Family and friends are remembering Rachel Castillo Monday, the 25-year-old Simi Valley mom who was found dead Sunday in the Antelope Valley.
Police arrested her soon-to-be ex-husband and now he’s booked for murder.
Zarbab Ali is not only her soon-to-be ex-husband he’s also the father of her kids and a math teacher.
Ali is in jail and is booked for murder as Castillo’s family mourns her sudden death.
“Rachel was my baby,” said Robyn Castillo, Rachel’s mother.
Castillo told NBC4 about her youngest daughter. She was a 25-year-old mother of two, a UC Santa Cruz alum, and a new student at Pepperdine.
“She had just started school to earn her master’s in clinical psychology to be a marriage and family therapist,” Castillo said.
On Thursday night, she knew something awful happened when her daughter’s roommate and sister walked in their home.
“She walked in the house, saw the blood and immediately called me,” Castillo said. “I drove down there as fast as I could get there and walked in the house, and saw the blood, and we immediately left the house and waited for the police to arrive.”
That development led to a weekend long search and a devastating discovery Sunday when police found Castillo’s body in the Antelope Valley.
“It went form a missing person’s case at that moment and became a homicide investigation,” said Casey Nicholson from the Simi Valley police.
According to Ali’s Facebook page is a math teacher who posted on Facebook Saturday asking everyone who knew anything about his ex-wife’s whereabouts to call police.
Castillo’s family is stunned.
“I really had no idea. This kind of blinded sided me. They always say look at the husband first or the ex-husband first and I just couldn’t believe it and when I found out I was just heartbroken,” Castillo said. “He’s been in our lives for several years. I loved him like a son. I let him into our family, yeah, it’s just a very, very sad circumstance.”
But now with some closure Castillo’s mother doesn’t want to dwell on her daughter’s death. She’s remembering her impact.
A non-profit employee, a loving daughter, and devoted mom who worked tirelessly to help others which makes the details of her death even more heartbreaking.
“She was just a great person and she will be very, very missed,” Castillo said.
Ali is currently in jail. Bail was set at more than $500,000. He is expected to be in court Tuesday.
Source: NBC Los Angeles
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