Sunday Times 2
Ohio kidnapping victim wants to relive the youth she missed
The youngest of the three girls held captive in Cleveland wants to go to the Prom and Valentine’s Dance that she missed out on when she was snatched off the street to be raped and chained up for more than a decade.
A close family friend said Gina DeJesus still views the world through the eyes of a 14-year-old and is determined to recreate some of the biggest events that other, normal teenagers enjoyed.
MailOnline has also learned horrific new details about her captivity and how alleged kidnapper Ariel Castro covered her head every time he allegedly raped her.
Child-like: A close family friend said Gina DeJesus still views the world as a 14-year-old (Reuters)
This was because she was so young and was the best friend of his daughter when he allegedly snatched her off the street, according to the close family friend.
Castro knew Gina’s family well and he felt ‘bothered’ by her face but did not do the same to his other alleged victims, Michelle Knight and Amanda Berry.
The sickening revelation gives a new insight into the challenges that Gina and the other three girls face on their long road to recovery.
MailOnline has learned that Gina and Michelle – who was taken in by Gina’s family – are healing by having gone on a week long holiday to Puerto Rico, where the DeJesus’ are from.
Gina was only 14 when she vanished, Amanda was was 16 and Michelle was 21.
They are now 23, 27 and 32 respectively.
Police have said Castro starved them and got Michelle pregnant at least five times before punching her stomach until she miscarried.
He also fathered a child with Amanda, a girl who is now six, and brainwashed them by pretending to leave the house and battering them if they tried to escape.
Speaking to MailOnline, a family friend said: ‘Gina still has a lot of growing up to do.
‘She has never grown up mentally, she’s still a 14-year-old little girl.
‘She was pulled away at that time. She never got a chance to go to the dances or the games or prom or the things that kids do. All the kids want the same thing, they missed out on anything.
‘They never got a chance. Sweetest day, Valentine’s Day parties at school, homecomings.
‘Amanda did all hers. Michelle was special needs so she didn’t get involved too much. Gina was only 14, she turned 14 the week before she went missing. She’s missed out.
‘She has a look of… of a blank, a blankness to her eyes. She’s not really there, emotionally she’s not there.’
Another problem that Gina faces is that her neck is ‘fused’ because she was held in chains at an awkward angle for months on end as her bones developed.
This has given her restricted movement and doctors are now thought to be trying to rectify it, though the process will be hard to reverse.
One of the biggest challenges facing all three victims and their families as they readjust – especially Gina – is that they are no longer girls; they are grown women.
Gina and Michelle spend their days with family and going to the park but they have to be supervised at all times, reflecting the strange limbo they inhabit between independence and a childlike reliance on their family, according to the family friend.
An added pain is that Castro knew the DeJesus family well before he allegedly kidnapped Gina and even turned up on rallies to help find her, handing out fliers and comforting her father.
His daughter Arlene, 22, was one of her best friends and one of the last people to see her alive when she vanished whilst walking home from school in 2004.
According to Castro’s son Anthony, he chose Gina as a victim because of her friendship with Arlene.
All this would apparently weigh on Castro’s mind when he was allegedly raping Gina.
The family friend said: ‘Gina told her family that when Castro would have sex with her he would cover up her face.
‘Because they were friends, with the family. He was friends with her family when she went missing. It bothered him, and she was so young.
‘He’s a liar. You’re friends with the family and you can’t she was 14 when she went to school with your daughter? Come on. Best friends with your daughter and you don’t know.
‘It was just her he covered up her face. He knew what he was doing.’
The psychological scars will no doubt run deep for all three girls.
How can you go depending on a man who is abusive and brutal to finding your own independence?
The family friend said: ‘I know that somewhere deep in Gina’s heart in all these year they trusted this man to take care of them.
‘They became accustomed to having him around and they miss him. I’m hoping it’s not that way but that’s not normally the case when they’ve been gone this long.
‘With Michelle and Amanda I can’t say as much as there. With Gina, that’s all she knows. Think about it, that’s all she knows. In a way I hope she never gets into a relationship at all.
‘I hope that it didn’t affect her so she gets in an abusive relationship.
‘Mentally Georgina is fine but she will never get over this. It’s always going to be in the back of her mind.’
© Daily Mail, London
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