Child in Cleveland Home Is Captive's Daughter: Cops

Press conference also reveals suspect once left child on a bus
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted May 7, 2013 8:57 AM CDT
Child in Cleveland Home Is Captive's Daughter: Cops
Sheriff deputies stand outside a house in Cleveland Tuesday, May 7, 2013, the day after three women who vanished a decade ago were found there.   (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Cleveland officials held a press conference today about the case of the three women found alive after a decade of apparent captivity, even as Mayor Frank Jackson admitted that there were "several unanswered questions: why were they taken, how were they taken, and how [did] they remain undetected in the city of Cleveland?" Perhaps the most interesting bit they revealed: The 6-year-old girl who escaped with Amanda Berry is believed to be her daughter, deputy police chief Ed Tomba said.

Other tidbits:

  • Police visited Ariel Castro's home once in 2004 to investigate an incident in which he left a child on a bus he was driving. Police determined that there was no "criminal intent" in the incident. "He was interviewed extensively relative to this complaint," Tomba assured reporters.
  • FBI special agent Steve Anthony emphasized how much law enforcement had worked with the families of the missing girls over the years. "Words can't describe the emotions being felt by all," he said. "Yes, law enforcement professionals do cry."
  • Cleveland Director of Public Safety Martin Flash boasted that a car was dispatched 16 seconds after the 911 call came in, and arrived at the home two minutes and 18 seconds later.
  • Tomba admitted that Michelle Knight was the "focus of very few tips and leads that we got. Most of the media and most of the community awareness was focused on the two young ladies." Knight disappeared in 2002 at age 20.
(More Amanda Berry stories.)

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