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Neighbor, kidnapping victims speak about 3 Ohio women

Posted at 5:28 PM, May 11, 2013
and last updated 2013-05-11 17:28:13-04

Cleveland, Oh. – The FBI took nail guns and boards to seal up the Seymour Avenue home Saturday, after collecting evidence earlier this week.

It’s an abandoned building next door to the house where Ariel Castro is accused of holding  three women and a child captive for some 10 years.

Neighbors are still in shock.

“I never saw anything, any kind of activity that made me really think that something was going on out of the ordinary,” says one neighbor.

After barely a week of freedom, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight can now begin their road to recovery.

But there are still questions of how this could have happened. Some have even questioned why the women didn’t escape sooner.

Kidnapping survivor Colleen Stan says, unless you’ve been through it, you wouldn’t understand it.

“Because they control when you eat, when you go to the bathroom, if you get to drink water, you know, if you ever get to, anything and everything you get to do, they’re in total control,” she says.

In 1995, Jessyca Mullenberg was reunited with her family after more than three months of physical, mental, and sexual abuse at the hands of her kidnapper.

She says though it’s been a long road ahead, there is hope for healing for these Cleveland women.

“Do what’s best for you so that you’re comfortable and just know that your family, your friends, and the community are there to support you if you need help in any way,” she says.

All three of the women are now out of the hospital, and Ariel Castro is being held in a nine-by-nine jail cell, facing kidnapping and rape charges.

CNN’s Cristina Mulcher contributed to this report.