3 women who had been missing for decade found at Cleveland home; man arrested

CLEVELAND - Three women who went missing about a decade ago were found alive Monday in a residential area just south of downtown, and a man was arrested.

Cheering crowds gathered Monday night on the street near the home where police said Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight were found earlier in the day.

Police didn't immediately provide any details of how the women were found but said they appeared to be in good health.

Berry disappeared at age 16 on April 21, 2003, when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at a Burger King fast food restaurant. DeJesus went missing at age 14 on her way home from school about a year later. They were found just a few miles (kilometres) from where they had gone missing.

The Plain Dealer newspaper reports Knight had been missing since 2002.

Police said a 52-year-old man was arrested. There was no immediate word on charges.

Loved ones said they hadn't given up hope of seeing Berry and DeJesus again. Among them was Kayla Rogers, a childhood friend of DeJesus.

"I've been praying, never forgot about her, ever," Rogers told The Plain Dealer. "This is amazing. This is a celebration. I'm so happy. I just want to see her walk out of those doors so I can hug her."

Berry's cousin Tasheena Mitchell told the newspaper she couldn't wait to have Berry in her arms.

"I'm going to hold her, and I'm going to squeeze her and I probably won't let her go," she said.

In January, a prison inmate was sentenced to 4 1/2 years after admitting he provided a false burial tip in the disappearance of Berry, who had last been seen the day before her 17th birthday. A judge in Cleveland sentenced Robert Wolford on his guilty plea to obstruction of justice, making a false report and making a false alarm.

Last summer, Wolford tipped authorities to look for Berry's remains in a Cleveland lot. He was taken to the location, which was dug up with backhoes.

Berry's mother, Louwana Miller, who had been hospitalized for months with pancreatitis and other ailments, died in March 2006. She had spent the previous three years looking for her daughter, whose disappearance took a toll as her health steadily deteriorated, family and friends said.

Two men arrested for questioning in the disappearance of DeJesus in 2004 were released from the city jail in 2006 after officers did not find her body during a search of the men's house.

One of the men was transferred to the Cuyahoga County Jail on unrelated charges, while the other was allowed to go free, police said.

In September 2006, police acting on a tip tore up the concrete floor of the garage and used a cadaver dog to search unsuccessfully for DeJesus' body.

No special alert was issued the day DeJesus failed to return home from school in April 2004 because no one witnessed her abduction. The lack of an alert angered her father, Felix DeJesus, who said in 2006 he believed the public will listen even if the alerts become routine.

___

Associated Press writer Kantele Franko in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.