In 2013, kidnapping victimAmanda Berrymiraculously escaped from a boarded-up Cleveland home after nearly a decade of captivity and called 911.
“Help me. I’m Amanda Berry,” she told the dispatcher. “I’ve been kidnapped and missing for 10 years. I am here.I am free now.”
Since then, thethree women have gone their separate waysand continue to heal from the decade-long trauma.
Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight.
Here is everything to know about Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight 10 years after their rescue.
Michelle Knight
Michelle Knight and her husband Miguel Rodriguez.Melanie Acevedo
But through mutual friends on Facebook, she eventuallyfound love and married Miguel Rodriguez, a medical courier, on May 6, 2016 — the third anniversary of Knight’s freedom from Castro’s house.
She has since traveled the globe as a public speaker and launched her foundation Lily’s Ray of Hope, supporting women and girls who are victims of domestic violence, human trafficking and child abuse. She partnered with specialty coffee maker 3-19 Co. to showcase her artwork and raise money for her foundation, which provides resources for women to restart their lives.
Knight also has been involved with fostering rescue animals.
“God put me on this earth for a purpose. And I believe the purpose was to help animals and humans connect in a special way,” Knight told PEOPLE on May 6, 2022, the ninth anniversary of their escape. “They mimic and feel everything that you’re going through. So, when you’re sad, and you’re distraught, they come up, they give you kisses, they show you how beautiful life can truly be.”
In March 2023, Knight told PEOPLE that she would be hosting “Tragedy to Triumph: An Evening with Michelle Knight,” a dinner and raffle to raise money for her nonprofit group, Unleashed Animal Rescue, on May 6, 2023 — the 10th anniversary of her rescue.
Amanda Berry
Heidi Gutman/Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty
Over the years, Berry has turned her attention to spotlighting missing people in Northeast Ohio. When she was inside her captor Castro’s home, he reportedly let her watch news segments of people searching for her.
Berry started hosting a daily news segment on Cleveland’s Fox 8 because she wanted missing people to know the public was still looking for them.
“I hope we get [the faces of] missing people out there and get people looking at them a second time, a third time and looking at their name,” Berry told PEOPLE in 2019. “It’s kind of the small things that makes a big difference.”
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In April 2015, Berry partnered with DeJesus, sharing their story inHope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland,co-written with Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan.
She is also raising the daughter she delivered while inside Castro’s home.
Five years later, Berry still works with Fox8’s “Missing” segment and focuses on her family life, having found love after worrying she never would again.
“I never thought I was going to be able to trust and love somebody,” Berry toldFox8. “This is my first real boyfriend. I know it sounds crazy at the age of 36, but I’m just so happy. It’s nice to have a normal life sometimes. You know, I know I’ll never truly have a normal life and I’m kind of coming to grips with that. It’s ok. As long as I make the best out of it that I can.”
Her daughter, Jocelyn, celebrated her 16th birthday in 2023 — the same age Berry was when she was captured — with a large sweet 16, something Berry “always wanted to do.”
Berry toldFox8that her focus for her daughter is “normalcy,” and supporting her in everything she wants to do.
“I hope she has a great life and does everything she wants to,” Berry said. “I tell her all the time, ‘Everything I do, I do for you. I want you to have a good life. I want you to grow up and do what you want in life.’ She can do whatever she wants.”
Gina DeJesus
Heidi Gutman/ABC via Getty
DeJesus, the youngest of the group, has been quietly enjoying life with her tight-knit family in the suburbs of Cleveland, a source told PEOPLE.
She joined forces with theNortheast Ohio Amber Alert Committee. Newburgh Heights Police Chief John Majoy, who works with the group, told Fox8 that DeJesus plans to help survivors and their family members.
“She’s such an asset to the team,” Majoy told the local station in 2018. “Anywhere in our eight-county area, we will send a victims' advocate specialist along with Gina to meet with the family and provide them support services.”
DeJesus told the station that she wanted to help people in her community, “just to give back and to help,” as they assisted her when she came home.
In 2018, DeJesus launched the nonprofitCleveland Family Center for Missing Children and Adults(a.k.a. Cleveland Family) to help families left waiting after loved ones have been abducted.
“I want to help familiesbecause my family didn’t have anything. They didn’t get help,” DeJesus told PEOPLE in 2018. “My parents didn’t have people actually helping them do the flyers and stuff. We could actually help other families with all of that instead of them worrying and freaking out.”
While the nonprofit was still in the early stages in 2018, five years later the center is a full-fledged operation, with DeJesus' parents sitting on the Board of Directors. The center has been successful in helping families with missing children, working with 58 families in 2022.
DeJesus and her family also travel around the country to train law enforcement on how to engage with the families of those missing.
“It’s like she brings that one message of hope that, you know what? There’s a chance,” Newburgh Heights Police Chief John Majoy, who works with DeJesus through the Missing Center, toldFox8. “She just brings that electric charge with her and nobody else can do that.”
source: people.com
