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Ariel Castro grew up in Reading

Ariel (from left), Pedro and Onil Castro. Ariel has been charged, while Pedro and Onil were held but not charged.
Ariel (from left), Pedro and Onil Castro. Ariel has been charged, while Pedro and Onil were held but not charged.Read more
    by By Emily Babay, Philly.com staff
    Published 

The man suspected of holding three young women in captivity for a decade grew up in Berks County, according to news reports.

An uncle of 52-year-old Ariel Castro tells the Reading Eagle that Castro and his brothers, who were initially also arrested in the disappearances, lived in the Berks County city as children.

Julio Castro told the newspaper that he visited his nephews and their mother in Reading when the boys, who were born in Puerto Rico, were between 5 and 10 years old.

"It seemed like they had a happy childhood," he told the Eagle about Castro and his brothers, Onil and Pedro. The family later moved to Cleveland, he told NBC Philadelphia.

Ariel Castro is accused of kidnapping Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus and holding the three, along with a daughter born to Berry, in his Cleveland home for 10 years. All three women disappeared when they were in their teens or early 20s.

Castro was arraigned on rape and kidnapping charges this morning.