Kidnap Victim Shuns Family: Why Did Michelle Knight Tell Her Family Not To Visit?

Michelle Knight, who survived 11 years of captivity in the Cleveland house of Ariel Castro, is said to be shunning her family, refusing to see them in the hospital where she is currently receiving treatment.

Knight, 32, met with her mother on Wednesday, but shortly after she arrived from Naples, Florida to the hospital in Cleveland, Knight asked her to leave, reportedly because she believes her family did not search for her after she disappeared.

Reuters reports that one of Knight's two brothers, Freddie Knight, visited Michelle in the hospital.

"Her skin was white as a ghost," he said. "She told me she was excited to start a new life."

Since his visit, he has spoken to her once by phone, but per the hospital's request he said he would leave her alone.

Michelle Knight was a 20-year-old single mother when she was kidnapped in 2002. At the time she had recently lost a custody battle with child welfare authorities over her young son.

Her grandmother, who said she had been told Michelle did not want to see her, told Reuters that her family believed that Michelle had run away.

"They took him and she went out and took off and never came back," she said.

Knight's mother filed a missing persons report after she disappeared but did not hold a vigil, as they believed she had run away. Castro is said to have taunted the two other women he held captive by showing them footage of candlelight vigils held in their honor.

Michelle Knight, the first of the three women to be kidnapped, suffered at least five miscarriages intentionally caused by Castro who would starve her for weeks and beat her in the abdomen, according to a police report. An Ohio prosecutor said he would seek aggravated murder charges against Castro for this reason, in addition to charges of rape and kidnapping.

If Castro is convicted he may face the death penalty.

Knight may also have faced physical abuse before being kidnapped. A man named David Feckley was reported to have been charged and convicted of child endangerment for breaking the arm of Michelle's infant son in the early 2000s, according to Cleveland's 19 Action News. A rape charge was dropped when Michelle, the alleged victim, couldn't be found.

Knight may need reconstructive surgery on her face to heal injuries sustained at the hands of Castro. She was released this afternoon from the MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland.