Lillian Rodriguez
APOLOGIES: Arlene Castro, daughter of suspect Ariel Castro, speaks on “Good Morning America,” as his mom, Lillian, leaves her home yesterday. (
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The daughter of accused Cleveland kidnapping fiend Ariel Castro yesterday begged forgiveness from the childhood best friend who allegedly became one of his captives.
“I’m absolutely so sorry for everything,” Arlene “Rosie” Castro said in an emotional televised apology to Gina DeJesus, who was 14 when Ariel Castro allegedly snatched her off a street in 2004.
“I really want to see you, Gina, and I want you to meet my kids. I’m so sorry for everything,” Arlene Castro, 23, told “Good Morning America.”
Arlene, an aspiring rapper who lives in Fort Wayne, Ind., said she had “no idea” her father allegedly kidnapped three girls — at least two of whom were her schoolmates — and kept them locked in a house of horrors for a decade.
Arlene said she was “embarrassed” and “devastated” by the atrocities against DeJesus, Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight.
“It’s a lot to deal with,” her boyfriend, Daniel, told The Post. “But she wanted to talk and let Gina know, ‘I’ve been looking for you and I want to see you.’ ”
Also apologizing was Ariel’s mother, Lillian Castro, who said, “I am sorry for what my son has done.”
Arlene was the last to see DeJesus before she vanished on a walk home after school. Arlene — nicknamed “Rosie” by friends at Wilbur Wright Middle School because of her flushed cheeks — had planned to hang out with DeJesus that afternoon.
But DeJesus’ dad wanted her to come home.
“Arlene said Gina called home, and her dad wouldn’t let her sleep over, so she walked home,” pal Kayla Rogers told The Post.
Ariel Castro soon drove up and offered her a ride — beginning what would become a decade of hell.
At the time, Arlene and her three siblings were living with their mom, Grimilda Figueroa, who had won custody of them after splitting with the abusive Castro.
“Me and my father were never really that close,” Arlene told “GMA” yesterday.
Arlene said that, as a child, she never saw any sign of the abuse, sexual assault and other tortures that Castro is accused of meting out on the women.
“No, never,” she said, denying she grew up in a violent household.
But family members, police and court records tell a different story.
Castro routinely beat Figueroa so badly she wound up in a hospital, they said, and he kept her locked in the house. She died last year of a brain condition after suffering years of blunt head trauma, relatives said.