Ariel Castro and three kidnapped women in Cleveland

[canuck]

Anyone have any thoughts on this really strange case? Three women are held for 10 years then escape, apparently held in captivity by one man, Ariel Castro, who has two brothers whom, I believe, live in the same town. The women have now escaped and the last I read there was not enough evidence to charge the two other brothers with any crime. The neighbour didn't notice anything unusual, one of the women gave birth to a daughter while in captivity. How can this be. Three women, one man, was there nothing that these women could do in their own defense, did the neighbour not notice anything strange, was there no unusual noise from that home. It's almost unbelievable. Maybe there is information which is not being released by the police. And also no anonymity for the victims of the rape.

 

[Meadow337]

one report I read mentioned they were kept in the basement, also don't minimise the effect of stockholm syndrome in combination with threats. Also people are terribly unobservant.

 

[753C]

Also, apparently the suspect, Ariel Castro, had some fairly good sized testicles. According to the man who rescued the girls.

 

[Meadow337]

oh I forgot that - in the midst of all shock that bit cracked me up.

Also read a bit about some "psychic" who told the mother of one of the victims her daughter was dead. Also being mentioned is tge difference in media attention between white missing persons and black missing persons which is really sad.

 

[canuck]

How would he have known that? Was the man naked when they caught him? I was talking to someone about this case and one of his comments about himself was that his next door neighbour knew more about him than his brothers who lived near, suggesting that the neighbour must have known more than he's saying. Also, there would be more garbage being put out unless Ariel C was taking it to the dump and then there would be groceries going in to the house, more than what one person would need. He was also known quite well to the police for domestic violence and always seemed to get off. 753 was your comment about his genitals suggesting that he had more drive than normal? I guess the fact that there may be the death penalty on the table is with regard to the young woman who was only 14 when captured. It just baffles me what human beings can do to each other.

 

[regdog]

Some of the neighbors had called the police about that house. Once one of the women escaped and was naked crawling across the backyard. The police showed up knocked for a few minutes, no one answered so they left. Another time someone saw one of the women banging on the attic window and called the police, nothing happened then either.

 

[canuck]

Some of the neighbors had called the police about that house. Once one of the women escaped and was naked crawling across the backyard. The police showed up knocked for a few minutes, no one answered so they left. Another time someone saw one of the women banging on the attic window and called the police, nothing happened then either.

I wonder if someone dropped the ball on this one?

 

[Meadow337]

having big testicles is an expression relating to "courage" (of sorts) not literally and even if literally it is not related to sex drive which is even less related to whatever is psychologically wrong with him that he did what he did.

 

[Meadow337]

Some one made a video song of the rescuers account - despite the seriousness of the whole thing this had me

 

[Landslide]

My neighbour had her sick mother staying with her for months and I only found out after she died... And we live in next door appartments.

Just saying that, unless you have really nosy neighbours, you're pretty much safe if you take certain precautions. But it would seem he wasn't all that careful and the police failed on a couple of occasions.

 

[Meadow337]

Just saying that, unless you have really nosy neighbours, you're pretty much safe if you take certain precautions. But it would seem he wasn't all that careful and the police failed on a couple of occasions.

People don't like to get involved, it is more than likely that people did hear stuff over the years and thought 'it is none of my business' or whatever goes through people's thoughts when they don't stick their nose in when they should

 

[Landslide]

People don't like to get involved, it is more than likely that people did hear stuff over the years and thought 'it is none of my business' or whatever goes through people's thoughts when they don't stick their nose in when they should

Yeah, but unless I heard cries for help or sounds of struggle, I wouldn't get involved either. However in this case, people did get involved, they called the police, it was the police that didn't follow through as they should IMO.

 

[Meadow337]

I think that is under investigation, at least that is the impression I got, but in defense of the police, they can't just force their way into a property, and if when they arrive there is no indication of a problem, their hands are tied.

Not living in a police state means that some times things like this happen, but the alternative is far worse.

 

[Landslide]

I'm not saying they should have forced their way into the property, but maybe following up later? Actually trying to speak to the owner and get an explanation about what had happened? Maybe it would have solved nothing or maybe they would have seen or heard something suspicious...

Of couse this is just speculation now, but I still feel more could have been done.

 

[Meadow337]

I'm not saying they should have forced their way into the property, but maybe following up later? Actually trying to speak to the owner and get an explanation about what had happened? Maybe it would have solved nothing or maybe they would have seen or heard something suspicious...

Of course this is just speculation now, but I still feel more could have been done.

I'm inclined to agree with you, but that also presumes a level of tracking of cases/reports, community policy, continuity of concern that doesn't exist at present.

Again, without defending it, I can see how it happens. There is no community policing like there used to be with officers on a beat for years where they got to know the community, could sense from all those subtle clues people unfamiliar with the environment don't pick up on, when something was wrong and had the continuity of 'this is the third call from neighbours about this house, let's investigate' kind of thing.

an unspecific call to a domestic dispute won't generate that much interest, when the officer investigates there is no sign of disturbance, the guy at the door says 'dunno what you talking about officers' and there is no audible fighting going on, well .... and I don't know the ins and outs of how the computer system works but I'm assuming complaints aren't filed against a particular address in such a manner that when calls are a few years apart that they show up on the system.

Should the system work better than it did in this instance? of course .... but at the same time, one needs to be careful of giving the police too much power to operate without due process and reasonable cause.

 

[sparkchaser]

Anyone have any thoughts on this really strange case? Three women are held for 10 years then escape, apparently held in captivity by one man, Ariel Castro, who has two brothers whom, I believe, live in the same town. The women have now escaped and the last I read there was not enough evidence to charge the two other brothers with any crime. The neighbour didn't notice anything unusual, one of the women gave birth to a daughter while in captivity. How can this be. Three women, one man, was there nothing that these women could do in their own defense, did the neighbour not notice anything strange, was there no unusual noise from that home. It's almost unbelievable. Maybe there is information which is not being released by the police. And also no anonymity for the victims of the rape.

In Cleveland and many other American cities with a less than stellar reputations for crime, neighbors are not overly inquisitive. If your neighbor isn't causing a ruckus, then why would anything be amiss?

 

[abecedarian]

In Cleveland and many other American cities with a less than stellar reputations for crime, neighbors are not overly inquisitive. If your neighbor isn't causing a ruckus, then why would anything be amiss?

I would also add that many of us don't know our neighbors like our parents and grandparents knew theirs. What struck me most in the interview with the rescuer, was his disbelief that this guy he thought he knew, because they grilled out and listended to music together, could have hidden such a dark secret so long. He sounded almost like he was blaming himself, just a little, for not suspecting..but at the same time, acknowledged that the guy seemed so normal on the surface.

 

[sparkchaser]

Agreed. These days urban (and suburban) Americans "mind their own business". Rural folk seem to still take notice of their neighbors.

 

[abecedarian]

Agreed. These days urban (and suburban) Americans "mind their own business". Rural folk seem to still take notice of their neighbors.

Well, to a point. We sorta know which cars belong on our street, for instance, but don't ask me the names of many of the folks who live here. I've not met some of them..But a couple of weeks ago, I drove out(WAY out) in the country, to retrieve a friend of my daughter, and that girl was rattling off the names and a detail or two about every household we passed all the way into town. I was impressed..

 

[canuck]

I guess I'm used to living on a crescent where we know most of our neighbours, certainly know when we see a car that isn't normally in our neighbourhood. Also not a lot of crime in our city. We would know if something odd was happening next door or across the street so it's a fairly close community. However, having said that probably none of us really knows what goes on in any household except our own. The thing that sticks in my mind is that the police already had been to Mr. Castro's house on other occasions so he wasn't a stranger to them but it may be a case of lots of incidents and not enough officers to follow up.