5. Ariel's
Biography/Background
His parents divorced when he was still a child.
Him, his mother and three siblings then moved to
mainland USA. Then moved out to Cleveland,
Ohio where they remained, where his father and
the extension of his family also lived.
He then graduated from Cleveland's “West high
school.”
6. Castro met his future common law wife, Grimed
Figueroa. The two had two children, Ryan (left)
and Rosie (Right).
The two of them moved into their own home at
2207 Seymour Avenue in 1992..
7. The House
Their home was a two-story, 1,400-square-foot
(130 m2), four-bedroom, one-bathroom house
with a 760-square-foot (71 m2) unfinished
basement.
8. Early Signs…
When Figueroa and Castro moved into their new
home, "all hell started breaking loose”…
Castro beat Figueroa, breaking her nose, ribs, and
arms. He also once threw her down a set of stairs,
cracking her skull.
In 1993, Castro was arrested for domestic violence.
Figueroa moved out of the home in 1996 and secured
custody of her four children.
Castro continued to threaten and attack Figueroa
after she left him.
9. His Work?
Before his arrest, Castro worked as a bus driver for
the Cleveland Metropolitan School District until he
was fired for “bad judgment”.
After a series of issues, including:
making an illegal U-turn with children on his bus
using his bus to go grocery shopping
leaving a child on the bus while he went for lunch
and for leaving the bus unattended while he took a
nap at home.
10. Michelle Knight
Early Life
Born in April 1981, Michelle Knight grew up in
Cleveland, Ohio. As a girl, she wanted to pursue a
career as a firefighter, and later aspired to become a
veterinarian.
Knight dropped out of school after becoming
pregnant. She had a son, whom she named Joey.
When the boy was a toddler, an injury—possibly
caused by an abusive boyfriend of her mother's—led
to his being taken away from Knight and placed in
foster care in 2003.
11. On August 23, 2002, Knight left her cousin's house and
subsequently disappeared.
Her family reported her as missing, but most eventually
came to believe that Knight, distraught over losing her son
and unable to deal with the negative turns her life had
taken, had run away on her own.
Though her mother continued to post fliers about her
daughter, Knight was removed from the FBI's database of
missing people in 2003.
Police acknowledged that limited resources had been
spent on investigating her disappearance, because she
was an adult and was believed to have run away due to
anger over losing custody of her son.
12. But in fact, Knight had been offered a ride by
Ariel Castro. As she knew one of his daughters,
Knight accepted the lift, thinking she was a
thirteen year old prostitute.
She then agreed to enter Castro's Cleveland
home, located at 2207 Seymour Avenue on the
22-08-02, when he promised to give her a puppy
for her son. Once inside, Knight was restrained
and imprisoned. It was the beginning of years of
torture…
13. Her Captivity
For the first of many months she was kept,
chained up in his basement where upon his
would force sexual congress with her. She would
beg him to stop and to let her go which he would
reply with savage beatings.
After a few years she was moved upstairs into a
small bedroom. Where upon she plotted her
escape, only to be caught and savagely beaten
again.
Not long after that Ariel took her into another bed
room where upon she met Amanda Berry…
14. Amanda Berry
Amanda Berry disappeared on April 21, 2003, one day
before her 17th birthday.
Berry was last heard from when she called her sister to tell
her that she was getting a ride home from her job at a
Burger King.
The FBI initially considered Berry a runaway, until a week
after her disappearance when an unidentified male used
Berry’s cell phone to call her mother, saying “I have
Amanda. She’s fine and will be coming home in a couple of
days”.
15. The Campaign to Find
Amanda Berry
Amanda's family did not give up hope finding their daughter.
They made their own website “Find Amanda Berry” as well as other
social media like Facebook and MySpace.
They went to a psychic on national T.V Sylvia Browne who told her
mother she was dead but she never gave up hope. Berry was featured
also in a 2004 segment of Americas most wanted as well as the Oprah
Winfrey Show.
He would then make the two of them watch the news, with no news
about Michelle Knight…
16. Gina DeJesus
Born on April 1, 1990, in Cleveland, Ohio, Gina
DeJesus became a kidnapping statistic when she
disappeared at age 14 while walking home from
school.
She was imprisoned with two other young
women, Michelle Knight and Amanda Berry.
The DeJesus and Castro family were close.
Castro’s daughter Rosie was a good friend of
Gina and was how he lured her into him home.
17. The Twisted Part Of it all…
Castros were well-acquainted with the
DeJesus family.
One DeJesus relative ran a nearby club
where Ariel Castro, a bass player, had
performed with different bands.
Castro relatives helped search for DeJesus.
DeJesus' relatives said Ariel Castro
participated in a search party and attempted
to work closely with the family.
18. 9 years pass…
Over the next nine years, Gina DeJesus would be held,
alternatively with ropes and chains, with two other young
women.
Castro also taunted Knight about the fact that DeJesus and
Berry had family members desperate to find them, while no
one was looking for her…
Knight suffered during her time as a prisoner, she
supposedly became pregnant five times, but miscarried
each time after being starved and beaten by Castro.
Two other young women, Gina DeJesus and Knight was
forced to deliver the child Berry gave birth to while in
captivity while at gun point.
19. 06.06.13
Then one day in Summer Castro left his home,
leaving the basement door open as well as
Berry’s chains.
Berry’s now 6-year old daughter, Jocelyn came
down into the basement where her mother and
the other women were kept. The basement door
was unlocked and the Amanda Berry was
unchained.
And then Berry ran…
22. Aftermath
Michelle, Gina and Amanda as well as Amanda's
daughter went to hospital were they remained
together.
Amanda took herself and her daughter home
with her while Gina and Michelle went back to
Gina’s home.
Michelle going due to her anguish at her mother,
for being the cause she lost her son and for
practically abandoning her while Gina and
Michelle's family continued their search.
23. Ariel Castro
Castro was arrested on May 6, 2013. On May 8,
he was charged with four counts of aggravated
murder, attempted murder, assault and instance
of rape.
Along with his two other brothers.
He was set a bail of $8 million Dollars and
pleaded not guilty of 329 charges. He was give
consecutive life sentences (1000 years in total),
and without parole and was also fined $100,000
dollars.
24. He then committed suicide on September 3rd
2013 in his cell. He wrote a suicide note in which
he confessed to the kidnapping as well as all the
other heinous acts he committed, but blamed the
victims for being kidnapped…
“Killing yourself, that’s not strength. Surviving it is
strength, and that’s what them girls did. They
survived it for 11, 10 and 9 years.”- Amanda
Berry’s Sister
25. Cognition
It could be said that the reason why he raped and kidnapped
these women as well as him abusing his wife and children in the
past could be explained by him having defective cognition
(Incorrect thinking patters).
Many of the things he did, such as helping the DeJesus family to
find Gina while the entire time we was holding her captive. He
showed:
Clear criminal thinking patterns
Failure of moral development
What can be taken from Ariel Castro was that he definitely had
incorrect thinking patterns, and his twisted behavior and actions
can be due to this.
