Mark Castillo Killed His Kids

March 31, 2008 by impqueen  

Baltimore, MD – At 1:15 Sunday afternoon, the desk at the Marriott Inner Harbor in Baltimore got a disturbing phone call from tenth-floor guest Mark Castillo.  Castillo, 41, told the front desk clerk that he’d killed his children and was thinking about hurting himself, as well.   Security staff entered the room to find three dead children: Anthony Castillo, 6; Austin Castillo, 4; and Athena Castillo, 2.  Oh, and Mark Castillo had a few surface cuts from the suicide he was too chicken to carry out after murdering his kids. 

Police aren’t sure yet how the children were killed.  One spokeperson says that “it looks like something happened in the bathroom”, and that the children were not shot or stabbed.  They may have been drowned, suffocated or even poisoned.  Medical reports should be available within a day or two.

Mark Castillo appears to have had the kids for a weekend visitation per agreement with his estranged wife, Amy Castillo.  His Myspace is pretty bare but did have the picture I used of him with either Anthony or Austin.

Court records show a pattern of problems in Mark and Amy Castillo’s marriage since at least 2006.  Amy filed for divorce that summer, and a judge ordered that Mark Castillo’s visits with the children be supervised at that time.    In September 2006,  Mark Castillo had to undergo a psychological review, and later court entries show that he was in therapy. But by that  December, Mark had become violent with his wife.   A court ordered Mark Castillo to leave the home and have no contact with Amy Castillo at that time.

In June 2007, Amy Castillo filed an emergency motion to prevent Mark Castillo from having access to the children, records show.  The outcome was unclear, but Mark Castillo filed motions to enforce a visitation agreement. Another court date was set for May.   In the meantime, it appears that Amy was allowing some unsupervised visits with Mark, probably on her attorney’s advice.

Sounds to me like Amy had heard Mark threaten the children before, or at least had reason to be concerned about his behavior with them.   Often in court cases, parents are advised to allow unsupervised visitation, even when they don’t want to, in order to avoid losing custody.  That appears to have been the case here, and with tragic consequences for Anthony, Austin and little Athena.  Those poor babies.  That poor mother.

It’s no consolation now for Amy Castillo, but I hope her judges  hate themselves for not listening to her.  I hope Mark Castillo’s lawyer quits.  I hope Mark has the good sense to off himself as soon as he is able, since he should have done that first and saved his children.

Murder charges were expected to be filed today.

Unamused Cat covered this in our forums as well.