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(CNN) — He was sentenced to life in prison plus 1,000 years for a heinous crime, but in the end he cut that life short.

Ariel Castro, convicted of kidnapping and raping three women, as well as murder, committed suicide in his prison cell Tuesday night, the Franklin County, Ohio, coroner’s office said.

The discovery of the three women who had been Castro’s captives in his Cleveland home for about a decade was shocking from the outset, and surprising in its end.

Castro, 52, hanged himself with a bedsheet, Coroner Dr. Jan Gorniak told CNN on Wednesday. He was being held at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient.

Prison medical staff tried to revive him but failed.

Castro was taken to The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 10:52 p.m.

The Cuyahoga County prosecutor had tough words in the wake of Castro’s suicide.

“These degenerate molesters are cowards,” Timothy J. McGinty said. “… This man couldn’t take, for even a month, a small portion of what he had dished out for more than a decade.”

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