Kidnapper Ariel Castro commits suicide

Ohio corrections officials say Ariel Castro who held three women captive in his home for nearly a decade has committed suicide at a state prison facility.

Spokesperson JoEllen Smith says the 53-year-old Castro was found hanging in his cell around 21:20 on Tuesday at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient.

Prison medical staff performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation before Castro was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The three women disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old.

They escaped on 6 May, when one of the women broke part of a door and yelled to neighbours for help.

Castro was arrested that evening.

Castro was sentenced on 1August to life in prison plus 1 000 years on his guilty plea to 937 counts including kidnapping and rape.