6 chilling revelations from the Cleveland kidnapping ordeal

As details trickle out, the decade of captivity looks predictably awful for Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight

Sheriff deputies stand outside the Cleveland house where the three women were found.
(Image credit: AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Monday evening's escape/rescue of three abducted Cleveland women, after a decade of captivity, was a too-rare happy ending to three missing-persons cases. The young women — Georgina (Gina) DeJesus, 23, Michelle Knight, 32, and Amanda Berry, 27, plus Berry's 6-year-old daughter — were released from the hospital to their joyous families on Tuesday. "This is not the ending we all thought it would be," said CNN correspondent Martin Savidge. "We know, as reporters, it usually does not turn out this way. And we're thrilled that we're wrong."

"But this is not the ending," says Emily Bazelon at Slate, "and surely little other than the escape will seem happy once the facts begin to flow. That's already clear from the frantic tone of Amanda Berry's voice when she called 911." Police say they're taking it slow with the rescued women, and meticulously searching the home of the lead suspect, Ariel Castro, 52, who was arrested Monday along with brothers Pedro, 54, and Onil, 50.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.