The Cleveland kidnap case

Stuff reports:

The three women held captive for a decade at a run-down US house were bound with ropes and chains, police say.

Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight are believed to have been kept in several rooms of Cleveland house at 2207 Seymour Ave where chains, tape and other bondage devices were found.

Charges were expected by the end of the day against the three brothers under arrest.

Neighbours in the largely Puerto Rican neighbourhood said one of the brothers, 52-year-old Ariel Castro, had taken part in the search for one of the missing women, performed music at a fundraiser for her and attended a candlelight vigil, where he comforted her mother.

The women’s plight has riveted the US since 27-year-old Berry kicked through a screen door at the house on Tuesday, used a neighbour’s telephone to call authorities and told a police dispatcher, “I’m free now”. A policeman showed up minutes later and Berry ran out and threw her arms around the officer, a neighbour said.

Once a loved one is missing for more than a week, you probably accept that statistically they will be dead. But hope sometimes wins out, and amazingly these three lost girls were all alive.

This is not the first long-term abduction case, but I think the first with multiple un-related victims.

I can’t comprehend how someone can do this to other human beings. I guess he or they are just sociopaths.