Ohio corrections officials say Ariel Castro who held three women captive in his home for nearly a decade has committed suicide at a state prison facility.
Spokesperson JoEllen Smith says the former school bus driver, who was under protective custody and isolated from other inmates, was found hanging in his cell at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient around 9:20 pm Tuesday night. Prison medical staff performed CPR before Castro was transported to OSU Hospital in Columbus, where he was pronounced dead. The three women held captive disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old. They escaped May 6, when one of the women broke part of a door and yelled to neighbors for help. Castro was arrested that evening. He was sentenced Aug. 1 to life in prison plus 1,000 years on his guilty plea to 937 counts including kidnapping and rape. Castro arrived at the Correctional Reception Center August 5th, and was undergoing mental and physical evaluations before being transferred to a permanent lockup. He had been placed in protective custody, and corrections officials were supposed to check on him every half hour.