Police say dad drowned 3 children in Baltimore hotel room

BALTIMORE -- A man who had argued with his estranged wife over the custody of their three children has confessed to drowning them in a hotel bathtub on the night they were to go back with their mother, police said Monday.

Mark A. Castillo will be charged after he is released from a hospital where he is being treated for self-inflicted cuts on his neck, Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld said at a news conference.

The motive for the children's deaths Saturday night remains a unclear, said Bealefeld and Mayor Sheila Dixon. While court records indicated Castillo and his wife, Dr. Amy Castillo, had disputes over their marriage and the children, he had no criminal history, Bealefeld said.

"It's really inexplicable why," he said.

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

Castillo, 41, of Rockville, and the children spent time Saturday afternoon at Baltimore's Inner Harbor, then checked into the Baltimore Marriott Inner Harbor. The children were drowned, one at a time, in the tub that night, Bealefeld said.

Castillo was supposed to have returned the children to their mother in Silver Spring on Saturday evening.

Police said Castillo called the hotel front desk Sunday afternoon, saying he'd killed the children and was going to commit suicide. Police and firefighters were sent to their 10th-floor room and discovered the bodies, Bealefeld said.

Bealefeld wouldn't discuss the crime scene in detail but said police seized a laptop from the hotel room and were searching a van in Baltimore and Castillo's home.