Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Report: Cleveland captives starved, raped; baby delivered in pool

A girl adds a balloon outside the home of Gina DeJesus Thursday, May 9, 2013, in Cleveland. Ariel Castro, the man accused of raping and kidnapping DeJesus and 2 other women, who were missing for about a decade before being found alive at his home, was ordered held Thursday on $8 million bail. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
A girl adds a balloon outside the home of Gina DeJesus Thursday, May 9, 2013, in Cleveland. Ariel Castro, the man accused of raping and kidnapping DeJesus and 2 other women, who were missing for about a decade before being found alive at his home, was ordered held Thursday on $8 million bail. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)Read moreAP

Earlier: Woman forced to miscarry child | Baby born in pool | Victims kept in chains | Girls abducted with offers of rides

The three Cleveland women held captive for a decade were raped, starved and beaten, and the child of one of the women was delivered in an inflatable pool.

Those details come from the police report filed by the first officers who responded to 27-year-old Amanda Berry's 911 call for help on Monday, according to multiple news organizations that obtained copies of the report.

Berry, 23-year-old Gina DeJesus and 32-year-old Michelle Knight were rescued after Berry escaped from the Cleveland home where they had been in captivity for the past 10 years. All disappeared when they were in their teens or early 20s; the home's owner, 52-year-old Ariel Castro, has been charged in with rape and kidnapping.

Forced miscarriages

During her initial conversations with police, Knight told officers that she had been pregnant at least five times, but when Castro found out, he "would make her abort the baby," the document states, according to CNN.

He starved and punched Knight in the stomach until she miscarried, CNN reports.

Baby delivered in pool

But when Berry became pregnant, Knight was forced to deliver her child in a plastic inflatable pool meant to contain "the mess," WKYC reports.

"Michelle stated that Ariel told her that if the baby died, that he'd kill her," the police report says, according to the television station.

The baby girl stopped breathing during the birth, and Knight put her own mouth to the child's and "breathed for her."

DeJesus told police she didn't think she ever became pregnant.

Kept in chains

The women were kept chained in the home's basement for the beginning of their captivity, but they were eventually allowed on the second floor of the house, WKYC and the Cleveland Plain Dealer report, citing the police document.

According to WKYC, the women were only allowed outside in the home's backyard, and "had to wear wigs and sunglasses and keep their heads down."

The abductions

The report also says that all three women were abducted the same way -- an offer of a ride home, according to the Plain Dealer.

Castro lured Berry by saying he had a son who, like Berry, worked at Burger King offered her a ride home in April 2003, the newspaper reports.. DeJesus told police that she was friends with Castro's daughter and he told her he would give her a ride to see his daughter in April 2004. Knight was offered a ride when she was abducted.