Man Arrested for Botched in-home Castration of Man Met on Fetish Website

SEBRING, Fl. – A 74-year-old man was arrested after attempting to perform a castration on a man he met on a fetish website.

On Sunday, August 18, 2019, shortly before midnight, deputies from the Highland County Sheriff’s Station responded to a home located on Orday Road in the City of Sebring for the report of a 911 hang-up. “These are pretty routine and deputies respond to many of them per shift,” Highland County Sheriff’s Officials said. “But most of them don’t make the cut when it comes to being memorable. This one will definitely hang around in the memory for a while.”

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The deputy knocked on the door and Gary Van Ryswyk answered. When the deputy asked if everything is alright, Van Ryswyk explained that he had just castrated a man and the man was bleeding heavily. The deputy went inside the home and found a man on a bed with a bloody towel over his groin area. The room was set up like a surgery center with painkillers and medical equipment. A pink container was nearby, which held two body parts that were removed from the victim, authorities said. The victim was airlifted to a trauma center, where he remains in stable condition.

Authorities said that there was a camera set up in the room to record the procedure. It was learned that Van Ryswyk met the victim on the dark web on a website for people with a castration fetish. He told the victim that he had castrated an animal in the past and also removed on of his own testicals in 2012. He also told deputies that he attempted the procedure on a victim a week earlier, but the procedure had to be delayed. “He also said he had done a similar procedure on a man in a local motel a few years ago that turned out pretty much like this one, but couldn’t remember the other man’s name,’ Authorities said. “The man went to the hospital, but law enforcement was not notified.”

Van Ryswyk was arrested Monday and charged with practicing medicine without a license resulting in bodily injury, a second-degree felony. His bond was set at $250,000.

Anyone who has information about Van Ryswyk is asked to call Det. Roger St. Laurent at 863-402-7250 or email detectives@highlandssheriff.com. Tips can also be left anonymously on the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office app or through Heartland Crime Stoppers at 1-800-226-TIPS orwww.heartlandcrimestoppers.com.