Cleveland kidnapping victim Michelle Knight was strung up with orange extension chords by her neck and feet 'like a fish' for days without food or water during her 11 years in captivity, it emerged today.
She made the revelations to Dr Phil McGraw in an exclusive interview which will offer the first glimpse into life inside the 'House of Horrors' at the hands of Ariel Castro.
Speaking of the unimaginable abuse she suffered, Michelle describes becoming Castro's prisoner: "He used one of those orange extension cords. I was tied up like a fish, an ornament on the wall. That's the only way I can describe it".
"I was hanging like this by my feet and i was tied by my neck and my arms with the extension cord going like that."
Michelle Knight, the first of three women abducted by Ariel Castro and held for over a decade, speaks out in an exclusive interview with Dr. Phil
As the first victim to break her silence, she makes never-before-heard revelations about what went on in Castro's Cleveland house of horrors
In the interview, which will be aired on Tuesday and Wednesday night, she tells Dr Phil that she would be left strung up like that for days, with no food or water. No way to go to the toilet.
She still has nerve damage on her hands and feet because of it. Speaking ahead of the broadcast, Dr Phil said: "When you listen to her describe the horrible living conditions and how she was treated, you wonder how anyone lasted a day let alone more than a decade."
The only thing that gave her hope throughout her time in captivity was her two-year-old son. "I'm fighting to stay alive for him," she said in the excerpt, aired on the Today Show this morning.
Michelle will be the first of Castro's three victims to publicly speak out at length about the horrors the women had to endure for more than a decade in the ramshackle Cleveland home before being rescued. Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus escaped on May 6 when Berry pushed out a door and yelled for help.
Their kidnapper, Ariel Castro, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life plus a thousand years . He hanged himself on September 3, just weeks into his sentence. During the exclusive interview with Dr Phil viewers will hear in great details about the antics and torture that occurred Castro's Cleveland house of horrors.
A view of a bathroom in Ariel Castro's house: The girls would be strung up with extension cords and left for days
Castro would cover his victims heads with this motorcycle helmet when he forced himself on them
Reliving the memories: Dr Phil and Michelle Knight revisit the house in Cleveland where the horrors occurred. Dr. Phil says people have perceived Michelle Knight as being intellectually challenged. He says she was anything but - and showed a tremendous strength in reconstructing her 11 years of captivity
Dr Phil said of the interview: "Michelle Knight's story of horror and courageous survival almost defies description and has changed me like no other in 12 years of doing the show. Her dark journey from victim to victor is beyond compelling."
"Michelle recalls the day-to-day details of her decade in captivity in a manner described as 'passionate, moving and poignant".
"She is the self-proclaimed, most hated of the victims in the house, and according to Knight, suffered the most abuse at the hands of Castro."
"She is the self-proclaimed, most hated of the victims in the house, and according to Knight, suffered the most abuse at the hands of Castro."
A long-time coming: Michelle Knight spent more than a decade in the Cleveland home, and is about to share her story
Victims: Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus have agreed to write a book about their terrible ordeal
The other victims, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, are collaborating with a Pulitzer Prize-winning team of Washington Post reporters for a planned book about their ordeal. Michelle was abducted on August 23, 2002 when she was 21 years old, a year before Amanda Berry in April 2003. A year later Gina deJesus joined them. Berry and DeJesus said they will work with the Post's Mary Jordan, a Cleveland native, and her husband and fellow reporter, Kevin Sullivan.
Cleveland native Mary Jordan will write the book about the women kidnapped by Castro
No meetings with publishers have been scheduled, although interest would likely be based on the popularity of another kidnapping survivor's memoir, Jaycee Dugard's A Stolen Life.
"Many have told, and continue to tell, this story in ways that are both inaccurate and beyond the control of these young women," said James Wooley, the attorney for Berry and DeJesus.
"Our clients have a strong desire for privacy, but it is a reality that confronts them every day. Gina, Amanda and their families have decided to take control and are now interested in telling the story of what happened to them."
"Our clients have a strong desire for privacy, but it is a reality that confronts them every day. Gina, Amanda and their families have decided to take control and are now interested in telling the story of what happened to them."
Wooley said in his statement that he had known Jordan for years and contacted her about the project.
Jordan said during a recent interview that she was drawn to the 'resilience' of Berry and DeJesus and was eager to help them tell an "amazing story of overcoming adversity". In 2003, she and Sullivan won a Pulitzer for their series about the Mexican criminal justice system.
Investigators said the three victims were bound, repeatedly raped and deprived of food and bathroom facilities. At his sentencing, Knight told Castro: " I spent 11 years in hell, now your hell is just beginning". She was the only one of the three girls to attend.
