Pedro López (serial killer)

Pedro Alonso López (born 5 October 1948 – disappeared 22 September 1999), also known as the Monster of the Andes, is a Colombian serial killer, child rapist, and fugitive who murdered a minimum of 110 people, mostly pre-teen girls, from 1978 to 1980. López claimed to have murdered over 300 people in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. He is considered by many as one of the most prolific serial killers and rapists in history.

Early life

Pedro Alonso López was born on 5 October 1948 in Tolima Department, Colombia, as the seventh of thirteen children born to Benilda López de Castañeda, a laundry worker. The family formerly lived in Saldaña, where his father Midardo Reyes, a rancher by trade, was murdered six months before López's birth in an ambush shooting while defending a neighbouring hamlet during La Violencia. Benilda stated that Midardo was a local leader of a self-protection group aligned with the Colombian Liberal Party, while later accounts describe him as a member of the Conservative Party. Benilda subsequently fled the area for her mother's home in El Espinal, where, bedridden out of grief, she remained under the care of midwives until her son's birth.

López claimed that he had a difficult childhood due to the violence of the household and the absence of a father. He characterised his mother as a prostitute who "was only good for putting children into this world, each from different men", and that he often saw his mother and stepfather have sex in front of him. Childhood neighbours stated that López's mother was strict and often forbade him from playing with them. His mother stated that her son's hatred of her manifested early on, with López often telling his mother directly that he couldn't stand her while still a young child.

According to López, he was banished from the house at age eight when his mother caught him groping the chest of his sister, subsequently spending time homeless around Tolima for a year, during which time he was raped by a man who had lured him to a house with the false promise of shelter and food. His mother claimed that she never took notice of any abnormal behaviour from López and that he ran away from home on his own accord on 5 April 1958 in an act of rebellion against her, presuming that he did not want to live with his mother any longer.

Regardless of the circumstances, López relocated to Bogotá, aged ten, where he joined a gang of street children for protection, through whom he began using basuco and cannabis to stave off the ill effects of malnutrition. While begging around the city, López was occasionally sexually assaulted. At age twelve, he was adopted by an American immigrant family, but ran away the same year after stealing money from them. López claimed that he fled because a male teacher at the orphan's school had sexually harassed him, while later biographers suggest that no such incident occurred and that López left because he felt unable to trust his adoptive family after previous negative experiences with strangers.

First murders

In 1969, López was sentenced to seven years in prison for auto theft. Two days after arriving at La Modelo prison, he was raped by four other inmates. López did not report the assault and instead killed three of the rapists with a makeshift knife over the course of two weeks. While the killings were described as self-defence and considered such by prison staff, his sentence was nevertheless extended by two years.

Serial killings

After his release in 1978, López began wandering throughout the northwestern area of South America. According to López, he usually stayed in Bogotá and would traverse the departments of Tolima, Huila, Cauca, and Nariño to enter Ecuador, through which he would pass into Peru. To acquaintances, he claimed to do migrant work in the Llanos on the border to Venezuela.

He later claimed that between 1978 and 1980, he had killed over 100 girls, mainly street children and those from indigenous tribes. While these claims are unverifiable, it is known that López was briefly captured by indigenous Peruvians in the Ayacucho region after attempting to abduct a 9-year-old girl from her village. The Ayacuchoans beat López for several hours before stripping him of his clothes and burying him up to the neck in sand. It's most often reported that their intention was to kill López through live burial, although he would later claim that the tribespeople had poured syrup on him in order for ants to eat him alive. However, an American missionary convinced them to release López and turn him over to the police. The police did not detain López, and he was instead expelled from the country.

After his deportation from Peru, López resumed his killing spree in Ecuador, and although authorities began to notice an increase of missing persons, more specifically young girls, throughout areas where he travelled, they concluded the disappearances were most likely cases of human trafficking.

On 5 May 1979, López met Hortensia Garcés Lozada in Ambato as she was selling newspapers. He gave the girl 100 sucres to follow him and raped and killed her under a nearby bridge. On 14 December 1979, while in his hometown of El Espinal, López raped and murdered Flor Alba Sánchez. Also in El Espinal, there were two other murders of young girls on 21 December 1979 and 3 January 1980. Sánchez was found 20 days later buried on municipal property alongside another girl, Blanca Bautista, both bearing signs of torture. Sánchez is the only Colombian victim for whom López was tried. There were reportedly other criminal cases involving López, but the files were lost in a fire at the El Espinal courthouse. On 10 January 1980, he abducted Ivanova Jácome at a parking lot in Totoras, a suburb of Ambato, as she was heading for school. Jácome was raped and murdered in a nearby shack, with her body being discovered at Ambato's Plaza Urbina on 15 February.

López was frequently spotted at Plaza Urbina, claiming to be a fellow street merchant, but he was instead usually seen frequenting market stalls staffed by young girls, offering them a 100 sucre coin if they accompanied him, typically claiming to need a city guide or directions to a bus stop. He was often seen listening to the hawking of newspaper vendors, who read aloud the newest developments on the mounting cases of child disappearances, bearing a "crooked grin". Even when he didn't talk with children at the market, López was easily identified in the crowds due to his tall stature, prominent nose, lack of upper front teeth and a large scar on his right cheek.

In early 1980, two of the young vendors, florist Luz Marina Lozada and beverage vendor Marina Cuenca, were left alone after declining López's money, but they informed merchants of López's behaviour, believing he might be a child trafficker. On 9 March 1980, López tried to abduct 9-year-old Carmen Lozada, but her cries alerted bystanders, with López fleeing without the girl. Carmen identified López as the man who had previously offered her sister Luz Marina money. One of the first people who reached the scene, the plaza's merchant board president, Carolina Román Poveda, ran around the market, trying to rally other merchants to search for the attempted kidnapper. She was ignored because of the heavy business, with some saying she was being paranoid due to the news. She followed López out of the market and caught him talking to another 9-year-old girl, claiming to be a lost visitor and offering 100 sucres to be guided around, which the girl accepted. Román intervened as López was leading the girl to a secluded path, shouting that López was going to sell the child and threw herself on López. Bystanders were first inclined to believe López, who claimed ignorance and called Román crazy, and told her to let him go free. However, due to her insistence and the fact that she said that López already tried to kidnap two other girls, the crowd was convinced to bring López back to the plaza, shoving and punching him along the way. Román's fellow merchants were critical of her accusation and also wanted to release López, but she demanded him to be given to the authorities. López was brought to a police station, but he was released shortly after.

In April, the areas surrounding Ambato were hit by flash flooding, unearthing the remains of four more young girls who had been previously reported missing. As the bodies bore signs of strangulation, the police reopened their investigations, contributing towards López's ultimate arrest later that same year.

Arrest and confession

Three days after the flood, López approached 12-year-old Marina (or María) Román Poveda, who was working at the Plaza Rosa market on at Plaza Urbina. López flirted with the girl and offered her 100 sucres to show him around the city, but she refused to go with the stranger. She told her mother Carolina of López's advances, and recognising López, she screamed at him and grabbed him by the arm. She told bystanders that López had tried to abduct her daughter and was potentially responsible for the murders of the recently discovered girls. Local merchants were able to overpower López and hold him until the police arrived.