Did Ariel Castro Really Commit Suicide? Review Claims Cleveland Kidnapper May Have Died From Auto-Erotic Asphyxiation

A review of Ariel Castro’s prison death found two guards responsible for checking up on the Cleveland kidnapper failed to do so multiple times on the day Castro hanged himself in his cell.

The report from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction also found that Castro was not shown a suicide-prevention video that is supposed to be shown to inmates. It also could not uncover a motive for Castro’s death and even suggested that Castro died from auto-erotic asphyxiation and did not intend to commit suicide.

The two guards, 26-year-old Caleb Ackley and 27-year-old Ryan Murphy, are on administrative leave with pay after the report found they falsified log books and did not complete all their rounds, Central Ohio’s 10TV reported.

Castro hung himself Sept. 3 in his cell inside the Correctional Reception Center in Orient, Ohio, where he was serving his sentence for the decade-long kidnapping and repeated rapes of victims Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus, among other crimes.

According to the Associated Press, Castro was found in his cell with his pants and underwear around his ankles, which may suggest that Castro died from auto-erotic asphyxiation and not suicide. But the report did not definitely find a cause for Castro’s death.

The report noted that Castro did not leave a suicide note and found that “there appears to be no known, substantiated motivation for the self-inflicted death,” according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Castro was also paranoid that his prison food was being tampered with and he flushed his food down the toilet, the report found. The Cleveland kidnapper also complained of verbal abuse from guards and other inmates, according to the review.