Kidnap suspect confirmed as father of child born in captivity: official

Michelle Knight, freed earlier this week as the longest held of four captives in a dungeon-like Cleveland house, was discharged from the hospital on Friday, MetroHealth Medical Center said.

Two other women held with Knight — Amanda Berry, 27, and Gina DeJesus, 23, along with a 6-year-old girl — left the hospital earlier this week and have been reunited with their families. It was unclear where Knight, 32, was headed after she was released from the hospital early Friday afternoon.

DNA tests released on Friday, meanwhile, identified their tormentor Ariel Castro, a former school bus driver charged with kidnap and rape in the decade-long abduction ordeal, as the father of the girl, who was born in captivity to Berry, the Ohio attorney general said on Friday.

Castro, 52, was arrested shortly after the four captives were found in his house in a run-down neighborhood of Cleveland on Monday.

Attorney General Mike DeWine said in a statement that forensic scientists obtained a sample of Castro’s DNA late Thursday afternoon and “worked throughout the night to confirm that Castro is the father of the six-year-old girl born in captivity to one of the kidnapping victims.”

Berry’s baby was born in a plastic inflatable children’s swimming pool on Christmas Day, 2006, authorities have said.

Knight told police she delivered the baby under Castro’s orders and after threatening to kill her if the baby died, she performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the newborn when it stopped breathing during the birth, according to a police report.

The FBI is checking Castro’s DNA sample against national cases, DeWine said. Local authorities have said Castro is not a suspect in other cases.

The Cuyahoga County prosecutor vowed on Thursday to seek murder charges, which could carry the death penalty, against Castro because police say there is evidence Knight suffered forced miscarriages.

Knight had at least five miscarriages that she told police were intentionally caused by Castro starving her and beating her in the abdomen, according to an initial police report. 

Before her discharge from the hospital, Knight was described as “in good spirits” in a statement released by MetroHealth.

“She is especially thankful for the Cleveland Courage Fund,” said the statement, referring to a charity set up to gather funds for the kidnapping victims. “She asks that everyone please continue to respect her privacy at this time.”