10 Seemingly Normal People Who Kept Human Captives

Between 2002 and 2004, Cleveland residents Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Georgina "Gina" DeJesus vanished after taking a ride home from Ariel Castro.Ariel CastroCastro lured each girl, restrained them, and locked them in his basement. Neighborhood people saw Castro as just another guy; no one knew he keptthreegirls captive in hishomeat 2207 Seymour Avenue (three miles from the area where they were all taken) for 10 years.

On May 6, 2013, Amanda Berry escaped with her six-year-old daughter. She got neighbors' attention and called the police from a home. She claimed to be Amanda Berry, saying she had been missing for 10 years and escaped. She sent Cleveland PD to Castro’s house to free the other two women.

Castro admitted guilt for the kidnappings: 937 counts of assault and aggravated murder. He received a life sentence but spent a month in prison before killing himself.

In 1990, Nobuyuki Satō was 28 and shared an apartment with his elderly mother. This apartment sat only 200 yards from a police station, yet Satō managed tokeepnine-year-oldFusako Sanolocked up in an upstairsbedroomfor nine years and two months without anyone knowing.

Satō cut off her hair and dressed her in men’s clothes.

Fusako was taken with Nobuyuki to a hospital; there she found a police officer and identified herself to him. It is unclear why.

In Amstetten, Austria, 18-year-old Elisabeth Fritzl disappeared in 1984. Her father, Josef Fritzl, reported her missing. He had groomed her since she was 11, lured her to the cellar, and locked her in. He made her write a letter saying she ran away and joined a cult, showing it to her mother and police to mislead everyone. Since Elisabeth was 18 and the letter said not to look for her, there was little police action. Fritzl kept his daughter in a windowless, soundproof prison under the house, accessible only through a small door in a cabinet.

His wife, Elisabeth’s mother, knew nothing of this. Elisabeth gave birth to seven of her father’s children; three of the six surviving children moved upstairs to the main house. Fritzl told his wife Rosemarie that their runaway daughter repeatedly left her children on the doorstep for them to raise.

The other three children stayed in the basement with Elisabeth, never seeing daylight. Kerstin finally got sick and lost consciousness. Fritzl lied to his wife again, claiming their lost daughter returned to drop off another child needing medical care. They took Kerstin to the hospital; doctors found kidney failure and put her in a sleeping state. Doctors sent a public plea asking Elisabeth, still thought to be wandering perhaps in a cult, to come forward for her daughter's medical history.

It was 2008.The truth came out.Elisabeth (42 years old then) and her hidden children (Kerstin, 19; Stefan, 18; and Felix, 5) finally left their dark prison, shocked by sunlight and the outside world. Fritzl brought his daughter to the hospital, claiming she appeared on his doorstep after the public plea, but hospital DNA testing proved the awful truth: these children were all Josef's offspring and grandchildren.

Josef Fritzl stood trial for the infant Michael's passing and for everything he did to his daughter in captivity. He pleaded guilty to all charges and received a life sentence. Elisabeth and all six of her children and her mother reconnected and started intensive therapy; they adjust and thrive outside.

Gertrude Baniszewski was paid to care for sisters.Sylvia.Gertrude Baniszewski held Sylvia and Jenny Likens captive while their parents worked as carnival laborers. The Baniszewski family physically and verbally abused both Likens girls until the focus moved only to Sylvia.The Baniszewski family.The Baniszewski family physically and verbally abused both Likens girls until the focus shifted solely to Sylvia.

Everyone told Sylvia she prostituted herself and ran off with men. Baniszewski even forced Sylvia to write a letter to her parents confirming these lies.

In October 1965, Sylvia Likens died in the basement. Brain hemorrhaging was her official cause of death. After finding Sylvia dead, Baniszewski made up a story for the police, claiming young men attacked Sylvia. But when the police investigated, Jenny seized the chance to say, “get me out of here I’ll tell you everything.”

Gertrude Baniszewski and her.daughter.Richard Hobbs, Coy Hubbard, and John Baniszewski, Jr. received life sentences. The court gave them two to twenty-one years for their roles in the abuse.

Michael J. Devlin.abducted 11-year-old Shawn Hornbeck.In 2002, Shawn spent over four years captive in Delvin’s Missouri home.Delvin threatened and abused the boy. He made Shawn terrified of escaping and even made Shawn take the last name Delvin.Delvin threatened and abused the boy. He made the boy terrified to escape. Delvin even forced Shawn to take his last name.

Devlin abducted 13-year-old Ben Ownby. Mitchell Hults recognized Devlin’s truck. Police raided his home four days after Ben vanished. Police found Ben Ownby and also Shawn Hornbeck. Both boys returned to their families. Devlin got convicted of the kidnappings and serves life sentences since 2008.

Colleen StanCameron Hooker, 23, and his 19-year-old wife Janice picked up Colleen Stan while she was hitchhiking. They drove her to a wooded area and used a knife. Hooker forced Colleen to wear a blindfold and gag. Then, he strapped a 20-pound wooden box around her head. They stopped at a home where Colleen remained a prisoner for seven years.

Cameron placed Colleen in a small, coffin-like box at bedtime. He slid her under his bed.ColleenColleen believed Hooker belonged to a larger group named “the company.” She believed escaping the company would result in harm. Hooker made her sign a “slave contract.”

Colleen spent most of her captivity in the box under the bed. Janice wanted her husband's help, so Janice helped Colleen escape after this continued.

Cameron was found guilty. The court sentenced him to 104 years in prison.

Marc DutrouxMarc Dutroux and his wife Michelle Martin appeared like a normal couple to neighbors. However, the couple kept a 12-year-old girl captive in their home. Dutroux was a serial killer Belgian authorities sought.

Sabine Dardenne was the child. She was 12 years old when serial killer and child molester Mark Dutroux kidnapped her in 1996. Dutroux snatched little Sabine while she was biking and locked her in his basement. He abused her repeatedly forShe spent 80 days chained up.This happened in his home.

Dutroux also caused the deaths of four other young girls.

After Dutroux kidnapped another girl, 14-year-old LaetitiaDelhezHe was placed at the scene because his car was recognized. The two girls were found after Dutroux was arrested.

Police could not get a confession from Dutroux for the murders. They had enough evidence to give him life in prison. His wife and accompliceMichelle MartinMichelle Martin received a 30-year prison sentence for letting those two girls starve in the basement. She served 16 years before release.

In 1998, 10-year-oldNatascha KampuschWolfgang Priklopil dragged Natascha into a van. Her location remained unknown for eight years. Wolfgang Priklopil kidnapped Natascha.Natascha.

Natascha had to meet all of Priklopil’s OCD demands. If she left a fingerprint, he would beat her. He wanted no stray hairs, so he put a plastic bag over her hair. Then, he shaved all her hair off. She suffered physical abuse, rape, and severe starvation.

One day, while he turned his back for a call, she ran. She ran fast, seeking help from the police. She got rescued. Priklopil committed suicide by jumping in front of a train before anyone could catch him.

People living near registered sex offenders.Phillip Garrido.Phillip Garrido did not know about his criminal history. If he had known, some red flags would have appeared once he started moving around with two children. The children were his, and their mother was.Jaycee Dugard.Garrido shocked the 11-year-old Jaycee with a stun gun and kidnapped her in 1991. He locked her in his home and raped her, impregnating her twice.

Garrido’s wife, Nancy, chose Jaycee. She checked the neighborhood, picked Jaycee, and sent her husband out, knowing the girl would walk home alone. The twisted couple raised Jaycee’s children as their own, making Jaycee act like their sister.

Jaycee stayed locked in a small, soundproof storage unit. Later, she moved to a larger unit, still handcuffed to the bed. Jaycee received a warm meal only after her first pregnancy at age 13. By age 16, she was delivering her second daughter.

Jaycee left the house using the name “Allissa.” She avoided admitting what happened, suffering from severe Stockholm Syndrome, and tried to cover for Garrido. On August 26, 2009, the Garridos brought Jaycee and her daughters to a parole meeting, claiming they were relatives, and Jaycee agreed.

Garrido was a registered sex offender, and the young girl’s presence started a police investigation. They broke Garrido, and he confessed everything. Jaycee returned home. The Garridos faced 29 felony counts, including kidnapping, rape, and false imprisonment. Nancy received a 34-year sentence, and Phillip got 431 years in prison. Jaycee and her daughters healed and built good lives.

A 73-year-old British man, Aravindan Balakrishnan, and his wife, 67-year-old Chanda Pattni, kept.three women as slaves.The three women (69-year-old Aishah Wahab, 57-year-old Josephine Herivel, and 30-year-old Rosie Davies) were freed on October 25, 2013. Police arrived at the home on October 25, 2013, after receiving the address. The home looked normal in a neighborhood like any other. This was the last place anyone expected to find three terrified and brainwashed women held against their will for most of their lives. The women endured severe emotional and physical abuse; they would not even try to escape.

Balakrishnan led the Workers' Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. There, he met two women, and the brainwashing started. Rose, the youngest, was taken in as a child after her mother died under strange circumstances. She allegedly fell from a window in a commune with the people who became her daughter's captors.

The Freedom Charity tipped off police. They got a call on October 18 from a woman who claimed she was held against her will for over 30 years, with two other women trapped with her.

It happened after watching the documentaryThey were forced into marriage.Interviewing the Freedom Charity founder about forced marriages made the women contact them forhelp them get free.

The women had little privacy or freedom to move. They found a brief time to use the phone. Calls to charity reps helped them find their exact location and plan. The rescue happened on October 25th. All three women walked out and entered the Met's human trafficking unit.

In 2014, a judge sentenced Balakrishnan to 23 years in prison for false imprisonment, child cruelty, four counts of rape, six counts of indecent assault, and two counts of assault. His wife, Chanda Pattni, served only 10 months, thenshe was released in early 2014insufficient evidence meant she was not convicted.