Netflix tip of the day: Cleveland Abduction

Okay, this sounds very grim, but I was really looking forward to this. I find this such a bizarre and intense case, one that I have read a lot about, so I was eagerly awaiting the Netflix documentary about it. And yes, here it finally is: this is going to be my favorite true crime doc of the year. This doc also has a plus point, namely a happy ending. Well, as far as you can speak of ‘happy’...

Cleveland Abduction tells the story of Michelle Knight, who was abducted by Ariel Castro on August 23, 2002. You might already know the story, it was world news when she managed to escape in 2013, after being in the hands of this guy for more than a decade.

If you already know the story, you might also know that this Ariel Castro did not only abduct Michelle Knight, but also Amanda Berry and Georgina ‘Gina’ DeJesus. However, this documentary is only about the former and tells the events from her perspective. The real story is therefore much more gruesome than what we see.

On that August 23, Michelle Knight left the house of a relative at the age of 21. On the day she went missing, she was actually expected in court for the custody case regarding her son Joey. She had lost custody of him and wanted it back.

Due to Knight's tumultuous life, and because she was an adult, the police did little to nothing about her disappearance; they assumed she had left of her own accord, angry and sad about her son. That she was abducted by Castro and dragged to his house to be tied up and not receive food for three days, no one would have dared to think.

The details are really not for the faint-hearted; according to Knight, she became pregnant by Castro no less than five times and suffered multiple miscarriages due to the violence he inflicted on her. Because of this violence, she lost her hearing in one ear and needed plastic surgery on her face. In the more than ten years she was imprisoned, she also temporarily had a dog as a pet, until Castro killed it by twisting its neck.

Okay, I won't go into the even more gruesome details, just watch the doc. An absolute must-see for any true crime lover, but you have been warned: this one is intense.

Image: Netflix