PERSON: Michelle Knight

Michelle Knight disappeared on August 22, 2002, after leaving a cousin's house. Knight was 21 years old at the time. On the day of her disappearance, she was scheduled to appear in court for a child custody case involving her son, of whom she had previously lost custody to the state.

Following Knight's rescue, police acknowledged that limited resources had been spent on investigating her disappearance, in part because she was an adult and was believed to have run away voluntarily due to anger over losing custody of her son. According to Cleveland Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba, Knight "was the focus of very few tips." Knight's removal from the National Crime Information Center database 15 months after she disappeared has been criticized, although police and the FBI maintain that her inclusion or exclusion had no bearing on her rescue.

According to a report by officers who found Knight, she accepted a ride home from Castro but was instead driven to his house. She was tied up in his basement and beaten and eventually moved to a locked room upstairs. Knight's grandmother told reporters that Knight will require facial reconstruction surgery due to the beatings she endured; Knight also lost hearing in one ear.

-- Wikipedia