Ohio kidnapper had social contact with victim's family

He took their daughter and kept her hidden for 10 years. All the while, Ariel Castro, 52, who has been charged with abducting three young women and holding them for a decade or more in Cleveland, Ohio, kept up contacts with the family of Gina DeJesus as if nothing had happened. For his brothers, Onil and Pedro, who were initially arrested with him, that's one of the especially revolting aspects of his crimes. 

 

Police have confirmed that the two had no knowledge of or involvement in the abductions and brought no charges against the brothers in connection with the kidnappings and ensuing rapes. In an attempt to clear their names of the deeds of their brother, the men talked to CNN about their astonishment that Ariel had kept the three women hidden in the very house where they sometimes visited - and that he maintained contact with the DeJesus family, who were long-time acquaintances of the Castros. "When I found out that Ariel had Gina, I just broke down, 'cause it's shocking," said Pedro Castro. 

 

He said the Castro brothers had closely known Gina's father, Felix DeJesus. Addressing his comments to his jailed brother, Pedro Castro said with a voice full of outrage: "Ariel, we know this guy (Felix) for a long time. ... And you got his daughter? And you go around like it's nothing? You even went to the vigils? You had posters, you gave his mama a hug, and you've got his daughter captive?" A flood of revelations have followed the rescue of the three on May 6, after Amanda Berry, abducted in April 2003 at age 16, stuck her arm out of Ariel Castro's barred front door and shouted for help. 

 

DeJesus was kidnapped at age 14 in 2004, and Amanda Knight at age 20 in 2002. Berry gave birth to a child while in captivity. Cleveland police on Monday released reports dating back to 1989 that show a pattern of violence by Ariel Castro that included beatings of his common-law wife and threatening a neighbour with a shovel, the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper reported. Castro has been jailed on 8 million dollars in bond and charged with multiple counts of kidnapping and rape while the investigation continues. His family say they want nothing to do with him. 

 

"I could never forgive him," his daughter, Angie Gregg, told CNN in interviews broadcast over the weekend.  She recalled beatings of her mother in which her father would "stomp on her like she was a man."  Onil said he hopes Ariel Castro "rots in that jail."  "I don't want them to take his life. I want him to suffer in that jail to the last extent," he told CNN. Family members said there were no signs at the house on Seymour Avenue that anything was amiss but confirmed that the basement was always kept locked and they were not allowed to go upstairs. Mostly, visitors were confined to the kitchen. "He used to turn the music up really loud," Gregg recalled. "He cooked things and fed me, played with the dog. I had the boys (her sons) over." "Last week, I would have told you he is the best dad, the best grandpa, kind, loving. ... I would have never seen this coming."

 

-Sapa-dpa