‘I’ve been missing for 10 years... I’m here, I’m free now’

The woman’s voice was frantic and breathless, and she was choking back tears. “Help me. I’m Amanda Berry,” she told a 911 dispatcher.

“I’ve been kidnapped and I’ve been missing for 10 years and I’m, I’m here, I’m free now.”

Police chief Michael McGrath said Ms Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight had apparently been held captive in a house in Cleveland since their teens or early 20s.

And last night, there were reports that the women gave birth to up to five children. Local station NewsChannel5 reported police sources as saying the women had been pregnant multiple times, with one having several miscarriages due to malnutrition, while another police source said there had been five births.

A 6-year-old girl was found in the home and deputy police chief Ed Tomba said the child is believed to be Ms Berry’s daughter. He declined to say who the father was or where the child was born, and the NewsChannel5 report did not indicate if the girl was one of the five pregnancies.

Authorities arrested three brothers in their 50s: Ariel, Pedro, and Onil Castro. One of them, former school bus driver Ariel, owned the home in a poor, rundown neighbourhood dotted with boarded-up homes.

Charles Ramsey, who kicked down the door to free Berry, said he had often had barbecues with Castro and listened to music with him.

Authorities would not say whether the women were restrained or if any of them had been sexually assaulted.

Investigators also said they had no record of any tips or calls about criminal activity at the house in the years after the victims vanished, but were still checking their files.

However, two neighbours said they were alarmed enough by what they saw at the house to call police on two occasions.

Elsie Cintron, who lives three houses away, said her daughter once saw a naked woman crawling in the backyard several years ago and called police. “But they didn’t take it seriously,” she said.

Another neighbour, Israel Lugo, said he heard pounding on some of the doors of Castro’s house, which had plastic bags on the windows, in Nov 2011. Lugo said officers called, but no one answered.

Neighbours also said they would see Castro sometimes walking a little girl to a neighbourhood playground. And Cintron said she once saw a little girl looking out of the attic window of the house.

The women were taken to hospital and, after being reunited with their families, were moved to undisclosed locations near the city.