Ohio kidnapping victim says she forgives captor who held her with 2 other women for years

CLEVELAND – One of the three women help captive for nearly a decade in a Cleveland house before escaping last year says she forgives the man who kidnapped and tortured her all those years.

Michelle Knight, interviewed Monday on NBC’s “Today” show, said Ariel Castro deserves forgiveness because she’d want to be forgiven if she did wrong, and “that’s the way of life.”

She added, “he is a human being and every human being needs to be loved,” even if he did wrong.

Tuesday is the anniversary of the escape from the house by Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus. Knight, 33, said she doesn’t see much of the other two women, saying “we’re all now living in our own way.”

Knight — who has a book coming out Tuesday — said she’s a singer who just recorded a song, and she’s also training to be a boxer.

The 53-year-old Castro pleaded guilty in August to hundreds of charges and committed suicide in prison.

Knight said in the interview that she was surprised when Castro killed himself, wondering “why would he hurt his children like that?”

DeJesus was 14, Berry was 16 and Knight was 20 when they disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004. They were rescued from Castro’s run-down house May 6, 2013, after Berry broke through a screen door.

Berry and DeJesus are collaborating with two Washington Post reporters on a book due out next year. Charles Ramsey, the man credited with helping the women escape from the house, also has written a book.