DNA testing has confirmed that Ariel Castro, the 52-year-old Cleveland man accused of kidnapping and raping three Ohio women who went missing a decade ago, fathered the 6-year-old girl who was born into captivity to one of the women, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office announced this morning.
Police had previously confirmed that the girl’s mother was Amanda Berry, who had gone missing in 2003 the day before her 17th birthday only to escape Castro’s home on Monday and call for help. Given her daughter’s age, 6, that means that Berry would have been either 20 or 21 when she gave birth.
There had been little to suggest that the child’s father was anyone besides Castro—particularly after authorities cleared his two brothers of charges earlier this week—but authorities had nonetheless refrained from making an official confirmation until they had the DNA results in hand. Castro has so far been charged with seven felonies: three counts of rape, one for each of the women; and four counts of kidnapping, one each for the women and the fourth for the child. The county prosecutor handling the case, however, has suggested that he’ll look to add charges and that the final tally could easily be in the hundreds.
Authorities also said Friday that they ran Castro’s DNA sample through a state database to see whether it matched any other open cases in the Ohio, but found no hits. National results, however, are still pending through the FBI.
This post has been updated with additional information.
