Amanda Berry and three others find freedom
Amanda Berry has been found alive after being held prisoner for over a decade. Monday was an emotional day for Amanda Berry’s family and friends after being reunited with their lost loved one. The family told reporters that they’d never given up hope of finding Amanda alive, even as they years went on and the chances of seeing Amanda Berry alive became less and less likely.
The tragedy began 10 years ago, on April 21, 2003, as Amanda Berry was returning home from her job at Burger King, but she never reached her destination. Police launched a massive investigation that ended with multiple dead ends. Even so, her family continued to plaster flyers and ribbons in hopes that someone would come forward with answers to Amanda Berry’s whereabouts.
“For me, I look day by day,” Serrano told reporters. “I see a girl walking down the street — it’s an instinct, you just look, you know? Could that be her? Will I ever see her walking by?”
Unlike similar stories, this one has a happy ending. A neighbor, Charles Ramsey, in the Cleveland neighborhood where Amanda and two other women had been held captive, heard screams coming from inside the house. Ramsey saw Amanda Berry, whose captors were not home, desperately trying to escape the house and pleading for someone to call 911. Another neighbor helped Amanda Berry to kick out the screen and escape.
In the emotional call to 911, Berry told a dispatcher, “I’m Amanda Berry. I’ve been on the news for the last 10 years.”
Officers immediately responded and helped the two other women , and Amanda Berry’s daughter, 6, that she’d given birth to while being held captive, escape the house. All of the women were found mere blocks from where they had been abducted by three brothers over the course of the last decade. All three men involved in the kidnappings have been arrested, but their identities have not been released.
For now, Amanda Berry and her daughter have been treated at a nearby hospital and are sharing an emotional reunion with her family.
