House of horrors survivor held captive for a decade by Ariel Castro joins local TV affiliate to help find missing people
- Amanda Berry was kidnapped by Ariel Castro in 2003 aged 16 and kept captive for a decade
- She says she was chained up in the basement, raped repeatedly and beaten
- Now she has joined the Fox 8 News team for a daily segment on missing persons
- Berry will focus on a different missing individual every day, sharing their story and how viewers can help the authorities track them down
- 'When I was missing, people who were looking for me never gave up,' she said
- 'My wish is that this segment will not only help find those who are missing but offer hope for the loved ones who are looking for them'
- Berry, her child - fathered by Castro while she was a captive - and fellow abductees Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were freed by police in 2013
A woman who was kidnapped and kept captive in Ariel Castro's house of horrors for a decade is joining a local news team to help find missing persons.
Amanda Berry suffered a decade of rape, torture and psychological torment at the hands of Castro after she was lured to his Cleveland, Ohio, home in 2003, aged just 16.
On Sunday, in a pre-Super Bowl commercial, Berry announced she was joining the Fox 8 News team on Monday for a missing persons segment.
As host of the daily feature, Berry will report on a different missing person from Northeast Ohio each day. She will tell the story of people who have disappeared and provide information on how viewers can help trace them.
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Amanda Berry, who was kidnapped and kept captive in Ariel Castro's house of horrors for a decade, is joining a local news team to help find missing persons
On Sunday, in a pre-Super Bowl commercial, Berry announced she was joining the Fox 8 News team on Monday for a missing persons segment
As host of the daily feature, Berry will report on a different missing person from Northeast Ohio each day. She will tell the story of people who have disappeared and provide information
'I'm thrilled to be joining the Fox 8 News team for this important segment,' said Berry. 'When I was missing, the people who were looking for me never gave up. My wish is that this segment will not only help find those who are missing but offer hope for the loved ones who are looking for them.'
Berry was one of three women abducted and held by Castro until May 6, 2013, when she, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, were freed by police.
The women described a real-life house of horrors where they were repeatedly beaten, raped and kept in chains for more than a decade.
Berry's daughter, which Castro fathered during the years of abuse, was also freed.
Castro was arrested and jailed for more than 1,000 years for hundreds of charges including rape and kidnapping. He hung himself in 2013 just one month into his sentence.
Berry (left) was one of three women abducted and held by Castro until May 6, 2013, when she, Gina DeJesus (center) and Michelle Knight (right) were freed by police
DeJesus and Berry have since published a joint memoir about their experience. Berry described how Castro lured her into his home on April 21, 2003, on a promise to see his daughter, her acquaintance.
He barricaded the then-16-year-old in a room, told her to pull down her pants and raped her. She was then chained in the basement and repeatedly abused.
Castro placed a tall, beige trash can next to the bed so that Amanda could use it as a 'bathroom'.
Four days after she was captured, Castro turned on the news and saw her mother pleading for her safe return. She said that a silent Castro watched Louwana Miller beg for her daughter to come home.
'He has an odd look on his face, and then I realize: He's proud,' Amanda wrote about her monstrous captor.
She also described in a People interview how Castro was much stronger than he looked, packing muscle beneath his rotund figure.
In chains: Ariel Castro killed himself in prison in September 2013 after being sentenced to life in prison plus 1,000 years for abducting the three women
'To be around him was scary,' Amanda recalled.'He had these cold black eyes. We were afraid we were going to die.'
Berry described the psychological tricks that Castro played on her, pretending that he had called her mom and allowing her to listen to voicemails from her desperately worried family.
At one point, he allowed her to read an article in the local newspaper, the Plain Dealer, where her mom spoke of her worry.
Berry then recalled of Castro's reaction: 'It turns him on to see how much it hurts me to read the article.'
Gina DeJesus was abducted using a similar ploy by Castro a year later. She described her abductor to People as 'always prepared'.
Both Gina and Berry, said Castro raped them up to five times a day, forcing them to tell him they 'want it, love it' and that he was 'sexy'.
An FBI investigator told GMA that doors were used to cover the windows, turning areas of the home into a fortress. The doors were bolted to the wall - and then those bolts were sheared off.
The house on Seymour Avenue in Cleveland Ohio where Amanda Berry kicked her way to freedom on May 6, 2013, more than a decade after she went missing
Investigation photographs from the Castro home where doors were bolted over windows - and then the bolts sheared off, keeping the three women captive for a decade
Amanda Berry gave birth to a daughter Jocelyn in captivity. She tried to shield her daughter from the horrifying reality of their lives and even set up a kindergarten in the room
It later emerged that Michelle Knight had been imprisoned in a separate bedroom since August 2002.
A month after learning that her mother, Louwana Miller, had died, Amanda, realized she was pregnant by Castro in April 2006.
Despite the misery of their lives, often chained, starved and sexually abused, the women found comfort in the birth of Amanda's baby girl by Castro in 2006.
Amanda described the moment that she first laid eyes on her baby, Jocelyn.
'It was amazing,' she said. 'She was so quiet and she was just the most beautiful thing.'
She explained how she tried to shield Jocelyn from the horrors of their lives by creating a kindergarten in the one-room prison where Castro held them.
Evidence pictures revealed a cramped room with no natural light but the walls decorated with colorful drawings and a pink Barbie desk set up next to a bed with a neat row of soft toys.
Amanda Berry, pictured following her escape from Ariel Castro's 'house of horrors' with her sister (left) and daughter Jocelyn (right) in 2013
The mom even dreamed up a 'walk to school' for her daughter each morning when she had turned five.
Amanda said: 'We would pretend - leave our house, all of us in the same room of course.
'I would tell her, ''okay, we're at a street now, so you have to stop. Then you look both ways for cars and then we can go across the street. Okay, we're at school now.''
The Cleveland 'house of horrors' survivors wrote a book that was published on April 27
'I'd sit her at her little desk and tell her, ''okay you have a good day at school now. Mommy will be back later for you.'''
Finally on May 6, 2013, Amanda said it was her daughter who noticed that the women were alone in the house.
She recalled that her daughter told her 'mom, daddy's car is gone'.
Amanda knew that this was her opportunity to break free.
'My heart immediately started pounding. Should I chance it? If I'm going to do it, I need to do it now.'
On May 6, Berry grabbed her daughter and bolted for the front door, kicking her way out through a bottom panel. She returned with police who freed the other captives and arrested Castro.
You can see Berry's daily missing segments on FOX 8 News on Monday at noon, 6pm and 10pm.
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