Divorced years ago and never seen in the company of women, Castro suddenly started showing up in the largely Latino, working-class neighbourhood with a six-year-old girl. It was his girlfriend’s child, he told neighbours.
Castro, 52, was believed to have lived alone, yet on his lunch break would bring home enough bags of fast food and beverages for several people.
He was a school bus driver given mostly “excellent” marks on his performance appraisals, but was repeatedly disciplined, including for one incident when he was accused of calling a young student a “bitch” and leaving the child alone on a bus. He was fired last November.
Castro was arrested in 1993 after a domestic violence complaint, though a grand jury decided not to indict him. Another complaint in 2005 filed by his ex-wife, who died last year at age 48, accused him of twice breaking her nose and attempting to abduct their daughters and keep them from her mother. That case was dismissed.
Family, friends and neighbours were shocked when police rescued three women locked inside Castro’s house on Monday and found a six-year-old girl who police believe was born in captivity. The three women, today aged 32, 27 and 23, went missing from 2002 to 2004.
Castro and two of his brothers, Onil, 50, and Pedro, 54, were taken into custody on Monday and were expected to be charged within 48 hours of their arrest.
“It could be he was hiding a personality, because if it did happen you would have to have two personalities,” said Julio Cesar Castro, 77, the arrested brothers’ uncle and owner of the Caribe Grocery half a block from Ariel’s home.
LATIN MUSICIAN
For years, Castro’s neighbours on Seymour Avenue saw him as a friendly but private person, an accomplished musician who played bass in Latin bands such as Borin Plena and Grupo Fuego. He liked motor-bikes and showed up at neighbourhood barbecues in a vacant lot on Seymour Avenue. He was a self-taught mechanic who loved to talk about cars.
He owned an unremarkable, two-storey house in a somewhat dilapidated part of Cleveland. Built in 1890, the home was valued at a mere $13,200 in 2011, according to property records. Its windows were covered to block views from the outside.
One childhood friend said a music session with Castro, who was born in Puerto Rico, suddenly turned bizarre.
“Ariel was in my garage probably five or six years ago. We were recording a song, an idea we had - a little hard rock with some Latin,” said Joe Popow, 45, a father of six who said he has known the Castro brothers since childhood.
“And - you’re going to laugh - he said he was in the CIA. And I don’t know if he was joking or not, but it’s the way he said it, how serious he said it. I didn’t know what he was capable of. That just put me on defence, and I just started stepping away,” Popow said.
Intensely private for years, Ariel Castro recently had been seen taking a young girl to the park and to the playground at the local McDonald’s restaurant, neighbours said.
One of those neighbours, Israel Lugo, 39, said it was the same little girl who was in the arms of one of the abducted women, Amanda Berry, when she and the others were freed. He was there to witness them leave the house, he said.
“I’ve seen him with the little girl once or twice. He said it was his girlfriend’s daughter,” said Lugo, a self-employed roofing contractor.
When family and friends of missing Cleveland woman Gina DeJesus held a vigil last month to mark nine years since her disappearance, one of those attending was Castro, a longtime neighbour said.
“He came to a vigil and acted as if nothing was wrong,” said Anthony Quiros, 24, who lived next door to Castro’s house growing up.
‘LAY DOWN, BITCH’
Lugo said his sister once noticed Castro park his school bus in front of his home and enter with a large bag of food and tray of drinks. His mother called the police, who simply advised Castro not to park his bus there, Lugo said.
Castro was a bus driver for the Cleveland school district for years, driving children as young as preschool to various schools in the city.
He was fired from that job effective Nov. 6, 2012, after a fourth incident that resulted in disciplinary action, documents released by the school district said.
In the most serious incident, a witness told investigators that on Jan. 27, 2004, Castro left Wade Park Elementary School with a child still on the bus and drove to a Wendy’s restaurant, the documents said. The gender and age of the child were not given.
“Lay down, bitch,” Castro is quoted by the witness as saying to the child. He then left the student alone on the bus and went into the Wendy’s for lunch.
The Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services, which serves Cleveland, investigated the allegation and concluded the complaint was “unsubstantiated.” Even so, Castro was temporarily suspended by the school district over the complaint.
At the same time, his record includes performance appraisals with dozens of check marks in the “excellent” boxes on the form.
“I do want to say that I have known Mr. Castro to be an effective bus driver,” Joshua Gunvalsen, a school principal, wrote in a letter in one of the disciplinary cases. “I have witnessed him trying to work with students, families and myself to handle student issues.”
Castro was arrested on Dec. 27, 1993, in connection with a domestic violence complaint and released on $10,000 bail, but the case was dropped when a grand jury declined to indict him, court records show. They did not say who brought the complaint.
According to neighbours who have lived there since before the Castros moved in, that complaint would have come near the end of Castro’s marriage to the late Grimilda Figueroa.
Cuyahoga County Court files show no record of the marriage or divorce of Castro and Figueroa, but the 2005 petition filed in the domestic relations section of the court also sought protection for two daughters, Emily and Arlene, plus a son that Figueroa had by another man. Castro also has a son named Ariel Anthony Castro.
Emily Castro, 25, is serving 25 years in an Indiana prison on attempted murder for slashing the throat of her 11-month-old daughter in April 2007, Allen County, Indiana, Superior Court records show.
In the 2005 petition for domestic violence protection order, Grimilda Figueroa, who died last year, said Castro broke her nose twice and listed other acts of violence she said resulted in rib injuries, lacerations and a blood clot on the brain. A temporary protection order was granted.
“Knocked out tooth. Dislocated shoulder (twice - one each side); threatened to kill petitioner and daughters 3/4 times just this year,” the petition, signed by Figueroa and her lawyer, said.
Figueroa said Castro “frequently abducts daughters and keeps them from mother,” according to the petition, which was dismissed after Figueroa appeared for a court hearing without her lawyer for a second time.
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said authorities responded to calls at the house where the women were held twice, once in 2000 and a second time in 2004. The second time was after the complaint about Castro leaving the child on a school bus.
“Now after all this has happened, I think, ‘Oh my God. What did I miss?”’ said Popow, the childhood friend of the Castros. “This person came to my house. He was in my garage. I have a daughter the same age.”
Numerous family are out but only Gina's aunt is speaking. She thanked everyone, especially the FBI and Cleveland Police.
Authorities say the girl only left the Seymour Ave house
twice in 10 yrs. They were in disguises and moved from the home to the garage.
Chris
Doucette @SunDoucette
Ariel Castro will face 3 counts of rape and 4 counts of
kidnapping.
Only 1 of the 3 Castro brothers, Ariel Castro, will face
charges for the abductions of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight.
Chris
Doucette @SunDoucette
"This is the best Mother's Day I could ever have," Gina's mom
said
Mom says Gina, like her, never lost her faith during her 9
yrs in captivity. "She prayed."
It was touching to see Gina's mom, dad, aunt and others all
hugging. There r one of three of the happiest family on earth right now.
The Cleveland Courage fund will be available on twitter and
facebook.
Another speaker announced the Cleveland Courage fund for
anyone wishing to help the 3 kidnapping victims.
She urged people to support the police because they have
supported her family.
Serrano came out, spoke with a man at her side and went back
inside barely a minute later.
Chris Doucette @SunDoucette
"We appreciate all you have done for us. Please respect our
privacy," Serrano said as she finished her brief statement.
Serrano was mobbed by the throng of media as she came outside
a moment ago. She quickly began speaking but much could not be heard.
Chris Doucette @SunDoucette
Amanda will no longer speak
Chris Doucette @SunDoucette
An FBI agent just announced only Amanda's sister, Beth
Serrano, will speak today.
Chris Doucette @SunDoucette
Police are warning the crowd to be respectful, "Amanda is
calling the shots" and it's her "rules today."
Chris Doucette @SunDoucette
The crowd of friends, family and media are anxious to hear
Amanda apeak.
Chris Doucette @SunDoucette
There is also a large photo out front of Amanda as a girl.
She's a grown woman now and a mom. She had a daughter, now 6, while in
captivity.
Chris Doucette @SunDoucette
Her sister's house is covered in balloons and signs reading:
We never lost hope, welcome home amanda.
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