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'I Hope He Rots,' Says Brother Of Cleveland Kidnap Suspect

Calling his brother a hateful monster, Onil Castro has told CNN he hopes Ariel Castro "rots in that jail."

"I want him to suffer," he said of Ariel, the 52-year-old man accused of holding three young women captive in his Cleveland home for about a decade — years in which Ariel Castro allegedly raped them repeatedly and subjected them to other physical and mental torment.

Onil and Pedro Castro, another brother, were both taken into custody along with Ariel one week ago. Victim Amanda Berry's cries for help had alerted neighbors and brought police to Ariel Castro's home, where officers also found her 6-year-old daughter (fathered by Ariel Castro) and two other young women who had been missing for about 10 years: Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus.

Both Onil, 50, and Pedro, 54, were later released by authorities. Prosecutors said there was no evidence the men knew the women were inside their brother's home and that there's no evidence the two brothers played any part in the women's disappearances or captivity.

On an interview CNN broadcast Monday morning, Pedro Castro said he wants the world to know that "I had nothing to do with this and I don't know how my brother got away with this." On the occasions when he was in Ariel's home, Pedro said, he was never invited to go beyond the kitchen. Either a radio or a TV was always playing in the kitchen, he said, and he never heard any other sounds in the house.

Onil Castro said he feels like "a walking corpse right now" because of the attention and shame the case has brought to his family. He added that he had "absolutely no idea that this horrific crime was going on."

CNN has posted video of its interview here.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.