Houston group contacted during search for 3 Ohio girls

HOUSTON – The families of three recently found Ohio women asked a Houston-area volunteer group to help them search for them four years ago.

Amanda Berry was last seen after finishing her shift at a Burger King in Cleveland in 2003. It was the eve of her 17th birthday.

Georgina "Gina" DeJesus disappeared nearly a year later, in April 2004. She was 14.

Michele Knight vanished in 2002, at age 19, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper.

The three were found Monday in a home south of downtown Cleveland. Three men have been arrested.

The families of Berry and Dejesus contacted Texas Equusearch in the Houston area after the volunteer group worked missing persons cases that got a lot of national attention. Equusearch founder Tim Miller met with the families about four years ago.

"I met with both of the families in Cleveland, Ohio, about doing a search up there. We put our heads together about how to put a search together for these girls three and a half years ago, when we were in Cleveland, and there was just not a starting point," said Miller. "I just felt as though these two girls were going to be two of them that would be missing -- and always be missing -- and it would only be a miracle if their bodies were found, let alone be found alive ten years later."