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US kidnap victim Knight suffered before capture
US kidnap victim Knight suffered before capture
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gGKjj-7OFFYcJaDH0sf154avuIdg?docId=CNG.ededc7b37edaf19e35bbbe5d93487a88.511
WASHINGTON — With US kidnap victim Michelle Knight now free, a horrifying story is emerging of chronic abuse and trauma well before her 11 years of captivity in the Cleveland "house of horrors" began.
The 32-year-old, one of three women dramatically rescued from a home in the major Ohio city on Monday, is the only one not to have reunited with her family.
A lawyer for the kidnapping victims read a statement from the three women on Sunday, saying they were they were happy to be home and needed time to heal.
But where fellow captives Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry spoke of rejoicing with their relatives, Knight's statement said she would "reach out to family, friends and supporters in good time."
Her smiling face -- seen in three blurry photos, the only ones released to the public -- shows a young woman with round cheeks and curly brown hair. At less than five feet (1.5 meters) tall, she was nicknamed "Shorty."
Unlike Berry, 27, and DeJesus, 23, police stopped searching for her years ago.
The 32-year-old, one of three women dramatically rescued from a home in the major Ohio city on Monday, is the only one not to have reunited with her family.
A lawyer for the kidnapping victims read a statement from the three women on Sunday, saying they were they were happy to be home and needed time to heal.
But where fellow captives Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry spoke of rejoicing with their relatives, Knight's statement said she would "reach out to family, friends and supporters in good time."
Her smiling face -- seen in three blurry photos, the only ones released to the public -- shows a young woman with round cheeks and curly brown hair. At less than five feet (1.5 meters) tall, she was nicknamed "Shorty."
Unlike Berry, 27, and DeJesus, 23, police stopped searching for her years ago.
Much more at the link. I've heard of the story-behind-the-story but honestly, this is the tragedy-behind-the-tragedy.
Look, I'm not going to say I know a person like Michelle Knight and I've never had to live the life she did before she was abducted. But there's people I have known, people who've "fallen through the cracks" in a sense, that...well...maybe you read her story and you know of a situation like the one she was in before her abduction. Maybe it's not as extreme as hers, but I'll bet you've known someone in your life that had a taste of that.
Nobody ever deserves that.
I think it's almost impossible to hit your 30's 40's and not be aware of environments such as those that Michelle Knight was imprisoned in, before she was imprisoned by her abductor. I don't have any better way to say it so I'm just going to stop there.
May there be an end to such things.
PB
