Her grandmother assures that neither she nor her mother have been able to see her because her granddaughter did not want to.
A councilor assures that Knight was the most mistreated by Ariel Castro.
Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus woke up yesterday in their home and surrounded by their family, after the 10 years of captivity to which Ariel Castro subjected them. Michelle Knight, the first girl Castro kidnapped, has done so in a hospital bed and alone. Her grandmother, Deborah Knight, has assured EL PAÍS that the 32-year-old has refused to see her family. Since she was released on Monday, neither grandmother nor mother, Barbara Knight, have been able to see her.
While the FBI and police never closed the investigation into Berry and DeJesus’ disappearances, inquiries into Knight’s whereabouts were soon dropped. They believed Knight left his family of his own free will, devastated after losing custody of his son.
In a telephone conversation, Mrs. Knight acknowledged that she does not know why her granddaughter has not wanted to see the family after 10 years. “I don’t know the causes. They only told us that he refused to see us ”, he explained. He also does not know the reasons why Michelle is still in the hospital. “We have asked but they have not communicated anything to us, only that he is well and in a good mood,” he says. They do not know if, since Monday, Michelle has met with other people. Perhaps with her 13-year-old son, named Joseph Knight, the fruit of rape. “She got pregnant and had the baby,” said Mrs. Knight. “We have not had contact with him since custody was taken from him,” Deborah laments.
But she insists that neither she nor Michelle’s mother ever stopped looking for the girl. Barbara Knight says she never stopped putting up posters all over the neighborhood, even on the door behind which she was held captive. But two years ago he moved from Cleveland to Florida “for health reasons.” “He came on Tuesday, he came back and now he’s here with me,” says Grandma. The mother told a local network that she believed that Michelle was receiving special treatment at the hospital “for her mental problems and others that she might suffer.” His grandmother did not want to confirm this circumstance.
Knight disappeared on August 23, 2002, after visiting a cousin, very close to where, almost a year later, Berry was last seen and two streets beyond the phone booth where Gina DeJesus’ trail was lost, in 2004. The police and the FBI never linked Knight’s case to the others and spent little time on it. Vigils held in the neighborhood on each anniversary of the girls’ absences never included Michelle Knight’s name. Although the police have not confirmed any details, the CNN network has assured that during their confinement the young women followed these vigils on television. Knight’s grandmother does not know if that led the girl to think that her family did not care about her. “The television has said that we never look for it, but that is not true. I don’t know what Michelle could believe,
Various sources affirm that Knight was the one who suffered the most abuse during her confinement. They explain that Castro threatened Knight to follow the same fate as the baby his partner Amanda Berry was giving birth if he couldn’t get it to be born alive. Authorities say Berry gave birth in an inflatable pool on Christmas Day 2006. A Cleveland City Councilman, Brian Cummins, has also confirmed that one of the three girls, he doesn’t know which one, suffered at least five miscarriages. provoked by Castro by beating her and forcing her not to eat.
When Michelle’s grandmother and mother were informed of the young woman’s appearance, they felt “amazing happiness.” A joy that, for now, they have not been able to share with her, the girl who spent the most time locked up in the house on Seymour Avenue and who was least sought after.