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| FILE - In this Friday, March 3, 2004 file photos shows Felix DeJesus, holding a banner showing his daughter's photograph, standing by a memorial in his living room in Cleveland. Cleveland police say two women who went missing as teenagers about a decade ago have been found alive in a residential area about two miles south of downtown. Cheering crowds gathered Monday night on the street near the home where police say Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and a third woman were found earlier in the day. The identity of the third woman hasn't been confirmed. |
CLEVELAND
(AP) -- Three women who went missing about a decade ago, when they were
in their teens or early 20s, were found alive Monday in a residential
area just south of downtown, and a man was arrested.
Cheering
crowds gathered Monday night on the street near the home where police
said Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight were found earlier in
the day.
Police didn't immediately provide
any details of how the women were found but said they appeared to be in
good health and had been taken to a hospital for evaluation.
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
went missing at age 14 on her way home from school about a year later.
They were found just a few miles from where they had gone missing.
Police said Knight was 20 when she went missing around 2000.
Police said a 52-year-old man was arrested. There was no immediate word on charges.
Loved ones said they hadn't given up hope of seeing the women 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 newspaper. "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.
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.
Mayor Frank Jackson expressed gratitude that the three women were found alive.
"We have many unanswered questions regarding this case, and the investigation will be ongoing," he said in a statement.
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.
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.
