I don't know enough details to be sure, but I have wondered about this. I'm not much for coincidence so the escape coinciding with Castro losing his job seems a little suspicious. If he was in danger of losing his house, what would he have done with the women? Kill them and probably get caught? Abandon them and let them die for the foreclosure people to find? Either way, he'd be charged with multiple murders. Or leave the women an 'out' and let the chips fall where they may. I've been thinking that because of his financial problems, he might have been put between a rock and a hard place, and he might have decided to go with the option that would get him in the least amount of trouble. Nothing noble here, just looking out for his own skin. I've read that a lot of serial killers 'mellow' with age and the compulsion to kill seems to fade, and this is 1 reason they are so hard to catch...they stop killing so investigations come to a dead end. Anyway, age 52 is a lot different than 42 and maybe his compulsion to hold women captive had dwindled? IDK, I'm not trying to make excuses, but his lack of income surely affected his ability to carry on such a horrible, double life?