Campus Connection

Media Credit: Clarence Lam [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Clarence Lam [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Clarence Lam [Click to enlarge]

On Saturday, March 29, a Rockville man engaged in a custody battle killed his three young children in a hotel adjacent to the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus. 

The following day the bodies of children, who were between the ages of two and six, were found in a tenth-floor room of the Inner Harbor Marriott on Eutaw Street by hotel security after their father, Mark Castillo, called and informed the front desk of the incident. 

According to reporting by the Baltimore Sun, Castillo and the children toured Baltimore’s Inner Harbor on Saturday until they checked-in to the Marriott at around 5 p.m.  An hour later, he drowned each of his children, one-by-one in a bathtub and afterwards laid their bodies in the room’s bed.  He then took 100 Motrin pills and slashed his neck with a knife before passing out of consciousness.  He awoke early Sunday afternoon after the apparent failed suicide attempt. 

Police and paramedics swarmed the hotel after notification from hotel security.  Castillo was taken into custody and brought to the University of Maryland Medical Center for treatment. 

On Monday, police charged Castillo with three counts of first-degree murder and other associated charges.  He had been in a custody battle with his estranged wife, Dr. Amy Castillo of Silver Spring and a pediatrician with Kaiser Permanente. 

Dr. Castillo had called Montgomery County police at 10:30 p.m. on Saturday night after Mark Castillo failed to return the children at the end of his visitation period that evening.  Past court records showed that she had expressed concern for the safety of her children. 

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