Castro brother in 2012: Search for Amanda Berry ‘a waste of money’

The Lookout

Pedro Castro, one of the three brothers suspected of holding three women captive for nearly a decade in a Cleveland home, told a local news crew last year that the search for Amanda Berry was "a waste of money."

Castro appeared on camera in a Fox 8 segment on the search of an empty lot for her body:

The search for Amanda Berry is over. For the past two days, excavating crews dug through an empty lot after receiving a tip from a convict who claimed he knew where the missing teen was buried.

Around 2:30 Friday afternoon, crews completed their search at a small lot on West 30th Street and Wade Avenue in Cleveland, but were not able to locate any remains.

Cleveland resident Pedro Castro said, “That’s a waste of money.”

In the July 19, 2012, segment, the 54-year-old is seen in a Hawaiian shirt and straw golf hat, sitting on the steps of a porch, pointing to the team of investigators. It's unclear whether it was the porch of the home where the women are suspected of having been held captive.

[Related: Neighbor who rescued kidnapped women speaks]

Castro and other neighbors were interviewed on camera about the then-unsuccessful search.

“I’ve lost a lot of sleep just knowing that maybe her body is over there,” Judy Rogers, another neighbor, said. “I just wish we could get some kind of closure.”

“We had our hopes up, everyone had their hopes up," Cleveland Police Commander Thomas McCartney said in the 2012 piece. "But the other side of the coin is, we still hope for the family, maybe somewhere a girl is still alive."

Berry, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus were found alive inside the home on Monday.

Castro and brothers Ariel, 52, and Onil, 50, have been arrested.