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Kidnapper who held 3 women as sex slaves found hanged in cell
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A MAN who kidnapped and raped three young women he held as sex slaves for a decade has been found hanged in his cell in “an apparent case of suicide,” authorities said.
The death of Ariel Castro, who was required to be checked on every 30 minutes, brought an abrupt and dramatic end to a case that shocked America and the world with its revelations of systematic depravity and brutality.
JoEllen Smith, spokeswoman for the Ohio prisons department, said Castro was found hanging in his cell on Tuesday night in a prison in the town of Orient.
“It does appear to be an apparent case of suicide,” Smith told reporters yesterday, declining to give further details.
A Cleveland TV station said he was not on suicide watch and had been at the prison for around 30 days.
Castro was sentenced on August 1 to life in prison plus 1,000 years on his guilty plea to 937 counts including kidnapping and rape.
Smith said in a statement that officials had tried in vain to resuscitate the 53-year-old.
“He was housed in protective custody which means he was in a cell by himself and rounds are required every 30 minutes at staggered intervals. Upon finding inmate Castro, prison medical staff began performing life-saving measures,” her statement said. Castro was pronounced dead at 10:52pm. He had been found hanging at 9:20pm.
Blogs posted in the main Cleveland newspaper, The Plain Dealer, were merciless.
“Adios diablo, may you burn for 1,000 years, just like you were sentenced,” one said.
“Why no picture of him hanging? Now THAT would be justice,” asked another.
Amanda Berry, now 27, Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32, were abducted separately between 2002 and 2004.
The woman ranged in age from 14 to 20 when Castro took them off the street in a working class neighborhood of Cleveland, under the pretext he was offering them a ride in his car.
They escaped on May 6 when Berry managed to break open part of the front door and call to a neighbor for help.
At Castro’s trial, it emerged they were brutalized, sometimes chained up and kept in abysmal conditions. Berry had a daughter fathered by Castro.
The house where they were held was demolished a few days after Castro was sentenced.
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