Michelle Knight, one of the three Cleveland kidnapping victims found alive earlier this week, has reportedly shunned her family following her rescue. Knight had been missing for 11 years when she was found in a dungeon-like Cleveland house with Amanda Berry , 27, and Gina DeJesus, 23. Knight had been in the house the longest and suffered brutal injuries at the hands of her captor, Ariel Castro , who is charged with rape and kidnapping. But while the two other freed captives have returned home to cheering crowds and yards full of balloons, Knight did not enjoy a similar scenario. Instead, the Cleveland kidnap victim has, according to reports, shunned her family for thinking she had just run away and failing to look for her. Knight’s mother and grandmother have been to Cleveland this week since news of her rescue broke, but Michelle has kept both of them at bay. “No, we haven’t [seen her], on her request. She does not want to be seen by family,” said Deborah Knight, the victim’s grandmother, to ABC News. Knight has opted for seclusion since her astonishing rescue. The kidnap victim has not shunned her entire family. One of her two brothers, Freddie Knight, did have a chance to visit his sister in the hospital. “Her skin was white as a ghost,” said Freddie Knight. “She told me she was just excited to start a new life.” That may be a long and painful process. It appears Michelle suffered immensely in captivity. Starvation, beatings and forced miscarriages were common. Knight was a 20-year-old single mother when she went missing in 2002, having lost a custody battle and seen officials take away her toddler son. When she was abducted, her family filed a missing persons report. However, police apparently viewed her as a runaway, and her case did not garner the same media attention as the disappearances of DeJesus or Berry. The remarkable ending to the case has garnered huge attention this week, with the three women and neighbor Charles Ramsey being hailed as heroes.
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Michelle Knight, Kidnap Victim, Shuns Family Following Rescue
