Three young woman kidnapped ten years ago found alive

[Nancy]

i don't know if you've been following this story but for the past ten years our city has been looking for and holding vigils for two young girls 14 & 16 who were kidnapped a year apart from the same part of town.

Their parents never gave up, you can still see fliers posted on telephone poles and store windows all throughout the city, faded but still there. Every anniversary, birthday, holiday the families held vigils and prayed and the community searched and prayed with them.

And then Monday they were found, along with another young woman no one knew was kidnapped.

This all happened within a mile of where I grew up and the girls were kidnapped just several blocks from where difficult child lives now.

These parents never gave up, they never accepted the fact that they could be dead. They always knew they would be found.

We celebrate with those families today and are reminded that there are miracles that happen every day.

So fellow SA mom's and dad's don't give up, never give up!

 

[kennedyland]

Um..........dad's don't give up either.

 

[Nancy]

I'm sorry K I didn't mean to exclude you, of course Dad's don't. In fact I'm watching one of the girls' dad's right now hugging the police captain who helped kept this sotry alive for ten years. He is a rock!

 

[dashcat]

Nancy,
I knew you'd be following this. Amazing. I cannot imagine what these girls have been through. It's heartbreaking that Amanda's mom did not live to see this day.
Dash

 

[InsaneCdn]

This is international news... husband told me about it yesterday.
At least there is a future...

What about the 6yo?

 

[Mattsmom277]

It is such a sad story, with a supposedly happy ending. At least yes, they are alive. I worry for all of them though moving forward. This is unimaginable. It is now coming out that Gina and Michelle were unwilling to escape with Amanda and they are saying they were broken/brainwashed. Michelle apparently was pregnant five times, each time losing the child after severe beatings. She has serious facial injuries and massive hearing loss. I simply can't fathom their experience.

The 6 year old, gosh I hope that baby wasn't physically harmed. But sometimes that is easier to overcome than psychological things. Her mother Amanda apparently snuck to homeschool her little girl behind her captors back. What a resilient spirit. Even the two who were "broke" completely by this monster, they survived. I hope that they get intense support in transitioning back to their lives and that the media will back off to give them much needed privacy and space to adapt to being free.

 

[Nancy]

I don't know who is reporting that about Michelle but there has been absolutely no mention of any physical injuries to Michelle other than her miscarriages. We have reporters that have been covering this story for ten years now and none of them are reporting any of that. She has some mental disabilities that she has had previously and there is a lot of dysfunction in her family and she lost her child to cps because of something her mother's boyfriend did years ago and that is why she left her home and everyone assumed she was a runaway and therefore didn't look for her as much as the other two.

We are a very protective community especially to these young woen. We will make sure they have all the rpivacy they need. As a matter of fact today when the FBI asked the reporters to stay across the street when they came home all our local reporters did so and all the out of town reporters rushed in when the sister came out to give an update. The local reporters were very upset that they did not respect her boundaries.

 

[DDD]

I've been thinking of you and your difficult child ever since this story came to light. This is evidence that no matter how much stress our difficult child's cause......it can be worse MUCH worse. Truly it is a heartbreaking tale and it has made me wonder which, if any, of my daughters would have survived AND reached out when the opportunity arose. I have four grown daughters and only one "might" have taken action. I have five granddaughters...and "maybe" one of them would have taken assertive action when under the control of a sick man. Would I have been strong enough if I were to be in Amanda's shoes? Surprisingly I doubt it even though I am assertive and aggresive when need be. The whole story is mindboggling.

Each news report, Nancy, I have wondered if that neighborhood was near your difficult child. Somehow, by some miracle, I hope and pray that the survivors will not only survive but will be able flourish in the future. DDD

 

[Mattsmom277]

The sad updates about some injuries to Michelle are all over news outlets. If you go to google news and type in cleveland, her name and hearing loss you will get the articles.

 

[tiredmommy]

While I feel horrible for all the victims and their families, my heart breaks for Michelle Knight. I can't imagine losing custody of my child, being kidnapped, repeatedly raped and impregnated only to be forced to miscarry through beatings. And then, to be freed only to find out that many people didn't believe she was kidnapped and she was... forgotten. I weep for her and pray she comes through this somehow.

 

[Nancy]

Honestly mattsmom I would seriously question those reports, they are not coming from the reputable news agencies.

DDD this is so close to home, literally. I passed that street every day on my way to high school. I grew up very near there. My difficult child would have taken a ride from him in a minute because he was their bus driver and the one girl was best friends with his daughter. My dad use to take difficult child to the McDonald's that he was arrested at all the time when she was young. It's a different world there. Many people don't have cars, they get rides from people all the time, they trust others in the neighborhood. I don't know if I could have been that strong either, what incredible spirits. I don't know if I could have kept faith like their parents did.

difficult child went to the homecoming of the one girl today. I saw her on TV. At first I was shocked and then it dawned on me that she is very much like those girls and I could see why she would want to go.

 

[svengandhi]

My theory is that Amanda was stronger because she had a child to protect. I wonder if she feared what Castro might do to the little girl and was looking for her way out.

I read an amazing book recently called "Door." It's the story of a woman who was kidnapped and her young son who live in a room behind a door. I thought of it when I heard this story.

Nancy - It must be so creepy for you to have such close ties. I remember when they caught Son of Sam and it turned out he was in gym class with my then boyfriend in HS and at one time had lived across the street from my best friend.

 

[Mattsmom277]

I do hope the media reports on her injuries are false. They seem wide spread (the reports) but then again, lately it is more than ever apparent the media gets it wrong fairly often. I really feel for all of the three women and that little girl. It is beyond words. I can't imagine it in my own community, my own backyard. Closest I can say I've been to such travesty was a killer lived in our basement apartment, but he'd moved out about two years before he killed his common law wifes girl. I used to play with the daughter of his previous live in g/f and be in the house with him all the time. My mother helped hide the location of that woman and her daughter when they fled cross country while he was at work when it was discovered he wasn't only beating his girlfriend, but sexually abusing his daughter. After he moved, then went on to commit such a horrible crime. I cannot imagine though what these young women face in the coming days and months and years. I will keep praying for their ongoing healing and that they can find a life in the future to bring them joy.

 

[dashcat]

Yes, this is international news ... but to Nancy and me and to all true-blue Clevelanders, it is a story that is very close to our hearts. The local news people never gave up on Amanda nad Gina, and they would never have given up on Michelle, had they known. If you want a taste of the Clevleand perspective, read this:
http://www.cleveland.com/brett/blog/index.ssf/2013/05/regina_brett_2.html#incart_river
from local (one of my heroes) columnist and author, Regina Brett.

also check out this story of a local news reporter who promised Amanda Berry's mom he would wear a shirt and tie she game him (before she died) WHEN her daughter was found. He wore it Tuesday.

This story chills me to the bone. I pray for all these girls and their families. Like many of you, I've shed a few extra tears for Michelle.

Dash

 

[Nancy]

Thanks dash. There is also a reporter who became very close to Gina's family over the years and she would go to all the rallies and vigils and just call to check on them. Yesterday when the family went back inside after their news conference they requested that this reporter come into their home and talk to them and meet Gina. That is how close some of these reporters and the community has become to this story and these families.

If you watch the coverage of the area both where those girls were kidnapped and the house they were held in and the areas many of them still live, this is where I grew up. I worked very hard to get out of that area because of the crime and poverty but now my difficult child is there right in the middle of it. What makes me very sad is so many of those people never leave there, they can't get away from the poverty that holds them there and subjects them to the crime element. Sadly I see my difficult child one of those who will never escape as much as husband and I tried to give her the opportunities that would make that possible. I hate that she's there.

If you had asked me where the past place I would ever want to see my kids live it would have been there, the sad memories watching the people just try to exist were overwhelming it was hard for me to even drive through there.

 

[dashcat]

I know that area, Nancy. I can imagine it must make you feel terrible that your difficult child has chosen to live there. Those poor girls and their families.

 

[Nancy]

I just found out today that he was arrested on the street I grew up on and his brother was arrested two streets over where my best friend lived...ugh!

 

[toughlovin]

Oh Nancy I am thinking about you as I listen to the news reports of the stories....it is just a horrible story and so darned heartbreaking what these girls went through....and it is wonderful they escaped and speaks to Amandas strength. I think it is so much harder when it hits so close to home, it feels so much more real and so much more personal. I felt that way with the bombers in Boston....

When tragedies like this hit I am struck with the thought that things could be so much worse... I dont know how I would handle it if my difficult child committed some horrific crime!

*TL

 

[recoveringenabler]

I feel for you Nancy. I live in the next town to where Polly Klaas lived and was abducted years ago. A good friend of mine spoke at her funeral service. It gripped this whole area for a long time..........I think when it's so close to home like that it sort of envelops everyone in all the emotions and somehow makes it even more real. My heart just breaks for those women. I just don't know how people survive some of these tragedies........

 

[HaoZi]

I live near where the kidnapper's daughter was arrested for trying to kill her 11 month old baby shortly after we moved here. *shudder* Not the same county, but same area of the state.