getting harder and harder to find. relatives say ariel was raised by his mother and didn t get along with his father. he dropped out of school in the 10th grade. ariel taught himself to play bass and he joined a band playing salsa around town. he was popular with band mates and their families. that s where bianca cruz met him when she was just a child. actually, i remember a lot of things. i remember always going to the concerts, and spending time with the band backstage. friends say they saw two very different ariel castros. the one who came alive on stage, and the other shy, and caring offstage. it was always him playing with my hair, him being super nice to me. you just wouldn t picture it, you wouldn t imagine he would do something like this. but he could be incredibly violent say court documents. in 2005, castro was accused of savagely beating his wife, breaking her wrist, nose, and triggering a blood clot on the brain, all the while threatening to kill her and her daughte