The Chilling Details of Elisabeth Fritzl Being Held Captive for 24 Years

Life As A Prisoner

Ariel Castro was booked on May 8, 2013, accused of keeping three women and one minor child captive for years in his Cleveland home. At Castro’s arraignment on May 8, 2013 assistant prosecutor Brian Murphy told the Cleveland Municipal Court that Castro made “premeditated, deliberate and depraved decisions to snatch three young ladies… to be used in whatever self-gratifying, self-serving way he saw fit.” Murphy asked for bail to be set at $5 million, but the judge set bail at $8 million. In the four cases, one case for each alleged victim, he faces a total of four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape.

The three girls lived for the following seven years in squalor. With only buckets for toilets, they were only allowed a couple showers a week, sometimes forced to take them with Castro. For their monthly cycles, he only gave them food napkins. He would play mind games with all three of the girls, allowing one girl more food or clothes than the other. At one point, Knight recalls that while she and DeJesus shared a room and were chained to each other, Castro would rape either one of them, while the other girl had to lay there and do nothing. Sometimes she even begged Castro to rape her instead of DeJesus, who was significantly younger. Knight was reportedly impregnated at least five times but was brutally beaten until she miscarried. Things changed, however, when Berry became pregnant.