The Cleveland man charged with holding three women captive for a decade impregnated one of them five times and punched her in the stomach until she miscarried, police said Wednesday in a chilling report on the kidnappings.

The man forced one of his captives, Michelle Knight, to deliver the baby of another captive, Amanda Berry, in a kiddie pool, and threatened to kill Knight if the baby died, police said.

Police made the revelations in a report that laid out a nightmarish captivity, including starvation and imprisonment in the basement. One official said the women apparently were allowed outside the house only twice, and briefly, in the years after they were captured.

The Cleveland city prosecutor charged the man, Ariel Castro, with four counts of kidnapping — one for each of the three women and one for a baby that was born to Berry six years ago. Castro was also charged with three counts of rape for each of the adult women.

But authorities filed no charges against two of Castro’s brothers who were arrested Monday night, after Berry escaped the house with the help of a neighbor and the other two women were freed.

Authorities said they had no evidence that the two brothers, Pedro and Onil Castro, were involved in the kidnappings.

The three captives — Berry, Knight and Gina DeJesus — were allowed only in the backyard when they were let outdoors at all, and were forced to wear wigs and sunglasses when they left the house, the report said.

The escape came on Monday, when Castro went to McDonald’s and left a “big inside door” unlocked, the report said. That was when Berry broke through a locked storm door, afraid to open it further because she worried that Castro was testing her, the report said. Berry made it out and called 911.

“From what we know, their only opportunity to escape was the other day when Amanda escaped,” said Ed Tomba, the deputy Cleveland police chief.

All three women told police that Castro initially chained them in the basement, the report said, but he ultimately let them live on the second floor of the home, a shabby, two-story dwelling on Cleveland’s West Side.

The women were not in the same room but did know the others were there, Tomba said.

“As far as what the circumstances were inside that home, and the control he may have had over those girls, we don’t know that yet,” he said.

According to the report, Knight told investigators that she carried Castro’s baby “at least” five times, and that when he found out, he “would make her abort the baby” — starving her for two weeks and repeatedly punching her in the stomach until she miscarried.

When Berry’s baby was born, Knight put her mouth to the baby’s to keep it alive — and keep herself alive because Castro had threatened to kill her, the report said.

Berry told investigators that none of the women had seen a doctor during their captivity, the report said.

One police source close to the investigation cautioned earlier in the day that it was hard to be sure the women’s memories were completely accurate after such a long time in captivity.

John Gress / Reuters

Gina DeJesus arrives at her home in Cleveland.

Earlier Wednesday, DeJesus and Berry returned home to their families, both greeted by cheering crowds and huge displays of balloons, ribbons, teddy bears and encouraging signs. DeJesus gave a thumbs up.

“She was happy,” said her aunt, Sandra Ruiz. “She looked at the house and wanted a tour.”

Knight remained in a Cleveland hospital and was getting mental health treatment, her mother said.

Cleveland authorities said that a search of the Castro house had revealed no human remains. FBI agents returned to the house Wednesday and also searched a house two doors down that appeared to be abandoned.

Authorities said they did not suspect Castro had kidnapped anyone else. They said they had questioned Castro about the disappearance of a fourth Cleveland woman, Ashley Summers.

Castro was due in court Thursday morning for arraignment. The two brothers are also due in court Thursday, but on unrelated misdemeanor charges, authorities said.

“There is no evidence that these two individuals had any involvement in the commission of the crimes committed against Michelle, Gina, Amanda and the minor child,” said Victor Perez, the city prosecutor.

The three women were reported missing in Cleveland months apart: Knight in August 2002 after losing custody of her son, Berry in April 2003 after finishing her part-time shift at a Burger King, and DeJesus in April 2004 while walking home from middle school.

The police report suggests Castro used the same tactic to capture each of them: He offered them a ride. In Berry’s case, he told her he had a son who also worked at Burger King.

When Berry made her break for freedom years later, kicking the door and screaming, a neighbor, Charles Ramsey, helped free her. In her 911 call, Berry pleaded with the dispatcher to send help: “I’m Amanda Berry. I’ve been on the news for the last 10 years.”

When help came, two police officers crawled through a broken panel of the storm door and kicked it open to allow other officers in, the report said.

Two officers went upstairs, and the other two women threw themselves into the officers’ arms, it said.

Berry is now 27, DeJesus 23 and Knight 32.

Slideshow: Missing women found alive in Cleveland

A daring escape and a dramatic 911 call led to the rescue of three women who allegedly had been held captive for years inside a home in Cleveland.

Launch slideshow

McGrath said that the house had come to the attention of police only twice — in 2000, when Ariel Castro called about a fight on the street, and in 2004, when Castro, a school bus driver, had left behind one of his passengers.

The chief’s account conflicts with that of at least one neighbor, Israel Lugo, who told MSNBC on Tuesday that he called the police in 2011 after his sister spotted a woman with a baby in the home, banging on the window “like she wants to get out.”

McGrath said that his department would have a record of such a call and that there was none. He said that he was “absolutely confident” that his officers did not miss a chance to free the three women.

Ariel Castro, 52, was accused in 2005 of attacking his former wife, The Plain Dealer newspaper reported. Her lawyer at the time said that although the ex-wife had custody of their children, Castro “frequently abducts daughters and keeps them from mother,’’ the newspaper reported.

Khalid Samad, a community organizer, told NBC News that Castro had accompanied him on searches for the missing women.

First lady Michelle Obama told NBC News that the kidnappings were “probably a parent’s worst nightmare.”

“These families are going to have to wrap their arms around these young women and make sure that they get all the help and support they need so that they will go on and lead healthy, normal lives,” she told TODAY. “We’re just grateful that they’re safe.”

Richard Esposito and Jeff Black of NBC News contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Wed May 8, 2013 8:54 AM EDT

It's a story with a happy ending over a decade in the making. A daring escape and a dramatic 911 call led to the rescue of three women who allegedly had been held captive for years inside a home in Cleveland, Ohio. Below is a timeline of events in the case, from before the women first  disappeared to their eventual freedom. 

2000: Police visit the Cleveland home of the three Castro brothers, who years later would be placed into custody for the kidnappings of Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Georgina "Gina" DeJesus. At the time, police were responding to a call about a fight involving Ariel Castro, one of the brothers, then a bus driver.

Aug. 22, 2002: Michelle Knight, then 21 years old, disappears. She is last seen at a cousin's house in Cleveland, according to Cleveland.com. She is reported missing the following day to police, but some family members believe she may have left on her own because she was angry that she had lost custody of her son, according to Cleveland.com. As a result, her disappearance and her photo are not widely publicized.

April 21, 2003: Amanda Berry calls her sister to tell her she's getting a ride home from her job at a fast food restaurant on the day before her 17th birthday. According to authorities, she got into a white, four-door sedan with three men inside. She doesn't make it home and is reported missing, prompting a huge search involving national publicity.

Nov. 15, 2003: The FBI reveals that a week after Berry vanished, her mom received a phone call from her cellphone. A male voice said, "I have Amanda. She’s fine and will be coming home in a couple of days.” Authorities are unable to determine the authenticity of the call.

January 2004: Police make their second visit in four years to the home of the Castro brothers. Ariel Castro, the bus driver, had been accused of leaving a child on a bus; when authorities knocked on the door, no one answered. They later interviewed him and discovered he had "inadvertently" left the child on the school bus, according to The New York Times. Officials determined there was no criminal intent, and he was not charged.

March 6, 2004: The FBI announces that the body of a teenage girl found near San Diego earlier in the week isn't a match for Berry's dental records.

April 2, 2004: Gina DeJesus, then 14, vanishes while walking home from school in Cleveland. Her case bears striking similarities to Berry's: Both girls disappeared within in the same five-block radius, both girls were about 5'1'', and neither had a history of running away from home.

April 9, 2004: Police looking for DeJesus tell the public they are seeking a Hispanic man driving a light-color, older-model, compact car with a license plate that includes the letters "SMS," driving in the area where DeJesus disappeared from. 

November 2004: Berry's case is featured on "America's Most Wanted." The same month, psychic Sylvia Browne appeared on Montel Williams' nationally syndicated TV show alongside Berry's mother, and tells her that her daughter is probably dead.

Oct. 24, 2005: DeJesus' parents, Nancy and Felix, make a national plea on the syndicated program "Maury" to ask for help finding their daughter.

March 2, 2006: Berry's mother, Louwana Miller, dies of heart failure at age 43, nearly three years after she started the search for her daughter. “I want her on the news. She’s faded away from the whole world. It just kills me. This is killing me,” Miller had told a Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter who she often asked to write more about her daughter.

Sept. 21, 2006: Police arrest Matthew Hurayt, a 35-year-old registered sex offender, after receiving a tip that DeJesus' body was buried beneath his garage on Cleveland's West Side. A search of his home yields nothing.

July 6, 2007: Another Cleveland girl, Ashley Summers, 14, disappears without a trace from the same neighborhood as Berry and DeJesus. Her disappearance puts Cleveland on edge, and attracts more media attention than ever to the neighborhood and its unsolved crimes -- even though it isn't clear if there is a connection.

April 2009: FBI says it suspects Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Ashley Summers may have all been kidnapped by one man.

Sept. 8, 2009: Police rule out the possibility that a body found in Wisconsin the previous November is Berry's after DNA tests come back negative.

January 2013: A Cleveland inmate, Robert Wolford, is sentenced to four-and-a-half years for providing a false burial tip in Berry's disappearance, sending authorities to a Cleveland lot in the summer of 2012 to dig for her remains.

May 6, 2013: A neighbor hears a noise coming from the door of the Castro home. Stuck inside, Berry is trying to bust through, "kicking the door and screaming," said the neighbor, Charles Ramsey. "‘I’ve been kidnapped and I’ve been in this house a long time and I want to leave right now,’” Berry said, according to Ramsey, who helps kick the locked door down.

Once the door is open, Ramsey gives Berry his phone so she can call 911. She has a child with her. Police arrest the three Castro brothers: Ariel, 52, Pedro, 54, and O'Neil, 50.  The three women inside the home, plus the 6-year-old child, are taken to a hospital. Summers is still missing.

May 7, 2013: The three women are released from the hospital Tuesday morning.

In a press conference, police commend Berry for getting herself and the other women out of the house. "The real hero here is Amanda," said Cleveland Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba.

As of Tuesday afternoon, no charges had been filed yet against the three suspects.

Related content:

• Three Ohio women found alive after being missing for a decade; 3 men arrested
• 'Can I help?' Neighbor Charles Ramsey tells of role in discovery of missing women
• 'We should never give up hope': 5 other missing-child stories with happy endings

   

Jane Flavell Collins / AP

In a courtroom sketch, Robel Phillipos appears before a federal magistrate last week. Phillipos and two other college friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were arrested and charged with removing a backpack containing hollowed-out fireworks from Tsarnaev's dorm room.

A friend of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev charged with lying to federal investigators after the Boston Marathon bombings was placed on house arrest Monday after posting $100,000 bail.

The friend, Robel Phillipos, was ordered released into the custody of his mother. He will have to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet and submit to drug testing. He will not be allowed to leave home except for court appearances and 911 emergencies.

Federal prosecutors and lawyers for Phillipos had filed a joint motion earlier in the day encouraging a judge to put him on house arrest after determining that he was not a flight risk.

Lawyers for Phillipos, 19, had said over the weekend that their client was “frightened and confused” when he was questioned by investigators days after the attack, and argued that he had nothing to do with the attack itself.

Phillipos is one of three friends of Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the bombings, who were arrested last week after they were questioned about the removal of a backpack and fireworks from Tsarnaev’s dorm room three days after the blasts.

Phillipos spoke only once during his hearing Monday. When the judge asked whether he understood the terms of his release, he answered, “Yes.” U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler set his next hearing for May 17.

Family or friends of Phillipos — it was not clear which — said they would put up real estate to meet the $100,000 bond.

Outside court, one of Phillipos’ lawyers, Susan Church, emphasized that he is not charged with removing evidence. Two Kazakh students, Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, are charged with that crime.

“Just like all Americans and all people from Boston, Robel is grieving at the tragedy and the lives lost forever,” she said.

All three men knew Tsarnaev from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. In the court papers, lawyers described Phillipos as mild-mannered and peaceful, without a criminal record and with deep ties to his family, his church and the community in Cambridge, Mass.

The lawyers argued that Phillipos was questioned without a lawyer and made himself available to federal authorities at all times. The charge of lying has ruined what was a bright future, they said.

“This case is about a frightened and confused 19-year-old who was subjected to intense questioning and interrogation, without the benefit of counsel, and in the context of one of the worst attacks against the nation,” the lawyers wrote.

The papers seek to distance Phillipos from the two Kazakhs and from Tsarnaev. Phillipos had taken a leave of absence for the spring semester and had not been in touch with the other three for more than two months, the lawyers argued.

It was only by “sheer coincidence and bad luck,” the lawyers wrote, that Phillipos was invited to attend a campus seminar on April 18, the day the backpack and fireworks were removed from Tsarnaev’s dorm room.

The lawyers also submitted 17 letters from people who know Phillipos, including his mother, attesting to his character. One was from a community soccer coach who said Phillipos was “very respectful” and excelled despite being the smallest player.

His mother, Genet Bekele, wrote that the family, which is of Ethiopian descent, looks forward to the marathon each year and cheers, on the sidelines or watching on television, as Ethiopians cross the finish line.

After the bombings, “We mourned for those who lost their lives and prayed for the injured,” she wrote. “My son wants nothing more than the opportunity to clear his name.”

Tsarnaev, 19, who is in a federal prison hospital in Massachusetts, has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and could face the death penalty. He was wounded in a firefight with police before he was captured April 19.

His brother, Tamerlan, was killed in the firefight. A funeral parlor in Worcester, Mass., accepted the body, but as of Sunday the Tsarnaev family had not found a cemetery willing to bury him.

Three people were killed and more than 200 injured when two bombs went off April 15 near the marathon finish line. Twelve people remained in Boston hospitals Sunday.

The One Fund Boston, which has raised more than $28 million for victims, plans to hold a town hall meeting in Boston on Monday to discuss plans for how the money will be distributed.

This story was originally published on Mon May 6, 2013 9:45 AM EDT

Win Mcnamee / Getty Images file

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has ordered a broad review of how the U.S. handled information before the Boston Marathon bombing.

The nation's top intelligence official has ordered a review of the Boston Marathon bombing case amid questions about whether the U.S. should have known one of the suspects posed a threat.

Retired Gen. James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, has asked the inspector general who oversees the intelligence community to take a broad look at various agencies' handling of information they received long before the bombing.

“Based on what I've seen so far, the FBI performed its duties, Department of Homeland Security did what it was supposed to be doing, but this is hard stuff,'' President Obama said at a Tuesday news conference.

In 2011, Russia asked the U.S. to check into Tamerlan Tsarnaev because they suspected he was becoming radicalized. The FBI interviewed him but found no sign of terrorist activity.

His name and the name of his mother were put into intelligence databases that track possible terrorist ties, and U.S. agents were "pinged" when Tsarnaev flew last year to Russia, a trip that included time in the militant outpost of Dagestan.

Less than a year after he returned to the U.S., the 26-year-old ethnic Chechen and his younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarneav, planted two bombs near the finish line of the April 15 marathon, killing three and wounding more than 200 more people, authorities said.

Since then, there's been debate about whether Russia gave the U.S. enough information about Tsarnaev and whether the FBI and CIA should have been more thorough in vetting Tsarnaev.

“It’s not as if the FBI did nothing,” Obama said. “They not only investigated the older brother, they interviewed him.”Obama said that while there were “no signs” of terrorist tendencies then, investigators want to know if something happened later to trigger Tsarnaev’s radicalization and what the U.S. can do to detect such shifts in the future.

He said Russia has been “very cooperative” since the attack, but also noted that “old habits die hard” and that some suspicion between between the two countries’ intelligence agencies, dating back decades, has survived.

He portrayed the review as an effort to improve intelligence, not find fault with anyone.

“What Director Clapper is doing is standard procedure around here,” Obama said.

Still, one U.S. counter-terrorism official said some in the intelligence community are "furious" about Clapper's probe, because it suggests that mistakes were made.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed during a shootout with police. His brother was arrested after a manhunt that shut down Boston for a day and has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction.

Related:

• Adding up the financial costs of the Boston bombings
• Could Boston bombing suspect avoid the death penalty?

Cambridge Police Dept.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev is seen in a booking photo from a 2009 arrest in Cambridge, Mass.

This story was originally published on Tue Apr 30, 2013 10:54 AM EDT

Prosecutors and lawyers for surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have begun very early discussions about a possible deal, in which he would cooperate in exchange for avoiding the death penalty, legal sources said Monday.

As details of the nascent negotiations emerged, a lawyer who has helped other high-profile suspects cut deals that kept them out of the execution chamber got permission to join Tsarnaev's defense team.

Attorney Judy Clarke's past clients have included Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and, more recently, Jared Loughner, who was spared facing the death penalty for the Tucson, Ariz., shooting that nearly killed former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords in 2011.

Tsarnaev, 19, is charged with using a weapon of mass destruction for the April 15 bombing that killed three and wounded 176 in Boston and could face the death penalty.

The suspect's older brother and accused accomplice, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a firefight with police, and investigators are trying to determine if anyone else was involved.

Law enforcement officials said they took a DNA sample Monday from Tamerlan's wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, to compare to female DNA found on a piece of pressure cooker used to make one of the bombs.

The wife has said she had no inkling of her husband's plans, and officials cautioned that the DNA on the cooker could have come from a worker at the store where it was purchased.

AP Photo/The Lowell Sun & Robin Young

Boston bombing suspects Tamerlan (left) and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

The FBI is also looking into whether the older brother met with two men considered radical Muslims during a 2012 trip to the Russian republic of Dagestan. Both men — William Plotnikov and Makmud Nidal — were killed last year in Russian operations.

The spotlight has also been trained on the Tsarnaevs' mother, Zubeidat, who was caught on a Russian wiretap talking to Tamerlan about jihad, U.S. officials said.

That conversation led the Russians to ask the FBI to look into Tamerlan in 2011. He and his mother were put into a U.S. terrorism database, but no further action was taken.

While some members of Congress have faulted the Russians for not giving the U.S. more explicit details about the mother, officials in Washington said she spoke so generally about jihad that it's not likely the information would have influenced the outcome of the 2011 probe.

Before he was given a Miranda warning and stopped talking, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told investigators that he and his brother were motivated by religion but acted alone, without help from any overseas terrorist organization.

But law enforcement officials believe someone may have carried items out of his dorm room at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth a few days after the bombings and they searched local landfills for them. So far nothing has turned up, but investigators are still looking in garbage containers.

Three federal public defenders were appointed to represent Tsarnaev, and they asked that two death penalty specialists be added to the team. The court approved Clarke but said the request for a second lawyer, David Bruck of the Washington and Lee University School of Law, was premature since Tsarnaev has not been indicted yet.

Wounded by police during his capture,Tsarnaev was transferred last week from a private Boston hospital to a federal medical prison in central Massachusetts.

Related:

• Russians to US: Bombing suspect, mom discussed jihad
• Congressman: Bombing suspects may have had foreign help

with Kim Cornett and Matthew DeLuca, NBC News

Boston Marathon spectators who lost limbs in the bombings stand to benefit from years of advances in prosthetic medicine made at Walter Reed Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

Calvin Todd, 26, is among those who have discovered a new life with the help of doctors at Walter Reed. The army medic was on foot patrol in Afghanistan in October 2012 when he stepped on an explosive.

“I stepped on a secondary and lost my lower left leg,” Todd said of the injury, which years ago might have immobilized him for good.

He is one of nearly 1,600 service members to lose limbs in combat since the start of the war in Afghanistan. Six months after his injury, Todd said he is “almost back to new,” and has even started running and playing lacrosse again.

 “I’ve got numerous prosthetics,” Todd said. “I’ve probably got four or five different feet for different activities. I got one for ice skating. I got a running leg. You know, my everyday foot. I got a foot for hiking.”

The traumatic battlefield injuries sustained by troops on the frontlines have helped change the future for all amputees, doctors at Walter Reed said.

“We have plenty of examples from our injured service members who have not only survived, you know, extraordinary blast injuries but have thrived from them,” said Col. Paul Pasquina, chair of the center’s department of rehabilitation medicine. “And there’s no reason to think that the victims in Boston won’t do the same.”

Whether it is bionic hands, knees, ankles, or feet, the advances at Walter Reed have been born of a decade of brutal conflict in which explosions have claimed lives and mangled limbs. While recovery often remains a painful process, the prospect for patients who have lost arms or legs is better than ever.

“While there have been significant advances in rehabilitation medicine and prosthetic technology over the last decade, that’s not to say recovery from a major limb loss is not extremely challenging, but there’s great hope,” Pasquina said. “And people are now able to achieve things that they weren’t able to achieve in the past.”

Among those who have overcome seemingly insuperable odds is Travis Mills, one of five quadruple amputees from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A service member in the 82nd Airborne Division, Mills was on a walking patrol on April 10, 2012, when an improvised explosive device went off as he stopped for a break.

“I sat in the wrong spot,” Mills said. “And an IED went off.”

It was Mills’ third tour in Afghanistan. He had a wife and baby daughter not even a year old at home. Now he can help the 18-month-old girl brush her teeth in the morning.

“My daughter, that’s my biggest support,” Mills said. “The biggest thing I work for is to go every day to get better so I can be the best dad I can be for her.”

The cost of prosthetics can run from a few thousand dollars to an estimated tens of thousands and beyond. And while it’s unclear whether insurance will cover these types of prosthetics for the marathon victims, they have more options than ever.

“I’m very fortunate that the research that has been done has benefited myself due to my injuries,” Mills said. “I know that I would’ve got hurt like I did 10 years ago — I probably wouldn’t have made it off the battlefield.”

Whether the injured come from battlefields halfway around the world or a sidewalk on Boylston Street, traumatic wounds are often accompanied by deeper scars, said Dr. Harold Wain, chief of Walter Reed’s psychiatry consultation liaison service.

“They need to have a good perspective of who they are. They can feel good about themselves. They have to accept themselves,” Wain said.

“We’re constantly learning. There are new advances going on in prosthetics, in treatment, in medications,” Wain said. “The goal is to get them back as whole, as quickly as possible, and to reinforce them for their assets rather than just looking at their liabilities.”

For Calvin Todd, he only needs to look to his side for inspiration. While the landscape of Afghanistan is a long way from Massachusetts, this war veteran knows what the Boston victims have to overcome and what they have to look forward to.

“There’s a lot you can do. The sky’s the limit,” Todd said. “You can do anything you want to do, just work for it."