Ohio captive: Suspect punched me in stomach until I miscarried

CLEVELAND (CNN) -- One of three women held captive in a Cleveland home said she was pregnant at least five times but was starved and punched until she eventually miscarried, according to an initial incident report obtained by CNN.

During initial conversations with police immediately after she was freed, Michelle Knight said that when Ariel Castro found out she was pregnant, "Ariel would make her abort the baby," the document states.

As Castro prepares to make his first court appearance Thursday, accusations of what he did to the three young women trapped in his home for a decade get more and more abhorrent.

Knight "stated that he starved her for at least 2 weeks, then he repeatedly punched her in the stomach until she miscarried," the initial police report states.

But when another captive, was pregnant, the situation was different.

When Amanda Berry went into labor, Castro ordered Knight to deliver the child, according to a police source familiar with the investigation.

The baby was delivered in a plastic tub or pool in order to contain the afterbirth and amniotic fluid.

But once the baby was born, panic ensued. The child stopped breathing, and everyone started screaming, the source said, citing the interviews.

Castro allegedly threatened to kill Knight if that baby did not survive, the initial police report states.

The latest accounts stunned both authorities and the public.

"What's most incredible here is that this girl who knows nothing about childbirth was able to deliver a baby that is now a healthy 6-year-old," the source said.

A decade-long nightmare

The three women spent their days and nights captive in a 1,400-square-foot home in one of Cleveland's oldest neighborhoods. They went outside only twice -- and just "briefly" at that -- Cleveland public safety director Martin Flask said.

More often, the three would be in different rooms, though they interacted occasionally and came to "rely on each other for survival," said a law enforcement source with direct knowledge of the investigation.

One thing they could count on was that their alleged captor would never let them out.

Castro would often test the young women -- Berry, Knight and Georgina "Gina" DeJesus -- by pretending to leave, the law enforcement source said. Then he'd return suddenly; if there were indications any of the women had moved, they'd be disciplined.

Years went by.

In that time, the women saw their parents on television at vigils held for them, according to the law enforcement source. They got emotional, knowing their loved ones were looking for them.

And in time, Knight and DeJesus "succumbed" to "their reality," the law enforcement source said.

But "something must have clicked" for Berry on Monday evening, and the 27-year-old staged a daring escape, Cleveland Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba said.

With the help of Castro's neighbors Charles Ramsey and Angel Cordero, Berry freed herself, her 6-year-old daughter and the two other women.

The three women found in his home are back with family -- the same relatives who cried and struggled but, for the most part, never gave up hope.

"I knew my daughter was out there alive," said Felix DeJesus, Gina's father, moments after she arrived Wednesday afternoon at a family home in Cleveland. "I knew she needed me, and I never gave up."

Castro, meanwhile, is behind bars. He'll be arraigned Thursday morning on four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape, said Victor Perez, chief assistant prosecutor for the city of Cleveland.

How the ordeal started

Knight was 21 on August 22, 2002, when Castro lured her into his vehicle along Cleveland's Lorain Avenue, according to charging documents. Castro took her back to his home on Seymour Avenue, about three miles away, and didn't let her go.

In that time, Knight was sexually assaulted repeatedly, the documents state. But soon, she wasn't alone.

The next year -- on April 21, 2003, the eve of her 17th birthday -- Berry experienced the same nightmare scenario. While walking home from her job at Burger King that night, she too took a ride from Castro on Lorain Avenue.

Almost exactly a year later, they were joined by DeJesus, then all of 14 years old.

They remained in that hell until Monday evening, when Berry screamed for help. Hearing her cries, Ramsey and Cordero kicked in a door to help her escape.

According to Cordero, Berry's daughter ran out of the house too, wearing only a diaper and a sullied shirt. Police are conducting a DNA test to determine the child's paternity.

"Help me, I am Amanda Berry," she begged a 911 operator from Ramsey's house. "I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years. And I'm here, I'm free now."

Cleveland police Chief Michael McGrath told NBC's "Today" show that the women were bound and that there were "chains and ropes in the home."

There were no apparent constraints Monday, the law enforcement source with firsthand knowledge of the investigation said. Yet Knight and DeJesus didn't run out of the house with Berry although they could have, the source said, describing them as brainwashed and fearful.

He 'kept everybody at a distance'

So how did this all happen in an urban neighborhood? Did Castro, a former school bus driver and upbeat and "outgoing" musician, according to one bandmate, keep such a secret from not only his neighbors but his family, as police allege?

Soon after the three women were found, Castro and two of his brothers who were with him were taken into custody.

Over the next two days, authorities "found no facts to link" Onil and Pedro Castro to the kidnappings -- though both brothers will appear in Cleveland Municipal Court on Thursday for outstanding warrants on misdemeanor cases on other matters.

"Ariel kept everybody at a distance," Tomba said of the suspect, explaining why even his brothers and other family members apparently were in the dark. (Castro talked on Facebook about having five grandchildren.)

Castro has been talking to investigators since Tuesday, as have the three young women police say he kidnapped and raped.

After those conversations, Tomba said he doesn't believe there are other victims -- including Ashley Summers, who was 14 when she went missing in the same part of Cleveland in 2007 -- or anyone other than Castro involved.

And since Monday, law enforcement personnel have combed through Castro's Seymour Avenue home -- which Tomba said was in "disarray" when officers first went in -- and removed more than 200 items that they hope will let them piece together what happened.

Additionally, FBI agents searched a boarded-up home two doors down after obtaining information over the past few days tying that building to the case, the deputy police chief said.

Second-guessing

As they investigate, authorities are facing second-guessing as to whether any of this could have been prevented. Some comes from neighbors who say they contacted police about suspicious activity on Castro's property such as reports of screaming and naked women in his backyard. Authorities say they never got any such calls.

In fact, police say they had only been to Castro's house twice, once after he called about a fight on his street and in 2004 to investigate an incident in which he was accused of leaving a child alone on a bus. No one answered at the home, and investigators later interviewed him elsewhere, police said.

And according to court documents from 2005, Castro's former common-law wife accused him of repeatedly abusing her, including breaking her nose twice, breaking two ribs, dislocating her shoulder twice and knocking out a tooth. A judge granted a protection order but lifted it three months later.

Tomba, for one, said he doesn't think authorities dropped the ball.

"I'm just very, very confident (that) law enforcement officers ... checked every single lead, and if there was one bit of evidence (they would have) followed it up very, very aggressively," he said.

"In hindsight, we may find out that maybe we did, but that's going to be in hindsight."




CNN's Pamela Brown reported from Cleveland, and CNN's Matt Smith and Holly Yan reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Greg Botelho, Zoraida Sambolin, Poppy Harlow, Ed Payne, Brian Todd, Rose Arce, Tory Dunnan, Martin Savidge, Laura Ly and Rande Iaboni contributed to this report.