Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro found dead in his cell
The death of the 53-year-old kidnapper and rapist Ariel Castro brought an abrupt and dramatic ending to a sordid case that shocked the United States.
The story made headlines around the world with revelations of depravity and brutality carried out in an ordinary Cleveland home.
Divorced father, musician and former school bus driver Castro, 53, was sentenced to life plus more than 1,000 years after pleading guilty to 937 counts including the kidnapping and rape of three women.
Castro kidnapped Gina DeJesus, 23, Michelle Knight, 32, and Amanda Berry, 27, separately from Cleveland streets between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old respectively.
While keeping the women captive in his home he joined community efforts to find them and even comforted their families following their disappearances.
All three women knew their captor at the time of their kidnappings.
In the decade Castro held the women in captivity, they survived on a scarce diet of fast food and were kept in filthy, darkened and locked rooms with boarded-up windows.
They were bound for periods of time in chains or rope and were said to have endured starvation, beatings and repeated sexual assaults.
All three women fell pregnant to Castro while in captivity, though only Amanda Berry carried a baby to full term.
Knight reportedly delivered Berry’s baby in an inflatable pool in Castro’s basement.
"[Castro] told me if the baby didn't come out alive that he would blame me," Knight told Dr Phil McGraw in an interview after her release.
"I knew if I didn't get her to breathe that he would kill me right then and there," she said.
The women escaped on May 6 2013 when Ariel Castro left his home briefly, leaving an internal door unlocked.
While Castro was away, Amanda Berry broke open part of the front door and yelled to a neighbour for help.
"Help me," said Amanda Berry in a 911 call.
"I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years and I'm, I'm here, I'm free now."
Police found Knight and DeJesus huddled in fear upstairs.
"You saved us! You saved us!" Knight told an officer as she leaped into his arms.
Berry’s six-year-old daughter to Castro also escaped with the three women.
Castro and his brothers Pedro and Onil Castro were arrested that evening, though his brothers were later released without charge.
At trial, an attorney for Ariel Castro entered the "not guilty" plea during a brief arraignment before Judge Pamela Barker, who kept in place an $8 million bond and order that Castro not be allowed to see his daughter.
Michelle Knight bravely faced her captor in court, "I spent 11 years in hell, and now your hell is just beginning," she said.
Castro claimed that he was addicted to sex and pornography.
"I am not a monster. I was sick," Castro said.
A grand jury added 648 charges to a previous indictment against him.
Then, on September 4, Castro was found hanging in his cell in solitary confinement.
"It does appear to be an apparent case of suicide," said JoEllen Smith, spokeswoman for the Ohio prisons department.
Given the notoriety of the case, Castro was "housed in protective custody which means he was in a cell by himself and rounds are required every 30 minutes at staggered intervals."
Despite prison officials supervising Castro regularly, he was not on suicide watch.
Prison staff are said to have administered CPR immediately after discovering Castro's body.
He was transported to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead at 10:52 pm.
