Six months after being freed from the Cleveland "house of horrors," one of the three kidnapping survivors has opened up about the decade-long torture she suffered at the hands of Ariel Castro.
In an exclusive interview with Dr. Phil McGraw, which is scheduled to air Tuesday and Wednesday, Michelle Knight talks about the physical and sexual abuse she endured after Castro abducted her when she was 21-years-old back in 2002. Knight is now 32.
In one video clip, which aired on "Today," Knight describes how Castro tied her up with an orange extension cord. "I was tied up like a fish," she said, "an ornament on the wall."
In another excerpt from the interview, Knight says Castro taped her mouth shut with duct tape. She also told Dr. Phil that after she picked a lock to try to escape, Castro warned her saying, "Now you're gonna be punished." As a result of the endless torture, Knight said that she still has nerve damage in her hands and feet, reports CNN. Castro also chained Knight to a pole in the basement and strapped down a full motorcycle helmet over her head, she says.
Castro, a 52-year-old former school bus driver was sentenced to life imprisonment, plus 1,000 years with no chance of parole earlier this year for kidnapping, beating and raping Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus for 10 years. Castro kidnapped the women between 2002 and 2004 and fathered a 6-year-old child with Berry. He also beat and starved Knight when she became pregnant, forcing her to miscarry five times. The women were freed on May 6 after a neighbor helped rescue them from Castro's home.
Although it was originally believed that the convicted rapist and kidnapper committed suicide in his jail cell after serving one month of his life sentence, authorities later said that he died accidentally from "auto-erotic asphyxiation," an act that involves depriving the brain of oxygen by controlled strangulation in order to intensify a sexual experience.
Castro, who was held at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient, was found hanged with a bed sheet in his cell Sept. 3. In his cell, there was a Bible open to John Chapters 2 and 3, in addition to "pictures of his family out and arranged in a poster-board fashion," a report released by the state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction stated, reports CNN.
The report stated that "He was hanging from a hinge in the window of his cell by a sheet wrapped around his neck. His pants and underwear were pulled down to his ankles."
Watch a video clip of Michelle Knight's interview with Dr. Phil below.
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