Police filed kidnapping and rape charges on Wednesday against one of three brothers arrested in a sensational abduction case in which three women were held captive for a decade in a Cleveland, Ohio, home.

After two of the three women returned to their family homes earlier on Wednesday, law enforcement officials held a news conference to announced kidnapping and rape charges against Ariel Castro, 52.

Victor Perez, chief assistant prosecutor for the city of Cleveland, said Castro would be arraigned on four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape on Thursday.

No charges were filed against his brothers, Onil Castro and Pedro Castro, who were arrested with him after one of the women, Amanda Berry, escaped late Monday. Berry alerted police about the other two women as well as her 6-year-old daughter, who was conceived and born while Berry was held captive.

The two brothers face outstanding misdemeanour charges unrelated to the abduction case, Perez said, adding that there was no evidence linking them to the crimes committed against the women and the girl.

During their long captivity, the women only left the house twice and never left the property at all, said Ed Tomba, deputy chief of police in Cleveland. On the two occasions when they left, they went into the garage in disguise.

There was no evidence indicating they were ever outside in the yard in chains, without clothing or any other manner, as some news reports have said, quoting neighbours, another law enforcement official at the news conference said.

Police took more than 200 items from the home, but Tomba wouldn’t elaborate on what they were. Reports earlier Wednesday said ropes and chains were among the items.

According to Tomba, the women’s only opportunity to escape came on Monday. Tomba declined to elaborate on the circumstances, but said “something must have clicked and she (Berry) took that opportunity.” Tomba said he could not discuss the status of Berry’s daughter because she is a minor, but Perez said a DNA sample had been collected and officials planned to conduct a paternity test.

Tomba also declined to describe the conditions in which the women and girl lived other than to say the house was “in disarray.” Questions have arisen over how police could have missed finding the women. In 2004 officers were at Ariel Castro’s house over an issue regarding his employment at the time.

Over the years investigators have asked themselves whether they were missing anything, Tomba said.

“I’m just very, very confident in the ability of the law enforcement officers, that they checked every single lead,” he added.

“When they got a lead. They followed it up very aggressively.” Earlier on Wednesday there were jubilant homecomings for two of the three women. Relatives and friends at the home of Gina DeJesus, 23, cheered as she arrived under police escort at her family’s home.

As dozens of reporters and photographers stood behind a police cordon, she emerged from a dark SUV dressed in a bright yellow hoodie pulled over her head and was escorted into the house by her sister, who concealed her face.

Berry arrived to a colourful reception at her sister’s home, also under police escort. She was shown in broadcast images entering the back door carrying her daughter.

The third woman freed from the house on Monday night, Michelle Knight, remained hospitalised, according to news reports.

Berry vanished in April 2003 one day before her 17th birthday on her way home from work. DeJesus was abducted in April 2004 when she was 14. She was last seen at a pay phone where she stopped on her way home from school. Knight, now 32, was missing the longest — since August 2002 when she was 20.

Relatives of both victims asked the media to respect their privacy until they were ready to tell their stories.

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