Missing Cleveland Women 'Really, Really Strong Individuals'

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.

"Yeah, she's my daughter, she was born on Christmas," Berry said.

After spending a day at an undisclosed location, Berry decided she was ready to head to a new home today.

A motorcade escorted Berry and her daughter to her sister Beth Serrano's house, where they were ushered through a back door out of the view of cameras.

The front porch and bushes of the home were festooned with balloons and teddy bears and a phalanx of media out front.

Berry's cousin, Michael Sneed, told ABC News Tuesday he was proud of his cousin's bravery.

"To overcome that control, break free, and that power these men had on her, she took it on herself, her baby and the other girls," he said. "She's phenomenal."

Gina DeJesus

Gina DeJesus spent most of her teen years allegedly in captivity at a home owned by her friend's father.

She was 14 when she disappeared when walking home from school April 2, 2004, within blocks of where Knight and Berry were last seen.

In a 2004 episode of "America's Most Wanted," suspect Ariel Castro's daughter, Arlene, claimed she was the last person to see DeJesus.

"She gave me 50 cents to call my mom, and so my mom said, 'No,' that I can't go over to her house. And so I told her I couldn't and she said, 'Well, OK. I'll talk to you later,' and she just walked," Castro said.

Through the years, DeJesus' name remained in investigators' minds. Acting on tips, they dug up lots but found no signs of the teenager.

"I knew my daughter was out there alive. I knew she needed me and I never gave up, never gave up searching for her," Gina's father, Felix DeJesus, said today.

When DeJesus was reunited with her father at the hospital, family members told ABC News she asked him, "Dad, did you stop smoking yet?"

During her time in captivity, relatives added, DeJesus forgot how to speak Spanish.

This afternoon, for the first time in nearly a decade, DeJesus came home to a celebration. A crowd cheered the 23-year-old as she stepped out of a car in a hoodie and was ushered into her home.

DeJesus kept her face hidden, but her gesture, a thumbs up, said it all.

ABC News' David Muir, Byron Pitts and Anthony Castellano contributed reporting.