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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. ||||| CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The daughter of kidnapping suspect Ariel Castro told America's Most Wanted in 2004 that she was the last person to see Gina DeJesus alive. 
   
   Arlene Castro was a friend and classmate of Gina DeJesus at Wilbur Wright Middle School in Cleveland. She told the show -- which profiles missing-persons cases to draw attention to them -- that she was walking with DeJesus and borrowed 50 cents from the then-14-year-old to call her mother to ask if the two could hang out at Gina's. 
   
   When her mother said no, Castro said they parted ways. 
   
   According to past media reports, police dogs tracked DeJesus' scent to the payphone Castro said she used. 
   
   
   
   This is an interview with Arlene Castro on "America's Most Wanted" in 2004. 
   
   
   
   Here's a transcript from the show: 
   
   This is Tom Morris with one of our most mysterious missing child cases: 
   
   It started at this Cleveland middle school one year ago today. 14 year old Gina DeJesus left school and started walking done this busy Cleveland street. 
   
   She never made it home. 
   
   Gina vanished in broad daylight. 
   
   Nancy Ruiz: When I came home and I got on the phone from 4 o'clock i started calling friends and they said they did not see her. 
   
   Morris: I talked to the last person who did see Gina that day; her best friend and classmate, Arlene Castro. The two girls were walking home together hoping to spend the rest of the afternoon at Gina's house. 
   
   Castro: I decided to call my mom and ask her and so she gave me .50 to call my mom and so my mom said no that I can't go over her house. and so I told her I couldn't and she said well okay I'll talk to you later and she just walked. 
   
   Morris: Normally Gina would have taken the bus but after she gave Arlene .50 for the pay phone she didn't have enough money for left bus fare. So she headed home on foot. 
   
   Police canines tracked Gina's scent from the pay phone on the corner to right down the street half way up the block to this no street sign right here. This is where the trail went cold. 
   
   The disappearance of Gina DeJesus on busy Lorain Avenue has sent a familiar chill through this Cleveland community. 
   
   The cops working to bring her home are the same cops working to solve the disappearance of another teenaged girl. almost exactly a year earlier just a few blocks away. 
   
   Amanda Berry vanished on April 21, 2003 as she walked home from her job at this fast food restaurant. 
   
   And when she disappeared which direction was she walking? 
   
   She was last observed to be walking northbound on west 110th which is the street right here. 
   
   Two attractive teenaged girls, they disappear in similar circumstances along the same busy avenue. 
   
   What does it mean? 
   
   A lot of the local people around here are you know are talking about it as well and how they are getting a little bit scared for their children as well. 
   
   Whether or not these cases are connected police and the families of these two girls need your help. 
   
   Gina DeJesus was last seen wearing a tan shirt light blue jacket and black pants. 
   
   Amanda Berry has slick sandy blond hair and multiple piercings in each ear. 
   
   If you have any information about either of these missing children Please give our hotline a call right now at 1-800-crime tv.
target: – 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.