Missing Cleveland Women 'Really, Really Strong Individuals'

The three rescued women disappeared within blocks of each other.

ByABC News
May 8, 2013, 11:23 AM

May 8, 2013— -- As the three missing Cleveland women reunited with family members who long dreamed they'd meet again, it seemed that they had also formed a family, a survival bond of their own.

Each of the victims asked to see each other while in the hospital, FBI Special Agent Vicki Anderson told ABC News.

FULL COVERAGE: Missing Cleveland Women Return Home

It was Gina DeJesus, now 23, who was the first to proudly show off drawings made by Jocelyn, the 6-year-old daughter born to Amanda Berry in captivity, Anderson said.

As authorities proceed delicately with the interview process to learn more about what the women allegedly endured in the home on Seymour Avenue, Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath said their story of survival was nothing short of miraculous.

"It's amazing. It really is amazing," he said. "It has to be a tribute to the girls, to be perfectly honest with you. They must be some really, really strong individuals."

Michele Knight

While Berry, 27, and DeJesus returned home today to raucous celebrations, Michele Knight, now 32, remained at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland.

Cleveland Police Dept. Chief Ed Tomba said authorities asked the hospital to keep Knight at the facility for another day because they "had some trouble locating family for her."

It's unclear whether Knight's mother, Barbara Knight, who lives in Florida, had reunited with her daughter at the hospital.

Knight was a young mother when she disappeared Aug. 23, 2002, her grandmother, Deborah Knight, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Knight was last seen at her cousin's house and her grandmother said the family concluded she likely left on her own because she was angry about losing custody of her child.

Barbara Knight filed a missing persons report with the Cleveland Police Department.

"Reporting person states that missing person adult has a mental condition and that she confused her surroundings, a lot," the report said.

Her case had lacked the kind of community-wide vigils and emotional television appeals on display for the other two.

Dep. Chief Tomba said Knight "was the focus of very few tips" in the past decade.

Eight months after Knight disappeared, a teenager would be abducted, just blocks away from where Knight was last seen.

Amanda Berry

On April 21, 2003, the eve of Amanda Berry's 17th birthday, the teenager disappeared after leaving her job at Burger King. She called her sister to say she was getting a ride, but Berry never returned home.

On the frontlines of the search for the teenager was her mother, Louwana Miller, who relatives said was a tenacious woman determined to bring her daughter home.

Miller hosted walks, held vigils and remained in constant contact with authorities and the media, making sure her daughter was never forgotten.

The ordeal took a toll on her health, though, said her former husband, John Berry, who lives in Tennessee.

Miller died in 2006 at the age of 43 after being hospitalized with pancreatitis. Berry said he suspects she died of a broken heart.

Ten years after her disappearance, and on the week of Mother's Day, Amanda Berry made a bolt for freedom Monday.

The world learned that the woman whom authorities hailed as the "hero" in rescuing her fellow captives was also now a mother.

Berry called her grandmother Fern Gentry of Elizabethton, Tenn., Tuesday to say that the little girl in the hospital photo is her 6-year-old daughter, Jocelyn, according to ABC News affiliate WEWS-TV, which was present during the call.

"Is the little girl your baby?" Gentry asked.