This is a follow up to a DailyKos front page story from last year. As reported earlier this week:



An Ashburn man brutally beat and strangled his estranged wife, then made her death look like a suicide, investigators said. Braulio Castillo, 43, was charged with first-degree murder Tuesday and is accused of killing Michelle Castillo, a mother of five. "The evidence shows she was beaten and suffocated before she was found hanging in the downstairs bathroom," said Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman. "That hanging was not the cause of her death."

[Representative Tammy] Duckworth grew visibly upset with Braulio Castillo, the president and CEO of Strong Castle, Inc. A congressional investigation found that Castillo claimed service-disabled veteran status in 2012 over an ankle injury he suffered in 1984 at the U.S. Military Academy Preparatory School. "I'm sorry that twisting your ankle in high school has now come back to hurt you in such a painful way, if also opportune for you to gain this status for your business as you were trying to compete for contracts," said Duckworth, an Iraq war Veteran who lost both her legs in 2004 after the helicopter she was co-piloting was shot down.

The husband arrested for the murder, Braulio Castillo, appeared before a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in June 2013: fund has been established for the five young Castillo children. In lieu of flowers, Michelle Castillo's obituary asks to "please consider a charitable contribution to an organization close to Michelle's heart...International Justice Mission at www.ijm.org . Online condolences may be made at www.adamsgreen.com ."

(P.S. This is my first diary. I apologize if I've violated protocols for quoting or referencing articles and diaries.)

