Smart Girls Marry Money by Elizabeth Ford

Terrified, she had stayed still during the kidnapping, but she saw the man and recognized him as a former handyman hired by the Smarts. The key to breaking the case was Smart's sister. Mitchell and Barzee roamed Utah and California for almost nine months with Smart in tow before they were discovered and arrested. Mitchell starved the girl, force-fed her drugs and alcohol, and raped her daily in an attempt to brainwash her into believing that he was a prophet. She was dragged into the Utah woods and held prisoner by Brian David Mitchell, who referred to himself as Immanuel, and his wife, Wanda Barzee. In Salt Lake City in 2002, while she slept in the bedroom that she shared with her sister, 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped at knifepoint. Berry also became host of a local news station's missing persons segment, and DeJesus founded The Cleveland Family Center for Missing Children and Adults not far from the house of horrors they endured for many years. Knight authored two books, Finding Me: A Decade of Darkness, A Life Reclaimed and Life After Darkness: Finding Healing and Happiness After the Cleveland Kidnapping, while Berry and DeJesus teamed up to pen Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland.

The three women managed to rebuild their lives and cope with the trauma of their experiences. However, one month after he was sentenced to life in prison plus 1,000 years, he was found hanging from a bedsheet in his cell.

Castro was indicted on 329 charges, including 177 counts of kidnapping and 139 counts of rape. After neighbors kicked the door in, Berry ran across the street with her 6-year-old daughter and called 911, summoning authorities to rescue the other two. The three were discovered in May 2013, after Castro left the house and Berry screamed for help at the front door. Berry gave birth to a daughter while in captivity, with Knight also reportedly impregnated multiple times. The perpetrator was former bus driver Ariel Castro, who raped, tortured and starved his captives over the course of a decade.

Photo: Dustin Franz/The Washington Post/Getty Imagesīetween August 2002 and April 2004, Berry (age 16), Michelle Knight (21) and Gina DeJesus (14) were abducted after accepting a ride home while walking on Lorain Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. Gina DeJesus, left, and Amanda Berry, 2015.

Smart Girls Marry Money by Elizabeth Ford