CLEVELAND – With several swipes from the arm of an excavator and applause from spectators, a house where three women were held captive and raped for a decade was demolished Wednesday, reduced to rubble in less than an hour and a half.

The demolition had the look of a neighborhood celebration, but some residents have been troubled by guilt for failing to notice tell-tale signs of the women’s imprisonment, like windows boarded up from the inside and the kidnapper’s practice of keeping visitors from going past the front room.

Additional Photos

Ariel Castro

The Cleveland home of Ariel Castro is razed Wednesday as part of a plea deal that also led to his being sentenced to life in prison plus 1,000 years. The Associated Press

“It’s haunted them, I think, in the sense of how could they not have known,” said city Councilman Brian Cummins, who watched the demolition.

The home was torn down as part of the plea deal that spared Ariel Castro a possible death sentence and forced him to turn over the deed to the house and pay for it to be razed. He was sentenced last week to life in prison plus 1,000 years.

One of the imprisoned women, Michelle Knight, showed up early Wednesday before the work began. She made a brief statement and released balloons into the air.

“Dear Lord, give the missing people strength and power to know that they are loved,” said Knight, who had rosary beads hanging from her neck. “We hear their cry. They are never forgotten in my heart. They are caterpillars, waiting to turn into a butterfly. They are never forgotten, they are loved.”

Knight said the array of balloons “represents all the millions of children that were never found and the ones that passed away that were never heard.”

There was applause as a relative of one victim represented the three and took the controls of the wrecking crane for the first smash into the top of the front wall. Later, as the house debris disappeared into the basement, church bells rang.

Police kept bystanders back to prevent souvenir hunting for the debris, which was carted off in trucks.

Rich Comp, 51, who used to live two doors from the Castro house, said he was sorry about the ordeal of the victims and hopes the demolition will help lift spirits.

“I feel sorry for the girls. They should tear it down,” he said.

Art McKoy, an anti-crime crusader who has organized vigils for missing persons, watched the demolition and wondered why residents hadn’t questioned the house’s barricades.

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