Julio Pérez Silva

Julio Segundo Pérez Silva (born July 15, 1963) is a Chilean taxi driver and serial killer who raped and killed at least 14 women and girls between 1998 and 2001. Popularly known as "The Psychopath of Alto Hospicio", his crimes took place in the Tarapacá Region, specifically in the city of Iquique and in the town of Alto Hospicio, hence his nickname.

His modus operandi was always the same. Working as a taxi driver, he intercepted girls and young women with offers of free rides, then would take them somewhere remote, where he would rape and kill them with blows to the head. Later, Pérez would throw the bodies in deep abandoned mines. He was convicted of killing 14 women and was sentenced to life imprisonment on February 26, 2004.

Pérez confessed to 14 murders, but he is also a suspect for another 5 disappearances.

Background

"Segua", as he was called in his childhood, spent most of years among the streets of Puchuncaví. Those who knew him at the school where he studied agreed that he was a quiet, introverted student.

He married at the age of 22 to Monica Cistemas, a native of La Calera, and they had two daughters. Then, he spent five years with Marianela Vergara, who already had two other daughters. With her he returned to Puchuncaví and reaped the reputation of a good husband.

In the mid-1990s he emigrated to Iquique looking for better job opportunities, finding a job loading sacks of salt. At a party he met Nancy Boero, fourteen years older than him and a mother of six children. After two weeks they were living together and then settled in Alto Hospicio, in a sector known as "La Negra". Later they would move to "Autoconstruccíon", another local sector.

Soon, he left his job to start as a taxi driver illegally. It was then that he began a string of crimes, all of similar characteristics.