US-CRIME-KIDNAP

US-CRIME-KIDNAP

This mug shots courtesy of Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office shows suspect Ariel Castro in Cleveland, Ohio. Unemployed US bus driver Ariel Castro was ordered held on an eight-million-dollar bond on May 9, 2013 on charges he kidnapped and raped three women and held them in his home for a decade. In his first court appearance since the revelation of a crime that has shocked and disgusted a nation, the 52-year-old suspect did not enter a plea and was sent to county jail, where he is to be placed on suicide watch. Castro was arrested on Monday after a 27-year-old Amanda Berry managed to call out to a neighbor who kicked in the door to the suspect’s Cleveland home and rescued her and the six-year-old daughter she bore during her captivity. Police arrived on the scene and entered the house, finding two more women, 23-year-old Gina DeJesus and 32-year-old Michelle Knight. All three had been snatched in separate incidents around a decade earlier. He was presented to the court by public defender Kathleen DeMetz, who said he was “charged with kidnapping and rape on one charge, kidnapping and rape on the second, kidnapping and rape on the third, and kidnapping on the fourth.” AFP PHOTO / CUYAHOGA COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE == RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE / MANDATORY CREDIT: “AFP PHOTO / CUYAHOGA COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE / NO MARKETING / NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS / DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS ==