In the hours after his arrest, Ariel Castro told police that he let his 'guard down' the day Berry escaped from his home, ending his captives' decade-long nightmare, according to video obtained by NBC News.
NBC News obtained footage taken from Ariel Castro's police interrogation after he was arrested in May.
NBC News obtained footage taken from Castro's police interrogation after his arrest in Maand broadcasted segments of it on the "Today" show Friday.
In the tape, the shackled sex fiend sheds tears while sharing details how he raped and abused Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus, and how he feared he'd be found out during the decade he kept them in captivity.
Castro hung himself with a bed sheet in his prison cell.
BILL PUGLIANO/GETTY IMAGES
The home that once served as a terrible dungeon where Ariel Castro brutalized Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus. The home was torn down in August.
His family is planning to cremate him in a private service after recovering his body from the Franklin County coroner's office, relatives told the Daily News.
In the interrogation video, the 53-year-old former bus driver admitted to taking the three women prisoner and appeared shocked that he was able to get away with it for so long.
Speaking to two detectives, Castro described a moment a decade ago when an old girlfriend heard a TV in the room where he was holding Knight, his first victim, shortly after he abducted her in 2002.
TODAY SHOW
Castro told police he once called Amanda Berry's mother to say the girl was his 'wife' now. He also said police should have caught him after he kidnapped DeJesus in 2004 because there were surveillance cameras outside of her middle school.
"She seen that I had a TV on in the upstairs room,'' Castro tells the cops. "And she says, 'What is that? You have a TV on up there?'"
"And my heart started beating, and I was like, 'Okay, she's probably catching onto something," he says.
"It was a close call?" one cop says.
AP
Castro hung himself on Tuesday in his jail cell.
"Yea," Castro replies.
Castro also said video surveillance cameras near Gina DeJesus' middle school should have recorded him when he abducted the then-14-year-old In April 2004.
"You said we could've broke the case right then and there," one of the detectives says.
AARON JOSEFCZYK/REUTERS
Ariel Castro stood between attorneys Craig Weintraub (left) and Jaye Schlachet as his sentencing hearing. The 53-year-old was serving life in prison plus 1,000 years when he was found hanging in his cell.
"Because they had surveillance cameras," Castro replies.
Castro said he once used Amanda Berry's cell phone to call her mother to say Berry was OK.
"I think I said something ... that I have her daughter and that she's okay and that she's my wife now — something like that, you know, probably not the exact words,'' Castro tells the detectives.
KIICHIRO SATO/AP
Castro hung himself in his cell at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient, Ohio, south of Columbus. Above, a cell at the jail, though not the one where Castro was kept.
He hung up soon after, he says.
Berry's mother, Louwana Miller, died in 2006.
Berry, along with a daughter fathered by Castro, escaped from the house with the help of a neighbor on May 6, leading to the discovery of the two other victims.
Castro told the cops that Berry's daughter often complained about locked doors in the home.
HENNES PAYNTER COMMUNICATIONS / HANDOUT/EPA
Castro pleaded guilty to 937 counts of rape, kidnapping and other charges for his crimes against Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight (left to right).
On the day the women escaped, he left a bedroom door open, allowing Berry to slip out.
"I know I let my guard down," he told the detectives.
None of Castro's victims have offered a public response to Castro's suicide, which came barely a month after he was sentenced to life in prison plus 1,000 years.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty denounced him as a coward.
"This man couldn't take, for even a month, a small portion of what he had dished out for over a decade," McGinty said.
With News Wire Services
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