Former captive Michelle Knight, center, talks with reporters Wednesday, August 7 outside convicted kidnapper Ariel Castro's house. Castro held Knight and two other women captive for years inside the home until their escape in May. Knight was on hand as workers began tearing down the structure. 
A crane demolishes the Cleveland house of Castro on August 7. Plans call for the house to be torn down and the lot cleared in a single day. 
Here is a view of the house where Castro held the three women captive. He forfeited the house as part of a plea deal with prosecutors that took the death penalty off the table in exchange for a life sentence, plus 1,000 years in prison. 
Castro listens during the sentencing phase of his trial Thursday, August 1, in Cleveland alongside defense attorneys Craig Weintraub, left, and Jaye Schlachet. He pleaded guilty to 937 counts, including murder and kidnapping. 
Michelle Knight speaks during the sentencing phase for Ariel Castro Thursday, August 1, in Cleveland. "I will live on," Knight said in her statement to Castro. "You will die a little every day." 
Castro enters the courtroom Friday, July 26. He was arrested in May and accused of holding three young women captive for nearly a decade. 
Amanda Berry vanished a few blocks from her Cleveland home on April 21, 2003. She was 16. She spoke in a video released on YouTube on Monday, July 8, thanking people for support and privacy. Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight escaped from a Cleveland home on May 6 after being held captive for nearly a decade. 
Georgina "Gina" DeJesus was last seen in Cleveland on April 2, 2004, on her way home from school. She was 14 when she went missing. 
Knight was last seen on August 22, 2002, when she was 21. 
FBI agents and other law enforcement officers stand outside Castro's home in Cleveland on May 9. 
Castro hangs his head while talking with his public defender, Kathleen DeMetz, during his arraignment on May 9. 
Ariel Castro was charged on May 8 with kidnapping the three women. 
Investigators remove evidence from the house on Seymour Avenue in Cleveland where the three women were held. 
An FBI forensics team meets outside the house where three women were held as they investigate the property. 
Cleveland Deputy Chief of Police Ed Tomba, center, speaks at a news conference to address details of the developments. 
FBI agents remove evidence from the house May 7. 
A police officer stands in front of the broken front door of the house on May 7, where the kidnapped women escaped. 
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
- NEW: Ariel Castro's house razed; site to be graded and seeded
- Michelle Knight releases balloons outside home before demolition begins
- Plans call for the house to be torn down and the lot cleared in a single day
- Castro, who held three women captive in the house, pleaded guilty to 937 counts
Cleveland, Ohio (CNN) -- The Cleveland woman who was held the longest at Ariel Castro's house of horrors was there to see it shortly before it was torn down Wednesday.
Michelle Knight handed out yellow helium-filled balloons Wednesday morning to people who'd gathered for the demolition of the 1,400-square-foot house where she and two other women were raped and held captive for roughly a decade.
Minutes later, a hydraulic excavator began reducing the house to rubble, destroying the site of one of Cleveland's most notorious crimes in recent memory.
Knight told reporters that she was at the demolition site in part to remind relatives of abducted children that all is not necessarily lost.
"I want the people out there to know -- including the mothers -- that they can have strength, they can have hope, and their child will come back," she said.
Castro forfeited the house on Seymour Avenue as part of a July plea deal with prosecutors that took the death penalty off the table in exchange for a life sentence, plus 1,000 years in prison.
Frank Ochberg on Ariel Castro's house 
See photos taken inside Castro's home 
Family collects items from Castro home 
Ariel Castro's sentencing for the kidnapping and rape of three women in Ohio will be issued Thursday, August 1. During the trial, the prosecution presented images from inside the house that reveal the disturbing conditions in which they were held. A model of the house was also included. 
Chains constrained the women in the basement. 
Castro had a gun in the home and told Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Detective David Jacobs he would "show to the girls as a form of control." Asked whether he had ever forced the girls to play Russian roulette, Castro told Jacobs that he didn't remember it, "but if the girls said it, it probably happened." 
Amanda Berry spent most of her time in this bathroom with her daughter. 
Stuffed animals lie on a bed in the house. 
Castro describes himself as a sexual predator in a letter. 
Berry and Michelle Knight were forced to wear a helmet the first time Castro sexually assaulted them, according to Andrew Harasimchuk, a detective with the sex crimes unit. 
Toys and other belongings are piled in a bedroom. 
The FBI agent interviewed on the stand said Castro would make the women wear a brown wig on the rare occasion he let them out of the home. 
Chains ran through the walls in the house, the prosecution said. 
The pole to which the women were chained in the basement is pictured running through an upstairs bedroom. 
Stairs led down to the basement. 
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Evidence photos from Castro's trial Castro's victims resilient after years of abuse
Demolition began around 7:30 a.m. as an aunt of another former Castro captive, Georgina DeJesus, made the first hit on the house, operating the excavator with assistance.
By 10 a.m. the house had virtually been leveled, and the excavator's arm was dropping debris into a garbage truck.
Before the demolition, Knight gave out balloons and, standing not far from the house where she lived an 11-year nightmare, she led a group in releasing them into the air. She said they represented abducted children who were never found.
"I go from here as being a motivational speaker and let everybody know that they are heard, that they are loved, and that there is hope for everyone," she said.
The goal is to tear the house down and get the property filled in, graded and seeded in a single day, said Gus Frangos, president of Cuyahoga Land Bank, which is supervising the demolition.
Castro pleaded guilty last month to 937 counts, including murder and kidnapping. The charges stem from his kidnapping, rape and assault of three women: Knight, abducted in 2002; DeJesus, abducted in 2004; and Amanda Berry, abducted in 2003.
Also held was Berry's daughter, who was born at the home six years ago. DNA tests confirmed that Castro is the girl's father.
Berry and her daughter escaped from the home with the help of a neighbor on May 6, calling police in her now famous 911 call: "Help me, I am Amanda Berry. I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years. And I'm here. I'm free now."
Knight's visit to Castro's home was at least her second in a week. On Friday, she stood outside and looked at the house at 2207 Seymour Ave., a neighbor said.
She also attended Castro's sentencing Thursday, telling him "I spent 11 years in hell. Now, your hell is just beginning."
Castro's friends and family removed personal items from the home Monday, including musical instruments and photographs. Police said most of the items removed Monday were personal items left over after investigators collected evidence.
Victim returns to Cleveland house where she was held for 11 years
Berry also visited the house his week, collecting pictures drawn by her daughter.
Ariel Castro's son: I won't visit dad in prison
Castro reconfigured the 1,400-square-foot home to keep the captives' whereabouts a secret, FBI agent Andrew Burke testified during the sentencing. The back door was outfitted with an alarm, bedspreads and curtains obscured parts of the home, and a porch swing was placed in front of the stairs leading to the rooms where Castro held the three.
Why so many high-profile crimes in Cleveland?
