Ariel Castro’s brothers, Onil and Pedro, spoke of how they had no idea why they were being arrested for keeping three girls in captivity in Cleveland for nearly a decade.
Onil and Pedro Castro also revealed that they saw Jocelyn, the daughter that Ariel fathered with Amanda Berry during her captivity, saying that on two different occasions they saw Ariel bring the young girl to fast food restaurants- one time at McDonald’s and another at Burger King. Each time, he said that the girl was his girlfriend’s daughter.
Onil Castro was in the car with his brother Ariel when police pulled them over in a McDonalds parking lot and his first thought was that Ariel had run a red light. Pedro Castro was woken up at his home by police, and he thought that they were arresting him for an outstanding open container warrant.
They were both far off base, as they only learned when they arrived at the police station and were questioned separately about the three young women that Ariel Castro had secretly kept in his house.
Pedro Castro said that once at the station, he asked what he was being charged with and a police officer wrote the word “kidnapping” down on a piece of paper and handed it to him.
“I didn’t have my reading glasses, I looked and I said, <<Oh, open containers>>. She said <<No, read it again>>. And I said <<Oh! Kidnapping! What’s this? Kidnapping? I’m thinking kidnapping. Who did I kidnap?>>” he told CNN.
Pedro Castro was similarly confused, and the only one to have a clue of what was going on was Ariel, who remains behind bars after his bail was set at $8 million.
“He goes <<Onil, I’m sorry. You didn’t know nothing about this, Onil. I’m sorry, Onil>>. And that was it. And then that’s when I broke down on my way over there. I said, <<What did my brother do? What did he do?>>” Onil Castro told CNN.
“When he walked past me, he goes, <<Onil, you’re never going to see me again. I love you bro>>. And that was it. And he put his fist up for a bump.”
They consider their brother to be a “monster” and said that one of the worst moments for them came when they realized that Gina DeJesus was one of the kidnapping victims since they are friends with her father, Felix.
“I knew him for a long time and when I found out that Ariel had Gina, I just broke down its just shocking. Ariel, we know this guy for a long time and you got his daughter and you go round like nothing, you even went to the vigils, you had posters, you give his mama a hug and you got his daughters captive?” Pedro Castro said in disbelief in the interview that aired Monday morning.
Pedro Castro told of how one time he saw Ariel bring a little girl to the local McDonalds – the girl that is now known to be Jocelyn who the 52-year-old fathered with his kidnapping victim Amanda Berry.
“I seen Ariel with a little girl at McDonald’s and I asked him who’s that and he said <<This is a girlfriend’s of mine>>,” Pedro Castro told CNN.
When he saw the same girl at Burger King with Ariel on a different occasion, he asked where the mother was but Ariel just said she was busy.
The brothers said that they had no idea about the years of abuse that went on at their brother’s house because they never had a thorough tour of his home on Seymour Avenue.
On the rare occasions that they did visit his home, they stayed in the kitchen and could not see into the other areas because Ariel Castro had put up curtains blocking the other rooms. He explained that it was an energy saving technique.
“The reason why we would go in the kitchen, because he had alcohol. And he would take me in the kitchen, give me a shot,” Pedro Castro said.
Other ways that he would keep his guests from suspecting any criminal activity was to constantly have a radio or TV on so that it would drown out any background noise, and they would never spend much time actually indoors, opting to eat out on the steps instead.
The brothers, who were arrested along with Ariel Castro but later released due to a lack of evidence, say that since their release from prison, they have been faced with online death threats, a break-in at one of their homes, and vandalism.
When asked by CNN reporter Martin Savidge if the public would always suspect they had a role in the kidnappings, they answered “yes” in unison.
Onil Castro said: “The people out there who know me, they know that Onil Castro is not that person, has nothing to do with that – would never even think of something like that. I was a very liked person [before the arrest], never had any enemies.
“[There is] no reason for anybody to think that I would ever do something like that. It was a shock to all my friends. They couldn’t believe it.”
Pedro Castro added: “I couldn’t ever think of doing anything like that. If I knew that my brother was doing this, in a minute I would have called the cops; cause that ain’t right. But yeah, it’s going to haunt me down. Cause people are going to think Pedro had something to do with this and Pedro don’t have anything to do this.”
They said that even though Ariel Castro is their brother, they would have had no choice but to turn him in – had they known.
“If I knew, I would have reported it, brother or no brother.”
Ariel Castro is suspected of holding Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight captive in his home for a decade.
Authorities say he kidnapped all three women, raped them and fathered a child with one.
The women were found May 6 after one escaped and called 911.
The Castro brothers were initially taken into custody but released Thursday after investigators said there was no evidence against them.
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