Ariel Castro – the Cleveland kidnapper – killed himself on Tuesday night.
Despite pleading guilty to a total of 937 crimes, the man who committed heinous atrocities against three innocent Cleveland women was dodging the death penalty at all costs. In fact, he plead guilty to that sum of charges – which included murder, kidnapping, and assault – in exchange for the death penalty to be taken off the table.
As an alternative to fulfilling his 1,000-plus year sentence in prison, Ariel Castro inflicted his own demise on Tuesday night, when he hanged himself from a bedsheet in his prison cell at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient, Ohio.
He was found by guards who attempted to revive him before he was taken to The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 10:52 pm.
Castro was alone in his cell, and was neither in protective custody nor on suicide watch. Instead guards were required to check on him every 30 minutes.
CNN reports that a suicide note penned by Castro had been found earlier on in the house in which he brutalized Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight, and Tina DeJesus in their captivity.
After being evaluated by mental health professionals, they deemed him sane, and capable of surviving his imprisonment in solidarity.
Family members who last saw him on August 26th admitted that they were concerned about his well being, and that he seemed depressed.
They were enraged by the fact that they first learned of their relative’s death through media reports. It was not until hours after Castro’s passing that the warden called and personally delivered the news. Regardless of Castro’s position as a criminal – some have even called him a monster – officials should have made sure to inform his family before the media broke the news.
So far, Berry, Knight and DeJesus have not publicly reacted to the news, but we can only wonder how they could possibly be feeling right now.
