Ariel Castro's relatives in Puerto Rico say 'demon inside made him lose his mind'
Aunt says Castro 'looks menacing.' Another says 'he's still blood.' Allegations of abduction and torture have rocked the mountain hamlet of Duey, Puerto Rico
Comments (24)BY EDGAR SANDOVAL IN DUEY, PUERTO RICO AND LARRY MCSHANE / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
SATURDAY, MAY 11, 2013, 11:00 PM
ALEXIA FODERE FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monserrate Baez, an aunt of Ariel Castro in Duey, Puerto Rico, holds up local newspaper chronicling nephew’s exploits.
Forty years after leaving his Puerto Rican home, Ariel Castro is the talk of the small town.
Brokenhearted relatives of the accused monster grappled Saturday with the question of how a boy from a small mountain hamlet became a pariah in the big city of Cleveland.
“He is still blood, family,” a somber Aida Castro, 56, told the Daily News in Duey.
ALEXIA FODERE FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Aida Castro says she's suffered the dirty looks of townfolk as word of the Cleveland atrocities reached their tiny town.
“We don’t know what kind of demon he had in him to do what he did,” said the cousin of the man accused of kidnapping and raping the three women he held captive for a decade. Two were girls when they were taken. “A demon inside him made him lose his mind.”
Aida Castro and other relatives of Castro’s suffered the dirty looks of townfolk as word of the Cleveland atrocities reached their tiny town.
Castro’s aunt Monserrate Baez, 63, was terrified by the look on her nephew’s face peering from the front page of the local paper.
ALEXIA FODERE FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Javier Castro refuses to let his cousin Ariel Castro shame the entire family. “I wish I could say we aren’t cousins," Javier said. "We are good people, even if he’s evil.”
“He looks menacing,” said Baez, sitting in her modest home about 80 miles south of San Juan. “We don’t know how he could have done what he did.”
Before Castro’s arrest, the family’s local moment of shame came when his father and mother split — with the dad staying behind as his family relocated to Ohio.
“Maybe that’s what messed up Ariel,” said Hilberto Caraballo, 76, who knew the parents. “When you are crazy, you need any excuse, I guess.”
evil.”
CUYAHOGA COUNTY SHERIFFS OFFICE / HANDOUT
Ariel Castro is accused of kidnapping and raping three women in Cleveland for more than a decade.
Castro, 52, left with his mother, Lillian, when he was about 10 years old. Father Pedro “was a good dad to Ariel” before the breakup, said Caraballo.
Cousin Javier Castro, 48, shook his head in agreement.
“Most of us are good,” he said. “I have two sons ages 15 and 23. . . . One person can’t shame an entire family. We won’t let it. “I wish I could say we aren’t cousins. We are good people, even if he’s
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/cleveland-monster-kin-shame-anger-article-1.1341610#ixzz2THkwyTWC
