Luis Alfredo Garavito, the greatest rapist and child murderer in Colombia’s history, died this Thursday in Valledupar at the age of 66. The information was confirmed by the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute (INPEC), which indicated in a statement that the death occurred in the new clinic of Santo Tomás. The Genoa Monster, as he was known, was responsible for the sexual abuse and murder of at least 189 minors. Most of the cases to which he pleaded guilty occurred in the 1990s. A few months ago it was announced that Garavito was suffering from cancer.
Garavito was sentenced in 2000 to 40 years in prison, the maximum sentence allowed by law in Colombia at the time, for the nearly 200 deaths he caused in less than a decade among children ages 8 to 16. . “The Beast,” another alias of his, was captured in April 1999 while trying to attack a girl. He was imprisoned for the crimes of sexual battery, sexual assault, murder, arson and simple kidnapping.
In November 2021, the court denied him the probation he requested. argues with his good behavior while serving his sentence. The criminal, from the municipality of Génova (Quindío), was serving a prison sentence in the maximum security prison La Tramacúa, in the capital of the Caribbean department of Cesar.
The confessed serial killer committed his crimes in at least 11 of Colombia’s 32 departments. He also performed occasionally in Ecuador. The way he approached his victims usually involved posing as a homeless person, a monk or a person with a disability in order to appeal to foundations that worked with children, often from humble backgrounds.
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