane resigned from his position from IME's research department and made preparations to move back to the United States. Shane told his parents that he resigned from the tech company because his work on superconductors for IME might have been passed to China’s Huawei Corporation, for use in systems that could involve jamming U.S. radar.

Then Shane told his mother something that no mother ever wants to hear; a hint that would subsequently come to pass: “Mom, if you don’t hear from me then call the American Embassy. I feel like my life is being threatened.” After Shane’s death, his parents went to his Singapore apartment and saw that something just didn’t add up. “I saw no screws in the walls, no ropes, no pulley,” Shane’s father told ABC News. Also, the alleged suicide note, which the police said they found on his computer, was impersonal and not in Shane Todd’s tone, according to his brother, Dylan. Moreover, Shane’s parents later had a U.S. pathologist examine his body and found bruise marks that indicated their son died after a struggle, which included bruises on his hands, indicating that he may have had a fight prior to his death. Todd’s parents also found a backup hard drive that they say contained evidence that suggests their son might have been inadvertently caught up in a plot to transfer sensitive technology to China.

IME shot down the Todd family’s speculation, of course, telling ABC News in a statement that neither IME nor Todd was involved in any classified research project working with China, and that they deeply grieve his loss. Under Singapore law, a coroner's inquiry is needed for deaths that are not a result of illness. Singapore Minister of Foreign Affairs K. Shanmugam said Singapore police would share with the FBI evidence they had been withholding. Shanmugam also said IME would be open to a U.S. audit of its activities, and that no unauthorized technology transfers occurred at any point, and that U.S. officials are welcome to inspect records he said would prove it. The announcements came after meetings with Secretary of State John Kerry March 12, 2013. Shanmugan also met with Montana Sen. Max Baucus (pictured above), a Democrat, who along with that state's other senator, Jon Tester, also a Democrat, has been pushing for U.S. investigators to take the lead in reviewing the case. In a news conference before the meeting, Baucus said progress on the case has been slow, and that he’d press the foreign minister to allow the FBI full access to the evidence in the case.