cleveland House in kidnap, rape case is razed

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

With several swipes from the arm of an excavator and a smattering of applause from spectators, demolition began Wednesday morning on the Cleveland house where three women were held captive and raped for a decade. The house was reduced to rubble in less than an hour-and-a-half.

It was torn down as part of the plea deal that spared Ariel Castro a possible death sentence and forced him to turn over the deed to the house and pay for it to be razed. He was sentenced last week to life in prison plus 1,000 years.

But the question remains: How could the crimes go unnoticed so long in Castro’s blue-collar neighborhood?

One of the women imprisoned there, Michelle Knight, showed up early Wednesday before the work began. She made a brief statement and released balloons into the air.

“Dear Lord, give the missing people strength and power to know that they are loved,” said Knight, who had rosary beads hanging from her neck.

“We hear their cry; they are never forgotten in my heart. They are caterpillars, waiting to turn into a butterfly. They are never forgotten; they are loved.”

Knight said the array of balloons “represents all the millions of children that were never found and the ones that passed away that were never heard.”

There was applause as a relative of one victim represented the three and took the controls of the wrecking crane for the first smash into the top of the front wall. Later, as the house debris disappeared into the basement, church bells rang.

Katie Mae Brown, 62, a former resident of the street, said tearing the house down was important for the neighborhood to show “that monster — that he is behind bars and that he’s never going to get out.”

Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty said the two houses to the left of Castro’s also would be torn down and developed into a park or whatever the residents decide.

Prosecutors say Castro cried when he signed over the house deed and mentioned his “many happy memories” there with the women. They highlighted the teary-eyed scene to illustrate Castro’s “distorted and twisted” personality.

On Wednesday, McGinty called him “one evil guy.”

McGinty said the three women turned down $22,000 seized from Castro.

The confiscated money had been allocated to demolish the house, but the demolition and debris removal were donated.

The money was found in Castro’s house, including cash hidden in the washing machine.

With the demolition work donated, McGinty said the money was offered to the victims, but they asked that it be used for the community.

The Cleveland Courage Fund set up to help the women has raised more than $1.3 million.