The owner of the Ohio house from where three women were rescued this week a decade after they went missing faces four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape, say US prosecutors.
Ariel Castro, 52, is due to appear in court today. His brothers Pedro, 54, and Onil, 50, will not be charged. The three women held captive at a run-down US house were apparently bound with ropes and chains, police said.
Neighbours in the largely Puerto Rican neighbourhood in Cleveland, Ohio, said one of the brothers, 52-year-old Ariel Castro, had taken part in the search for one of the missing women, performed music at a fundraiser for her and attended a candlelight vigil, where he comforted her mother.
The women’s plight has riveted the US since 27-year-old Amanda Berry kicked through a screen door at the house on Monday, used a neighbour’s telephone to call authorities and told a police dispatcher: “I’m free now”.
An officer showed up minutes later, and Ms Berry ran out and threw her arms around the officer, a neighbour said. Ms Berry arrived at her sister’s home this morning to a cheering crowd.
Another of the captives, Gina DeJesus, about 23, returned to her family’s home in the afternoon to chants of “Gina! Gina!”
The third woman, Michelle Knight, 32, was reported to be in a good condition in hospital. Neither Ms Berry nor Ms DeJesus spoke publicly, and their families pleaded for patience and time alone.
“Even the ones that doubted, I want to thank them the most,” Nancy Ruiz, Ms DeJesus’s mother, said.
All three women had apparently been held captive in the house since their teens or early 20s, police said.
Law enforcement officials left many questions unanswered, including how the women were taken captive, whether they were sexually abused and who fathered Ms Berry’s six-year-old daughter.
Police spokesman Sammy Morris said ropes and chains were taken from the house. Charges were expected by the end of the day against Ariel Castro, the owner of the house where the women were discovered, and brothers Onil, 50, and Pedro, 54.
Police chief Michael McGrath said he was “absolutely” sure police did everything they could to find the women over the years, and disputed claims by neighbours that officers had been called to the house before for suspicious circumstances.
“We have no record of those calls coming in over the past 10 years,” Mr McGrath said.
On Tuesday some neighbours said they had told police years ago about hearing pounding on the doors of the home and seeing a naked woman crawling in the yard.
Mr McGrath said that the women were restrained and “released out in the back yard once in a while”.