Early Monday morning, workers doused the houses with a fire hose, as an excavator clawed the structures to pieces.
Within a couple hours, the house just to the west of Ariel Castro’s old property on Seymour Avenue, and the one just west of that, were no more. Both were already abandoned by the time Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight escaped from Castro’s home last May.
On the other side of the former Castro property, the house where Charles Ramsey lived when he aided in that rescue will remain standing. Castro’s house came down at the beginning of the month.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty was on the scene to watch the demolition. As the remainder of the last house was crushed to the ground behind him, he told reporters the structures had become a danger to the community, and that no decision had been made on what to put in their place.
“We do not want any tribute to this crime here," McGinty said. "But what this will be is a tribute to the fortitude and courage of those women, who found a way to survive this.”
McGinty says the community help decide what to do with the properties.