DoctorOz: Real Heroes Who Faced Down Crime & Saved Lives | Oz True Crime

DoctorOz
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Oct 15, 2026
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Video Summary
AI GeneratedThis segment explores the stories of ordinary citizens who became \"true crime heroes\" by intervening in dangerous situations to save strangers. Through interviews and case reviews, it examines the psychology of immediate action and the bravery required to risk one's own safety to rescue victims of kidnapping and violent crime.
Well, I have a robbery at the L.A. Tan.
Fourth Avenue. He has a gun.
The robber is shot, but I need help right now, please.
L.A. Tan, 156-3394.
The robber is shot. Somebody help me.
That was Jason McDaniel.
He went to the tanning salon, pretty straight up, right?
Then ended up tackling a gunman
who turned out to be the infamous Honey Bee Killer.
This is Charles Ramsey.
He was eating a burger on his porch, minding his own business,
when he heard some commotion coming from his neighbor's house.
He went over to see what was going on.
Little did he know he'd be solving the Cleveland kidnapping case,
freeing Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight
after they had suffered a decade of rape and torture.
And this is Jeannie Nutter.
She was walking her dog when she saw Jamie Kloss,
who had been missing and held captive for 88 days.
When Jeannie realized the distressed teen
was coming from her neighbor's house,
She quickly led her in the opposite direction to call the police
from the home of Kristen and Peter Kasingas, where they called 911.
Today's true crime is unlike any other.
What would you do if you were witnessing a crime?
Would you walk away?
Would you put your own life in jeopardy to save a complete stranger?
Today, we're talking to real-life true crime heroes
who sprang into action and selflessly came to the aid of others.
Investigative correspondent Marcia Avacampo
is here with some of the details.
What goes through your mind if you're one of these folks
and you witness the incredible happening?
Do you just act on gut instinct, or do you process it?
Yeah, all of the heroes that you just highlighted
have one really important thing in common.
They acted extremely quickly in just a moment.
They didn't think about the big picture.
They didn't know the big picture at the time.
They didn't even think about putting themselves in danger.
They knew someone else was in distress,
and they acted swiftly to help.
Let's start with the Jamie Closs case.
Headlines everywhere all over the world.
The unsuspecting heroes are really unique.
Yeah.
So Jeannie Nutter is a former social worker.
So she has a lot of experience
with delicate situations, as it would turn out.
She knew not to ask Jamie any delicate questions.
She just asked her for basic information.
Do you know the identity of your kidnapper?
What color car he was driving?
Really important things.
She also made a key decision not to take Jamie to her own home,
which was just a few doors away from Jake's home, the kidnapper.
She took her to the neighbor's house, which was farther away.
That was really important.
Now, when we're talking about the neighbors,
Kristen, one of the two neighbors who lived there,
she's a local teacher.
And get this, Dr. Oz, she remembers teaching the man
who kidnapped Jamie Closs in middle school.
What an unbelievable coincidence.
And the three of these strangers protected Jamie,
even though they knew the man
who kidnapped her was out there hunting for her,
and he had already murdered two people.
They were very brave.
I had a chance to speak with Kristen Kaczynski about
her role in rescuing Jamie Closs.
Take a look.
So how did you react?
This is a big question for me.
You have this young woman.
Her face has been all over the news.
She's now in your home.
She's safe.
But you might not be safe because the person
who had killed her parents is still wandering around looking for her.
I don't even know that we had time to think about being scared because
it was get to the phone, call 911, get somebody here to help us.
I think we went into action mode,
so we didn't really have time to panic and, you know, get super scared.
But there, you know, there was definitely fear
that he was in the neighborhood looking for her.
We'll continue to follow the Jamie Closs case.
Let's transition to the horrific story of three missing girls
that gripped the nation, the Cleveland kidnapping.
So you have Amanda Berry, Sheena DeJesus and Michelle Knight.
They were all abducted and held captive by a local school bus driver
who raped and tortured them for a decade.
Help me, I'm Amanda Berry.
Do you need police, fire, or ambulance?
I need police.
May 6, 2013.
Amanda Berry places a frantic 911 call
from a neighbor's house moments after a daring breakout.
I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years,
and I'm here. I'm free now.
Amanda, along with two other girls, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight,
had been missing for a decade,
imprisoned in this run-down Cleveland house.
The basement was a dungeon
where the girls were chained, raped, and tortured,
deprived of food, and robbed of their youth.
Their captor, Ariel Castro,
a school bus driver who would come to be known
as the Cleveland Kidnapper.
I had the opportunity to sit down with Amanda Berry
and Gina DeJesus, who escaped that day
with the help of an unlikely hero.
Take a look.
I want to understand how you broke out after all those years.
He's so meticulous in keeping you locked away, chained away.
What happened the day you escaped?
So that day, the door was opened.
You know, my heart started pounding.
I started racing the floor.
I opened the door, and I was like, yes!
And I go to open the screen door, and there was a lock on there
that you needed a key to open it.
So I start, like, pounding on the door.
There was maybe this much room for me to put
my arm in and kind of just wave it crazily.
And I did.
Two neighbors came.
I don't think they really knew what was going on or what was going on,
so they kind of just turned away, didn't help me.
They turned away?
They did.
How could you turn away from a woman asking for help, crying for help?
I still don't understand to this day why, but thank God,
you know, I was still screaming like crazy.
And the neighbor next door, Charles Ramsey,
he came up on the porch and he was asking me, you know,
he heard me say, Amanda Berry, please help me.
Heard screaming. I meet my McDonald's. I come outside.
I see this girl going nuts trying to get out of her house.
I go on the porch and she says, help me get out.
I've been here a long time.
So I open the door and we can't get in that way. So we kick the bottom.
and she comes out with a little girl and she says, call 911.
My name was Amanda Berry.
Amanda Berry. Imagine hearing that name. Now, what shocked me the most
is that the two neighbors walked away.
You could sort of tell from that interaction.
How do you explain the conscious decision of people
who hear someone in need and walk away?
This is a human being's plea for help.
Yeah, it's hard to understand. And the instinct is to judge
them, right? What awful people for doing that.
But what happens is a lot of people will rationalize
it. So they'll think to themselves, is this person serious?
Do they really need help? Are they playing
around? Or maybe is this just a fight with a family member?
I don't know if I want to get
involved. The other thing that people will happen
is that people are legitimately afraid. So there
are reasons that people don't respond to the cry for help.
Which is what makes these heroes that
much more unique. Because we all think we would do the right thing,
but I know it's hard. So luckily
Charles Ramsey was nearby. Up next,
we're actually talking to Charles. What went through his mind
when he realized he had helped solve the crime of the decade.
Stay with us.
I come outside, and I see this girl going nuts,
trying to get out of her house.
And she comes out with a little girl, and she says, call 911.
My name is Amanda Berry.
I'm back with Marquis Abakampo talking about true crime heroes.
In the years since he helped free the Cleveland kidnapping victims,
Charles Ramsey's life has changed.
But his desire to help girls
in his city keep them safe has remained the same.
Charles Ramsey now joins us via Zoom.
Charles, congratulations.
We're all trying to understand what it is that happens
when someone does something as brave as you did.
So what kicked in that day to make you want
to come to the aid of those women?
My mother's voice.
Let me tell you how this works.
Because I don't know how you were raised.
I'm going to explain to you in a nutshell and quickly how I was raised.
Even if it means that your life is getting ready
to be in some type of a messed up situation.
you. What are you on this planet
to do other than help people, right?
We all should have that attitude. What else
are you put on this planet? It's not your
life. You didn't create yourself.
We're here for a purpose. Do you?
Just do it. See, I came up with
that Nike slogan way before them,
but I was a common dude. But that's always
been me. Just do it.
They stole it from me, Doc.
That's great, Charles.
Amen.
What I love about you is that you've got
resilience. You've got grit. You had a trouble past.
You've gotten past it.
You even said that Amanda Berry actually saved your life.
What do you mean by that?
All right.
Now, when I did what I did before,
24 hours before that, I wasn't just a piece of blank.
I was the whole pile.
All right.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
And before I found them girls,
I was just some fool on this planet doing foolish stuff.
You understand where I'm coming from?
Exactly.
So Amanda's the hero to me because I endured no 10 years
of whatever she went through without pulling my hair out.
She adapted, played the game, not only played Ariel's game,
she had a child and knew how to, I got to raise this.
So whether we're going to be with this fool forever or we're going
to manage to get out, I still have a child to take care of.
So I have to be smarter than Ariel.
You see where I'm coming from?
Yeah, you're a philosopher.
Another thing is why she's a hero is, remember,
she could have just gotten the cop car when they came.
Because they came to arrest me for my belligerence,
for what I said to the 911 officer.
So them police weren't happy with my black blank at all.
They were coming to take me down.
You understand where I'm coming from?
I was just an uncordial bastard.
Okay, so listen.
Amanda says, well, she told the police.
She goes, well, I don't want to leave them.
And the cop goes, who's them?
And which made me look at her and go, yeah, who's them?
She goes, there's two more girls in that house.
And that's when she revealed Gina and Michelle.
She could have been selfish,
got in the cop car and went to the hospital.
But she knew if Ariel had came back and not seen her,
he'd have killed them two girls out of sheer rage.
Now, you tell me who's the hero, me or her?
Well, my belief is you're both heroes,
and I'm proud of both of you and the other two girls as well.
listen thank you for joining us i really
am honored to speak with you but more importantly
i appreciate all you've gone through
and i love the way you tell the story i applaud
your bravery god bless you thank you
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