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 CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Fernando Colon watched with keen interest as three missing women were found alive on Monday, after reportedly being held captive for years by 52-year-old Ariel Castro. 
 
 Colon, 49, had been questioned by the FBI in 2004 about the disappearance of Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry. He worked as a security guard in the neighborhood at the time, and he and his step-daughter were the last people to see DeJesus before she vanished. 
 
 "For something like this to come up, you know for everybody to think that I had something to do with the disappearance of these girls, it was just devastating to me," said Colon. 
 
 Colon also had a close connection to Ariel Castro. He was married to Castro's ex-wife and was step-father to Castro's four children. In 2004, Colon was convicted of two counts of gross sexual imposition and classified as a sex offender for molesting two of Castro's daughters. 
 
 Colon said Castro orchestrated the case, even served as a witness at Colon's trial, to divert attention away from his own crimes. 
 
 "Actually, that was something brilliant because if you come to think about it, he's got these girls prisoner in there, and put an accusation as such to me, makes him look like an angel, like he is such a proud father, such a trustworthy person," said Colon. 
 
 Colon maintains that when he talked to the FBI in 2004, he identified Ariel Castro as a more likely suspect in the abductions of the young girls. Veteran Cleveland private investigator Chris Giannini worked for Colon's defense team in the molestation case. 
 
 Giannini said Ariel Castro was known to spend time after school with his daughters and their friends, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus. He said Castro was also careful to keep people away from visiting his house. 
 
 When asked if authorities should have taken a closer look at Castro, Giannini said, “absolutely… they should have gone and checked out his house and talked to him and interviewed him and thought about something. On top of that, he was a school bus driver, he drove that route down Lorain Road from Wilbur Wright Junior High every day at 2:40 in the afternoon." 
 
 "If people would have listened, when I told them to look into this individual, these girls would not have been missing so long," said Colon. 
 
 Colon said he now plans to appeal his molestation conviction based on the evidence now emerging against Ariel Castro. 
 
 The FBI has not yet returned Fox 8's calls about the allegations made by Fernando Colon. 
 
 For extended coverage on this story, click here. ||||| In the tight-knit neighborhood near downtown where many conversations are spoken in Spanish, it seems most everyone knew Ariel Castro. 
 
 This undated combination photo released by the Cleveland Police Department shows from left, Onil Castro, Ariel Castro, and Pedro Casto.The three brothers were arrested Tuesday, May 7, 2013, after three... (Associated Press) 
 
 These undated handout photos provided by the FBI show Amanda Berry, left, and Georgina "Gina" Dejesus. Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath said he thinks Berry, DeJesus and Michelle Knight were tied... (Associated Press) 
 
 A sheriff deputy stands outside a house where three women escaped Tuesday, May 7, 2013, in Cleveland. Three women who went missing separately about a decade ago were found in the home Monday just south... (Associated Press) 
 
 Brittany Moore uses her cell phone to snap pictures of a house where three women escaped Tuesday, May 7, 2013, in Cleveland. Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, who went missing separately... (Associated Press) 
 
 Sheriff deputies stand outside a house in Cleveland Tuesday, May 7, 2013, the day after three women who vanished a decade ago were found there. Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, who went... (Associated Press) 
 
 He played bass guitar in salsa and merengue bands. He parked his school bus on the street. He gave neighborhood children rides on his motorcycle. 
 
 And when they gathered for a candlelight vigil to remember two girls who vanished years ago, Castro was there too, comforting the mother of one of the missing, a neighbor said. 
 
 Neighbors and friends were stunned by the arrest of Castro and his two brothers after a 911 call led police to his house, where authorities say three women missing for about a decade were held captive. 
 
 Castro and his brothers, ages 50 to 54, were in custody Tuesday but have not been formally charged. 
 
 Ariel Castro was friends with the father of Gina DeJesus, one of the missing women, and helped search for her after she disappeared, said Khalid Samad, a friend of the family. He also performed music at a fundraiser held in her honor, Samad said. 
 
 "When we went out to look for Gina, he helped pass out fliers," said Samad, a community activist who was at the hospital with DeJesus and her family on Monday night. "You know, he was friends with the family." 
 
 Tito DeJesus, one of Gina's uncles, said he played in a few bands with Castro over the last 20 years. He remembered visiting Castro's house after his niece disappeared, but he never noticed anything out of ordinary, saying it was very sparse in furniture and filled with musical instruments. 
 
 "That's pretty much what it looked like," DeJesus said. "I had no clue, no clue whatsoever that this happened." 
 
 Juan Perez, who lives two doors down from the house, has known Castro for decades. 
 
 "He was always happy, nice, respectful," Perez said. "He gained trust with the kids and with the parents. You can only do that if you're nice." 
 
 He said Castro had an ATV and a motorcycle and would take children on rides. Nothing seemed wrong with it then, he said, adding that he now thinks that was one way Castro tried to get close to the children. He also worked until recently as a school bus driver. 
 
 Castro's personnel file with the Cleveland public school district, obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information request, shows he was hired in 1990 as a bus driver after saying on his application that he liked working with children. 
 
 The personnel file includes details on his dismissal, approved by the school board last fall after he left his bus unattended for four hours. 
 
 Police identified the other two suspects as the 52-year-old's brothers, Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50. 
 
 Lucy Roman lives next to a house that she said is shared by Pedro Castro and his mother. She said police arrested him Monday night. 
 
 "I feel sorry for her," Roman said of the mother. "She's a very nice lady." 
 
 Several residents said they saw Ariel Castro at a candlelight vigil for the missing girls. 
 
 Antony Quiros said he was at the vigil about a year ago and saw Castro comforting Gina DeJesus' mother. 
 
 One neighbor, Francisco Cruz, said he was with Castro the day investigators dug up a yard looking for the girls. 
 
 Castro told Cruz, "They're not going to find anyone there," Cruz recalled. 
 
 Castro's Facebook page identifies him as a Cleveland resident and graduate of the city's Lincoln-West High School. His interests include Virginia Beach, the Chinese crested dog breed and Cuban-born salsa singer Rey Ruiz. 
 
 On April 11, he wrote to congratulate "my Rosie Arlene" and wish her a fast recovery from giving birth to "a wonderful baby boy. That makes me Gramps for the fifth time. Luv you guys!" 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Mike Householder, Thomas J. Sheeran, Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Cleveland and Meghan Barr and Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pa., contributed to this report.
– If you thought the twisted details of the Cleveland case ended with yesterday's news of reported sightings of naked women in Ariel Castro's backyard, well, steel yourself: New reports reveal Castro bizarrely and brazenly inserted himself into the search for one of the missing girls. The latest: The AP reports that Castro physically aided in the search for Gina DeJesus, going so far as to hand out fliers with the 14-year-old's photo and perform at a musical fundraiser held in her honor. (DeJesus' uncle played in bands with Castro over the last two decades.) As previously reported, Castro attended a 2012 vigil for DeJesus; the AP now reports that a witness saw him comforting the girl's mother. A neighbor tells the AP he was with Castro the day investigators dug up a yard looking for remains. Castro reportedly told him, "They're not going to find anyone there." Brother Pedro reportedly took things even further: He spoke to Fox 8 in 2012 after the crews excavating a lot in search of a body found nothing. The line from its report at the time: "Cleveland resident Pedro Castro said, 'That’s a waste of money.'" But Fox 8 also reports on Ariel Castro's bizarre connection with another one-time suspect: Fernando Colon, who the FBI questioned in 2004 about DeJesus' disappearance, after it was determined that he and his stepdaughter were the last ones to see her. And here's where it gets weirder: His stepdaughter, Arlene, is Castro's daughter. Colon was convicted that same year of molesting two of Castro's daughters; Castro himself testified for the prosecution, and Colon now says he plans to appeal his conviction, asserting that Castro was attempting to keep the spotlight off his own crimes. Further, he says he told the FBI to look into Castro in connection with the missing girls. Odder still, Arlene actually appeared on America's Most Wanted to discuss the case in 2004. She says that she was with DeJesus on the day she went missing, and borrowed 50 cents from her to call her mom to ask for permission to go to DeJesus' home, reports the Plain Dealer. Her mom said no and the two went in different directions; but DeJesus no longer had enough money for bus fare, so she began to walk, then vanished.