Another custody battle ends in death...yet again :(

[PrincessArky]

Police: Dad killed kids in hotel, then called front desk

BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) -- A man killed his three young children at a downtown hotel room, then called the front desk to report their deaths Sunday afternoon, authorities said.


Police cars sit outside a Marriott Hotel in Baltimore on Sunday.

Police officers who responded to the 10th-floor room at the Baltimore Marriott Inner Harbor at Camden Yards found the three children's bodies and Mark Castillo, 41, with minor cuts that appeared to have been self-inflicted, police spokesman Sterling Clifford said.

"Why he brought them here to do this is something we don't know yet," Clifford said.

Police identified the children as Anthony, 6, Austin, 4, and Athena, 2.

Castillo was taken to a hospital for treatment and was being questioned by investigators, the spokesman said.

Clifford said investigators had not determined how the children died, but said they hadn't been shot or stabbed.

The children's mother was notified, Clifford said. It wasn't clear who had legal custody of the children, he said.


An online search of Maryland court records showed Mark and Amy Castillo of Silver Spring, which is about 35 miles south of Baltimore, were involved in a child custody dispute.

A telephone call Sunday night by The Associated Press to a number listed for Amy W. Castillo in Silver Spring was answered by a voice mail message that said the caller had reached the home of Amy Castillo and Anthony, Austin and Athena.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/03/31/children.killed.ap/index.html

[ahippiechic]

So sad.

[Jolie Rouge]

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/578046-judge-should-face-conviction-murder.html

[PrincessArky]

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-information/578046-judge-should-face-conviction-murder.html

thanx for the updated info

[Jolie Rouge]

Slain kids' mom: Husband had been angry
By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press Writer
Thu Apr 3, 8:50 PM ET

VIENNA, Va. - The mother of three young children who were allegedly drowned by their father in a Baltimore hotel room said Thursday that her estranged husband had become angrier in the weeks preceding the children's deaths.

Still, Amy Castillo said she did not notice anything out of the ordinary on Saturday when she turned her children over to Mark Castillo for a regularly scheduled visitation. It was the last time she saw her children — Anthony, 6; Austin, 4; and Athena, 2.

"That particular Saturday I didn't notice any unusual behavior but it was a very brief interaction," Amy Castillo told reporters at a briefing at McLean Bible Church, where she and her children regularly attended services.

Mark Castillo is charged with murder. Police say he drowned his children one by one in the bathtub of the hotel room Saturday, then called the front desk the next day to report the killings when he realized his attempt at suicide had not worked.

Amy Castillo, of Silver Spring, Md., said she is devastated but "it gives me peace that no one can harm them again and that they are with Jesus in heaven."

She said Mark Castillo was increasingly troubled in recent weeks — a judge stopped alimony payments he had been receiving from her, and he was falling behind on financial obligations.

"All around he was in trouble," she said. "I think he was getting more and more angry."

The Castillos fought a bitter and lengthy court battle over their divorce and custody over the three children. They were granted a limited divorce in February, and Mark Castillo retained visitation rights to the children.

Amy Castillo had asked judges to suspend those rights on at least two occasions, citing her husband's mental instability and alleged threats. In December 2006, she wrote in a petition for a protective order that her husband told her "the worst thing he could do to me is to kill the children, not me, so I could live without them."

Montgomery Circuit Court judges denied her requests, saying there wasn't enough evidence that Mark Castillo was a threat to the children. At one point, Amy Castillo was fined by the court for keeping her husband from seeing the children.

Asked about the court rulings Thursday, Amy Castillo said that "there were some people who would not listen to me."

She said she did not want to talk about the legal issues too much, but said the legal system needs a better understanding of mental-health issues.

One of the judges, Joseph Dugan, declined to comment Thursday but his office referred calls to a Rockville divorce attorney who had reviewed the case at the request of the Maryland judicial branch. Judges generally cannot comment publicly on cases.

The attorney, Patrick Dragga, said there are several instances where the court took relatively unusual steps, such as appointing an attorney to represent the interests of the children and a parent coordinator to help with communication between the Castillos.

And when Dugan denied Amy Castillo's request for a protective order granting her sole custody in January 2007, he also required that Mark Castillo attend counseling if he wanted to continue seeing his children. That order ended when the Castillos reached a custody agreement several weeks later, Dragga said.

Judges face the high bar of clear and convincing evidence of abuse or harm before they can issue a protective order, he said.

"I think these guys tried to get the expertise that would help them with this," he said of the judges. "This one didn't work, obviously."

___

Associated Press writer Stephen Manning in Chevy Chase, Md., contributed to this report.

___

On the Net: Fund for Amy Castillo: http://www.lovefund4amy.com

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080404/ap_on_re_us/children_killed;_ylt=AgZEFaIsENdrWFpwLrQylXBH2ocA

[Unicornmom77]

Oh my... so sad

[PrincessArky]

This poor woman did everything she knew to do to protect her kids from this pos but the system just handed them over :(