Emerging details about the life of the main suspect in the Cleveland abduction case, Ariel Castro, seem to suggest calculated planning and extreme sociopathy. Castro also has a daughter who was convicted of slashing her infant daughter’s throat and a son who was a student journalist.
Castro was a bus driver for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and is thought to be related to the best friend of one of the victims, Gina DeJesus, reports WOIO.
Castro had access to children through his job driving the bus and reportedly would always play with neighborhood kids, giving them rides on his four-wheeler and bicycle. Neighbors said he was charismatic, reports the local ABC affiliate. Juan Perez, who lived two houses down from where the girls were kept captive, was saddened and confused by the implication of Castro. “He was a fun guy. I mean, parents trusted him. He talked to the parents. He was just a regular guy on the street,” Perez said. “He put on that great mask that everyone thought he was a good guy.”
Castro’s two brothers, Pedro and Onil, were also arrested in connection to the abductions. Castro’s daughter, Emily, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2008 for slashing the throat of her 11-month-old daughter, reports Cleveland.com. Her brother, Anthony, told the Journal Gazette that she was mentally ill, despite not meeting the legal parameters of insanity. Ariel himself was arrested in 1993 for domestic violence, although not indicted, and disorderly conduct, to which he pleaded guilty.
Castro also attended at least two vigils for the victims and his son, Anthony Castro, wrote an article about the disappearance of DeJesus while studying journalism at Bowling Green State University in 2004.
Castro and his brothers allegedly kept the three victims chained up in the basement of the house and repeatedly raped them, resulting in at least five pregnancies.