Onil Castro, Ariel Castro, and Pedro Castro, who were arrested after three women who disappeared in Cleveland a decade ago were found safe. Picture: Cleveland Police Department Source: AP
WHILE Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight can now enjoy their freedom after being held captive for nearly ten years, a more detailed picture is emerging of the man at the centre of the case.
What we know so far
Cleveland Police have arrested three brothers - Ariel Castro, 52, Onil Castro, 50 and Pedro Castro, 54 - who they have identified as suspects in the case. This came after Ms Berry managed to alert a neighbour, who broke down the door to free her and the six-year-old daughter she apparently bore as a prisoner.
"Hello? I need them [the police] now, before he gets back," an emotional Berry told the 911 operator.
"Who's the guy that went out?" asks the operator.
"His name is Ariel Castro. He's 52. I'm Amanda Berry. I've been in the news for the last ten years."Police responding to Ms Berry's desperate 911 emergency call found two more women in the modest detached home in Cleveland with American and Puerto Rican flags on the porch.
Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michele Knight went missing in 2003, 2004, and 2002, respectively. Berry was abducted at age 16 in April 2003, DeJesus was taken at 14 in April 2004, and Knight was taken at age 21 in August 2002. All three are being assessed and treated at MetroHealth Medical Centre.
They were found in the house of former school bus driver Ariel Castro, which is situated in a poor neighbourhood. Ariel is now at the centre of investigation into the girls' ordeal.
Cleveland police have undertaken an extensive search of the property and are questioning the women about what happened in the house. There are reports there were as many as five pregnancies which occurred during the years the girls were held in the house.
Missing Cleveland woman Amanda Berry with her sister and unidentified girl after rescue. Picture: WOIO-TV/passantino/Twitter
Police are also said to be investigating a possible connection between Castro's daughter and Amanda Berry, who may have been classmates.
So who is Ariel Castro?
The Cleveland Leader has reported Castro lived in the house where the women were found since 1992. The 52-year-old was a bus driver and local musician who relatives and friends described as social and outgoing.
Tito DeJesus who performed with Ariel Castro for years said the bassist was a "great talent" who was known for "high spirits, always joking around". "I would have never thought in a million years that it was him who was allegedly holding Gina, Amanda and Michelle," he told CNN.
Juan Alicea says the arrests of his wife's brothers have left relatives "as blindsided as anyone else".
Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry, who have been found after being abducted separately as teenagers in 2003. Picture: FBI
Ariel and his two brothers grew up with a love of classic cars, thanks to time spent at their father's car lot off West 25th Street. They were characterised by friends and family as smart and funny, though two of the three were said to be heavy drinkers, cleveland.com reports.
"They used to be beautiful people," said their uncle Julio Castro. Mr Castro who lived half a block away from Ariel said Ariel had distanced himself from his family after his father's death in 2004.
Talking to CNN en Español about his withdrawn nephew, Mr Castro said "perhaps, he was the type of person who was living two lives".
Ariel's brushes with the law
Ariel Castro's former wife Grimilda Figueroa filed a domestic violence petition against him in 2005. She alleges in the complaint that he beat her, broke her ribs, broke her nose twice, knocked out her tooth, dislocated her shoulder twice and caused a blot clot on her brain that led to an inoperable tumour, according to Channel 3 News.
Ms Figueroa also said he threatened to kill her and their two daughters on several occasions in 2005.
She was given full custody of their children with no visitation rights, but the petition stated: "Nevertheless, Respondent (Castro) frequently abducts daughters and keeps them from mother."
The case was later dropped, but during the same month he was arrested for disorderly conduct and pleaded guilty.
NewsChannel5 also reports that he was stopped six times by Cleveland Police between 1995 and 2008 for traffic violations.
In 2004, officers went to the home after child welfare officials alerted them that Ariel Castro, a school bus driver, had apparently left a child unattended on a bus. No one answered the door. At some point in the investigation, police talked to Castro and determined there was no criminal intent.
Police calls to the property
Neighbours say they have called the police in the past about strange things they witnessed at the house. Elsie Cintron, who lives three houses away, said her daughter once saw a naked woman crawling on her hands and knees in the backyard several years ago and called police. "But they didn't take it seriously," she said.
Another neighbour, Israel Lugo, said he heard pounding on some of the doors of Castro's house, which had plastic bags on the windows, in November 2011. Lugo said officers knocked on the front door, but no one answered.
"They walked to side of the house and then left," he said.
Neighbours also said they would sometimes see Castro walking a little girl to a neighborhood playground. The girl is thought to be the daughter of Ms Berry who was born in the house. And Cintron said she once saw a little girl looking out of the attic window of the house.
"Everyone in the neighbourhood did what they had to do," said Lupe Collins, who is close to relatives of the women. "The police didn't do their job."
Police did go to the house twice in the past 15 years, but not in connection with the women's disappearance, officials said.
In 2000, before the women vanished, Ariel Castro reported a fight in the street, but no arrests were made.
The daughter who slashed a baby
In 2008, Ariel's 20- year-old daughter Emily Castro was sentenced to 30 years in jail with five years probation for attempted murder and battery after she slashed her 11-month-old baby Janyla's throat, The Journal Gazette reported.
The young mother said in her trial that she suffered from mental illness."I don't know how this happened," she said. "I want you to know I am a very good mom."
She was required to undergo mental health treatment as a condition of the five years of her sentence that was commuted to probation.
The son who wrote about Gina DeJesus
Ariel "Anthony" Castro, 31, has spoken of his shock following his father's arrest, but said there were always part of his house that were locked and out of bounds.
"The house was always locked," he told The Daily Mail. "There were places we could never go. There were locks on the basement. Locks on the attic. Locks on the garage."
"The only thing I can express is a tremendous level of shock," he said. "To those girls, it's beyond comprehension what happened to them. It's just a nightmare. I just feel so horrible for them. Unspeakably horrible."
He also said his father was violent and he brutally beat his mother in 1993 while she was recovering from brain surgery.
His violent nature meant the 31-year-old and his sisters didn't have a close relationship with their father and Anthony said he hadn't spent more then 20 minutes in the house since the 1990s.
He also said his uncles Pedro and Onil have been alcoholics for years and are frail and in poor health.
In another odd twist in the case, Anthony published an article in community newspaper The Plain Press in 2004 when he was a journalism student which focused on the disappearance of Gina DeJesus.
The article reads: "The day 14-year-old Gina DeJesus was last seen on her way home from Wilbur Wright Middle School, neighbourhood residents have been taken by an overwhelming need for caution.
"One thing is for certain, however. Almost everyone feels a connection with the family, and Gina's disappearance has the whole area talking."
In the article, Castro quotes DeJesus' mother Nancy Ruiz.
"It's a shame that a tragedy had to happen for me to really know my neighbours. Bless their heart, they've been great.
"People are really looking out for my daughter."
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