Inside Cleveland's haunted house

(CNN) -- In retrospect, there were plenty of signs that something was wrong: reports of a naked woman roaming the backyard. A child peering from an attic in a house where no children lived. Sealed windows, muffled screams and accounts of what sounded like people pounding on the walls from inside.

But the incidents were spread out over years. Even now, it is not precisely clear who saw what or when. Attempts to report the odd occurrences to the police seem to have been sporadic, and the police response appears to have been equally limited.

So, after a while, 2207 Seymour Ave. would lapse back into silence, with no one opening the door to knocks and nothing amiss that a fresh coat of paint could not fix. It was indeed so silent much of the time that some neighbors thought no one lived there.

The house that Ariel Castro bought more than 20 years ago for $12,000 is in itself unremarkable. Built in 1890, it is situated in one of Cleveland's oldest neighborhoods, Tremont, and real estate records indicate that the house underwent a major renovation in the 1950s.

Relatives of kidnapping victim Georgina "Gina" DeJesus hug after she returned to her parents' home in Cleveland on Wednesday, May 8. DeJesus was one of three women who were held captive in a Cleveland home for almost a decade. She escaped with Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight on Monday, May 6.

Friends and neighbors cheer as a car carrying Amanda Berry arrives at her sister's house in Cleveland on May 8.

Gina DeJesus gives a thumbs up as she arrives at her family's house in Cleveland on May 8.

Ariel Castro was charged on May 8 with kidnapping the three women.

The family house of Gina DeJesus has been decorated by well-wishers on Tuesday, May 7.

Friends and relatives gather in front of the family house of DeJesus on May 7.

Well-wishers visit the home of the sister of Amanda Berry on Monday, May 6.

Investigators remove evidence from the house on Seymour Avenue in Cleveland where the three women were held.

An FBI forensics team meets outside the house where three women were held as they investigate the property.

An FBI forensics team member removes evidence from the house.

A relative of DeJesus brings balloons to the home of Amanda Berry's sister in Cleveland on May 7.

Children hold a sign and balloons in the yard of Gina DeJesus' family home in Cleveland on May 7.

Bystanders and media gather on May 7 along Seymour Avenue in Cleveland near the house where the three women were held captive.

A bystander shows the front page of The Plain Dealer newspaper to a friend outside of the house on Seymour Avenue on May 7.

Cleveland Deputy Chief of Police Ed Tomba, center, speaks at a news conference to address details of the developments.

The house where the three women were held captive in Cleveland was the home of Ariel Castro, who was arrested and is being held pending charges in the case.

FBI agents remove evidence from the house May 7.

A police officer stands in front of the broken front door of the house on May 7, where the kidnapped women escaped.

Neighbor Charles Ramsey talks to media as people congratulate him on helping the kidnapped women escape on Monday, May 6. He helped knock down the door after he heard screaming inside.

Amanda Berry vanished a few blocks from her Cleveland home on April 21, 2003. She was 16.

Georgina "Gina" DeJesus was last seen in Cleveland on April 2, 2004, on her way home from school. She was 14 when she went missing.

Michelle Knight was last seen on August 22, 2002, when she was 21.

Kidnapped teens found decade later

Kidnapped teens found decade later

Kidnapped teens found decade later

Kidnapped teens found decade later

Kidnapped teens found decade later

Kidnapped teens found decade later

Kidnapped teens found decade later

Kidnapped teens found decade later

Kidnapped teens found decade later

Kidnapped teens found decade later

Kidnapped teens found decade later

Kidnapped teens found decade later

Kidnapped teens found decade later

Kidnapped teens found decade later

Kidnapped teens found decade later

Kidnapped teens found decade later

Kidnapped teens found decade later

Kidnapped teens found decade later

Kidnapped teens found decade later

Kidnapped teens found decade later

Kidnapped teens found decade later

Kidnapped teens found decade later

HIDE CAPTION

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Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued

See Ariel Castro arraigned in court

Amanda Berry's sister asks for privacy

Abduction story stuns Ohio community

Bandmate: Castro seemed to live alone

With a little over 1,400 square feet of living space, it is neither unusually large nor small. It has a detached garage and two porches: the front one small and open, the back one enclosed. It holds two floors, an attic and a basement. If you walked in through the front door that Amanda Berry used for her escape, you would be greeted by a staircase going up directly ahead of you and a small living room to the left.

Tito DeJesus (no relation to one of the women being held, who has the same surname) walked through that door. "He kept his musical instruments in the living room," DeJesus said of the owner, Castro. "He was a bass player."

Timeline: From missing to liberated

As a fellow musician, DeJesus went inside the house three times to see Castro. He described a few simple pieces of furniture, a sofa and a chair or two. He notes that Castro kept his bass, amplifier and speaker out in the living room, where he could easily pick them up and play, and that that room led directly into the dining room, and from there, a closed door led to the kitchen in back. The house was reasonably tidy when DeJesus stopped by and "quiet ... like it was empty."

Upstairs, where one witness occasionally saw a woman looking out from a window before it was covered over, real estate records suggest there are four bedrooms and the only bathroom.

No one who has been voluntarily up there has come forward with any details of the architecture or descriptions of the attic. And nothing is known about the basement, which a witness says can be reached by stairs that run underneath the staircase that leads to the second floor.

A local construction and home repair worker who has been in the neighborhood for years says typically, basements here are made of "unfinished concrete blocks ... or sometimes cut stone" and hold "the guts of the house," meaning the furnace, water heater and sometimes the electrical boxes. Usually, due to the sandy nature of the surrounding soil, basements here are made smaller than the houses above, and he adds, "they all leak."

Police deny neighbors called about suspicious activity

That is what we know about the Castro house.

But it is the unknowns that have the neighbors sitting up late, talking, and wondering how it could be. Where were the chains and ropes that police say were used to bind those three women? Are the stories of padlocked doors true? Were the women and that child kept together or apart? What, if any, sort of mental games were used to dissuade them from escaping a place that from the outside looks so easy to slip away from?

That last question may prove very important in solving the mystery. There have been cases in which kidnappers have instilled such fear of reprisal in their victims -- by making all pay painfully for the transgressions of one -- that the hostages wind up essentially forced to control each other.

All that is certain is this: The evidence suggests that for a long time, these women were held undetected inside a seemingly normal house, on a normal street, while the homeowner saw neighbors, entertained their kids, ate at McDonald's and appeared perfectly normal.

That does not make the house on Seymour Avenue haunted, but it certainly makes it haunting.