CLEVELAND — As more grim details emerged Thursday about the long captivity of the three women rescued from imprisonment in a dilapidated home here, one official compared the victims to survivors of a P.O.W. camp, and prosecutors said they would seek murder charges against the man held in the abductions, accusing him of forcing at least one of the women to miscarry.

Timothy J. McGinty, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor, said the miscarriages, which at least one of the women described to the police, could be grounds for seeking the death penalty for the suspect, Ariel Castro. Mr. Castro, a former bus driver, enticed the women off the street with offers of a ride home, the authorities say.

During his first public appearance since his arrest on Monday, Mr. Castro, 52, buried the lower part of his face in a blue jacket at an arraignment in Cleveland Municipal Court, where bail was set at $8 million. He was arraigned on charges of rape and kidnapping in the abductions of Amanda Berry, held 10 years; Gina DeJesus, held 9 years; and Michelle Knight, held 11 years. He was also charged with kidnapping a daughter Ms. Berry gave birth to in captivity, who is now 6.