Ariel Castro, Man Accused In Ohio Kidnapping, Was Known By One Of His Victims: Family

The family of a woman who went missing 10 years ago and was found yesterday said their daughter knew her captor.

Gina DeJesus vanished in 2004, at the age of 14. She was found, along with Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight, in a Cleveland home on Monday afternoon. Berry had been reported missing in 2003, when she was 16, and Knight had disappeared at the age of 20 in 2002.

Ariel Castro, one of the three brothers arrested in connection with the case, was a "relative of DeJesus' best friend, possibly her father," according to WOIO.

Authorities recently released mugshots of the three men accused in the case, Ariel Castro, Onil Castro and Pedro Castro.

Juan Perez, who said he grew up two houses down from Ariel Castro, told NewsNet5 his neighbor seemed like "a good guy."

"He was a nice guy," Perez said of the former bus driver. "He gave the kids rides up and down the street on his four-wheeler. "I’ve known him since I was like five or six years old. He seemed like he was a good guy to the kids that were here."

NBC News reports that police visited Castro's home nine years ago after he had left one of his school bus passengers behind.

From NBC News:

In 2004, Cleveland police showed up at Ariel Castro's home on Seymour Avenue after Castro, a school bus driver, left behind one of his young passengers.

When no one answered, the cops left — never realizing that behind the door were two women who had vanished off the streets and would remain captive until they were rescued this week, along with a third woman missing for almost a decade.