"I am here. I am free" - those were the words Amanda Berry said to dispatchers just after she escaped a horror house from hell.
Amanda was held captive with two other women — Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight — in the basement of Ariel Castro's Cleveland, Ohio, home for more than 10 years.
During that time, she was raped, starved, tortured and gave birth to her daughter, Jocelyn.
Amanda managed to escape one day in 2013 when Castro accidentally left her bedroom door unlocked. Her daughter, then six, raced around the house, looking for any signs of their abuser.
When she found none, Amanda decided it was her chance to make a break for it.
She ran to a neighbour's house and begged them to call 9-1-1. The authorities arrived soon thereafter and freed Michelle and Gina, too.
But that was more than 10 years ago. What has happened to the women since then?
Amanda Berry
Amanda Berry's post-captivity life has become centred around her now-16-year-old daughter.
"I'm so proud of how much she's grown as a person," she told FOX8 in 2018 during a segment on the five-year anniversary of her escape. "She's very caring. And a lot of kids her age are not like that, and I find that she is."
Five years later, she said Jocelyn is still that kind girl.
She told PEOPLE that "normalcy" has been her priority when raising Jocelyn, and she said she supports her in everything she does.
"I hope she has a great life and does everything she wants to," she said. "I tell her all the time, 'Everything I do, I do for you. I want you to have a good life. I want you to grow up and do what you want in life.' She can do whatever she wants."
Amanda didn't have that luxury as a teenager, having been kidnapped by Castro at the age of 16.
She said she threw her daughter a "sweet 16" party, which is something Amanda herself said she always wanted but never got.
Amanda also has a loving boyfriend, who she told Fox8 she trusts. It's the 36-year-old's first real relationship.
She also began hosting the "Missing" segment on Fox8 after her escape, which highlights missing persons in Northeast Ohio. She still puts together the segment.
"I hope we can get [the faces of] missing people out there and get people looking at them a second time, a third time and looking at their name," she told PEOPLE in 2019. " It's kind of a small thing that makes a big difference."
She told PEOPLE that she wanted every missing person to know that someone was looking for them — she got the idea, she said, because Castro used to show her clips of people looking for her when she held him captive.
Overall, Amanda said she's doing well.
"You know, I know I'll never truly have a normal life, and I'm kind of coming to grips with that," she said. "It's OK as long as I make the best out of it that I can."
Gina DeJesus
Much like Amanda, Gina DeJesus dedicated her post-captivity life to helping others who are missing — she wanted "to give back and to help," she told Fox8.
She started working with the Northeast Ohio Amber Alert Committee, and John Majoy, the Newburgh Heights Police Chief, told Fox8 that she has dedicated her career to helping survivors and their family members.
"She's such an asset to the team," he said in 2018.
She also founded the Cleveland Family Center for Missing Children and Adults, a nonprofit designed to help families waiting for updates on missing loved ones.
The idea for the organisation sprung from the fact that her own family "didn't have anything" when she went missing at the age of 14 in 2004, she told PEOPLE in 2018.
"My parents didn't have people actually helping them do the flyers and stuff," she said. "We could actually help other families with all of that instead of them worrying and freaking out."
In 2022, the center worked with 58 families, PEOPLE reported.
Gina's parents sit on the board, and they travel with her around the country to train police forces on best practices for dealing with families with missing children.
Two years after her escape, the 33-year-old wrote "Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland" with Berry and journalists Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan.
Now, she reportedly lives with her family in the Cleveland suburbs and enjoys a quiet life.
Michelle Knight
As soon as she escaped, Michelle Knight changed her name to Lily Rose Lee, then wrote two memoirs, titled "Finding Me" and "Life After Darkness" that touched on her experiences.
She also toured the world as a public speaker, simultaneously launching Lily's Ray of Hope, a foundation designed to help victims of domestic violence, human trafficking and child abuse.
The 43-year-old also found love, marrying Miguel Rodriguez in 2016. She had worried she'd never find love because of the experiences she underwent.
"The whole world had heard the story of how I had been damaged by a filthy older man," she wrote in "Life After Darkness." "Who would want me after that?"
Michelle eventually shifted her focus to helping animals, fostering them, rescuing them and raising money for organisations that also do so. She also launched Unleashed Animal Rescue, a nonprofit dedicated to helping animals.
The motivation for her efforts is twofold — they helped her through the darkest points of her life, but she also had to watch Castro subject them to starvation and torture.
"Ever since I was a little girl, I always wanted to take care of animals — especially with my traumatic past with my childhood and what I went through in the house of horrors," she told PEOPLE. "I am standing up and being a voice for these precious animals. I found that when I was helping animals, in return, animals were helping me."
