Amanda Berry’s baby with Ariel Castro saved his captives in Cleveland’s House of Horrors

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VIDEO Castro abductee tells of horrors

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TWO of the women who fled Cleveland’s ‘house of horrors’ after a decade in captivity reveal for the first time in their own words how they survived.

For 10 years Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were horrifically raped, tortured and psychologically abused by Ariel Castro, who lived near their homes in Ohio.
The women who were freed after Berry escaped with her six-year-old daughter Jocelyn on May 6, 2013, have written a book, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland, which will be released on April 27. Berry and DeJesus are interviewed on ABC’s 20/20 programme on April 29.

First account in their own words ... Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland's House of Horrors by Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus. Source: Supplied

In an excerpt, from an article published in People magazine on Friday, Berry and DeJesus reveal how they managed to survive and how Berry’s baby Jocelyn gave them something to believe in and how it mellowed their abuser.
A month after discovering her mother, Louwana Miller, had died, Berry fell pregnant to Castro in April 2006.
Elated, she worried how Castro would react.
“I think my mom (sic) sent me this baby. It’s her way of giving me an angel. But I worry about what he’s going to do,” Berry writes.
“Michelle told me that he beat her to make her miscarry (she had five miscarriages). Will he let me carry my baby?”

Castro's baby saved us ... Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry on ABC's 20/20 programme. Picture: ABC NEWS Source: Supplied

As the pregnant teenage Berry mourned her mother alone amid harrowing torture and abuse, she recalled how she made video tapes of news reports of her mum at vigils and watched them repeatedly.
”I would rewind and hear her voice. I feel like she’s definitely here with me now,” Berry writes.
She gave birth in her prison of a home to a baby girl with the help of Michelle on Christmas Day.
Castro appeared delighted to have a new daughter, Berry writes.
”When the baby started kicking, I reached for his hand and placed it on my stomach,” Berry writes.
“I knew the baby would be safer if he was excited about being a new father.”
Castro told her that they were ‘a family’.
The predator took the baby girl, whom he called Pretty, to church and out to play while Berry remained in chains in his filthy, dilapidated home.
Castro finally took the chains off the three women when Jocelyn started to notice them, even though Berry tried to protect her daughter by telling her that they were only bracelets.

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'He beat me until I miscarried every time'

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Amanda describes her confusion at feeling some warmth towards Castro when he treated their daughter well.
”I know it’s wrong but I feel closer to him. I appreciate that he treats Jocelyn so well and buys her clothes and toys,” she writes.
“I desperately want Jocelyn to have a normal life. On the days that he helps me do that, I actually feel some affection for him. I’m so confused.
“How can he be good one minute and so cruel the next?”

House of Horror ... FBI evidence response team carry out the front screen door from the Cleveland home of Ariel Castro, where three women escaped after 10 years of captivity. Picture: AP / Tony Dejak Source: Supplied

When Jocelyn was aged five, DeJesus built a kindergarten in their bedroom. Castro was told to buy Jocelyn books.
Berry said Jocelyn would sit at her ‘Dora the Explorer’ desk with DeJesus acting as a teacher.
Castro became more agitated when he lost his job as a bus driver due to stress in November 2012 and wondered how he would be remembered in the newspapers over what he had done. His daughter Jocelyn began to ask when she could go to a real school.
It was years before Berry and DeJesus even knew that Castro held Knight captive. She had been imprisoned in a separate bedroom since 2002.
All three women were imprisoned after accepting a ride from Castro. Berry, 16, was told Castro’s daughter wanted to see her. He barricaded her in a room, told her to pull down her pants and raped her. She was then chained in the basement and repeatedly abused.
Four days after she was captured, Castro watched her mother plead for her safe return on the TV news. Berry that a silent Castro watched her mother beg for her daughter to come home.
“He has an odd look on his face, and then I realize (sic): He’s proud,” Berry wrote about her captor.
She told People magazine that Castro was much stronger than he looked, packing muscle beneath his rotund figure.
“To be around him was scary,” Berry said.
“He had these cold black eyes. We were afraid we were going to die.”
Gina DeJesus, aged 14, was abducted a year after Berry.
“He was always watching us,” DeJesus, now 25, told People.
“Before the door opened, your heart was just beating real fast.” Berry added, “You didn’t know why he was coming up the stairs or what was going to happen.”

Not in contact with other two women held captive ... Michelle Knight was kidnapped, raped, made pregnant and beaten by Ariel Castro. Picture: Christopher Lane Source: Supplied

When Castro gave them more freedom, they became friends and when Castro went to work or went out for the evening, they danced and sung. Every Thursday, they would watch The Vampire Diaries.
“We would watch the show and then for two hours afterwards, we would talk about what’s going to happen next week,” Berry told People.
“But then Castro would come home,” added DeJesus, “He would walk up the stairs and just ruin our whole day.”
On May 6, 2013, Castro forgot to lock the door of Berry’s bedroom. She grabbed her daughter and ran to the front door, kicking her way out through a bottom panel.

Ariel Castro ... Within one month of being sentenced to life in prison, plus 1000 years, Castro was found hanging by a bedsheet in his jail cell. Picture: AP / Tony Dejak Source: Supplied

Berry described that heart-pounding break for freedom in ABC’s 20/20.
“I didn’t know what to do, my heart immediately started pounding because I’m like, ‘is — should I chance it? ... He could be here any minute, if I’m going to do it, I need to do it now.”
“Please, help me! I’m Amanda Berry! I’ve been kidnapped for 10 years. Help me!” she yelled from behind the door.

Still living in Cleveland ... Gina DeJesus was kidnapped when aged 14 and held captive, chained up like a dog, raped and beaten in the home of Ariel Castro in Cleveland, Ohio. Picture: AP / Hennes Paynter Communications Source: NewsComAu

She was pleading with a curious but confused man who had stepped onto her porch as a woman on the street argued she couldn’t possibly be Berry because Berry died years earlier.
“No! I’m right here. Who cares who I am? Can’t they help me,” she recalls thinking.
The man sensing her utter desperation, helped kick out the door that was the final barrier between her and freedom.
“Sometimes, there are days that I just can’t believe it,” Berry told People. “I just feel like I can’t believe that this happened to me.”
Berry and DeJesus, who still live in Cleveland with their families, revealed they are not in contact with Knight.
“I think we all did like each other at one point but then (Castro) played us against each other so we couldn’t trust people.”