The Rockville man charged with killing his three young children in a Baltimore hotel room had threatened suicide and spent time in psychiatric wards, according to friends and court documents.
Mark Anthony Castillo “never actually hurt them, but he did tell me that the worst thing he could do to me would be to kill the children and not me, so I could live without them,” his estranged wife, Amy Castillo, wrote in court documents about a December 2006 incident in which she claimed he abducted one of three children now dead.
On Christmas Day that year, a judge granted Castillo?s wife a temporary restraining order, but when she askedfor a permanent protective order the next month, she was denied.
When Mark Castillo threatened suicide two years ago, his panicked wife, a pediatrician, called their longtime friends, Dan and Elaine Sander in Missouri, the couple said Monday.
Dan Sander said he invited Mark Castillo to stay with him and his wife in Kansas City, Mo., where Mark Castillo attended a support group for people with biopolar disorder.
Mark Castillo told police he drowned his sons Anthony, 6, and Austin, 4, and daughter Athena, 2, in a bathtub at the Baltimore Marriott Inner Harbor at Camden Yards around 6 p.m. Saturday.
When a reporter broke the news to Elaine Sander, she wailed.
“Oh, my goodness! We dearly love those children,” she said between sobs.
The Sanders met Mark Castillo 15 years ago when he lived in Missouri and taught gymnastics to five of their six children.
Mark Castillo had launched his own computer-networking company, but later “fell off the deep end,” and started living in his car, said Elaine Sander, who talked with Amy Castillo about her husband?s behavior.
Amy Castillo thought her husband suffered from bipolar disorder, a condition that causes cycles of depression and mania, Elaine Sander said, but he refused to take medications.
When Mark Castillo was discharged from the U.S. Air Force, he was diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder, which causes an inflated sense of self-importance, court documents show.
Mark Castillo most recently worked part time as a women?s coach at Fairland Gymnastics in Laurel.
Staff Writer Freeman Klopott contributed to this article.
