Ariel Castro, the man accused of holding three young women captive in his Cleveland home for about a decade -- nightmarish years in which he allegedly raped them repeatedly, forced at least one of the women to have multiple miscarriages and fathered a child with another -- could face thousands of criminal charges.
Brian Bull of WCPN tells our Newscast Desk that local prosecutor Tim McGinty may seek the death penalty and also might file "charges for every day of kidnapping and every act of sexual violence, among other offenses. That could add hundreds, even thousands of additional charges."
Castro is accused of kidnapping Amanda Berry (now 27), Gina DeJesus (now 23) and Michelle Knight (now 32) between 2002 and 2004. He also faces a kidnapping charge related to Berry's 6-year-old daughter. Berry has reportedly told authorities that Castro fathered the child.
Castro, 52, was arraigned Thursday. His bail was set at $8 million.
Brian's report is one of several stories of note today. Others include:
-- Knight's name was removed from an FBI database 15 months after her disappearance, Cleveland's Plain Dealer reports. The newspaper says that according to city of Cleveland spokeswoman Maureen Harper, Knight's name was taken off the database because police couldn't reach Knight's mother to confirm she was still missing. Officers did, however, make inquiries about Knight's whereabouts in subsequent years.
-- Castro's adult daughter, Angie Gregg, told CNN that "he is dead to me." The news network writes that "now shocked and in disbelief, Gregg says she never wants to see him again. 'There will be no visits; there will be no phone calls,' she said. 'He can never be daddy again. I have no sympathy for the man.' As she mulled the accusations against him, she asked, 'How could you?' "
-- "During his interrogation with police, the man accused of kidnapping and raping three women said he was addicted to sex and could not control his impulses," Cleveland's Channel 3 News reports.
The station adds that, "calling himself 'cold blooded,' Ariel Castro led police with exacting detail through the days that he abducted Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, from how he met them to what they were wearing that day," according to sources with knowledge of the investigation.
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