Tennessee Father Welcomes Home Daughter Amanda Berry, Free After Decade of Violent Captivity

One daughter’s father and her extended family members live in Elizabethton, Tennessee. This lush hill-country community of about 14,200 serves as the county seat of Carter County.

Amanda Berry, now age 27, was abducted in Cleveland, Ohio, at the age of 16 on April 21, 2003. She was held hostage for 10 long years, but was able to escape on May 6, 2013, with the help of a good Samaritan by the name of Charles Ramsey.

Amanda’s father is Johnny Berry who said, “I had my doubts all the time, but I always kept hope” that she would someday return to him.

Amanda Berry’s Family in Elizabethton, TN

In 1999, following his break-up with Amanda’s mother Louwana Miller, Johnny Berry moved to the Tennessee town he would call home near the Appalachian Mountains. As a girl, Amanda spent summer vacations visiting with her father and other family members in Elizabethton. That is, until the day she vanished on the way home from her Cleveland job at a Burger King.

Amanda was held captive along with two other women and a six-year-old girl, all of whom were rescued by Cleveland Police following Amanda’s amazing 911 call. The two other adult victims are Michelle Knight (abducted at age 20 in 2002, now age 32) and Gina DeJesus (abducted at age 14 in 2004, now about age 23).

After a decade of being restrained, malnourished, raped, and beaten, the three women and the one child are finally free. Amanda’s mother, however, would never see her daughter again. She died of heart failure in 2005, having kept her daughter’s room as it was on the day the teenager disappeared. Some say Louwana Miller simply died of a broken heart.

Amanda’s call to her Tennessee dad following her escape left them both in tears. “There was a lot of crying. We said we loved each other and missed each other,” said Johnny Berry, “She said ‘Hi Daddy, I’m alive… I love you, I love you, I love you.” What more could a father pray for? But there’s more.

Johnny Berry is a grandfather. During her ordeal, Amanda was presumably impregnated by her captor and gave birth to a girl, Jocelyn, who is now free.

Alleged Perpetrator Had a Long History of Domestic Violence

The owner of the Cleveland house in the mainly Puerto Rican neighborhood where the victims were enslaved is 52-year-old Ariel Castro, a former children’s school bus driver. Ariel Castro had a lengthy, well-documented history of domestic violence against his ex-wife, Grimilda Feguero (now deceased), his daughters, and his son Anthony.

After his parent’s divorce, Anthony Castro said he only occasionally visited his father’s house on Seymour Avenue which “was always locked, there were places we could never go. There were locks on the basement. Locks on the attic. Locks on the garage.”

So far, Ariel Castro has been charged with several felonies, including three counts of rape and four counts of kidnapping. DNA paternity testing will determine whether Ariel Castro fathered Amanda’s child.

Although Ariel’s two brothers, Onil Castro and Pedro Castro, were arrested along with him, they have since been released from police custody without charges. It seems that Ariel Castro was a violent lone wolf, deceiving his own family, neighbors, co-workers, and police for a decade.

Experiencing Domestic Violence in Tennessee

According to a Washington, DC, study conducted by the Violence Policy Center, in 2010 Tennessee sadly rated third in the nation for women killed by men during acts of domestic violence. Learn more about domestic violence from a Memphis divorce attorney:

Domestic Violence & Tennessee Divorce Law | Get Safe Now