Cleveland Girl Born in Captivity 'Smiling,' Eating Popsicles
CLEVELAND May 7, 2013 — -- Police believe one of the men accused of kidnapping three Cleveland women and keeping them prisoners for a decade, is likely the father of a 6-year-old girl, whose mother was abducted off a Cleveland street when she was just a teenager.
A young girl, identified as the daughter of Amanda Berry, was rescued from a modest Cleveland home on Monday along with her mother and two other woman, Gina DeJesus, 27, and Michelle Knight, 32, after Berry broke free and called 911.
The little girl, named Jocelyn, ate popsicles in the hospital room in which she and her mother were examined after all four females were takes to Metro Medical Center, said Cleveland Police Deputy Chief Ed Tomba.
"She looks great, happy, healthy and ate a popsicle last night," Tomba said of the little girl, who may have been born and raised in the very house in which her mother was a captive.
"Seeing her mother smile made her smile," Tomba said.
FBI Special Agent Vicki Anderson told ABC News that Jocelyn is missing a front tooth and that Berry had been schooling her daughter in the home.
Police said the women knew each other in the home, and while in the hospital asked to visit one another. It was DeJesus who proudly showed off to investigators a drawing the little girl had made.
Police will soon work to determine the girl's paternity using DNA tests, Tomba said, but given the circumstances of Berry's imprisonment it was likely that Jocelyn's father was one of three brothers arrested in connection to the women's captivity.
"It's a good possibility one of them is," Tomba said.
Those men are Ariel Castro, 52, who owned the home on Seymour Avenue in which the women were found and his two brothers Onil Castro, 50, and Pedro Castro, 54.
Tomba said investigators were working to determine if the girl had ever left the house, but said she likely would have gone unnoticed by police who were not looking for a child.
All three women were abducted between 2002 and 2004, Berry and DeJesus were in their teens at the time of their kidnappings and Knight was 20 years old.
On Monday evening, Berry began screaming from behind the locked front door of the home where she and the other women were being held. Neighbors heard her and held kick open the door and then called police, ending what one FBI agent called the women's "nightmare. "
