The 20-year-old companion of the Portuguese journalist and gay rights activist who was found castrated and fatally beaten is in police custody at Bellevue Hospital. Renato Seabra, who is undergoing evaluation, had checked into the Intercontinental Hotel in Times Square last week with Carlos Castro, 65, and he was seen leaving the hotel in a panic on Friday night by a friend of Castro's, telling the friend, "[Castro]’s not coming out" of the room. The concerned friend then asked the hotel to check on Castro, whose mutilated body was found in a 34th floor room.

Police sources tell the Post and Daily News that it appears Castro's scrotum was removed with a wine glass and that his head was beaten in with a laptop. Another police source told the NY Times (which did not mention castration at all, only referring to "sexual mutilation") that the hotel room was "a mess." Seabra was found after the cops named him as a person of interest and distributed his photographer: A cab driver called the police and said he thought he dropped him off at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital. According to the Post, he was treated for "apparently...self-inflicted cuts to his wrists."

The tabloids also say that Castro and Seabra, who had been on a Portuguese model talent search show (see video below), were fighting leading up to Castro's death, possibly about Seabra's motivations. The News reports, "Investigators believe the suave Seabra, a former Portuguese reality-show contestant, was playing Castro and attacked him after he accused the older man of being chintzy about buying him gifts, sources said," with one source explaining, "He told people back home, before the trip, that he wasn't gay. He got [Castro] to pay his way to New York and wanted him to boost his career, buy him things." Castro was also allegedly jealous of Seabra's flirting with women.

The Post adds that Castro was seen as a "trampoline to rise in the fashion and social worlds," and that Seabra told him he was straight. "The pair - who were in the middle of a New York vacation that included visits to Broadway shows such as 'Spider-Man:Turn off The Dark' - got into a heated argument after the revelation, the sources said. They were fighting so loudly Thursday at the East Village restaurant Paulinos that other customers complained."

The editor of Luso Amiercano, a Portuguese newspaper, Luis Pires told the News, "This kid was probably looking for fame and money. He took a chance to be very close to a man who could promote him. It was a risky relationship."