The Cleveland case prompted the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to convene its first-ever summit on long-term missing children.
In April 2014, nearly two hundred investigators, pediatricians, anthropologists, medical examiners, behavioral scientists, and others involved in missing-children cases gathered outside Washington to consider the question: “Are we doing enough?”
The officials noted that an increasing number of long-term missing children were being found alive, including in recent years Jaycee Dugard and Elizabeth Smart. But they also observed that none of those cases had been solved directly because of traditional police investigations into their disappearances. Amanda, Gina, and Michelle escaped on their own. Dugard was found when police became suspicious of her abductor for a completely unrelated matter. Smart was found when a viewer of America’s Most Wanted recognized her abductor from a suspect composite made by Smart’s sister.
About four hundred thousand children a year are reported missing in the United States. Most of them turn out to be runaways, and others are taken by family members in custody disputes. Those situations can result in violence to children. A stranger abduction, the stereotypical classical kidnapping, is more rare but there are still about one hundred cases a year. That means that every three or four days a child is kidnapped somewhere in America.
In cases where children have been abducted by strangers, the longer they are missing, the greater the likelihood that they are not alive. However, the center is stressing to law enforcement that, contrary to conventional wisdom, many long-term missing children may still be alive.
One young woman still missing is Ashley Summers, who was fourteen when she disappeared in July 2007, less than a mile from where Amanda and Gina were taken.
For years Amanda’s and Gina’s photos were shown alongside Ashley’s, on “missing” posters, on the big screen at the Cleveland Cavaliers game, and on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
On the day Amanda and Gina escaped, Ashley’s mother, Jennifer, heard that a third woman had escaped with them and she prayed it was her daughter. She frantically called Jen Meyers at the FBI, who broke the bad news.
One morning in September 2014, Amanda walked into the bagel shop where Jennifer Summers works. They didn’t know each other, but Jennifer recognized Amanda immediately from having seen her on TV. She was struck by how Amanda, free after all those years, looked so radiant and happy.
And she wondered: When will we find Ashley?
2015
Amanda
Jocelyn now attends a regular school and has her own little desk, just like all the other kids. She loves school, and when she comes home she tells me the names of all her new friends and what they did at recess and circle time.
I still worry what others kids will say to her. Before she walked into a big classroom after all those years of being homeschooled, I asked my child psychologist to help me come up with the best way to explain to her more about her father. I didn’t want a stranger to be the first one to tell her things she didn’t know—or worse, to tell her their version of what happened before she could hear it from me.
I did tell Joce that her father had died, but not much else, and she never asked. I think that deep down she knew there were things she didn’t really want to hear. She sees people stop me in the grocery store and ask, “Are you Amanda Berry?” and she saw my picture on the cover of People magazine, and all she says is, “Mom, you’re famous!” but never asks why.
Before her first day of the second grade I told her that her daddy had a mental illness that caused him to do bad things. I told her that some people are sick in the stomach, and that Daddy was sick in his mind, and that was why he took me away from my family. For many years nobody knew if I was alive or not, and that is why people are now so happy to see me. And I also told her that he loved her very much. Her response was to hug me and tell me that everything would be okay.
Thanks to Joce, I also have new friends. I love her teacher, and we hang out sometimes. Joce loves her, too, and tells me, “You are my first favorite teacher, and she is my second favorite teacher.” That makes me smile.
Joce has a best friend at school, and her mom and I have also become friends. We all went to a Cavaliers game and saw LeBron James. It’s exciting to see him back in Cleveland. This city has so many great people, and they deserve some good news!
When there is a knock at my door on this quiet street, it’s usually Joe Wooley, the son of my lawyer, Jim Wooley. Joe is a medical student who is about my age, and he gets me. He is funny and makes me laugh. We never talk about the past but about what’s happening today and what we are planning for tomorrow. He’s always fixing something in the house, or putting up the Christmas tree, or assembling a trampoline for Jocelyn. Once he came with his girlfriend, and they played with Jocelyn for hours.
When I see flyers of missing children that come with the ads in the newspaper, I memorize what the boy or girl looks like and focus on some feature that would not change with age. I think we all need to do more for missing children. Many people drive by a billboard with a missing kid’s photo or walk by a flyer on a store door and don’t really even pay attention to them.
When the police first came to my house, my mom was sure I had been kidnapped, but they didn’t take her seriously. That’s just wrong. Even if a lot of teens do run away, when a mother says her kid is in trouble, the police should listen and not tell her they know better. As the years dragged on, most people thought I was dead. So why should there be an ongoing all-out investigation, especially when bank robberies and other crimes occur every day? Why spend the time? I am why. Gina and Michelle are why.
I spend a lot of time being grateful. Especially to all the kind people, many I don’t even know, who have helped me. I am grateful that every day I see Beth, Teddy, and their kids. Beth hasn’t been well, and I am grateful to be able to help take care of her now. The Courage Fund gave me enough money to buy her a new car that is big enough for all seven of us. Her old car broke down all the time, and it’s great to be able to solve that problem for her. I take her to doctors’ appointments and I help out with her kids when she isn’t strong enough. I can never, ever pay her back for all she did while I was gone, but I am going to spend the rest of my life trying.
I think a lot about the rest of my life, and I still don’t know what it’s going to look like. Now that Jocelyn is in school, I need to get working on my high school diploma. I want to get a job, hopefully doing something that will help other people. Maybe I can get some training so that I can become some kind of counselor.
I have noticed something interesting about myself over the past year: I’m becoming less afraid of life. Before I was taken, I didn’t even go to school dances. I stayed in my safe zone and was afraid to try new things. Now I push myself. I was terrified about getting on an airplane, but I did and had a wonderful trip to Washington. I pushed myself to get my driver’s license and now I love the freedom of picking up the car keys and, without telling anybody, walking out the door and driving anywhere I want.
One of these days maybe Joce and I will get in the car and go to New York. I’ve always wanted to see it after all those years watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, first with my mom and then when I was locked inside Seymour Avenue. New York has always been this magical place that just existed on TV. Now it’s not a dream anymore, it’s a destination.
I can get there.
Gina
I recently got my first job and love it. I work in a restaurant. I walked into the place not long after I got out of Seymour Avenue and just got a good feeling there. So months later I went back, filled out an application, and right after my interview they made me a hostess seating people. I answer the phones, too. Every time I walk in the door of the restaurant I’m excited. My boss is great, and it’s nice to meet new people. If any customers have recognized me they haven’t said anything.
I was also able to move out of my old neighborhood and buy a house in the Cleveland suburbs. I’m glad I was able to do that for my family. We have a yard now for Lala and our other dog, Oreo, and my mom has room to plant a garden. She has always wanted to grow her own tomatoes and cucumbers.
The new house has two entrances, and I live on the side that’s like an in-law suite. Everyone else—my parents, my brother, my sister, and her two kids—are on the main side of the house. We eat together, and I hang out over there all the time, but I also can escape when my nieces get too loud and crazy. For the first time in my life, I have my own bedroom and bathroom. In my old house we had one bathroom for seven people, so someone was always yelling at someone else to hurry up. Now we have three and a half bathrooms! I feel lucky.
I’ve reconnected with Chrissy, too. She’s busy with a boyfriend and a job and she lives on the opposite side of Cleveland now, but we send funny texts to each other. People ask me what I think of men, and I say my dad and my brother are great and I would like to meet a wonderful guy someday and have kids. But for now most of my time is spent studying for my high school diploma and working.
Every day I try to keep thinking about now and next, and not about the past. I am trying new things and going new places that make me feel like I have a fresh start on life. Some days it’s easy. Others, not.
I used to blame everybody for what happened to me. I blamed Arlene and Arlene’s mother for not figuring out who kidnapped us. I blamed the people who came into that house and didn’t figure out that we were there. I thought the neighbors on Seymour were so dumb for not realizing what was going on. I was upset that the police and FBI couldn’t find me. It even got to the point where I was mad at my own family, because they were living their lives while I was stuck. But I don’t think like that at all anymore. I know that nobody is to blame for this except Ariel Castro. Not me, not my family, not anybody else. Just one very bad man.
But enough of him. I’m focused on the future. I’m going to travel. I want to see Europe and visit Spain and Italy. I would like to go to Puerto Rico and to the pyramids in Egypt. I want to go skydiving, maybe even bungee jumping. I would never have even thought about doing something like that before I was kidnapped, but now I want to try things that make me feel like I am living every minute to the fullest.
And then I can come back to my cozy new house, where I can find peace and pray to God to watch over my family and keep us all safe.