The
Cleveland House of Horrors: Similar Cases Around the World (Le Figaro, France)
Before the three young women
were found last Tuesday in Ohio, many other people declared missing and confined
for years around the world have reappeared. These are some of their stories.
Missing for ten
years, Amanda Berry, Gina Dejesus, and Michele Knight, were recovered last
Tuesday. Amanda managed to escape from the Cleveland house where she was being
held and alerted police. On the property, investigators found the other two young
women, and arrested three men. But this story isn't the first of its kind it
recalls several similar cases.
She disappeared on June 10, 1991, after saying goodbye to her stepfather
and boarding a school bus in South Lake Tahoe, California. This young American,
only 11 years old at the time of her abduction, was imprisoned by a couple in a
garden cottage for 18 years, during which time she had two children by her
kidnapper Phillip Garrido. No one heard from her
until August 26, 2009, the day she came into contact with a police officer.
Phillip Garrido, spotted with two young children, was
a registered sex offender. The next day, a DNA test confirmed his identity. In
2011, the man was sentenced to 431 years in prison.
Punishment for having had a child out of wedlock - that is the reason
Maria Monaco was held captive by her mother, her sister, and her brother [photos,
right] for 18 years, from 1990 to 2008. The incident took place in the region
of Naples, Italy, when family members learned she had become pregnant by a man
whom she wouldn't name. She was freed by the Carabinieri
following an anonymous phone call. The illegitimate child, then 17 years old,
had lived a normal life and went to school while his captive mother lived in
horrendous sanitary conditions and suffered from multiple psychological disorders.
In
2008, the world discovered with horror the story of Elisabeth Frizl. Now 47 years old, the Austrian was hidden in a cave
and raped by her father for 24 years. Seven children were born during these
years of servitude and never saw the light of day before their liberation. It was
not until one of them became desperately ill and was taken to the hospital
before police, alerted by doctors, came to free them. The father, Josef Fritzl [photo, right], is now serving life sentence.
Again in Austria, 18-year-old NataschaKampusch was found in 2006, wandering the streets of
Vienna. She had just escaped from an underground cell measuring five square
meters where she had been held for eight years. Taking advantage when her
kidnapper was distracted vacuuming out his car, she escaped. She had been
kidnapped on March 2, 1998 at age 10. Her guardian killed himself by throwing
himself under a train the day of her escape.
He was kidnapped on October 6, 2002, while riding his bicycle in
Missouri. He was 11 years old at the time. Shawn Hornbeck didn't see his
parents again until his liberation four years later, in January 2007. His
confinement would have gone on for much longer if his kidnapper hadn't abducted
another child and police hadn't tracked him down thanks to testimony from a
witness. Shawn, 15 years old, announced on TV that he had a “fairly free
lifestyle” in which he was allowed to go out, ride his bike and have friends.
Nevertheless, he lived in fear, to the point that he never dared escape and was
forced to perform sexual services. Michael Devlin [photo, right], the
kidnapper, was condemned to life in prison.
In Japan, 9 years of captivity
In January 2000,
a young girl was recovered by chance after over nine years of confinement. She
had been kidnapped in November of 1990, at age 9, on her way to school, and she
was then confined to a room on the second floor of her kidnapper’s home in the Niigata
region of northwestern Japan. The young prisoner, whose identity has not been
revealed, was found by paramedics who had come to for her kidnapper and take
him to the hospital at the request of his mother, who found his behavior
“strange.” In 2003, he was condemned to 14 years in prison.
thanks to testimony from a
witness. Shawn, 15 years old, announced on TV that he had a “fairly free
lifestyle” in which he was allowed to go out, ride his bike and have friends.
Nevertheless, he lived in fear, to the point that he never dared escape and was
forced to perform sexual services. Michael Devlin [photo, right], the
kidnapper, was condemned to life in prison.
