Apr 1, 2008 6:21 am US/Eastern
Father Charged With Murder In Drowning Deaths
BALTIMORE (WJZ/AP) ―
Police have charged a Montgomery County father with the murder of his three children in downtown Baltimore.
It happened Sunday at the Inner Harbor Marriott Hotel.
Mary Bubala reports police are not speculating on a motive for the murders right now, but it appears from court documents that a custody battle over these children has taken the most tragic turn.
Police say they now know how a father killed his three children inside a hotel room. Police have identified the children as Anthony, 6, Austin, 4, and Athena, 2.
Mark Castillo, 41, of Rockville confessed to drowning the children inside a hotel bathroom at the Baltimore Marriott Inner Harbor at Camden Yards.
Police charged Castillo with 15 charges including three counts of first-degree murder and six counts of child abuse. He was charged about 1 p.m. Monday after his release from a hospital where he was treated for self-inflicted cuts to his neck, police said.
Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld and Mayor Sheila Dixon said the motive for the children's deaths Saturday night was a mystery. While court records indicated Castillo and his wife, Dr. Amy Castillo, had disputes over their marriage and the children, Mark Castillo had no criminal history, Bealefeld said.
"It's really inexplicable why," he said.
However, Dr. Castillo wrote in court documents that her husband had threatened to make her suffer by killing the children. She sought a protective order Dec. 25, 2006, in Montgomery County District Court and asked that the court order Castillo to receive counseling.
"He has never actually hurt (the children), but did tell me that the worst thing he could do to me would be to kill the children and not me so I could live without them," she wrote in the petition.
She also wrote that when her husband took the children for visits, he would not tell her where they were staying.
A temporary protective order was approved three days after the petition was filed, but Circuit Judge Joseph Dugan rejected a permanent order Jan. 10, 2007. In explaining his decision, Dugan wrote there was "no clear or convincing evidence that the alleged acts of abuse occurred."
Castillo spent time with the children Saturday afternoon at the Inner Harbor before checking into the Baltimore Marriott Inner Harbor at Camden Yards about 5 p.m. Saturday. The children were drowned, one at a time, in the tub that night, Bealefeld said.
The father called the hotel front desk about 1:15 p.m. Sunday to say that he'd killed the children and was going to commit suicide.
Police and firefighters responded to their 10th-floor room and found all three children naked and dead lying in one of the hotel room beds.
Castillo was lying in the other bed and told paramedics, "I know what I did was bad. I did it. I drowned the the kids last night around 6:00 p.m."
According to court charging documents, Castillo confessed to the murders and told police he stabbed himself several times in the neck with a steak knife. He then consumed more than 100 Motrin pills.
He fell asleep. When he woke up Sunday, realizing he had not killed himself, he called hotel staff.
"We know that by virtue of a custody agreement Mr. Castillo, who was separated from his wife, was to return the children to her Montgomery County home at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday," said Bealefeld.
In Silver Spring, neighbor Maria Habesch, 79, said she went to a party a few years ago at the couple's home. She described Mark Castillo as "very, very polite," but said she hasn't seen him in two years.
Habesch said she saw the children playing Friday in the front yard of their home.
"The situation, it paralyzes you," she said. "It's not easy, to know these little kids were jumping (around) and then they are gone."
Bealefeld said police seized a laptop from the hotel room and planned to search a van in Baltimore. They were also searching Castillo's home in Rockville.
Police would not comment on Castillo's mental health.
But Dixon says this tragedy highlights concerns about mental health issues in the state. She says the city will be praying for the family, especially the children's mother.
"Children are a gift from God. We will be asking ourselves, 'Why, why could someone do this to three young, innocent children?"' Dixon said.
Stay with
WJZ.COM for the latest on this developing story.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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