CLEVELAND — For more than nine years, Nancy Ruiz believed her daughter would someday come home.
“I will never accept a no,” said Ruiz.
Her daughter, Gina DeJesus, disappeared on April 8, 2004, on her way home from school.
Ruiz fought to bring attention to Gina’s disappearance; she organized vigils and worried.
“Is she eating? Are they beating her? Is she OK? Does she got a blanket?” explained Ruiz. But she always believed Gina would come home, and she did.
Saturday marks 10 years since Gina DeJesus, Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight escaped from Ariel Castro’s home on Seymour Avenue, where he held them captive. All three girls escaped when Amanda Berry was able to break out of the house and call the police for help.
Ruiz was at her sister’s house, not far from Castro’s house.
“I crossed West 25th, but I could see all these people. I see the yellow tape where nobody can go through. The first person I see is Agent Andrew. I ran to him, and I hugged him. I whispered to him, please tell me it’s her and if she is OK. He was crying, and he told me, yeah, Nancy,” explained Ruiz.
Still, 10 years later, with tears running down her cheek, those memories of that day are very vivid. Ruiz knows she was given a miracle.
“I’m seeing 6-foot detectives dropping to their knees crying because they didn’t believe it,” Ruiz said.
Now a decade later, just down the street from where the three were held captive and tortured stands a non-profit started by Gina and her family.
“Gina has always said this is the street where something bad happened to three people. But it doesn’t define the street. She wanted to be here because she wanted to give back to her community and her city. She thought this would be the best way to do it. If she could be on this street, anyone could be here,” said her cousin Sylvia Colon with the Cleveland Family Center for Missing Children and Adults.
The mission of the center is to help families who have a loved one who is missing. “What can we do so no other family has to endure what our family went through?” said Colon.
“It’s the not knowing about their child or their loved one. That’s what hurts the most,” said Ruiz
Now the center and family offer strength, support and hope to other families.
“Always hope. Never give up the hope,” Ruiz said.
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