For the first time since they were rescued from Ariel Castro’s house in May, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight spoke publicly in a short video posted online early this morning. All three appear separately in the video, offering thanks to their community and talking about moving on with their lives after a decade in captivity. “I may have been through hell and back, but I am strong enough to walk through hell with a smile on my face and with my head held high and with my feet firmly on the ground,” says Knight.
Read more in Slate about the Cleveland kidnapping case, and follow @JoshVoorhees and the rest of the @slatest team on Twitter.
