CLEVELAND – Tuesday marks one year since three women who were missing for a decade were found alive in the Seymour Avenue home where Ariel Castro kept them captive. One year later, Cuyahoga County investigators and leaders are reflecting on the case.
It is still hard for Special Agents with the Cleveland field office to believe in the outcome.
“I remember getting the call and, have to be honest, it was six o’clock and I’m trying to get in my door and my phone’s ringing and I think, Okay I’ll call them back,’” said Special Agent Vicki Anderson. “Then it rings again, and I’m thinking, those were too close together — something’s up. So I get out my cell phone and they say, ‘They just found Gina and Amanda,’ and I said, ‘What?’ And they said, ‘They just found Gina and Amanda and another young girl, Michelle — and they’re all alive.’ And, oh my gosh, I just packed up my stuff and ran out of the house and told my family I’d be back later.”
When the news first broke, Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald was skeptical. After years of hearing about leads that turned up nothing, he was worried this would only raise hopes to end up dashing them.
“My fear right away was that it was another false alarm, it was a false lead,” FitzGerald recalled, “somebody else with a sick sense of humor or some kind of bizarre agenda that was pushed out to get attention.”
READ MORE: NewsNet5.com
Article and Picture Courtesy of WEWS NewsChannel 5
Reflections on the Seymour Avenue Rescues a Year Later was originally published on wzakcleveland.com
