Carlos Castro

Carlos António Castro (5 October 1945 – 7 January 2011) was a Portuguese television personality and journalist who, for over 35 years, covered mainly gossip items about musicians, actors, and celebrities. He became well known after he came out on television and participated in Big Show SIC, presented by João Baião, in the 1990s. On 7 January 2011, Castro was found castrated and bludgeoned to death in a New York City hotel. The main suspect in his death was his boyfriend, 21-year-old male model Renato Seabra, who had been a contestant on the Portuguese television modelling-themed reality show À Procura do Sonho (SIC). In January 2011, Renato Seabra was charged with second-degree murder by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) after confessing to the killing of Castro. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in December 2012. Personal life Born in Moçâmedes, Angola during the time period that it was a Portuguese colony, Castro had, during his childhood, a great interest in works of poetry. He moved to Luanda to become a reporter when he was 15. During his life, he became a "high-profile public figure as a TV personality" in Portugal, who had worked in the media for 35 years covering gossip items about musicians, actors and celebrities, having gained further popularity because of his public coming out as a homosexual to the country and "revealing the feminine side of his personality". By 2011, the year of his death, he was dating 21-year-old male model Renato Seabra, who had been a contestant on the Portuguese television modelling-themed reality show À Procura do Sonho. Murder Both Castro and Renato Seabra had travelled to the United States in order to "see some Broadway shows and spend New Year's Eve in Times Square". A friend who had accompanied them on the trip, newspaper editor Luis Pires, stated in a later interview that, "There had been some friction between the two men toward the end of the trip, but nothing to suggest that anything horrible was about to happen". The two went to see a musical on Broadway and also a movie during their stay, but on Friday night, when they were meant to be meeting up with Pires's ex-wife and his daughter in the InterContinental hotel lobby, they did not show. Instead, Seabra appeared and allegedly said, "Carlos will never leave the hotel again."