Ariel Castro, the Cleveland kidnapper who held three women against their will for a decade, is dead after hanging himself in his prison cell Tuesday night.
Castro, 53, was found about 9.20pm at Correctional Reception Center in Orient, Ohio. He had served only one month of his prison term, which sent him away for life, plus 1,000 years.
Castro was being housed alone in an isolation unit for his protection, prison officials said.
Prison regulations dictate that guards had to check on him every 30 minutes. Officials say he hanged himself during a break between inspections.
Dead: Ariel Castro hanged himself in his prison
cell just one month after being sentenced to serve the rest of his life
in prison
Lonely death: This is an isolation cell at
Correctional Reception Center in Orient, Ohio, like the one where Castro
hanged himself Tuesday
Castro made international headlines when Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were freed from his Cleveland house after ten years of captivity under unimaginable conditions.
