US | Ariel Castro Ariel Castro Did Commit Suicide: New Report Prison consultants reject notion that he died of autoerotic asphyxiation By Newser Editors and Wire Services Posted Dec 3, 2013 9:20 AM CST Copied In this Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, file photo, Ariel Castro makes a statement in the courtroom during his sentencing phase in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File) Two corrections consultants have concluded that Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro committed suicide in his prison cell and didn't die by accidentally killing himself while attempting to achieve a sexual thrill. The nationally regarded consultants rejected a suggestion in a state prisons report in October that Castro's Sept. 3 hanging was not a suicide as originally believed. The consultants' report released today says all available evidence, including a shrine-like display in Castro's cell and an increasing tone of frustration in his prison journal, points to suicide. The 53-year-old Castro had just begun serving a life sentence plus 1,000 years for imprisoning and raping three women in his shuttered house for a decade; he was found hanging in his cell from a sheet attached to a window hinge. Click for more on the case. Read These Next The Cracker Barrel logo brouhaha continues. Villanova's 'cruel hoax' a sign of a bigger problem. The FBI is reportedly looking for something in John Bolton's home. Cracker Barrel ditches the barrel in its logo. Report an error