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CNN Saturday Morning News

Three Kidnapped Women Freed After 10 Years of Captivity; Astronauts Attempt to Repair Leak on International Space Station; Political Pundits Debate Benghazi Hearing

Aired May 11, 2013 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone, I'm Brianna Keilar, and you're watching our special edition of CNN SATURDAY MORNING live from Cleveland, Ohio. It is 10:00 on the east coast, 7:00 on the west, and we're so glad you're with us.

He became a celebrity overnight. He helped rescue Amanda Berry from her 10-year captivity. But now Charles Ramsey is in the nation's capital speaking again about his hero status, and you'll see it only on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLLEEN STAN: He took me and locked me back up in the box. That was where I pretty much stayed for the next three years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Trapped in a box for seven years, that is the horrific story of one of my guests this hour. Colleen Stan will share her story and talk about what the Cleveland kidnap victims face as they try to move forward with their lives.

And also a mission in space currently under way, what astronauts are doing to fix an unexpected problem at the International Space Station. We'll have a live look from NASA.

The Cleveland man accused of holding three women captive for almost a decade is now locked in a nine by nine foot cell. Officials say tests of Ariel Castro's DNA confirm he's the father of the six- year-old girl born to kidnapping survivor Amanda Berry. Police also have boarded up Castro's home to preserve the crime scene.

Meantime, the prosecutor handling the case says he plans to charge Castro for, quote, each and every act of sexual violence he allegedly carried out. Castro also could face murder charges related to claims that he starved and punched Michelle Knight to induce at least five miscarriages. This morning, while relatives of berry and Gina Dejesus continue to celebrate their safe return, Knight's family doesn't know where she is. The 32-year-old was released from the hospital, but a family spokesman says police won't tell them where she went.

And that's why we're bringing in CNN's Pam Brown for more on this story. She is safe. She is comfortable, we're told, that she's not in touch with her family.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. I just got off the phone with the stepbrother of Michelle Knight, and he's saying the authorities are not telling them where she is. They're still trying to make contact with her.

We don't know if Michelle Knight told authorities that she didn't want her family to know where she is. She is an adult, she's 32 years old. And we've heard reports that she had a strained relationship with some of her family members, that she was angry for losing custody of her son before she disappeared.

But at this point, the stepbrother says the mom is very anxious to get in touch with her. He said the mom loves her, misses her, and hopes she gets a call from her on mother's day, which is tomorrow, or whatever it takes, the stepbrother says. But they do confirm at this point, they don't know where she is. They're hearing reports of where she may be, but there's no confirmation of where she is.

KEILAR: The other thing about this is that there are a lot of legal questions now coming up. And one of the questions being raised by the DNA evidence that shows Castro is the father of this six-year- old, he's currently facing charges for four counts of kidnapping. Will he face the charge of kidnapping ultimately do you think, are you hearing that for the six-year-old, his daughter?

BROWN: This is a tricky one. I spoke to a legal expert, where he said this fourth kidnapping charge related to the little girl will be dropped, because of the fact that he is the legitimate parent of Amanda Berry's child. And as a legal expert put it, you can't kidnap your own child unless it has to do with a custody issue.

But because we're dealing with the fact that this child allegedly was conceived from rape, the legal expert said a judge could look at a statute and say, look, he doesn't deserve any benefit here. He doesn't deserve legitimate rights of this child, so therefore, that kidnapping charge should stay. But it's highly unlikely, according to Paul Callan. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: The question, and it's really an astounding question when you consider it is, does a rapist have parental rights with the child who is conceived through the rape. There's been some debate about this throughout the United States. Two-thirds of America's states have no laws about whether a rapist has rights when a child is born from the rape. So the question is, could a judge look at this and say, it's not written specifically in the statute, but he shouldn't benefit from his crime, which in effect he would be by not facing the kidnapping charges.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So really, it's an unusual situation we're looking at.

KEILAR: It is very bizarre. Pam Brown, thank you for that report.

The neighbor who has been hailed as a hero in this case, Charles Ramsey, I bet you've probably heard about him. Well, he's talking about what happened here on Seymour Avenue that night. He's the guest on a radio show in Washington, D.C. We are going to bring you that sound bite a little later. That was Charles Ramsey, a picture there of him on the Rock Newman show. He's actually on the air as we speak. And we'll be bringing some of that to you as we get it.

Let's take a live look now at pictures coming to us from a very different location, the International Space Station. This is where an emergency spacewalk is under way. So often we look at them where they're just going about a normal repair. Well, this is astronauts who are trying to repair an ammonia leak that could cause problems with cooling and power systems. CNN's John Zarrella is covering this from Miami. What are they doing exactly right now, John?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's a space drill, Brianna, that you're looking at with the number two on the top of it there. And they're making a certain number of turns. You can see counterclockwise turns, backing out the bolts on that pump that they think might be the problem that caused this ammonia -- the cooling leak, in this ammonia system on the space station that they discovered just 48 hours ago.

Now, there you're looking at Tom Mashburn, and he's the camera guy. So he's taking pictures. They're trying to see if they can see the little white ammonia flakes, or any evidence of that ammonia leak that they did see a few days ago. So far they are reporting, and we know that phrase, Brianna, no joy. They're not seeing anything. So this may complicate the whole issue of ultimately finding the leak.

But right now, they're in the process of removing the pump. They pull it out and then they will put in a replacement pump, and they will look beneath that pump to see if they can find any place where there might be a leak. So what you're watching right now is them removing that pump assembly system there, and getting ready then to replace it with another one.

And again, they're about an hour and a half, two hours into the spacewalk, the space station right now flying over the continental United States. We should be getting some daylight pictures again soon from up there, Brianna. But this whole spacewalk expected to take about six-and-a-half hours. So still a long way to go.

KEILAR: And I should say, we're getting a little break-up in the pictures, but we wanted to bring them to folks anyway. A little break-up, hey, you figure you're 240 miles away from what's going on, they're still amazing pictures as you watch this happen in such amazing detail. John Zarrella, keep an eye on that and let us know. We'll be tuning in to see as they try to tackle this ammonia leak.

Now, at least one lawmaker says that Russia dropped the ball on the Boston bombing suspect. A law enforcement source tells CNN that Moscow withheld key details about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, like texts that he sent his mother telling her he wanted to join a militant group. A member of the House intelligence community said the intel could have changed everything. But the sources tell the paper that the U.S. probably would have withheld that information, too.

Tsarnaev is now buried in a Muslim cemetery between Washington and Richmond, Virginia. Remember, his body went unclaimed for almost two weeks. And Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he lived, refused to bury him. The Islamic group that owns the cemetery there in Virginia says that a Christian woman actually led the effort. The county officials say no one asked them before it happened.

Locked in a box for seven years, she knows all too well the horror that the kidnapping victims here in Cleveland faced and their long road ahead to recovery. We will talk to Colleen Stan next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I get back into the car, there is this weird looking box that wasn't there before. I was so afraid that my body was just trembling with fear. I was locked in that box for 23 hours a day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your value is no more to us than a piece of furniture.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was his slave.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I own you body and soul.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Brainwashing. He was in control of my life and I wasn't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: That clip was from "Dangerous Persuasions," a program on Investigation Discovery. It looks like a fictional movie but it's actually based on a true crime story. And we have to warn you, it's very disturbing.

For seven terrifying years, my next guest held captive, beaten, raped, and kept inside of a wooden box for hours, as you heard her describe, even days at a time. Colleen Stan's story was later dubbed by the media as the "girl in the box." Kidnapped in 1977 by a California man and his wife, Stan suffered unimaginable physical and psychological torture. In addition to the program "Dangerous Persuasions" her horrific ordeal has been documented in a book "Colleen Stan, The Simple Gifts of Life."

And joining us now to talk about her ordeal and the road ahead for the three women in Ohio is Colleen Stan. First off, Colleen, thanks so much for sharing your story with you.

COLLEEN STAN, HELD CAPTIVE FOR SEVEN YEARS: Thank you for having me. KEILAR: So many of the people who have captivated by the story out of Cleveland have asked the same question, why didn't these women escape sooner? And in fact when Amanda Berry did escape, we learned the other two women chose not to go with her. You, too, had a chance to escape several times, but you didn't. Can you explain that to people who may not understand what it's like to be in a position as you were?

STAN: Yes, it's just -- the general public and people who have not been through this type of experience just don't understand all the threats, and all the torture, and just all the mind control that goes on, because once you're in this type of situation, I mean, your abductor just conditions you, and -- by torture and rape and abuse, and threats, and maybe stories. And, you know, after a certain amount of time, your will gets broke down and you just believe it. And you do whatever you have to do to just survive and just get through the day.

KEILAR: And I think it's certainly in your case the only sort of social input that you had was from your abductor. And you had your abductor threatening not just your safety, right, but the safety of your family? And I think that that's often common in the few cases like this.

STAN: Yes. Yes. And there's almost always threats made against your family, you know. If you don't do this, you know, people could be hurt. If you try to reach out to people, you know, if you run away and contact someone and they try to help you, you know, those people could be hurt, I was told.

And yes, the only person you really do have contact with is the person who has abducted you. And you're so dependent on that person. I mean, they hold your life in their hands, and -- 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.

And so it's just kind of like what a POW would go through, you know. And these are big, strong military men, and they get broke down, you know. And so if you just incorporate these types of techniques with a person over time, you will break their will down and you will have total control over them.

KEILAR: What about the techniques that you used to cope? You must have had some coping mechanisms to try to get through this time. And I imagine this is something that isn't unique to you, that these are coping mechanisms that were likely used by the women here in Cleveland. How did you get through it?

STAN: Well, god is good. God is good. And he has given us techniques to get through things like this, survival techniques. And I focused a lot on all the good memories. You can go anywhere in your mind. And so you just kind of have to put yourself in a different place and focus on what's going on and what's happening to you. And that's what I did. And it was just faith. Faith got me through a lot, a lot of prayer. My family was praying. I heard one of the mothers say the other day that, you know, she prayed to the very day when her daughter came back home. I believe it was Gina's mother. And so faith was just something that was -- and still is, to this day, a thing that helped me get through everything.

KEILAR: Can you help us understand something? We've heard some experts say, as prosecutors look perhaps at pursuing very, very serious -- not just charges, but perhaps the death penalty against the alleged kidnapper here, not to be surprised if these women have some ambivalence about their captor, if they don't necessarily feel that they need revenge. When you were abducted, when you finally fled, you never turned your abductors in to police. Instead, it was your abductor's wife who called the police. And so I want to ask you, talk about your feelings towards your abductor, and why you didn't, sort of pursue retaliation for what had been done to you.

STAN: Well, when I first was released, when I first got free, I was -- I know, and I know this is how these ladies felt, I was just so overjoyed just to be free. And I think -- I kind of just wanted to put it behind me.

And then the other reason I didn't turn my abductor in was because his wife had begged me to please don't turn him in. And so I was staying in contact with her. And I think what happened was she -- he was going to do it again. And which, you know, that's why these guys need to go to prison, because -- and not be out in society, because they will do it again given the opportunity. And so she finally did turn him in to the police, because she was scared he was going to do it again.

KEILAR: Colleen Stan, thank you for talking to us. You are a testament to human resilience. And we certainly hope that is a trait, as I know you do, that these young women here in Cleveland share with you. We'd also like to thank investigation discovery for use of their -- sorry, go on, Colleen.

STAN: I would just like to -- I just send my heart out to these ladies, and I just pray that they will get through their healing, and recover quickly. And my prayers go out to them. Thank you.

KEILAR: Thank you for that, colleen. We know that so many people, especially the people here in Cleveland, feel exactly the same way. Thanks for joining us.

STAN: Thank you.

KEILAR: We're following other stories in addition to the kidnappings here in Cleveland. Searching for a cause of that deadly fertilizer plant explosion in Texas, investigators have ruled out a few possibilities. Now they're hoping a new probe will bring them closer to the truth.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KEILAR: Authorities in West, Texas, have made an arrest that's drawing a lot of attention. Brice Reed was once known as one of the heroic first responders who risked his life after a fertilizer plant caught fire and exploded, killing 14 people last month. Today he's facing charges for possessing the materials needed to make a bomb. What's not clear is whether his arrest is linked to last month's blast. CNN's David Mattingly is covering the story for us in Waco, Texas. David, what do we know about Reed's arrest, and can we draw any sort of link here?

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, Brice Reed was among the EMS volunteer responders that night of that fire and huge explosion at the fertilizer plant in West, Texas. And he was in federal court yesterday in custody, accused of having bomb-making materials. And this included materials including a pipe, a fuse, and powder chemicals used in making pipe bombs.

According to court documents, authorities were tipped off about this when a resident said this resident unwittingly accepted these materials from Reed. Also in the court documents they said that Reed acknowledged to investigators that he did knowingly possess these materials. All other questions about why, what he was doing with them were not in those court documents. We have not heard back from his attorney about how they plan to respond to these charges.

But Reed, if you remember, if you were watching the coverage closely, after the west explosion, he was a known figure here, very high-profile, actually giving a number of interviews, including live on CNN the night after the explosion, talking about how devastated everyone here in the area was. Later, he also appeared at a memorial service. He was very emotional, actually delivering the eulogy for one of the fallen firefighters, but now standing accused in federal court of possessing these bomb-making materials.

Federal prosecutors say they are not speculating at all on any possible connection, not finding any connection at this time, between this arrest, between those bomb-making materials and this man, and that explosion at the plant. Brianna?

KEILAR: So interesting, though, because there are all of these dots that you could so easily connect. And we'll just have to wait to see what investigators say about that. Do we know, David, though, why now are authorities opening this criminal investigation? Are they saying what has prompted that?

MATTINGLY: Well, they're not so easily connected when you're talking about the dots here. There is no connection at this point between this arrest and that explosion. We've got two investigations going on now, one launched yesterday by state and local authorities, a criminal investigation. The sheriff here saying that the public confidence is at stake. They want to make sure that they deliver a very thorough investigation to make sure everyone knows that every question was asked and answered in this case. Similar comments made also by state authorities saying, no stone will be left unturned.

At the same time we have an investigation ongoing from fire investigators. So far they have not been able to pinpoint a cause of that explosion, only so far being able to rule out a couple of things, natural causes, weather, things like that. But they have not been able to rule out other possible man-made type causes. But again, they have not been able to pinpoint why this fire happened. And no one at this point from federal, state and local levels are making any connection whatsoever, saying there's no information out there connecting this man, these materials for a pipe bomb, to that explosion in West, Texas.

KEILAR: It sure is awfully strange. We know you'll continue to follow this story. David Mattingly for us in Waco. Thank you.

Here in Cleveland, the neighbor on Seymour Avenue who literally broke down the door on a decade of horror is talking about what happened. Charles Ramsey has become one of the faces and the voices of this story, and he's talking with a Washington, D.C., radio station as we speak. We'll have more on that coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Welcome back, everyone. I'm Brianna Keilar in Cleveland, Ohio. The man accused of holding three women --

Here in Cleveland, Ohio, officials say Ariel Castro's DNA confirms he is the father of the six-year-old girl born to kidnapping survivor Amanda Berry. The lead prosecutor said he may charge Castro with murder with claims he punched Michelle Knight and starved her, trying to induce at least five miscarriages.

And this morning, while relatives of berry and Gina Dejesus celebrate their return, Knight's family doesn't know where she is. The 32-year-old woman has been released from the hospital, but a family spokesman says police won't tell them where she went.

Now, staying in Washington, it's not often you hear the IRS say that it's made a mistake, but now the agency is admitting it did make mistakes in how it handled tax-exempt requests from some conservative groups, a number of which just happen to have "Tea Party" in their names. Let's join Athena Jones in Washington. Athena, what's this all about?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Brianna. This is a big deal. The American Civil Liberties Union is saying even the appearance of playing partisan politics with the tax code is about as constitutionally troubling as it gets. And that's exactly what the IRS has been accused of doing. You mentioned groups with names "Tea Party," also "Patriot." These were groups that were subjected to extra scrutiny when they applied for a tax-exempt status in the run-up to the 2012 election.

And so the IRS is coming under a lot of fire for this. I spoke to the head of the Tea Party Patriots, one of the biggest Tea Party groups in the nation, and she said that her group applied for tax- exempt status back in 2009 and still hasn't heard from the IRS. These are groups that were subjected to pages and pages of questions. This particular group said that they had to produce every single posting on their Facebook's fan page to the IRS in order to get this tax-exempt status.

Now, of course, the IRS has said that there are some local career employees in Cincinnati, the office that handles a lot of these groups that made some mistakes. They insist this wasn't done for political reasons. It was done to try to consolidate and do this all in a more efficient way.

But, of course, many members of Congress are outraged about this. This is being investigated by the inspector general, the tax arm of the Treasury Department. That's something the Treasury Department supports. The White House also says this is inappropriate and should be investigated.

And you have numerous Republican members of Congress who are calling for other investigations. Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, wants the White House to conduct an administration- wide investigation to make sure no one is being discriminated against for their political beliefs. And the House committee also wants to see an investigation. So it is a big deal if the IRS is seen as playing politics, Brianna.

KEILAR: It is a big deal, Athena. And it's kind of just one of a few things that the White House is dealing with. They've had, I guess you could say, a rough week. They're also facing fallout over the deadly attack on the diplomatic compound in Libya. Tell us about that.

JONES: Well, that is, again, another issue that you mentioned, more politics surrounding that. You have Republicans saying that the White House and State Department, different officials in the administration, played more of a role in changing the talking points around this attack, the talking points that were given to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to go on the Sunday talk shows, just days after those attacks, and blame it on violence that grew out of protests.

Republicans say that the administration knew early on that this attack was a planned terror operation. And they're saying that -- they're pointing to two bits of information that were removed from the talking points, CIA warnings about possible attacks in Benghazi by terror groups, the potential for those attacks. And also, that early CIA assessment that a group linked to Al Qaeda may have been involved in this attack. Republicans say that the White House wanted to remove that for political reasons. The administration says they removed that information because they didn't want to compromise the investigation.

So a lot of politics going on here. We don't expect this to be the end of it, Brianna.

KEILAR: Athena Jones for us there in Washington. Thank you very much.

Let's talk a little bit more about that Benghazi hearing and possibly the political fallout from it. I'm joined now by CNN analyst and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona as well as conservative blogger and owner of the Baker Wright group Crystal Wright. So we know that Republicans are accusing the Obama administration of trying to cover up what was a well-orchestrated attack, while Democrats accuse Republicans of using the tragedy for political gain. Is either side right? Maria, you first. And is it possible both sides, you know, that both sides have a point here?

MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, look, was the rollout of how this happened in terms of the explanation on behalf of the administration clumsy? Absolutely. Anybody who understands the process that has worked in government understands this. It's not pretty. It's clumsy.

But the fact of the matter is that there was no cover-up. And 30 briefings, internal briefings to members of Congress, tens of thousands of pages have been turned over to Congress already, demonstrate that. The Accountability Review Board, who was chaired by folks with tremendous credentials, have said they had unfettered access to everything and everyone during this investigation. Secretary Clinton herself said the buck stops with her, she's completely responsible, and she has taken that responsibility. The State Department has implemented the 29 recommendations coming out of the accountability review board to make sure this doesn't happen again.

KEILAR: But Maria, let me ask you this, because we've heard from the White House. They say initially said at first, hey, there were stylistic changes to those talking points. When you look at how those talking points changed from the beginning, you learn those are not just stylistic changes, those are substantive changes that happened in the midst of a presidential election. Is it fair to just call that clumsy or not?

CARDONA: I do think it's absolutely fair to call it clumsy, Brianna. And as somebody who has worked in the administration under President Clinton, I've gone through this. And it's not pretty. And it is clumsy. And it's something that should be refined. And I think that's something that could be refined moving forward.

But it has absolutely nothing to do with a cover-up. And in fact, all of those pieces that you talk about in terms of what was changed by the State Department were backed up by the CIA. And so all of that when it was turned over to the White House, the White House did only have stylistic changes.

And, by the way, Brianna, all of those e-mails have been in the hands of Congress for months. They have seen this. Even Republicans have said that they are satisfied with the fact that there's no cover- up here. This is focused on folks in the House, Republicans in the House, who are terrified about a Hillary 2016 run because they know that there's no Republican right now that can touch her. It is absolutely political wrangling here.

KEILAR: I know, Crystal, that you will say that, no, it's not about political wrangling. But isn't it possible that it is about political wrangling as well as maybe fighting these fights, some of these questions that definitely need to be answered, but it's being exploited by Republicans?

CRYSTAL WRIGHT, EDITOR AND BLOGGER CONSERVATIVEBLACKCHICK.COM: I don't know how Maria, or any Democrat can say with a casualness that this was clumsy, and that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the buck stopped with her. We know neither is true, and it's far from true.

And as far as politics, you're right, this is very political. It's about Hillary Clinton's failure and refusal to take accountability and responsibility that the State Department was actively engaged in editing of the talking points. As far as the politics of it, of Benghazi, it's absolutely been politicized by the president of the United States at a time when he was in a reelection campaign.

And a couple things I think that need to be pointed out, and the American people need to think about. When we heard Gregory Hicks testify this week, it was a stark contrast to Hillary Clinton, when she testified. Gregory Hicks was credible, calm, and emotional. He said he was absolutely stunned when he saw Susan Rice parade herself out on a Sunday talk show denying this was a terrorist attack when he said from the get-go, I use his quote, "from the get-go, we have the deputy to our embassy in Libya saying everybody knew it was a terrorist attack." The CIA, Hillary Clinton called him at 2:00 a.m.

And I think when we look at the e-mail that Maria mentioned, that are finally coming to light from the public, we see not only the CIA, but the White House and the State Department on Friday September 14th, that the FBI and justice department were engaged into believing it was Islamic terrorists linked to Al Qaeda.

And Victoria Nuland, who worked for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said she didn't like the way the talking points painted the State Department, and also really pointed a finger at them for not taking responsibility for attacks earlier in the year. The CIA said that there had been five attempts on foreigners in Libya, including the British ambassador.

So it does make the secretary of state look as though she's covering up. And quite honestly, if she thinks she's going to run for president in 2016, she has a lot of questions to answer. And so does this president. So I think it's a story --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: I am going -- ladies, I am unfortunately going to have to leave it there. Obviously it's a very complicated topic. And one that is going to be something we continue to talk about. So I look forward to talking to both of you about it.

CARDONA: Thanks, Brianna.

WRIGHT: Thanks.

KEILAR: Now, here in Cleveland, after ten years of captivity, finally freedom. And we've got the incredible moments that saw the return of three women and the arrest of their alleged captor.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: We are here in Cleveland, where officials have just entered the home of Ariel Castro, the man accused of kidnapping three women and keeping them for years in the home just over my right shoulder. We're going to take a look. You can see officials just outside of the door.

We have been watching all morning as construction crews have been boarding up, not just the home where these women were kept allegedly by Ariel Castro, but also two adjacent homes that we understand Castro previously owned and that have been foreclosed on.

So you're looking at what appears to be officials there on the porch. This is just happening now. We don't know exactly what their role is in all of this, as you also see construction workers who are, as we understand it, going to be putting up a fence around the property, trying to preserve this crime scene so that investigators in what is going to be a very complicated case will be able to go through all of the evidence that they need to.

At this point, we don't know -- we see a man who is inspecting a doorjamb, and we have seen all of the windows boarded up. So again, we are continuing to follow the situation here, as we're actually seeing officials go -- opening the door of the house, and going into it, as we watch construction workers building a fence around the property. We've seen them pouring some concrete, cutting some of the boards, putting up boards in some of the homes.

These events in Cleveland this past week have revealed almost an unimaginable crime, perpetrated by an alleged monster who hid in plain sight for over a decade. Now since the rescues of Amanda Berry, Gina Dejesus, and Michelle Knight, we wanted to take a look back at how we got here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANDA BERRY: Help me, I'm Amanda Berry, I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for ten years. I'm free now.

CHARLES RAMSEY, HELPED FREE MISSING WOMAN: The girl, Amanda, told the police, I ain't the only one. There's more girls up in that house.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have a female on the phone saying her name is Amanda Berry and she had been kidnapped ten years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gina Dejesus may be in this house also. We also have a Michelle Knight in the house.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An emotional day, especially for Amanda Berry's family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought about her every day. I knew she would come. I knew she would come home. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An incredible night in Cleveland, where you can surely believe miracles really do happen.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Prosecutors announced they're charging Ariel Castro with four counts of kidnapping, three counts of rape.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The law of Ohio calls for the death penalty for those most depraved criminals who commit aggravated murder during the course of a kidnapping.

RAMSEY: We see this dude every day, I mean, every day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How long have you lived here?

RAMSEY: I've been here a year. I barbecued with this dude.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It seems like they were looking at us like we were just looking for attention or something like that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The police?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. They didn't seem to give any real true desire to the case, you know what I'm saying?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just very, very confident in the ability of those investigators, and those law enforcement officers, that they checked every single lead. They followed it up very, very aggressively.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My husband and I are in complete disbelief that the friendly, caring, doting man I knew as my daddy was in fact the most evil, vile, demonic criminal that I have met or heard of.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to say, we are so happy to have Amanda and her daughter home. I want to thank the public and the media for their support.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here she comes on the other side.

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My first reaction, as I saw my daughter, the only thing I did was grab her and hug her. I didn't want to let go. Until this moment, for me, I still feel that it is a dream.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: An overnight hero in an unlikely situation in this story we've been following in Cleveland, Charles Ramsey, speaking out this morning. Hear what he's saying right now about the amazing events in Cleveland, next.

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KEILAR: The neighbor hailed as a hero in the Cleveland missing girls case, Charles Ramsey, is talking about what happened here on Seymour Avenue here Monday night. He is a guest on a radio show in D.C. he's talking about the moment that he helped Amanda Berry through that door.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you, like, super nervous at this point? This is a lot of drama going on.

RAMSEY: A lot was going on. And I sat there across the street. And she used my neighbor's phone. She used somebody's phone. And she called 911. I called 911. So when she finally get through, I finally get through. That's when you hear my 911 call. I had to be sarcastic with them. You can tell how I played it, coming to me with stupidity. I'm going to act a certain way. Come to me with logic and I'll be humble.

So she has still got this baby in her arms and on the phone. And naturally, there's a bunch of women around at the time, because it's 80 degrees outside. I'm looking at this white girl like, who are you, with that baby?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me ask, there are reports that said that the baby had on a diaper.

RAMSEY: That's right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Six-year-old child.

RAMSEY: That child was screaming for her daddy. And I say, well, who was her daddy? Amanda said, Ariel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my gosh.

RAMSEY: That's what threw me off. That's where I'm coming from. This girl is only six. Ariel is 52. I'm like, he kidnapped you and had his way with you. And that's the result, this pretty little girl.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's your thinking as this is going on now?

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KEILAR: Ramsey also said he always thought Ariel Castro was, quote, "a cool guy."

Let's take a turn now, we're going to go to Miami and John Zarrella for an update on the space station where some astronauts are doing repairs. What's going on, John?

ZARRELLA: Brianna, NASA is calling this a vexing problem. The two space-walking astronauts at this point still unable to find any evidence of that leak, that cooling system leak of ammonia that was detected two days ago. They're finding no evidence. They've removed a pump they thought was suspect. They're putting in a replacement pump, or will very shortly, and then they'll move on to some other troubleshooting. But right now, no joy.

KEILAR: John Zarrella, thank you for that. And we have much more ahead in the next hour of CNN Saturday Morning, which starts after a quick break.

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