Monday, May 6, 2013

FOXNews.com: FOUND ALIVE:3 Ohio Teens Missing for Decade Found in Home

FOXNews.com
FOX News Channel - We Report. You Decide. // via fulltextrssfeed.com
FOUND ALIVE:3 Ohio Teens Missing for Decade Found in Home
May 7th 2013, 02:33

  • Missing Women Found.jpg

    March 3, 2004: In this file photo, Felix DeJesus holds a banner showing his daughter's photograph by a memorial in his living room in Cleveland.AP

CLEVELAND –  An unnamed 52-year-old man is in custody and three women who disappeared about a decade ago were found alive Monday in a residential area just south of downtown, within a few miles of where they disappeared.

Police described the suspect only as a Hispanic male but said they planned to provide more information at a news conference Tuesday.

Cheering crowds gathered Monday night on the street near the home where police said Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and a third woman were found earlier in the day. The identity of the third woman hadn't been confirmed, but Fox 8 and other local media identified her as Michele Knight.

Police didn't immediately provide any details of how the women were found or what conditions they were in. One neighbor told Fox 8 he heard screaming, found Berry at the door of the house and helped her call police.

Berry disappeared at age 16 on April 21, 2003, when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at a Burger King. DeJesus disappeared at age 14 on her way home from school about a year later. The Plain Dealer newspaper reports Knight had been missing since 2002.

Loved ones said they hadn't given up hope of seeing Berry and DeJesus again. Among them was Kayla Rogers, a childhood friend of DeJesus.

"I've been praying, never forgot about her, ever," Rogers told The Plain Dealer. "This is amazing. This is a celebration. I'm so happy. I just want to see her walk out of those doors so I can hug her."

Berry's cousin Tasheena Mitchell told the newspaper she couldn't wait to have Berry in her arms.

"I'm going to hold her, and I'm going to squeeze her and I probably won't let her go," she said.

In January, a prison inmate was sentenced to 4 1/2 years after admitting he provided a false burial tip in the disappearance of Berry, who had last been seen the day before her 17th birthday. A judge in Cleveland sentenced Robert Wolford on his guilty plea to obstruction of justice, making a false report and making a false alarm.

Last summer, Wolford tipped authorities to look for Berry's remains in a Cleveland lot. He was taken to the location, which was dug up with backhoes.

Berry's mother, Louwana Miller, who had been hospitalized for months with pancreatitis and other ailments, died in March 2006. She had spent the previous three years looking for her daughter, whose disappearance took a toll as her health steadily deteriorated, family and friends said.

Two men arrested for questioning in the disappearance of DeJesus in 2004 were released from the city jail in 2006 after officers did not find her body during a search of the men's house.

One of the men was transferred to the Cuyahoga County Jail on unrelated charges, while the other was allowed to go free, police said.

In September 2006, police acting on a tip tore up the concrete floor of the garage and used a cadaver dog to search unsuccessfully for DeJesus' body. Investigators confiscated 19 pieces of evidence during their search but declined to comment on the significance of the items then.

No Amber Alert was issued the day DeJesus failed to return home from school in April 2004 because no one witnessed her abduction. The lack of an Amber Alert angered her father, Felix DeJesus, who said in 2006 he believed the public will listen even if the alerts become routine.

"The Amber Alert should work for any missing child," Felix DeJesus said then. "It doesn't have to be an abduction. Whether it's an abduction or a runaway, a child needs to be found. We need to change this law."

Cleveland police said then that the alerts must be reserved for cases in which danger is imminent and the public can be of help in locating the suspect and child.

Click for more coverage from Fox 8 in Cleveland.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com.

If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

0 comments:

Post a Comment

 
Great HTML Templates from easytemplates.com.