Onil and Pedro Castro told CNN that they want Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight to know how sorry they are for their ordeal.

“I’m just grateful they are home and out of that horrible house, and I’d just tell them I’m sorry for what Ariel done,” said Pedro Castro, 50.

The brothers were initially taken into custody but released after investigators said there was no evidence against them. Brother Ariel Castro has been charged with rape and kidnapping and is being held on $8 million bond.

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Pedro Castro says he was shocked to learn DeJesus was a victim, because they’d known her father for a long time, and Ariel even went to a vigil for her when she went missing.

“You go around like it was nothing? You even went to the vigil. You had posters. You give his momma a hug and you got his daughter captive?” Pedro recalled saying to Ariel.

Pedro Castro said he had been in the house but never noticed anything amiss. He said part of house was blocked off by curtains, and a radio or TV was always on.

Onil Castro, 50, said he wanted Ariel to “suffer in that jail to the last extent.”

“I don’t care if they even feed him,” Onil Castro said. “The monster’s a goner.”

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The brothers said they are worried that people will continue to associate them then with their brother’s alleged crimes, even though police say they didn’t know anything about it. They have received death threats since being released from custody.

“This has torn my heart apart,” Onil Castro said. “This has killed me. I’m a walking corpse right now.”

“I hope the world listens to us,” Pedro Castro said. “You already got your monster, please give us our freedom.”

They spoke at a candlelight vigil held on the front lawn of the Salt Lake City home of Ricardo Portillo, 46. Wearing white shirts and holding signs that read, “In loving memory of Ricky,” family and friends stood around a table that had a picture of Portillo raising his arms in victory, with flowers and candles surrounding it.

Police have accused a 17-year-old player in a recreational soccer league of punching Portillo after he called a foul on him and issued him a yellow card.

Portillo died Saturday night after a week in a coma.

“He was a father, he was a friend, he was a grandfather, he left a whole family behind,” said Johana Portillo, the oldest of his three daughters. “They should think before they do something stupid.”

The suspect has been booked into juvenile detention on suspicion of aggravated assault. Authorities will consider additional charges since Portillo has passed away. An autopsy is planned. No cause of death was released.

Asked if she can forgive the teenager, Johana Portillo said she hopes to someday, but isn’t ready yet.

She said Sunday she doesn’t care what the punishment becomes since it won’t bring back her father. She only hopes he can’t get out and do the same thing to somebody else, she said.

“I feel sorry for him. I feel for his family,” she said. “But if he was old enough to do what he did, then he’s responsible to pay for it.”

The unaffiliated soccer league, Liga Continental de Futbol, updated its Facebook posting Sunday with a tribute to Portillo including a number of photographs of him refereeing and playing soccer. It also set up a bank account to accept donations for his family.

Mario Vazquez, the league president who also was a friend and worked with Portillo, said Sunday everyone in the league had the greatest respect for him. He had a great sense of humor and loved refereeing, he said. The league plans to honor him with a tribute at next Saturday’s games.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the Portillo family during this difficult time. Ricardo will always be with us,” he said.

Johana Portillo said she hopes her father’s death leads to more security at sporting events and better self-control from players. She said her father had been attacked by players twice before in his eight years refereeing soccer matches – even having his ribs and legs broken.

Pedro Lopez, his brother-in-law and a fellow soccer referee, called on soccer players worldwide to respect referees and remember it’s a sport meant to relieve stress – not cause pain.

“Remember that we are human beings, and we make mistakes,” Lopez said in Spanish. “Don’t take justice into your own hands.”

The former professional soccer player said he plans to continue working as a referee. He said leaving it behind would be abandoning his passion. He said he’ll do so remembering Ricardo Portillo.

Ricardo Portillo’s daughters had begged him to stop refereeing in a soccer league because of the growing risk of violence from angry players. But, like Lopez, Portillo told his daughters he couldn’t quit.

“It was his passion,” she said. “We could not tell him no.”

Now his three daughters are faced with planning his funeral after he succumbed to injuries late Saturday that had put him in a coma for a week since teenager goalie punched him in the head.

James Yapias, a longtime friend of Ricardo Portillo and youth soccer coach, said coaches and parents need to do a better job teaching children about sportsmanship and being non-violent. He also called for more police presence at games. Portillo’s death is a reminder that life can change in a second.

“We all love this sport,” Yapias said. “But we all need to respect the rules.”

Accounts from a police report, Portillo’s daughter and others offer further detail what occurred.

The teenager was playing goalie during a game at Eisenhower Junior High School in Taylorsville when Portillo issued him a yellow card for pushing an opposing forward trying to score. In soccer, a yellow card is given as a warning to a player for an egregious violation of the rules. Two yellow cards lead to a red card and expulsion from the game.

The teenager, quite a bit heavier than Portillo, began arguing with the referee, then punched him in the face. Portillo seemed fine at first, then asked to be held because he felt dizzy. He sat down and started vomiting blood, triggering his friend to call an ambulance.

When police arrived around noon, the teenager was gone and Portillo was laying on the ground in the fetal position. Through translators, Portillo told emergency workers that his face and back hurt and he felt nauseous. He had no visible injuries and remained conscious. He was considered to be in fair condition when they took him to the Intermountain Medical Center.

But when Portillo arrived to the hospital, he slipped into a coma with swelling in his brain. Johana Portillo called detectives to let them know his condition had worsened.

That’s when detectives intensified their search for the goalie. By Saturday evening, the teenager’s father agreed to bring him down to speak with police.

Johana Portillo said she last spoke to him that night before he fell into a coma. She grabbed his hand and told him he was going to be all right. He held her hand tightly and said, “no.” Within seconds, doctors ushered her out of the room and he lost consciousness.

She said Sunday night, with tears streaming down her face, that her father will always be in her heart.

“It’s going to be very difficult,” she said. “But I know he’s going to help us from heaven.”

Many of the Santa Muerte statues started popping up in this city around 2009, when drug-related violence began to ravage this border town. More than 10,000 people have been killed in Ciudad Juárez alone since 2007, when Mexico’s outgoing President Felipe Calderón first declared war on the country’s drug cartels. The murder rate earned Ciudad Juárez the title of murder capital of the world for a while.

Santa Muerte statue looks over prayer room during vigil. (Photo by Alex Peña)

Followers recognize La Santa Muerte as an iconic figure of prayer for those looking for protection. The Catholic Church in Mexico denounces the worship as a cult.

The origins of Santa Muerte worship is debated, but many believe it came from the ancient Aztecs and their worship of death. The modern image of Santa Muerte is believed to have surfaced in the mid-20^th century in poor areas of Central Mexico. Now, Santa Muerte can be found throughout all of Mexico, the border, and even some parts of the United States.

Yolanda Salazar inside her prayer room. (Photo Alex Peña)

“You can ask the Santa Muerte for many things,” said Yolanda Salazar, self-proclaimed priestess of the Santa Muerte cult in Ciudad Juarez.

“Here in Juárez, people pray for protection, but also health, and for love. What’s important is it comes from the heart. If your intentions are true, it will help you,” she said.

Salazar lives in and runs this particular sanctuary, which is located in the heart of the city, just a drive of a few minutes from the border with the United States. It’s believed there are many makeshift sanctuaries and Santa Muerte altars in Juárez, but Salazar’s is public, and the most popular.

She said she had just a handful of followers in 2010, when she first opened her Santa Muerte sanctuary, which consists of perhaps 100 or more small and large statues of Santa Muerte. This year, her weekly prayer vigils to the Santa Muerte draw in a crowd similar to the size of a Catholic Mass.

Sign telling Santa Muerte believers where to place their money for good luck economically. (Photo by Alex Peña)

On this particular night, her vigil resembled more of a Mexican fiesta than an underground worship of death. Mariachi music flooded out into the street, and the 25 or more worshipers ate and danced while the others went inside to make their offerings.

“This has always existed here, but people were timid about professing their belief. They were afraid to be judged by society,” Salazar said. “But now, a lot of us don’t really care what society thinks.”

According to Salazar, the violence in the city has drawn many followers to her sanctuary, searching for protection that neither the church nor their government can give them.

“Now that it’s come to light, I would say that 40 percent of the people in Juarez believe in Santa Muerte,” she said. “Still, not all are professing it.”

In Mexico, a traditionally Catholic society, the worship of a deity that isn’t recognized by the Catholic Church usually means an association to criminal organizations. Members of drug cartels, commonly referred to as narcos, have long been followers of the Santa Muerte.

Little girl looks into glass window lined with life size statues of La Santa Muerte. (Photo by Alex Peña)

Narcos make offerings to the icon in return for protection in their illicit activities. In some rare and very brutal cases, the offerings have consisted of human body parts.

Eight people were arrested in northern Sonora state in March of this year after they were accused of killing two ten-year-old boys and a woman in ritual Santa Muerte sacrifices.

Salazar said that this type of worship is not the “true cult” of La Santa Muerte.

“This is not exclusively for the narcos,” she said. “Even police go to her for protection. Even they realize how powerful she is.”

The Catholic Church in Mexico has consistently denounced the worship of such a deity, but it cannot deny the rise in adoration for such figures in Mexico’s violent border towns.

Rev. Felipe de Jesús Juárez, head priest at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in CD. Juárez, says the belief of Santa Muerte arrived in Ciudad Juárez around 2009 and 2010, at the height of the violence. Though the murder rate has dropped dramatically, the culture of death has not.

Mix of flowers, ginger, and other ingredients being offered as a sacrifice to La Santa Muerte inside of Sanctuary. (Photo by Alex Peña)

“We are all exposed to this new cultural situation. Here in the border we see a lot of different types of beliefs,” Juárez said. “This started with people who don’t have a good moral base. They are grabbing death, putting a cloak on it, and making it a saint. But it’s not a saint; it’s death.”

In the case of Santa Muerte, once followers pray to her, they believe she will grant them favors, but they must repay her.

“If they don’t, they believe they will be punished,” Juárez said. “So many live in fear.”

He said he opposes such a practice because he believes the grace of God is free.

Nonetheless, Juárez recognizes the power of Yolanda Salazar and her followers of this growing cult in his city.

“This woman, a self-proclaimed high priest who started out of her house, now has a full building with a sanctuary,” he said.  “The devotion in Mexico is very strong.”

Candles lit for prayer vigil inside Santa Muerte Sanctuary. (Photo by Alex Peña)

And nowhere is the diversity of Santa Muerte worship more prevalent than inside the gates of a Salazar prayer vigil. Little boys and girls hold flowers and candles as offerings; their parents write the prayers on small sheets of paper.

All while a group of teenagers stand and chat near the door, waiting their turn to enter and place their own prayers.

“I feel a lot of security,” said Alexia Varaza, 20, a follower of Santa Muerte. “I’ve had a lot of luck with La Santa Muerte. She gives me strength.”

Varaza’s mother and father are believers in the cult, but the rest of her family is skeptical.

“That stuff’s for sicarios — for killers!” said Varaza, explaining what her family thinks of the cult vigils she attends every weekend.

“That’s not what it is for me. I just tell them I’m a student, and I need the good luck!”

Whether for sicarios or students, Salazar’s doors are open 24/7 to people searching for protection in a city saturated with violence.

“The real cult, our cult, is to go out and profess the goodness of La Santa Muerte,” Salazar said. “That’s why I opened the sanctuary.”

Salazar has plans to open another Santa Muerte sanctuary next year, with the expectation that her following will continue to grow as massively as during the past year.  She certainly will be praying to her beloved Santa Muerte for that to happen.

Alex Peña is a freelance foreign correspondent currently covering Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Previously, Pena was based in Nairobi, Kenya covering East Africa for Voice of America TV, and has also filed stories from the Middle East, including the border of Jordan and Syria. He graduated from the journalism program at Florida Gulf Coast University in December 2011.

Ana had spent much of her short life in Winnipeg, with her parents and brother, before moving to Connecticut this past summer.

Metro Winnepeg reports Ana’s mother, Elba, worked at the University of Winnepeg’s Aurora Family Therapy Center, near the location of the vigil site, and Ana’s father, Jimmy Greene, was a jazz instructor at the University of Manitoba from 2009 until this year.

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A second vigil, in memory of Ana and the other victims, is expected to be held tonight at 7pm at the University of Manitoba.

Ana attended Linden Christian School while she lived in Winnipeg, according to Metro Winnepeg, and at last night’s vigil she was called “a daughter of Winnepeg.”

“As a community, let’s uphold James, Elba and their son Isaiah, as well as the many individuals impacted by this tragedy, in prayer,” said Linden Christian principal Rob Charach. “The Marquez-Greene family thank everyone for their prayer support and know Ana is with Jesus.”

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“I won’t be able to hug her or send her a text to tell her I love her,” says Pedro Rivera. “When I woke up, I tried to sing that song in my shower and I couldn’t, I couldn’t stop crying because I still couldn’t believe it that my sister – I won’t be able to see again.”

Pedro Rivera invited us into a deep part of the family’s feelings tonight – their faith.

“It’s a question many people are asking, why? And I wish I could answer that,” he says.

Across the border, recovery continues, as authorities gather pieces of the Learjet that carried “La Diva de la Banda” and six others. The last time Pedro saw his sister was Thursday.

“I felt a tender, a different type of hug, a different type of kiss, the way she said, brother I love you, it just felt so different,” says Rivera.

As fans continue to grieve with the family, vigils allow them to open about the Long Beach girl who was an inspiration.

“She was such a kind person to everyone,” says Sharon Valencia, a fan of the singer.

“It really touches our hearts that so many people – we don’t know them but they know Jenni, they know our family and they show us so much love and compassion and it touches our hearts very deeply,” says Rivera

« PreviousNext »

One-on-one with Pedro, brother to #JenniRivera about the loss of his sister @nbcla @nbclatino #latism

#JenniRivera’s family passes white roses to remember La Diva de la Banda @nbcla @nbclatino #LATISM

Heartbroken fans remember #JenniRivera in #LongBeach @nbcla @nbclatino #LATISM

Preparing the white rises and candle to remember #JenniRivera tonight in #LongBeach @nbcla @nbclatino #LATISM

@johnNBCLA: Candles and Christmas decorations adorn the family home of #JenniRivera @nbcla @NBCLatino #latism

Crowd of about 100 still hold vigil outside home of #JenniRivera’s family @NBCLatino @nbcla #LATISM

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Authorities, meanwhile, began looking into the history of the plane’s owner, Starwood Management of Las Vegas, which had another one of its planes seized by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in McAllen, Texas in September.

A rescue helicopter with members of the Mexican General Civil Aeronautic Directorate (DGAC) stand on top of the hill right next to the canyon where U.S.-born singer Jenni Rivera’s jet crashed near the town of Iturbude, Mexico, Dec. 10, 2012. (AP Photo/Hans Maximo Musielik)

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team to help investigate the crash of the Learjet 25, which disintegrated on impact Sunday with seven people aboard in rugged terrain in Nuevo Leon state in northern Mexico.

Alejandro Argudin, of Mexico’s civil aviation agency, said it would take at least 10 days to have a preliminary report on what happened to the plane.

“We’re in the process of picking up the fragments and we have to find all the parts,” Argudin told reporters on Monday. “Depending on weather conditions it would take us at least 10 days to have a first report and many more days to have a report by experts.”

Fans of Rivera, who sold 15 million records and was loved on both sides of the border for her down-to-earth style and songs about heartbreak and overcoming pain, put up shrines to her with burning candles, flowers and photographs in cities from Hermosillo, Mexico to Los Angeles.

Some Spanish-language radio stations played her songs nonstop.

“She really inspired us as female Hispanics to move forward in life,” said fan Rosie Sifuentes at a vigil in Lynwood, California.

At Rivera’s father’s house in Lakewood, California fans and neighbors walked up the driveway and hugged Pedro Rivera Jr., Jenni’s brother.

View more videos at: http://nbclosangeles.com.

A distraught Pedro recalled his last conversation with his sister at church when they were taking a collection to buy Christmas toys for needy children.

He said his sister gave him $5,000 to give to the children. “She said, `I just want to see them smile. I just want to see them happy.’ All she wanted was to see the happiness in people. And then she gave me a big hug. She said, `I love you, brother.’”

He said he was later watching television and wanted to send a text message to his sister to say that he loved her. “But I didn’t because I thought maybe she’s busy, maybe she’s just barely getting out of singing or something … You just regret those moments.”

Another brother, Juan Rivera, still held on to hope that his sister would be found alive.

“In our eyes, we still have faith that my sister will be OK. We have no confirmation of her body being recovered, dead or alive,” he told reporters.

The U.S.-born woman known as the “Diva de la Banda” died as her career peaked. She was perhaps the most successful female singer in grupero, a male-dominated Mexico regional style, and had branched out into acting and reality television.

A 43-year-old mother of five children and grandmother of two, she was known for frank talk about her struggles to give a good life to her children despite a series of setbacks.

She was recently divorced from her third husband, former Major League Baseball player Esteban Loaiza.

Rivera recently won two Billboard Mexican Music Awards: Female Artist of the Year and Banda Album of the Year for “Joyas Prestadas: Banda.” She was nominated for Latin Grammys in 2002, 2008 and 2011.

Besides being a singer, she appeared in the indie film Filly Brown, which was shown at the Sundance Film Festival, and was filming the third season of “I love Jenni,” which followed her as she shared special moments with her children and as she toured through Mexico and the United States.

She also had the reality shows: “Jenni Rivera Presents: Chiquis and Raq-C” and her daughter’s “Chiquis `n Control.”

Two of her five brothers, Lupillo and Juan Rivera, are also well-known singers of grupero music. Her parents were Mexicans who had migrated to the United States

The Learjet 25, number N345MC, with Rivera aboard was en route from Monterrey to Toluco, outside Mexico City, when it was reported missing about 10 minutes after takeoff.

The cause of the accident has not been determined

The plane was registered to Starwood Management of Las Vegas, according to FAA records, and was built in 1969.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the twin-turbojet was substantially damaged in a 2005 landing mishap at Amarillo International Airport in Texas. It hit a runway distance marker after losing directional control. There were four aboard but no injuries. It was registered to a company in Houston, Texas, as the time.

The company is also subject of a federal lawsuit in Nevada.

QBE Insurance Corp. alleges that a Starwood aircraft was ordered seized by the DEA when it landed in McAllen, Texas, from Mexico on Sept. 12. The New York-based insurer sued in October to rescind coverage for the Hawker 700 jet.

Starwood, in a court filing, acknowledged that the DEA was involved in the seizure of the aircraft.

QBE, based in New York, said the DEA also seized a Starwood-owned Gulfstream G-1159A – insured by another company – when it landed in Tucson from Mexico in February. Starwood said in its court filing that it didn’t have enough information to address the allegation.

Nevada secretary of state records list only one Starwood officer – Norma Gonzalez – but QBE alleges that the company is owned and managed by Ed Nunez, who, according to the lawsuit, is also known as Christian Esquino and had a long criminal history.

Starwood rejected the insurer’s description of Nunez’s role at the company.

According to QBE’s lawsuit, Esquino pleaded guilty in federal court in Orlando, Florida, in 1993 to conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine.

QBE said Esquino also served two years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud involving an aircraft in Southern California in 2004. QBE said Esquino’s attorney stated in court back then that his client had been under investigation by the DEA for more than a year.

Starwood said in its court filing that it didn’t have enough information to address either the Florida or Southern California case against Esquino.

George Crow, an attorney for Starwood, did not immediately respond to phone and email messages left after business hours Monday.

There have been several high-profile crashes involving Learjets, known as swift, longer-distance passenger aircraft popular with corporate executives, entertainers and government officials.

A Learjet carrying pro-golfer Payne Stewart and five others crashed in northeastern South Dakota in 1999. Investigators said the plane lost cabin pressure and all on board died after losing consciousness for lack of oxygen.

Former Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker was severely injured in a 2008 Learjet crash in South Carolina that killed four people.

That same year, a Learjet slammed into rush-hour traffic in a Mexico City neighborhood, killing Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino and eight others on the plane, plus five people on the ground.

—

Raquel Dillon in Los Angeles and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.