Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus have a lot to celebrate one year after their escape from Ariel Castro’s Cleveland horror house that he imprisoned the girls in, along with another victim Michelle Knight. Both girls were honored at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s annual Hope Awards Tuesday. Both Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus opened about the power of hope Tuesday night, exactly one year to the day that they escaped a decade of extreme torture in the clutches of captor Ariel Castro’s Cleveland house of horrors.
“If I could say only one thing, it would be this: Never give up hope, because miracles do happen,†Berry said, fighting back tears per NY Daily News.
Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus at the Hope Awards in Washington D.C.
Cliff Owen/AP
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children honored the two brave women at its annual Hope Awards held in Washington D.C. The event remembers missing children and recognizes who help make the world a safer place for kids.
Castro’s third victim, Michelle Knight, was not present at the event that focuses on missing children and teens. Amanda Berry disappeared back in 2003, a day before her seventeenth birthday, and 14-year-old Gina DeJesus disappeared a year later. Knight was 21-years-old when she was kidnapped in 2002.
Castro kidnapped the three women on separate occasions. He kept them from escaping by chaining them in his Cleveland horror house for more than a decade, routinely raping and beating them.
On May 6, 2013, they were finally able to escape from the Cleveland home with Berry’s 6-year-old daughter in tow, who was fathered by Castro.
Castro was sentenced to life in prison for the slew of horrific crimes last year. A month into his life sentence, he hung himself. The infamous Seymour Ave. house was demolished last year.
While in Washington D.C., Berry and DeJesus met with President Obama and Vice President Biden. They also had the opportunity to tour the White House.
Michelle Knight now goes by the name Lillian Rose Lee. Her memoir, “Finding Me,†was published this week.
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