In , Castro beat Figueroa in the presence of his brother and he was arrested, but he was released after she refused to press charges. In , they moved to Seymour Drive with their four children. After arriving, Castro padlocked every door in the house and started working in the basement, where he installed a heavy trapdoor and added curtains and layers of bricks to soundproof it.
Once finished, he forbid everyone else from entering the basement. Later, he tinted all the windows, forbid Figueroa to use the phone, and began to lock up his family in the house while he was away doing gigs with his band, which could last for up to four days. Figueroa became pregnant a fifth time and Castro, not wishing to have more children, unsuccessfully tried to induce a miscarriage by punching and kicking her in the belly.
In October , Castro threw Figueroa down a flight of steps, and she broke her skull. A few weeks later, she began to have seizures and was diagnosed with a blood clot in her brain that had hardened into a malign tumor. On December 26, Castro came home drunk and attacked Figueroa again. His twelve-year-old son Ariel Jr. The officers found him pounding on the front door and arrested him after Castro fled.
Terrified, Figueroa declared that the attack had never happened and the charges were dropped. Figueroa then moved to her mother's home with the children, and Castro cut almost all contact with them. He spent his time further fortifying the house, using materials stolen from a next-door neighbor after threatening him with a shovel. Later, Castro began installing multiple security alarms and strategically placed mirrors all over the house, until he was sure that nothing could happen in the house without him seeing it.
While taking brain surgery in , Figueroa started dating a security guard, Fernando Colon. Castro learned of their relationship the year after, when one of his daughters called him from Colon's home, and he became furious. He called Colon, claiming that Figueroa was his wife and that he had "stolen" her from him, but Colon reminded Castro that he had never married Figueroa. Later, Castro saw Colon taking his children to school and attempted to run him over with his car, but Colon dodged him.
Colon filed charges against Castro, but they were dropped due to a lack of evidence. In , Figueroa was given full custody of the children and Castro was deprived of visitation rights. After his family left, Castro became interested in BDSM and developed a fantasy of holding a teenage girl in his home as a sex slave.
On August 22, , Castro was at a dollar store when he overheard Michelle Knight asking how to get to a Social Services office. Knight's two-year-old son had earlier been taken by Social Services and she had an appointment for an evaluation to determine if she was fit to raise him. However, she was not familiar with the area and was lost. Castro assumed that Knight was around fifteen because of her short stature and offered to drive her there; she trusted him because his daughter Emily was her friend, though she had not met him in person before.
In the car, Castro had a sign advertising puppies for sale and he said that he had to stop at home to feed them, but that it wouldn't be an issue because it was on the way to Social Services.
Later, he convinced Knight to get in the house by offering her a free puppy, and he imprisoned her. Because she was an adult, the police assumed that she had left voluntarily and put little effort into finding her. Castro taunted Knight multiple times afterward about how "nobody cared" that she was missing, and even tried to use that fact as part of his defense in the trial.
Castro's next abduction took place on April 21, The victim was Amanda Berry, a workmate of his son Anthony at Burger King, and whom Castro had wanted to abduct for a while because she was blonde. Berry's seventeenth birthday was the following day. Castro offered her a lift home after she ended her shift; she accepted because she knew Anthony and also Castro's daughter Angie, who had gone to school with her. Castro told Berry that Angie was at his home and he proposed to stop there so she could greet her.
Berry and DeJesus were released the following day, and Knight was released on May On May 6, , Ariel Castro was arrested and charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. Knight also told police that she had been pregnant at least five times during her imprisonment, but Castro had forced her to miscarry by starving her and punching her in the stomach.
All three of the women admitted to having been raped by Castro many times over the years. On June 7, a grand jury indicted Castro on total counts, including counts of rape, counts of kidnapping, 7 counts of gross sexual imposition, 3 counts of felonious assault, 2 counts of aggravated murder for the forced miscarriages of Knight , and one count of possession of criminal tools.
The counts cover the period between August and February , despite the fact that the total imprisonment of the women lasted a decade. Castro pleaded not guilty and his lawyers were reportedly working towards a resolution that would forgo the need for a lengthy public trial, to protect the victims from reliving the emotional experience.
Shortly after he was transported to [the prison medical facility] where he was pronounced dead at pm. A preliminary medical examination found his cause of death was hanging, said Dr Jan Gorniak, the Franklin County coroner.
He used a bed sheet. You won't enjoy the captive side of the bars. Castro was placed in protective custody because of his notoriety, but was not on suicide watch, which requires constant observation.
A former neighbour said Castro's death had cut short the life term called for in his plea deal. Gina DeJesus was 14 years old when she disappeared. Amanda Berry was 16, and Michelle Knight, The abductor's former wife, Grimilda Figueroa - who died last year - moved herself and three children out of the house in after years of violent abuse, said the couple's son, Anthony Castro, 31, a banker in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Although Castro and Figueroa divorced in , court records show he was accused in of attacking his former wife. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Figueroa suffered multiple injuries, including broken ribs, a knocked-out tooth, and a blood clot in her brain. Her lawyer said Castro abducted their daughters Ariel and Arlene several times, despite the divorce decree having no provision for his visiting rights.
The newspaper does not report how the case was settled. The accusations of abuse have been echoed by relatives since the discovery of the abducted girls. Castro would frequently lock Figueroa in an apartment in which they lived after they met, the Associated Press quoted her father, Ismail Figueroa, as saying. It also quoted Figueroa's brother-in-law, Angel Villanueva, as saying Castro refused to let people visit the house they later moved into on Seymour Avenue, and only let Figueroa out if she was with him.
Figueroa's sister, Elida Caraballo, told Britain's Daily Telegraph that Castro locked Figueroa in a box in the house, beat her frequently, and knocked her down the stairs. Elida Caraballo's husband, Frank, who grew up on Seymour Avenue, said the house had a brick basement with a trapdoor. A local broadcaster reported that he had been arrested and charged with domestic abuse in , but the charge was later dropped.
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