WOIO TV via AFP - Getty Images
Amanda Berry (right) was reunited with her sister on Monday after Berry and two other women were found alive in a house in Cleveland, Ohio.
By Andrew Rafferty and Matt DeLuca, NBC News
?Help me, I?m Amanda Berry.?
With one frantic 911 call on Monday evening, three women missing for years were found in a Cleveland house where they had been held against their will, police in Ohio said.
?I?ve been kidnapped,? Berry, who disappeared a decade ago, told the dispatcher. ?I?ve been missing for 10 years and I?m out here. I?m free now.?
Officials confirm that one man has been arrested after three Ohio women were found alive after being missing for a decade.
Berry and two other women, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight, went missing between 2000 and 2004 in separate incidents. The women were all between the ages of 14 and 20 when they vanished.
Neighbors and relatives celebrated the happy ending, but for some, the years had taken their toll. Berry?s mother died in 2006, not knowing whether her daughter was alive or dead.
Three suspects are under arrest, the Cleveland Division of Police reported. The men were identified as Hispanic males aged 50, 52, and 54. A search warrant related to the arrest was executed by police at an address on Seymour Avenue in Cleveland, police said. Police are expected to hold a news conference Tuesday to provide more details.
The three women were taken to a hospital and were reported to be in ?fair condition? on Tuesday morning, a nursing supervisor at Metro Health Medical Center said. At a news conference on Monday evening, Dr. Gerald Maloney of Metro Health Medical declined to comment on whether the child brought out of the house by Berry had also been admitted.
The three disappearances had stumped police in Cleveland and shaken the community for years. Berry, now 27, was reported missing on April 21, 2003 after she phoned her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at a fast food restaurant. About one year after that, 14-year-old DeJesus vanished while walking home from school.
Neighbor Charles Ramsey said he was at home when he saw a man from across the street running to the house next door. When Ramsey went outside, he said, he saw a young woman who said she was trying to escape the house.
?This girl is kicking the door and screaming,? Ramsey said. ?She says, ?I?ve been kidnapped and I?ve been in this house a long time and I want to leave right now.??
Police in Cleveland made an amazing discovery -- three young women who went missing a decade ago were found alive and safe. Rachel Dissell, a reporter for Cleveland Plain Dealer, who's been following this story for 10 years, shares the latest details in the case.
When the door would not open Ramsey helped kick it down, he said, then allowed Berry to call 911. The young woman carried out a child through the broken door, and told Ramsey it belonged to her captor. Police then entered the house and brought out Dejesus and Knight, according to Ramsey.
Shocked relatives could hardly believe that their missing family members had been found after so many years.
Michele Knight?s mother Barbara told The Plain Dealer newspaper that she prayed police had correctly identified her daughter.
"I'm praying that if it is her, she will come back with me so I can help her recover from what she has been through," the hopeful mother said. "So much has happened in these 10 years. She has a younger sister she still has not met. I missed her so much while she was gone."
Destiny Berry, cousin to Amanda, told WKYC: "I just want to see her; I just want to see what she looks like. I just want to hold her."
Destiny and her sister were best friends with Amanda before her disappearance. "We were so close, inseparable. And when she came up missing it killed us. Going 10 years without knowing what happened to her, not knowing anything tears us apart,? she said.
Another of Berry?s cousins, Tasheena Mitchell, told WKYC that she was "so excited.?
The Cleveland Plain Dealer file
Amanda Berry (left) and Gina DeJesus (right) went missing about a decade ago.
"I thought about her every day. I prayed about her every night. I?m just so excited that we?re here. And we?re so close but so far away because they won?t let us in," she said. "I knew that she would come one day. I just don?t understand why it took so long. I?m just happy that she?s here."
The DeJesus family continued to hold out hope, holding vigils for her. DeJesus' mother, Nancy Ruiz, told WKYC at one in April: "She's still out there, and we need to bring her home.?
Earlier this year a prison inmate was sentenced for admitting he gave authorities fraudulent tips about Berry's remains.
Robert Wolford, who is serving time for killing a homeless man, told police the woman was buried under a Cleveland lot, which was then dug up by backhoes.
And two men arrested for questioning about DeJesus' disappearance were released in 2006 after police failed to find the woman's remains during a search of their house.
NBC News' Ian Johnston and John Newland, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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This story was originally published on Mon May 6, 2013 10:54 PM EDT
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