Officials have praised the bravery of three women who have been found alive in a Cleveland, Ohio, home after vanishing about a decade ago.

Amanda Berry disappeared aged 16 in 2003, Gina DeJesus went missing aged 14 a year later, and Michelle Knight vanished in 2002 aged around 19.

A school bus driver and his two brothers have been arrested.

Police told a news conference that they had been called to the alleged captor's home twice - in 2000 and 2004.

The three women were released from hospital on Tuesday morning.
'Weight of justice'
In the news briefing, law enforcement officials said a six-year-old girl also rescued from the home was believed to be the daughter of Amanda Berry.



"Yes, law enforcement professionals do cry," he added.

He vowed that prosecutors would "bring the full weight of justice" against their alleged captor.

Ms Berry escaped on Monday evening when a neighbour heard her screaming and kicking a door, while her alleged captor was out of the house at 2207 Seymour Ave.

Rescuer Charles Ramsey said he had helped kick in a metal door so that Ms Berry could climb outside.

Cleveland police chief Michael McGrath told the news conference: "Thankfully, thankfully, due to Amanda's brave actions these three women are alive today."

School bus driver Ariel Castro, 52, and his two brothers, Pedro, 54, and Onil, 50, have been taken into custody.

During the news conference, Public Safety Director Martin Flask said that in March 2000, Mr Castro had called the authorities to report a fight on his street, but no arrest was made.


In January 2004, police called at Mr Castro's home but no-one answered. They were alerted by children's services after a child was left at a depot on a school bus that Mr Castro had been driving. Authorities concluded there had been no criminal intent.

Ms Berry had last been heard from aged 16 when she called her sister on 21 April 2003 to say she would get a lift home from her job at a Burger King restaurant.

In 2004, Ms DeJesus was believed to have been on her way home from school when she went missing.

Their disappearances had made local headlines in Cleveland, and many assumed the girls were dead.

The case of Michelle Knight, who was older than the other women when she disappeared, was less widely publicised.


Her grandmother, Deborah Knight, was quoted by the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper on Monday as saying that the authorities concluded she had run away.

The relatives of the victims have responded with shock and delight. Sylvia Colon, a relative of Gina DeJesus, said the family had never given up hope, holding vigils every year and keeping memorials outside the house.

But Ms Berry's mother, Louwana, died in March 2006, three years after her daughter went missing.

In an extraordinary twist, it emerged that Ariel Castro's son - also called Ariel, although he goes by his middle name Anthony - wrote an article about the disappearance of Gina DeJesus for his local newspaper in 2004.

He has told US media that he is stunned by Monday's developments.