Courtesy of Cuyahoga County

Cleveland kidnapping suspect Ariel Castro in a booking photo, May 8, 2013.

An Ohio prosecutor who on Thursday pledged to seek murder charges against the Cleveland kidnapping suspect for allegedly pummeling the pregnant stomach of one of his reported victims — causing her to frequently miscarry — may ultimately struggle to prove the blows led to those fetuses' deaths, said one former federal prosecutor.

To secure a guilty verdict for fetal homicide, prosecutors typically have to show that a killer clearly meant to murder the unborn baby by assaulting the mother in a way that would trigger an early end to the pregnancy.

But proving intent is not the challenge facing the prosecutor in Cuyahoga County, said Heidi Rummel, a law professor at the University of Southern California. 

"The hardest part, I imagine, would be proving causation — you have to show the actions actually caused the death. And years after the fact that might be somewhat of a challenge," added Rummel, a former federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C. and in Los Angeles. "We don't know how far along (the victim) was. It's hard to know for sure if it was a miscarriage or not. But the intent seems pretty clear based on the facts I've read." 

Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy McGinty has vowed to seek charges against suspect Ariel Castro for each act of sexual violence, rape, kidnapping, assault and “each act of aggravated murder he committed by terminating pregnancies that the offender perpetuated against the hostages during this decade-long ordeal.”

Castro already is charged with four counts of kidnapping — three for the women he is accused of abducting and one for a baby that one of the women bore in captivity. One of the three women, Michelle Knight, has told investigators that Castro impregnated her at least five times, and that he starved her and punched her repeatedly in the stomach to force her to miscarry, according to a Cleveland police report.

McGinty specifically cited a provision of Ohio law that defines it as aggravated murder when someone causes, “with prior calculation and design,” the unlawful termination of another person’s pregnancy.

“This child kidnapper operated a torture chamber and private prison in the heart of our city,” McGinty said. “The horrific brutality and torture that the victims endured for a decade is beyond comprehension.”

McGinty's decision falls in line with fetal homicide laws on the books in at least 38 states.

The penalties for killing unborn babies via assaults on the mother vary depending on the location of the crime: in Kansas, any unborn fetus is considered a human following fertilization; in Colorado, offenders can be prosecuted only if they are shown to have known that the mother was pregnant, reports the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The case in Ohio is unique, but the issue of charging someone with murder for killing an unborn baby has been colored by the abortion rights debate.

Anti-abortion groups have pushed for laws declaring any fetus to be an unborn human. However, supporters of abortion rights argue that such law would not only make the procedure illegal, but they could make also it possible to prosecute pregnant women for endangering their babies in a variety of ways — and could even put them on trial after suffering a miscarriage.

Rummel, meanwhile, also has handled the cases of many incarcerated women in California who, she said, were convicted of crimes that stemmed from abusive relationships. Some of those woman later told her that their husbands or boyfriends routinely punched or kicked them in their stomachs after they became pregnant. 

"It's not an unusual story in intimate-partner battering situations that men do this," Rummel said. "When an intimate partner does it, you never hear about it. But when a stranger does it, the whole county is in a uproar. It's tragic whenever it happens."

NBC News

Classmates and best friends, from left, Kayla Rogers, Gina DeJesus and Arlene Castro, who were classmates at Wilbur Wright Middle School in 2004.

The three girls were "like Three Musketeers" in sixth grade. Now, the father of one of them, Ariel Castro, has been charged with kidnapping one of the other "musketeers" and holding her captive for a decade with two other women, and raping all three, in a westside Cleveland home. The women were rescued on Monday.

Friends Kayla Rogers, Arlene Castro and Georgina "Gina" DeJesus attended Wilbur Wright Middle School in Cleveland together. In their sixth-grade yearbook they are pictured pages apart, with the smiles of young teenagers.

John Makely / NBC News

Leonard Allmon looks on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, as his daughter Kayla Rogers flips through the pages of her Wilbur Wright Middle School yearbook to show photos of her best friends Arlene Castro and Gina DeJesus. "It could have been my daughter. It could have been my daughter because they all used to walk home together," said Allmon.

"They were the best of the best of the best of friends," said Lupe Collins, whose daughter Jackie, 22, was also friends with the girls. She called Arlene "Ariana."

"Kayla and Ariana and Georgina, they were tight, they were like three musketeers," Collins said. "They wouldn't leave each other's sight."

Kayla met Gina in elementary school, and they both met Arlene in middle school. The girls realized they all hung out in the same neighborhood around the DeJesus home on West 71st Street. That home was ringed by squad cars and police tape on Wednesday afternoon as family members and close friends gathered. Dozens of balloons decorated the house's front porch, and a banner on the side of the house proclaimed: "Welcome Home Gina!" as the kidnap victim returned to the world she'd left behind nearly 10 years ago.

Arlene Castro and Gina DeJesus were "pretty close," said Lupe's daughter, the girls' friend Jackie Collins, 22. They spent most of their time together doing "normal middle-school things," she said.

Yet much about why DeJesus, who along with two other women -- Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight -- might have been targeted to be kidnapped and held in a house on Seymour Avenue remained unclear two days after their escape.

John Makely / NBC News

Gina DeJesus in a yearbook photo on which her friend Kayla Rogers wrote "I love you" after Gina went missing.

Arlene Castro was interviewed for an "America's Most Wanted" video in 2005 in which she said she called her mom to say she had been invited to the DeJesus house on the afternoon the girl disappeared. Castro's mother -- separated from Ariel Castro and living with Arlene elsewhere -- said she could not go. The video also mentions the disappearance of Amanda Berry, who vanished only blocks away.

"And so I told her I couldn't, and she said, 'Well, OK, I'll talk to you later,'" Castro says in the video. DeJesus wasn't heard from again for 10 years.

Going to DeJesus' house after school would not have been unusual, their friend and  fellow "musketeer" Kayla Rogers, 22, told NBC News. She had spent plenty of time hanging out in the neighborhood with the two other girls. Rogers' father, Leonard Allmon, remembers the girls as happy-go-lucky teens -- and said that the tragedy struck so close to his daughter still chills him.

"Gina loved to dance. She was over here dancing and listening to music, just having a good time," Allmon, 45, said. "It could have been my daughter. It could have been my daughter because they all used to walk home together."

"We used to hang out on Gina's porch," Rogers said. "We had a couple sleepovers."

The girls did what most kids in the neighborhood did, Rogers said. They hung out around each others' houses and at school. They listened to Spanish music and rap and practiced their dance moves.

Slideshow: Missing women found alive in Cleveland

Tony Dejak / AP

A daring escape and a dramatic 911 call led to the rescue of three women who allegedly had been held captive for years inside a home in Cleveland, Ohio.

Launch slideshow

The three would "listen to music, talk on the phone, talk about boys," Rogers said. "We were gossips. Gossip girls."

"I remember going to Wilbur Wright and the girls running up the hallways like girls do," said Collins, mother of Gina's friend Jackie. "You know how they hang out, push boys and run."

The DeJesus and Castro families have known each other for years, according to Gina DeJesus' great uncle Noel Ruiz Sr. On Tuesday, he sipped a Corona in a corner store owned by Julio Castro, Ariel Castro's uncle, only about half a block from where the three girls, including DeJesus, were held.

"We used to throw parties here," Ruiz said of Castro's store, where he said he's been coming for decades.

Members of the Castro and DeJesus families also mixed at a 14th birthday party for Gina DeJesus shortly before she disappeared in 2004, Kayla Rogers said. Members of DeJesus' large extended family were there, she said, as well as Arlene Castro.

Rogers said she never saw much of her friend Arlene's father except at his job as a school bus driver.

"He was my bus driver, also," Rogers said. "He'd wink at me and … ugh."

Rogers said she used to call Arlene "Rosie," for her rosy cheeks. They fell out of touch after DeJesus disappeared, she said, and she has not heard from Arlene in nearly 10 years.

She also said she has not seen DeJesus since she was rescued by police Monday night. The image in her mind of the girl is 10 years out of date at this point. "She would always wear her hair curly. She would swoop it over and wear it in a ponytail," Rogers said.

Looking at DeJesus' photo in the yearbook, the young teen beaming and wearing her eyeglasses, Rogers wished away the years.

"I hope she looks exactly the same," Rogers said. "I hope she does."

John Makely / NBC News

Leonard Allmon hugs his daughter Kayla Rogers after looking at photos of her best friends Arlene Castro and Gina DeJesus in her 2003 Wilbur Wright Middle School yearbook.

This story was originally published on Thu May 9, 2013 2:50 AM EDT

FBI handout

Amanda Berry, left, Georgina DeJesus and Michelle Knight are shown in a combination photo from undated handouts released by the FBI.

The moment of freedom for two of the women allegedly kidnapped and held for a decade in dilapidated home in downtown Cleveland arrived with a joyous leap into the arms of a police officer.

A police report obtained by NBC News details the officer’s account of that instance -- after Amanda Berry cried out for freedom from behind a storm door and neighbor Charles Ramsey came to the rescue, kicking in the door and giving Berry – missing since 2003 -- and her 6-year-old daughter a path to escape.

According to the report, an officer arriving at Ramsey’s place on Seymour Avenue were told by Berry that "other girls" were in the house across the street.

The first officer at the home entered  through the busted-out panel in the storm door where Berry and her daughter had escaped moments earlier. An officer tried to open the door to let others in, but couldn’t.

Another officer managed to crawl in through the broken door and kick open the storm door, allowing more officers to pour in to search the home.

Two officers went to the basement, but found nothing.

Walking upstairs, one officer shouted, “Cleveland Police” at which time Michelle Knight –  last seen by family members at a cousin’s home in 2002 — appeared and “threw herself” into an officer’s arms.

The officers asked if anyone else was upstairs, and out came another woman. The officer holding Knight put her down, and the other woman also jumped into his arms, according to the police report.

Asked what her name was, she said Georgina DeJesus. She was a 14-year-old seventh-grader when she first vanished in 2004 while walking home from school.

Knight quickly told officers she could not breathe and that her chest hurt. Officers called for an emergency medical team, which sent a wagon.

All three victims, and the young girl rode with officers in the wagon to a hospital, during which time they told the officers how suspect Ariel Castro allegedly lured them into his car, the police report said.

Related:

• Cleveland man charged with kidnapping, rape; no charges for 2 brothers
• Who's who in the Cleveland kidnapping case?

Amanda Marie Berry, left, and Georgina Lynn DeJesus are pictured in undated handout photos released by the FBI.

Two days after three women missing at least a decade were freed from a home in downtown Cleveland, details about the victims and the suspect are starting emerge.

Police say Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were all held captive in a home owned by local musician and bus driver Ariel Castro.

Neighbors said they had no idea anyone else was inside Castro’s home on Seymour Avenue. They only knew him as a “nice guy” who liked to attend barbecues, listen to Spanish music and ride a four-wheeler.

But police say his home was a prison, where the three women were tied down in order to keep from escaping.

Here is a guide the victims and suspect in the case, and what we know (and don’t know) about them. 

THE VICTIMS

Amanda Berry: As a 17-year-old, Berry worked a part-time job at a Burger King. But she left work on April 21, 2003 and never came back. Her mother, the late Louwana Miller, told the Plain Dealer newspaper the next month that she kept Amanda’s bed as it was, and left clean laundry for her stacked on the dresser. The following year, Berry’s case was featured on “America’s Most Wanted.” The mother went on Montel Williams’ talk show, where a self-proclaimed psychic told her that her daughter was probably dead, NBC affiliate WKYC reported. Berry gave birth six years ago in captivity. It was not clear who the father was. On Monday night, a neighbor, Charles Ramsey, spotted Berry kicking the door and screaming: “I’ve been in this house a long time, and I want to leave right now!” Berry called 911, pleading with the dispatcher to send a police car immediately: “I’m Amanda Berry. I’ve been on the news for the last 10 years.”

Gina DeJesus: DeJesus was 14, in seventh grade, when she left school April 2, 2004 to walk home one day and vanished. Her first name is short for Georgina. A website set up to spread word of her disappearance said she had pierced ears — one in the left ear, two in the right. In April, DeJesus’ family held a rally to mark the ninth anniversary of her disappearance. Her mother, Nancy Ruiz, said at the time that she was certain her daughter was alive. On Tuesday, a giant “WELCOME HOME GINA” banner hung from the family’s house, and a growing cluster of brightly colored helium balloons decorated the front of the home. Someone strung her missing-poster photo between the front stoop and the mailbox. DeJesus is now 23.

Michelle Knight: Knight was 21 when she disappeared — the oldest of the kidnapping victims and by far the least known. She was last seen at a cousin’s house on Aug. 22, 2002, not far from where Berry and DeJesus were last seen. Her grandmother, Barbara Knight, told the newspaper that she never believed her granddaughter would disappear without so much as a phone call. But she said family members concluded, based on conversations with police and social workers, that Knight probably ran away because she was angry that her son had been removed from her custody. Knight is 32 today.

Berry's six-year old daughter: Police say Amanda Berry gave birth to a child while in captivity. Chuck Ramsey, a neighbor who helped rescue Berry, said a little girl came out of Castro's home with her. It was unclear who is the father. She has not been named.

NBC News via Cleveland Department of Law.

Booking mugs of Ariel Castro, Onil Castro, Pedro Castro who were arrested in connection with the disappearance of Amanda Berry, Georgina "Gina" DeJesus, and Michele Knight in Cleveland, Ohio.

THE SUSPECT

Ariel Castro: A 52-year-old former school bus driver and bass guitar player who sometimes played in a local merengue band, he lived on Seymour Avenue in downtown Cleveland where police say he held three women captive for a decade by tying them up. He was arrested on Monday after Amanda Berry kicked through the bottom of a door and escaped. Two other missing women, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, were discovered at his home. In 2005, he was accused in a court filing of attacking his former wife Grimilda Figueroa, the Plain Dealer reported. Her lawyer at the time requested that a judge keep him from threatening to kill her, and also said that though Figueroa had full custody with no visitation for Castro, he "frequently abducts daughters and keeps them from mother,’’ the newspaper reported. Nine years ago, police went to Ariel’s home to investigate a child left behind on a bus, but did not charge him. He was fired in November from his bus driver's job after 22 years, the Plain Dealer reported. A post on Ariel Castro's Facebook page says he is the grandfather to five children – four boys and a girl. Castro on Wednesday May 8 was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape.

HIS BROTHERS

Onil Castro: At 50, he is the youngest of the three brothers who grew up around their father's used car lot in Cleveland's west end. Nelson Roman, a family friend, told the Plain Dealer that Onil was a heavy drinker who had worked as a handyman but stopped working years ago. He was not married. He was arrested at the same time as his brother Ariel, but wasn't charged with any crime relating to the case.

Pedro Castro: The older brother of Ariel Castro, 54-year-old Pedro Castro lived on the west side of Cleveland, according to police. A family friend told the Plain Dealer that Pedro became involved in alcohol at a young age and dropped out of high school despite being a straight-A student. He had worked as a factory worker in past years but stopped because of his drinking, Nelson Roman said. He was not married. When investigators dug in an empty lot for Amanda Berry last year at a time she was presumed dead, a Pedro Castro told a local Fox affiliate the search was “a waste of money.” It was unclear, however, if the Pedro Castro interviewed is the same man. He was also arrested with his brother but not charged with any crime related to kidnapping case.

Slideshow: Missing women found alive in Cleveland

Tony Dejak / AP

A daring escape and a dramatic 911 call led to the rescue of three women who allegedly had been held captive for years inside a home in Cleveland, Ohio.

Launch slideshow

Related:

• 'Afraid to talk to your neighbors': Suspects' street was perfect hiding spot
• Women's rescue a triumph and relief for searchers who 'never gave up'
• Meet Chuck Ramsey, dishwasher turned hero

The Cleveland man charged with holding three women captive for a decade impregnated one of them five times and punched her in the stomach until she miscarried, police said Wednesday in a chilling report on the kidnappings.

The man forced one of his captives, Michelle Knight, to deliver the baby of another captive, Amanda Berry, in a kiddie pool, and threatened to kill Knight if the baby died, police said.

Police made the revelations in a report that laid out a nightmarish captivity, including starvation and imprisonment in the basement. One official said the women apparently were allowed outside the house only twice, and briefly, in the years after they were captured.

The Cleveland city prosecutor charged the man, Ariel Castro, with four counts of kidnapping — one for each of the three women and one for a baby that was born to Berry six years ago. Castro was also charged with three counts of rape for each of the adult women.

But authorities filed no charges against two of Castro’s brothers who were arrested Monday night, after Berry escaped the house with the help of a neighbor and the other two women were freed.

Authorities said they had no evidence that the two brothers, Pedro and Onil Castro, were involved in the kidnappings.

The three captives — Berry, Knight and Gina DeJesus — were allowed only in the backyard when they were let outdoors at all, and were forced to wear wigs and sunglasses when they left the house, the report said.

The escape came on Monday, when Castro went to McDonald’s and left a “big inside door” unlocked, the report said. That was when Berry broke through a locked storm door, afraid to open it further because she worried that Castro was testing her, the report said. Berry made it out and called 911.

“From what we know, their only opportunity to escape was the other day when Amanda escaped,” said Ed Tomba, the deputy Cleveland police chief.

All three women told police that Castro initially chained them in the basement, the report said, but he ultimately let them live on the second floor of the home, a shabby, two-story dwelling on Cleveland’s West Side.

The women were not in the same room but did know the others were there, Tomba said.

“As far as what the circumstances were inside that home, and the control he may have had over those girls, we don’t know that yet,” he said.

According to the report, Knight told investigators that she carried Castro’s baby “at least” five times, and that when he found out, he “would make her abort the baby” — starving her for two weeks and repeatedly punching her in the stomach until she miscarried.

When Berry’s baby was born, Knight put her mouth to the baby’s to keep it alive — and keep herself alive because Castro had threatened to kill her, the report said.

Berry told investigators that none of the women had seen a doctor during their captivity, the report said.

One police source close to the investigation cautioned earlier in the day that it was hard to be sure the women’s memories were completely accurate after such a long time in captivity.

John Gress / Reuters

Gina DeJesus arrives at her home in Cleveland.

Earlier Wednesday, DeJesus and Berry returned home to their families, both greeted by cheering crowds and huge displays of balloons, ribbons, teddy bears and encouraging signs. DeJesus gave a thumbs up.

“She was happy,” said her aunt, Sandra Ruiz. “She looked at the house and wanted a tour.”

Knight remained in a Cleveland hospital and was getting mental health treatment, her mother said.

Cleveland authorities said that a search of the Castro house had revealed no human remains. FBI agents returned to the house Wednesday and also searched a house two doors down that appeared to be abandoned.

Authorities said they did not suspect Castro had kidnapped anyone else. They said they had questioned Castro about the disappearance of a fourth Cleveland woman, Ashley Summers.

Castro was due in court Thursday morning for arraignment. The two brothers are also due in court Thursday, but on unrelated misdemeanor charges, authorities said.

“There is no evidence that these two individuals had any involvement in the commission of the crimes committed against Michelle, Gina, Amanda and the minor child,” said Victor Perez, the city prosecutor.

The three women were reported missing in Cleveland months apart: Knight in August 2002 after losing custody of her son, Berry in April 2003 after finishing her part-time shift at a Burger King, and DeJesus in April 2004 while walking home from middle school.

The police report suggests Castro used the same tactic to capture each of them: He offered them a ride. In Berry’s case, he told her he had a son who also worked at Burger King.

When Berry made her break for freedom years later, kicking the door and screaming, a neighbor, Charles Ramsey, helped free her. In her 911 call, Berry pleaded with the dispatcher to send help: “I’m Amanda Berry. I’ve been on the news for the last 10 years.”

When help came, two police officers crawled through a broken panel of the storm door and kicked it open to allow other officers in, the report said.

Two officers went upstairs, and the other two women threw themselves into the officers’ arms, it said.

Berry is now 27, DeJesus 23 and Knight 32.

Slideshow: Missing women found alive in Cleveland

A daring escape and a dramatic 911 call led to the rescue of three women who allegedly had been held captive for years inside a home in Cleveland.

Launch slideshow

McGrath said that the house had come to the attention of police only twice — in 2000, when Ariel Castro called about a fight on the street, and in 2004, when Castro, a school bus driver, had left behind one of his passengers.

The chief’s account conflicts with that of at least one neighbor, Israel Lugo, who told MSNBC on Tuesday that he called the police in 2011 after his sister spotted a woman with a baby in the home, banging on the window “like she wants to get out.”

McGrath said that his department would have a record of such a call and that there was none. He said that he was “absolutely confident” that his officers did not miss a chance to free the three women.

Ariel Castro, 52, was accused in 2005 of attacking his former wife, The Plain Dealer newspaper reported. Her lawyer at the time said that although the ex-wife had custody of their children, Castro “frequently abducts daughters and keeps them from mother,’’ the newspaper reported.

Khalid Samad, a community organizer, told NBC News that Castro had accompanied him on searches for the missing women.

First lady Michelle Obama told NBC News that the kidnappings were “probably a parent’s worst nightmare.”

“These families are going to have to wrap their arms around these young women and make sure that they get all the help and support they need so that they will go on and lead healthy, normal lives,” she told TODAY. “We’re just grateful that they’re safe.”

Richard Esposito and Jeff Black of NBC News contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Wed May 8, 2013 8:54 AM EDT

John Makely / NBC News

Gina DeJesus' home is covered with balloons from well-wishers as close friends and family gather at the house in Cleveland.

When Amanda Berry and Georgina DeJesus disappeared in 2003 and 2004, a community rose up to help them.

Activists and neighbors in Cleveland’s West Boulevard area helped to organize searches near where the girls lived and were last seen – then kept the cases in the spotlight as months stretched into years.

On Tuesday, those involved in the efforts expressed joy that Berry and DeJesus, along with another woman, Michelle Knight, and Berry’s 6-year-old daughter, had been found alive at a house just a few miles east of their old neighborhood. Berry had been missing since April 2003, DeJesus, known as Gina to family and friends, since April 2004.

“Absolutely, totally relieved, overwhelmed, happy. Just amazed. All the wonderful adjectives you can think of,” said Judy Martin, one of the community activists who got involved after the girls disappeared.

Martin founded Survivors Victims of Tragedy, a support group for families of victims of violent death, after her son was killed in 1994.

“We reached out to the families to try to help them with rallies ... the media,” said Martin, who lives in Euclid, Ohio. “They welcomed us with open arms.”

The outpouring of support was not a given in an area that the hometown newspaper described in a 2004 article on the disappearances as diverse, but also struggling with drug and prostitution problems.

Handout / Reuters

Amanda Marie Berry, left, and Georgina Lynn Dejesus.

A week after DeJesus disappeared, 200 people turned out to distribute fliers door to door, covering a 50-block area around her home and a half-mile radius around her school in an effort coordinated by City Council members, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported at the time.

Her father, Felix, went out at night to search for her and once was accused of breaking down the apartment door of a sex offender who lived in the area near Lorain Avenue where his daughter was last seen. He denied the allegations and no charges were filed.

Martin said rallies for the DeJesus family were held every Friday for several years after Gina disappeared.  

She said the public shows of support for the families maintained pressure on police to solve the disappearances.

“If it hadn't been for the families in these two cases, nothing would have been done,” she contended. “Police were going to write them off as two teenagers out having fun. And Michelle Knight, they said, she's an adult who decided what she wanted to do. It's not true, is it?"

Art McKoy, a longtime Cleveland activist who participated in the searches, echoed her comments.

“We never gave up,” he said. “In this city, without the volunteer searches there probably wouldn’t be any searches.”

The area surrounding the West 71st Street home where DeJesus lived is on Cleveland’s West Side but south of Interstate 90 – far from the well-known and historic market that is a magnet for tourists. The area, with a mix of single-family homes and businesses, is home to an eclectic mix of residents, with Hispanics, African Americans and Asians who more recently joined the descendants of Eastern European immigrants who originally built homes there.

Lorain Avenue near West 105th Street, where the girls were last seen, is a commercial center on that side of the freeway.

The area has crime problems, though some residents told the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 2004 that they felt safe and were proud of the community’s diversity.

Khalid Samad, who worked for the gang unit in the Cleveland Public Safety Department at the time that Berry and DeJesus disappeared and helped organize volunteer searchers, remembers the feeling in the community after DeJesus disappeared as “intense.”

Slideshow: Missing women found alive in Cleveland

Tony Dejak / AP

A daring escape and a dramatic 911 call led to the rescue of three women who allegedly had been held captive for years inside a home in Cleveland, Ohio.

Launch slideshow

“Everybody was up in arms and trying to stay alert,” said Samad, now a community organizer who is president of the International Council for Urban Peace, Justice and Empowerment.

Time passed and no apparent progress was made on the investigation. In September 2006, authorities searched a man’s home, dug up his garage floor and jailed him and a roommate before concluding they had no connection to the DeJesus case. Last July, a tip from a prison inmate led authorities investigating the same case to dig up a vacant lot. They found nothing.

McKoy said that the years of uncertainty took a toll on Berry’s mother, Louwana Miller, and that she took a downward turn after a psychic said that her daughter was dead. Miller died in 2006.

“I watched Louwana sink from a vibrant woman to a dying woman, grieving over not being able to find Amanda,” he said, adding, “Right now she’s probably shouting in heaven.”

DeJesus’ mother, Nancy Ruiz, on the other hand, always maintained that her daughter was alive, even after all the false leads, he said.

“Her strength gave us strength to press forward, to consider these girls were still alive,” McKoy said.

Samad and Martin credited Berry with bringing the women’s ordeal to an end.

“If she hadn’t done this, we might never have found them,” Martin said.

Martin and McKoy said that points to a problem in society today – neighbors aren’t looking out for each other. McKoy noted similarities to the case of Jaycee Dugard, who was abducted at age 11 in 1991 in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., and found 18 years later after having been held in a house in Antioch.

The home where DeJesus, Berry and McKnight were found “had the same kind of setup as they had in California” with high fences around a back yard, McKoy said.

“Those neighbors, they’re shaking their heads right now, saying, ‘Damn if we’d just paid a little more attention,’” he said.

“It seems like when it happened in California, it didn’t wake people up in Cleveland. Now that it’s happened in Cleveland, maybe it’ll wake people up in New York or Chicago.”

NBC News’ Bill Dedman contributed to this report.

Related content:

• 'You're afraid to talk to your neighbors': Suspects' street was perfect hiding spot
• 'We should never give up hope': 5 other missing-child stories with happy endings
• Nine years before rescue, cops visited Cleveland home where women were held

This story was originally published on Wed May 8, 2013 3:29 AM EDT

John Makely / NBC News

An FBI investigator exits the house on Seymour Ave.

CLEVELAND — It was the perfect place to hide three captives in plain sight.

In a rundown section of Cleveland, Ohio, police say three young women — Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight — were held against their will in a white, two-story house for roughly a decade before Berry escaped Monday night and the other two were freed.

While some who lived and worked in the neighborhood described it as tight-knit, others spoke of a darker side.

Bill McNutt, 71, bought a house, gas station, and a now-abandoned block of apartments on Seymour Ave. about 40 years ago. The retired software engineer said he's seen plenty of crime in the area -- from drug deals to shootings, some in properties he rented.

He was surprised not so much by the women's captivity but by how much time transpired before they were found.

"Does it shock me?" he said. "Well, I don't know. Ten years shocks me."

The three women vanished between August 2002 and April 2004 in separate incidents; they were between 14 and 20 years old. Authorities have arrested three brothers: Ariel Castro, 52, Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50.

John Makely / NBC News

Vladimir Swirynsky, who lives just a couple of blocks away from where one of the victim's homes holds a huge sign so that drivers on 25th street could offer support for the the missing girls who were found on Monday. "We never gave up hope," he said.

The neighborhood has seen better days. The two houses to the right of the one where the women were allegedly held are boarded up and dilapidated. A three-story apartment building down the block is vacant.

"That was a perfect place for him because people couldn't hear any noise," said Khalid Samad, a community organizer.

Samad said Ariel Castro had even accompanied him on searches in the area for the missing women. He said that by the neighborhood's standards, Castro's job as a bus driver made him relatively well-off.

"In terms of money he probably made more money than anyone else on the street when he was driving the bus," Samad said.

Jennifer Faykus, 34, said she knew the sister of Gina DeJesus, who police say was held in the house after disappearing in 2004.

Faykus used to live in the area but moved away because it stopped being the kind of neighborhood where people talked to each other.

John Makely / NBC News

Julio Castro, 77, uncle to the three suspects arrested in relation to the abductions.
Castro owns a corner grocery store less than a block away from the home the girls escaped from on Seymour ave.

"In this kind of neighborhood you don't [pry into other people's business] because you're afraid to talk to your neighbors," she said.

Her husband, Felix Faykus, said they'd passed out fliers for the missing girls in the neighborhood.

Justin Owens lives behind the house police searched Tuesday, but another building stands between his home and the yard police kept cordoned off.

"Never saw no girls back there, never heard anything," he said. "It was all a shock to me."

The 34-year-old roofer moved to the neighborhood about a year ago. The first thing he thought of when he heard the news were his own daughters, ages 12 and 8.

About half a block away on Castle Ave, the residents of an old-persons home called Scranton Castle were just as surprised — including some who knew the suspects.

Johnnie Sanchez said he grew up in the neighborhood and knew the Castro family. He'd go and talk to the Castro brothers' uncle at his corner store, about half a block from the house where the women were found. Sanchez said he had known the brothers since he was 7 or 8 years old, but he hadn't seen Ariel Castro in about five years, even though he lived just a half dozen houses away.

"We used to go to parties and he would play the timbales," Sanchez, 54, said of Ariel. "The Castro family are a real good family."

John Makely / NBC News

Noel Ruiz Sr, the great uncle of Gina DeJesus, sips a Corona just down the block from the home where she had been held captive until yesterday.

At Caribe grocery store on the corner of Seymour Ave., Julio Castro, 77, who identified himself as the uncle of the suspects, said he hadn't spoken to Ariel Castro in six years and that the arrests came as a "terrible, terrible, terrible surprise."

He's owned the corner store for more than four decades, he said.

"I say, 'How can you do this to our family?'" he said he would ask his nephews. "We are a large family, a respected family. Shame on you."

Noel Ruiz Sr, a great uncle of Gina DeJesus, on Tuesday afternoon sipped a Corona beer at Castro's corner store — which he said he'd becoming to for decades — as he and about a dozen patrons watched the stream of news updates being broadcast from across 25th street.

"We used to throw parties here", Ruiz said. "Our family took a big hit when it happened, but, you know, everyone in my family believes in God ... our prayers were answered.  Thank God Gina's alive."

Additional reporting by John Makely

Slideshow: Missing women found alive in Cleveland

Tony Dejak / AP

A daring escape and a dramatic 911 call led to the rescue of three women who allegedly had been held captive for years inside a home in Cleveland, Ohio.

Launch slideshow

By Suzanne Choney, Contributing Writer, NBC News

At a time when the country is celebrating the bravery of three kidnapping victims and the heroism of their rescuer, unexpected public ire has fallen on the 911 operator who received Amanda Berry's heart-wrenching plea for help — particularly for not remaining on the line with her until the police arrived.

On Facebook, a "Fire the dispatcher that took Amanda Berry's call" page was launched soon after the 911 call began playing over and over on cable news. Frustration over the call's abrupt end started popping up all over Facebook, with posts like: "I can't believe the dispatcher dismissed her!!! No compassion, doesn't want to stay on phone with her" and "That 911 dispatcher should be disciplined for the way she handled that call!! She kept telling that poor girl to speak to the police when they got there ... she should have stayed on the phone until help arrived!"

On Twitter, comments were saltier: "Is it me or did that dispatcher piss anyone else off during Amanda Berry's 911 call?!"

The criticism reached Cleveland city officials, who said Tuesday they will review the actions of the 911 operator.

"While the call-taker complied with policies and procedures which enabled a very fast response by police, we have noted some concerns which will be the focus of our review, including the call-taker’s failure to remain on the line with Ms. Berry until police arrived on scene. Please be assured that this matter will be investigated, and if necessary, appropriate corrective action taken," said Martin L. Flask, director of the city's Department of Public Safety in a statement.

Emergency experts and trainers for 911 call centers say the dispatcher should have stayed on the phone longer with the distraught victim, who had broken free after allegedly being held captive for years along with two other women.

During the call, Berry asked if police were on their way, and was told they will be, "as soon as we get a car open."

"No, I need them NOW!" she beseeches the dispatcher, who also asks some more questions, but repeatedly tells Berry to "talk to the police when they get there," before hanging up.

"This young lady was very clearly upset, significantly affected, and it just seemed prudent to remain on the phone (with her) to obtain as much information as possible," Dennis Root, co-founder of Tactical Advantage Solutions, which trains emergency service workers, told NBC News. 

"You're the lifeline between this caller and responding units. She's been captive for 10 years. A few extra minutes on the phone is not going to hurt anybody."

Root, a longtime police officer for the cities of Riviera Beach and Martin County, Fla., said the goal of 911 personnel "is to gather as much information as possible. Initially, it sounded like the communications officer was in a bit of a rush to get off the phone and that they didn't understand the magnitude of the call they were receiving.

"When you're a 911 communications dispatcher, every call is the real deal, when you may make the difference between life and death," Root said.

Jon Shane, who teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and previously was a police officer and emergency dispatcher in New Jersey, says the dispatcher got the important parts right. "They should have kept the caller on the phone" longer, but "they did what was right. They told her the police were coming, they got some limited description (of the suspect)."

"I would have probed further," he said. "'Was he armed?' 'Are you injured?' 'Are you with anyone else?' 'Who are you there with now?' 'May I speak to that person?' All sorts of things just to alleviate what's going on."

The National Emergency Number Association is a public safety organization that deals with 911 issues. Ty Wooten, operations and education issues director for the organization, told NBC News that the call may have been "a little bit short." However, he said, "When people call 911, they call on the worst day of their lives. No one is calling to report something happy. So everyone wants the fastest response that they can possibly get."

"With the budget cutbacks and the resources that are available today, public safety and 911 and those agencies which 911 support through the dispatch of their agencies can only do so much with the resources they have…it's not what someone wants to hear, but it's the reality of the situation," Wooten said.

Flask, the public safety director, did praise the call-taker's response time. "Within 1 minute and 18 seconds from the time that the call-taker answered the call our dispatcher was broadcasting the assignment to available police units. As a result of the call-taker’s actions, police were dispatched and on scene in less than 2 minutes," he said.

— Nidhi Subbaraman also contributed to this report.

Related:

Police acknowledge little focus on finding Michelle Knight, the third missing Cleveland woman

Timeline of the Ohio kidnappings: Three women's shared nightmare

Nine years before rescue, cops visited Cleveland home where women were held

Tony Dejak/AP

T.J. Lane is escorted into the the Geauga County courthouse Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, in Chardon, Ohio.

The Ohio teenager charged with killing three students at Chardon High School in February 2012 pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of aggravated murder.

Prosecutors said that T.J. Lane fired 10 shots at students at the suburban school outside Cleveland. Lane was waiting for a bus to an alternative school he attended before walking into the school cafeteria with a knife and a .22-caliber pistol and opening fire. Lane has admitted to shooting at students, investigators said, but did not give a reason for his actions.

Three victims — Russell King Jr., Demetrius Hewlin and Daniel Parmertor — died in the shooting.

Lane, 18, entered the plea to three counts of aggravated murder and other charges in an agreement with prosecutors Tuesday. Prosecutors agreed to agreed to remove death penalty specifications as part of the plea.

Lane will be sentenced March 19 after the completion of a background investigation, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related:

• Chardon healing 1 year after shooting
• Fundraiser for Chardon shooting victim

This story was originally published on Tue Feb 26, 2013 12:52 PM EST