Marc Klaas, whose foundation—KlaasKids Foundation—has worked to prevent crimes against children and facilitate the recovery process of kidnapping victims, described Ariel Castro’s apparent suicide Wednesday as “absolutely ironic.” Klass said, Castro "held these three women in captivity, in a horrible dungeon-type captivity for a decade couldn't even handle one month of an infinitely better captivity that society was holding him in held his three captives for eleven years in horrendous conditions, yet Castro could not handle solitary confinement for one month"
Klaas, who established the foundation after the 1994 kidnapping and murder of his 12-year-old daughter, said on Jansing & Co. Wednesday that Castro’s death releases his three captives of his influence.
“I think that this is a great weight off of their shoulders, knowing that he is no longer on this Earth," Klaas said. "And, remember, we all know that he was going to be in prison for the rest of his life. But that doesn't mean that his influence stops. So he would have been able to continue to hold influence over these women, regardless of his circumstances, as long as he was alive. Now he is dead and now they are free.”