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One year after their release, two of Ariel Castro's victims were honored yesterday with the Hope Award from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, two books are in the works recounting their ordeal.
The first book slated to be released, Finding Me due out next week, are the memoirs of first victim, Michelle Knight. The second, as of yet untitled and slated for release only next year, is the collaborative effort of second and third victim Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus as well as Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mary Jordan of The Washington Post, another native of Cleveland.
Ariel Castro was a bus driver for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and had a history of domestic abuse charges against his former wife, Grimilda Figueroa. His first recorded kidnapping was of Knight, then a 21 year-old mother of one, who was taken leaving her cousin's house in August of 2002. His second victim, Amanda Berry, followed in April of 2003, taken shortly before her 17th birthday. The third, Gina DeJesus, was taken in April, 2004. She was 14 at the time of her abduction. None of the three girls would be freed until Amanda Berry's escape and Ariel Castro's subsequent arrest in 2013.
They would suffer the next decade in continuous sexual and physical abuse, with Knight enduring at least five miscarriages induced by beatings and starvation and Berry gave birth to Castro's child Jocelyn in 2006 while still in captivity, aided by Knight's life-saving efforts.
One day in May, 2013, Castro forgot to lock the inside door, though the outer door remained locked. Berry screamed for assistance until neighbors Angel Cordero and Charles Ramsey responded and aided in her escape together with her then six year-old daughter.
In the ensuing trial, Castro plead guilty to 937 charges including kidnapping, rape and murder of the unborn children of Knight, all in apparent effort to escape the death penalty. He was sentenced to in excess of 1000 years in prison. During sentencing, Castro made claims that he was not a sexual predator, nor a murderer and that he did not victimize the three women. In September of last year, Castro was found dead in his prison cell of apparent suicide by hanging.
Knight's book not only delves into a detailed account of her torture and rape, described as vaginal, oral and anal according to the police officers involved in the case, but also the immediate consequences of her captivity. She was engaged in bitter custody battle at the time of her abduction, and was in fact due to appear in court regarding the matter the next day. During her absence, Knight's family gave her son up for adoption and due to the events that transpired, the adopted parents have reportedly made it clear the boy, now 14, will never learn the true identity of his mother.
The exact contents of the still untitled book by Berry, DeJesus and Jordan remains unknown.
Due to their young age when they were abducted, Berry and DeJesus were also awarded yesterday with the Hope Award in support of their ordeal and for "giving hope to families still searching for their missing children" according to a press release from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Both Berry and DeJesus have spoken out about the past year being a healing process and thanked the public for their support, with Knight even going so far as to express her forgiveness to Castro.
