and mid 80s coming our way been. >> for on the three women kidnapped and found alive in cleveland. on the broadcast tonight, the daring escape for three young women missing for a decade before someone finally heard their screams for help. tonight, how they were able to break free, and the emotional reunions with their families. the nightmare inside that house. three brothers now under arrest and tough questions for police about how these women were essentially hidden in plain sight for so long. out of control. an explosive report about the rise in sexual assaults in the american military a day after the man in charge of stopping them is arrested and accused of sexual assault. and losing the weight. our exclusive conversation with new jersey governor chris christie about his decision to have secret weight loss surgery, and what we now know was the moment he was signaling good-bye to his past. "nightly news" begins now.

from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news" with brian williams. good evening. it came down to a frantic 911 call. that was the start of it. soon after the world would learn three women missing and feared dead had been inside a cleveland, ohio, home for as long as a decade and were now free. and now the sorry and awful details are spilling out about the men accused of keeping human prisoners and about how this might have happened, how it might have gone on for so long with people coming and going and neighbors passing by all the while. starting when the story broke last night, it has made headlines around the world. at least there is a happy resolution to report in cleveland. we want to begin our coverage tonight with nbc's kristen dahlgren. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. yeah, there is a crowd gathered here tonight continuing the celebration. it's been an incredible 24 hours here. three men are now in custody. three women are free. including amanda berry who

disappeared in 2003 at age 16 headed home from her job at burger king. her family never saw her again until now. amanda berry alive with her family, a picture some never thought they would see. finally safe, but only after a harrowing escape and a desperate call to 911. >> help me, i'm amanda berry. >> do you need police, fire or ambulance? >> i need police. >> okay. what's going on there? >> i've been kidnapped and i've been missing for ten years. and i'm here, i'm free now. >> all right. we're sending them, okay? >> okay, i mean like -- >> who is the guy -- who is the guy who went out? >> his name is ariel castro. >> how old is he? >> he's like 52. >> all right. >> i'm amanda berry. i've been on the news for the last ten years. >> i see this girl going nuts trying to get out of a house. i go on the porch. she says help me get out. i've been in here a long time.

>> reporter: the scene a surprise for neighbors who never suspected a thing. >> all you saw was guys running and pulling and out comes this woman and a kid, and she's screaming hysterically. >> about five minutes after the police got here, see, the girl amanda told the police, i ain't just the only one. it's some more girls up in that house. >> reporter: still in the house were gina dejesus who disappeared in 2004 at just 14 and michele knight missing since 2002. for more than a decade police searched for them but turned up nothing. >> for amanda's family, for gina's family, for michele's family, prayers have finally been answered. the nightmare is over. >> reporter: family and friends rushed to the hospital. robert osorio is dejesus' cousin. >> she asked me like, is that robert? gave me the biggest hug. she was the same old gina, upbeat. just wanting to hang out with her friends and family. that's what gina was about,

friends and family. >> reporter: for berry's family there is one more now. a 6-year-old police say is berry's daughter born while her mother was held captive. >> she'll be welcomed in the home just like amanda will. we've been waiting for them both, evidently. >> reporter: police today called that little girl's mother a hero for her daring escape, while the families who never gave up hope get ready to finally welcome the three now grown women home. >> the not knowing is what kills you, but in the last few years, elizabeth smart, jaycee dugard, now these three women. it lends hope. i say it to parents all the time. don't ever give up. >> those girls, those women are so strong. it's what we do out here, what we've done in ten years is nothing compared to what those women have done together to survive. >> reporter: now, amanda berry's mother never lived to see this day. she died in 2006. a lot has changed since these women disappeared. some have new nieces and

nephews. michele actually has a little sister she has never met. they are now all in a private location getting reacquainted with their families. as you can see, the fbi continues here on the crime scene looking for any clues, brian. >> it's almost nice to hear a boisterous night in the neighborhood. kristen dahlgren starting off our coverage from outside the house. now we turn to what is known about the suspects and the investigation. why did it take this long to liberate these women from that kind of residential prison? nbc's ron allen continues our reporting from cleveland tonight. ron, good evening. >> reporter: good evening to you, brian. the brothers are being held here at police headquarters while investigators build their case. police now say they will likely be charged tomorrow morning with kidnapping and rape. the focus seems to be on ariel castro, his house now at the center of the investigation. the three brothers are ariel castro, 52, pedro, 54 and onil, 50. it is ariel who neighbors knew

best as a school bus driver who also gave kids rides in an all-terrain vehicle on the streets of this blue collar hispanic neighborhood. the three women, who each disappeared about a year apart, were all last seen within a five-block radius and allegedly held in castro's house about three miles away. the castro brothers' uncle owns the neighborhood corner store. >> they might have been living two different lives. >> reporter: some neighbors thought the house was vacant, a place ariel castro checked on from time to time. but a few now say they were concerned. >> they wouldn't open the windows, no doors, only the attic window. >> i've had family members that have phoned the police, and they've come and knocked on the door and nothing. >> reporter: police say they only answered calls twice on the street. once before the women disappeared and in 2004 to question ariel castro about a child mistakenly left behind on his school bus. no charges were filed. >> what we have here is a psychopath or possibly three. usually when you have three people involved in something,

you do have a ringleader and my guess is that is the person owning the house. how much his brothers are involved, we don't know yet. >> reporter: it turns out the castros have ties to one of the women rescued. gina dejesus. >> gina vanished in broad daylight. >> reporter: arlene castro, ariel's daughter, appeared in this episode of "america's most wanted" just after dejesus disappeared and said she was the last to see gina alive. >> my mom said no, that i can't go over to her house. and so i told her i couldn't and she said, well, okay, i'll talk to you later. and she was plucked. >> reporter: and ariel's son anthony as a college student wrote an article about dejesus' disappearance in 2004. and in yet another strange twist, pedro castro, also now in custody, was near the scene of a search for amanda berry's body last year. castro told reporters the search was, quote, a waste of money. we understand that ariel castro is no longer a school bus driver here in cleveland, dismissed

from his job back in november. and some neighbors told us that they recently saw him in the neighborhood for first time with a young child out and about, who could just be the child who was rescued late yesterday. brian? >> ron allen outside cleveland pd headquarters tonight. ron, thanks. in something of a notable coincidence, one of this nation's most famous kidnapping survivors, jaycee dugard, happens to be receiving an award in washington tonight from the national center for missing and exploited children for her efforts to help families who have had loved ones go missing. dugard released a statement today about the young women found in cleveland. she said, quote, these individuals need the opportunity to heal and connect back into the world. this isn't who they are. it's only what happened to them. the human spirit is incredibly resilient. more than ever this reaffirms we should never give up hope. jaycee dugard was abducted at the age of 11 at a california bus stop back in 1991, held captive for 18 years before she was freed.

from this stunning news out of cleveland, we turn to other news which tonight includes disturbing numbers from the pentagon on sexual assault in our military. these new stats come just one day after we learned the air force officer in charge of preventing sexual assault has been charged with committing one. the military's been saying they are going to fix this problem, but it looks worse than ever tonight. our pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski has our report. >> two, three, four. >> reporter: the numbers are staggering. a pentagon survey estimates unreported sexual assaults in the military last year skyrocketed from 19,000 to 26,000. the number of reported assaults rose 6% to 3,374. out of that, only 238 assailants were convicted. defense secretary chuck hagel issued a call to eliminate sexual assaults. >> sexual assault is a despicable crime and one of the most serious challenges facing this department. >> reporter: echoed by the

commander in chief. >> we find out somebody's engaging in this stuff, they've got to be held accountable, prosecuted, stripped of their positions. >> reporter: the report comes a day after the embarrassing revelation that lieutenant colonel jeff krusinski, the man in charge of sexual assault prevention for the air force, was arrested for sexual assault last weekend. >> we're all outraged and disgusted over these very troubling allegations. >> reporter: but on capitol hill air force chief of staff general mark welch declared that 20% of recruits coming into the military have already been sexually assaulted. >> so they come in from a society where this occurs. some of it is the hook-up mentality of junior high and high school students now. >> reporter: that drew outrage from democratic senator kirsten gillibrand. >> we're talking about violent crime committed by aggressors who are targeting them specifically.

this is a violent act not a date gone badly. >> reporter: but victims like sarah plumber find it difficult to report sexual assaults to their commanders. she says she was raped as a young marine but that her claims were dismissed. >> having someone within your direct chain of command handling your case just doesn't make sense. it's like your brother raping you and having your dad decide the case. >> reporter: as for lieutenant colonel krusinski, the air force revealed today that he had just finished his sexual assault victim training only days before he was arrested on charges of sexual assault. >> unbelievable turn of events. jim miklaszewski on duty for us at the pentagon tonight. jim, thanks. lawyers for james holmes the accused aurora, colorado, movie theater gunman said in a filing that their client wants to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. 12 were killed, 70 wounded. during a midnight screening of the film "batman." if the judge accepts the insanity plea, holmes would undergo a mental health evaluation which would then take

months to complete. on wall street here in new york today another milestone as the dow jones industrial average closed above the 15,000 mark for the first time ever. it was up 87 points to 15,056, that's a new all-time high. nasdaq was up 3 and change on the day. s&p hit a new all-time high of its own, up 8 points, closing at 1625. still ahead for us tonight, our exclusive conversation today with a man in the news today. new jersey governor chris christie talks about his decision to have secret weight loss surgery. and later an inspiring group of women making a big difference up on the roof.

the republican governor of new jersey, chris christie, has undergone lap band weight reduction surgery. the story broke in this morning's "new york post." it's not known when the governor was planning to say something about it himself, but there has been a noticeable reduction in

his weight just in recent days. today we sat down for an exclusive interview with the governor alongside the newly rebuilt boardwalk in seaside heights, new jersey, mostly to talk about the sandy recovery. turns out sandy forced a delay in his surgery until presidents weekend of this year when he checked himself into the hospital on a saturday morning under an assumed name. >> last fall i was turning 50, and it really was a moment of reflection for me. and so i really just felt like for mary pat and for the kids, that i needed to take a more significant step to try to get my weight under control so that i could have a really active next half of my life. >> the governor sought the advice of dr. george fielding of the nyu school of medicine in new york, a pioneer in the field of weight loss surgery. >> i said, do you think i need this? he said to me, if you came in here with cancer and i told you that i had a 40-minute surgery

that would give you a 90% chance of cure, would you sign up? and it just really crystallized it for me. and i said, yeah, i would. he said, then why wouldn't you do that to cure obesity? >> the governor said he also consulted rex ryan, the new york jets head coach, who had successful lap band surgery himself. rex ryan has a great phrase that a lot of people who have been through the surgery use, listen to the band. >> yes. >> and that's what's -- you're just starting out, but that's what's going to guide you. >> there's no question. sometimes whether you want to listen to the band or not, it forces you to listen. but the biggest thing about it for me has been i'm just not very hungry anymore. i mean, that's a huge change for me. >> this is tough here. this is our turf. >> yes. you know, the sausage and peppers are part of the problem. but i don't feel like every day like i have a significant amount of hunger and that really helps. >> governor christie long ago learned to own his weight in

public appearances while always maintaining his weight was his business. he grew tired often of constant questions about it and famously decided to have some fun at his own expense while appearing on david letterman just two weeks before his surgery. >> i've made jokes about you, not just one or two, not just ongoing here and there, intermittent, but -- >> during the doughnut incident on dave, you knew yourself what the rest of us didn't know, and that is, i'm going in to get this fixed, so it's all moot. >> the doughnut incident with david letterman was kind of my good-bye. >> your curtain call. >> it was. i mean, you know, dave obviously didn't know that nor did anybody else. i needed to do something. i did not want to take the risk of becoming unhealthy and the ramifications that would have for mary pat and for my four kids. as you know, i still have children in elementary school. i've got a long road here as a father, and i don't want to miss any of it. >> the governor further says he doesn't want to be a role model.

he doesn't want to talk about goals or numbers in terms of pounds or, as he called it, take a victory lap. he says, we will notice the change over time. we want to let you know we'll have more of this very personal forthright, very candid conversation with the governor of new jersey. it includes his weight loss surgery, his political future and the use of taxpayer money to rebuild the jersey shore. it will all air this coming friday night on "rock center" at 10:00, 9:00 central. when we come back, news tonight of the end of a longstanding tradition.

in light of the post newtown gun debate in this country, new stats from the justice department show that on the whole gun-related crime is actually much lower than it was two decades ago. gun murders dropped a full 39% between '93 and 2011. other gun crimes fell even more sharply down 70%. but 70% of all murders are still committed with guns.

most of them handguns. the family of the late michael jackson is suing the concert promoter that was working with him back in '09 when he died of an overdose of an anesthetic. and today the jury in the case got details of the official autopsy report. it confirmed that jackson did indeed suffer from a skin condition that led to uneven pigmentation, that he had his eyebrows and hairline tattooed on, that his lips had been tattooed pink. he weighed just under 136 pounds, but the medical examiner said jackson didn't have other underlying health conditions that would have prevented him from living a normal lifespan. queen elizabeth will not attend this year's commonwealth meetings being held in sri lanka. it's the first time she's missed this gathering in more than 40 years. some in the uk tonight see this as significant. she's instead chosen to send her son prince charles as buckingham palace officials say they are reviewing the amount of long haul travel the queen d prince philip can still undertake.

remember the queen is 87. her husband is 92. the british newspaper "the guardian" says this will be seen as a symbolic moment in prince charles' preparation, as they put it, for kingship. a lot has been made about the signature of president obama's new treasury secretary jacob lew. for years it has been a series of loops. the only problem with that is it goes on every piece of paper currency. so after a lot of scrutiny and the president publicly joking about it, some sharp-eyed folks in washington have noticed a new signature in a report that secretary lew signed last week, perhaps the one that will be right on the money. up next tonight, a group of very handy, capable and fearless women making a difference for families all over the neighborhood.

finally, our "making a difference" report tonight is about some women in north carolina who have joined together to help folks in their community and beyond. in fact, these women are bringing new meaning to the phrase "working from the top down." it's a novel idea. nbc's stephanie gosk has tonight's "making a difference" report. >> long time no see.

>> so good to be back. >> reporter: back on the roof, that is. >> i'm an investigations consultant. >> i'm a retired teacher. >> i am a pharmacist. >> reporter: their normal jobs except once a month when these ladies from north carolina climb up a ladder, grab a hammer and transform into the women roofers. >> you get a feel for it after a while. and it's a great way to get frustration out. >> reporter: sweating it out on a roof all day is not exactly the kind of charity work one might expect from a group of southern belles. >> occasionally, you get that raised eyebrow. they never say no. they just are intrigued that a group of women would be willing to do it. >> reporter: but now the rotating crew have been at it for ten years. the youngest on this day is 13. >> yeah! >> reporter: the oldest 75. the all-women team has reroofed more than 60 homes in north carolina and a few more in mississippi after hurricane katrina. david wesley's house had been leaking for weeks. >> it's beautiful. it's beautiful work.

and i really appreciate them. >> reporter: while they had some help from skilled roofers in the beginning, the roofers hardly need them now. a pretty tough outfit but you glam it up with the pink bandanna. i like this touch. >> this is my girl scout patch, because i needed this when i got a drill through my finger. >> reporter: a drill through the finger is just part of the job, along with a fair share of gossip. i'm just wondering what portion of the day is business and what portion of the day is gossip? be honest. >> it's 50-50. it's really not gossip. we just have a rule that's what's said on the roof stays on the roof. >> reporter: and roofing is a good way to make friends. >> while we know we're helping a family that really needs help, we're also -- it feeds something in us that wants to help other people. >> reporter: volunteer work raised to a higher level. stephanie gosk, nbc news, forest city, north carolina. >> what's said on the roof stays on the roof.

that's our broadcast on a tuesday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. we sure hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. now. and good evening. i'm jessica aguirre. >> and i'm raj mathai. from shock and confusion turned to grief and understanding. what can be done moving forward and what can be done for these victims? we have more information about the deadly limousine fire including the look at the families shattered by the turn of events. we have multiple reports tonight. kris sanchez will bring us the latest on the investigation and how to best protect yourself. we begin with jodi hernandez who

joins us in oakland where several of the women worked. >> reporter: at one point in time all of the women worked here together in oakland. this is where they all met up saturday evening to board that limousine. tonight their families are sharing their grief and their overwhelming loss. >> i just want her to know that we miss her so much. >> reporter: he is utterly grief stricken. his wife, a mother of two was among five women who died saturday night. >> she cared for me and my kids, very caring. i don't think family can replace the way she cared for me. >> i have no words to describe the hurt t