page_title: Ariel Castro kidnappings
section_title: Kidnappings
hierarchical_section_title: Ariel Castro kidnappings / Kidnappings
caption_attribution_description: English: Ariel Castro's home at 2207 Seymour Avenue in Cleveland Ohio. Amanda Berry, Gine DeJesus, and Michelle Knight were held in this house.
context_page_description: The Ariel Castro kidnappings took place between 2002 and 2004, when Ariel Castro kidnapped Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Georgina "Gina" DeJesus and held them captive in his home in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The three girls were imprisoned until May 6, 2013, when Berry escaped with her six-year-old daughter, to whom she had given birth while imprisoned, and contacted the police. Police rescued Knight and DeJesus and arrested Castro within hours.
  On May 8, 2013, Castro was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. He pleaded guilty to 937 criminal counts of rape, kidnapping, and aggravated murder, as part of a plea bargain. He was sentenced to life plus 1,000 years in prison without the possibility of parole. One month into his sentence, he died by suicide after hanging himself with bed sheets in his prison cell.
context_section_description: Castro kidnapped his victims by offering them a ride; he drove each to his home, lured them inside, took them to the basement, and restrained them in his house at 2207 Seymour Avenue, located in Cleveland's residential Tremont neighborhood. The house has since been demolished.
caption: Castro's home at 2207 Seymour Avenue; it was demolished on August 7, 2013, as part of Castro's plea bargain
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