Luis Garavito

Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos was born in Génova, Quindío, on 25 January 1957 to Manuel Antonio Garavito and Rosa Delia Cubillos. The eldest son and second child of seven siblings,[9] he had three brothers and three sisters. Garavito alleged his father to be adulterous, drunken, macho, very strict, and often physically and emotionally abusive to him throughout his childhood, and described his mother as a violent woman[10] who gave him "little affection and care" as a child. Due to the ongoing armed conflict in Colombia at the time, the family relocated to Ceilán, Valle del Cauca in the north of the department before Garavito entered primary school.[9]

As a result of his father's frequent infidelities and drinking habits, the couple frequently fought verbally and physically in the presence of their children, whom they largely neglected.[9][11] Later remarking that he "had the misfortune of being in a family that spent its time arguing, fighting, and throwing words of great calibre",[9] he alleged being strapped to a tree at age six or seven and beaten with a machete case by his father after attempting to defend his mother, whom Manuel was known to beat during pregnancy.[9] Because of the spontaneous nature of the physical abuse, the children often hid upon their father's return home from work.[12] Sleeping in the same bed as his father, Garavito speculated he may have been fondled on one occasion.[9]

Garavito was belittled as an imbecile, a bastard, and other pejoratives by his father, whom he claimed "never had a good word" for him, solely bringing his son with him for work-related purposes and to run errands. Attending Simón Bolívar School in Ceilán, he was initially collaborative and cheerful, but was frequently ridiculed and bullied by other children. Garavito's teachers noted his desire to learn conflicted with his extreme frustration with an inability to understand subjects. Nicknamed "Garabato" (meaning "Squiggle") for his glasses and timid nature by peers, Garavito was insecure of his glasses and eventually preferred playing alone at recess. He was quick to enter tantrums, and reacted violently toward students who chased and mocked him by screaming "Squiggle".[9] Despite the violent conflicts, his teachers made no attempt to intervene. This distressed Garavito,[11] who accumulated resentment toward his belittling father and envy toward peers from stable homes.[9]

Around 1968, he left school in fifth grade due to poor memory and his father's insistence on making money to sustain the family. This dismayed Garavito, who was also forbidden to have friends or a girlfriend by his father. In 1969, Garavito was allegedly subject to extensive physical and sexual abuse by a local drug-store owner and devoutly religious neighbor[12] on his father's visits to the store for Garavito's vaccinations. Garavito claimed the neighbor (who was a close friend of his father) had bound him to a bed before sexually assaulting him and proceeding to burn him with a candle, cut him with a razor blade, and bite his genitals and buttocks on several occasions during these incidents of molestation.[13] The severity of this abuse was later questioned by several experts and interviewers.[12] Following the first incident of this abuse, Garavito allegedly killed and dissected two birds in frustration, which prompted him to feel remorse and shame shortly thereafter.[9]

After stoning the birds, Garavito began suggesting to his younger brothers and sisters that they sleep with him naked in their shared bed. He then sexually fondled his younger siblings as they slept on multiple occasions after removing their clothes.[9][11][n 1] Garavito also alleged he molested a 6-year-old boy in 1969.[10] According to those who knew him, Garavito became very withdrawn, extremely aggressive, and "ready to take revenge on the world."[14]

The neighbor's sexual abuse ended after the family's relocation to Trujillo in 1971, and rendered Garavito sexually impotent with female partners and permanently unable to ejaculate properly.[15][14] Believing that his father and family would not feel concern or believe him, Garavito chose to hide his sexual abuse experiences.[9] Soon after arriving in Trujillo, he was shown heterosexual pornography by another neighboring family friend. Because Garavito responded with disgust, the neighbor beat him into the undergrowth before raping him.[16][n 2] In 1972, Garavito aggressively and repeatedly attempted to initiate sexual relations with women, but these advances were rejected.[17]

Through various alcoholic family members, Garavito accessed alcoholic drink and developed an addiction.[18][10][n 3] A rebellious young man, Garavito was briefly evicted in 1972 after being caught by his mother attempting to rape a 5-year-old boy and again in 1973 following an attempted sexual assault on a 6-year-old boy at a train station in Bogotá. The boy screamed, which alerted authorities to arrest Garavito, who stated he only wanted to "lightly" molest the child in response to an attempted rape charge. Following the latter incident, Garavito was reprimanded by his father Manuel for not choosing a woman to sexually assault instead of a young boy. With Garavito's inclination for young boys causing frequent arguments between him and his father Manuel, he was evicted for the final time for "homosexual behavior".[11][9][n 4]

As a young man, Garavito started working as an assistant at a compensation fund and later in a chain of stores, and studying in marketing. Despite his new-found career, he began to have problems with his co-workers, clients and bosses which gradually escalated to physical altercations.[20] After losing his job, Garavito worked as a street vendor who sold religious icons and a migrant worker, developing primarily platonic relationships with various women over the course of his adulthood.[21] In 1973, he began work on a coffee plantation as a youth in Trujillo, first falling in love with a schoolteacher and single mother named Luz Mary Ocampo Orozco whom he later attended weekly mass services with.[22][9]

Many of the women he befriended had children, whom Garavito reportedly nurtured as if they were his own children, in addition to being a loving boyfriend when sober.[22] His companions likewise described him to be amicable despite his notably violent temper and occasional drunken states in which he vowed to murder his father. While drunk, Garavito was physically abusive toward his girlfriends, as well as increasingly jealous, controlling, and belittling.[9] As a result, he was often the subject of local scandals and town gossip, facing repeated evictions by his female partners in later life.[23]

A prolific pederast and torturer of youths,[26] Garavito began to feel apathy with his crimes. On 4 October 1992, he had spotted 13-year-old boy Juan Carlos walking near a bazaar where he had been drinking. According to Garavito, the reflection of the moonlight had invoked a "strange force" within him, reminding him of his childhood which compelled him to murder upon entering a state of rage.[12] He began to follow the child, buying synthetic rope and a butcher's knife on the way, before offering him work for 500 or 1,000 pesos. The boy left the crowded area in Jamundí with Garavito to go to a remote area near the local railroad, where he was later found with his front teeth knocked out, severe cuts to his rectum and throat and his genitals severed. Waking upon sunrise, Garavito began sobbing as he noted the blood stains of Carlos on his clothes.[32][n 5]

On 10 October 1992, Garavito would make the trip to Trujillo to see his sister Esther. Attempting to control his urges by drinking brandy, he began breaking containers in a state of rage after seeing a child pass by. Garavito then murdered 12-year-old Jhon Alexander Peñaranda on the way to his sister's residence while in Tuluá. He then began to compulsively murder youth, predominately male and poverty-stricken, and collected their amputated toes. In 1993, Garavito also began cutting into his victims' bellies, luring eight youths aged 9 to 11 from a local school to a nearby wooded lot in the La Victoria district. For fear of being traced by bloodhounds, Garavito then discarded their amputated toes before murdering Henry Giovanni García, Marco Aurelio Castaño, Juan David Cárdenas, Jaime Orlando Popayán, and three more unidentified children in southeast Bogotá. He then murdered two additional children in the Meissen neighborhood, before departing for Tuluá, to Pereira, to Quimbaya, then to Tuluá again where he murdered more children, ending his spree in 1993 with the death of 13-year-old Mauricio Monedero Mejía.[9]

In early 1994, Garavito would lure a Bogotá youth—estimated to be about 12 years old—who had fallen asleep on the bus. After providing him with brandy, Garavito proceeded to strip and bind the boy at a secluded ravine spot in a dazed state before noticing a foul odour; he then let the child go after discovering the source of the odour was a mass grave. Immediately, the child seized the knife, severing Garavito's tendons in his left hand with the weapon before being overpowered and murdered by him. On 4 February 1994, Garavito would lure 13-year-old Jaime Andrés González from the Plaza de Bolívar to a sugarcane field shortly after being expelled from a bar that night for complaining of their food; noting a crucifix in the area, he entered a brief psychosis in which he buried his knife, prayed for forgiveness, retrieved the knife and returned to his hotel room to chant scripture from the fifty-seventh psalm for several hours until dawn. On 12 January 1997, Garavito murdered an 8-year-old boy, before murdering an additional two minors during this period.[9]

The victims were almost exclusively boys, though Garavito has also been noted by local media to have molested and murdered female victims.[33][13] In addition to his 172 initial charges of murder, Garavito also confessed to 28 more murders in 2003, of which 5 were adult. All adult victims were thought to have been killed to rid Garavito of potential witnesses rather than to fulfill personal fantasy.[34]

Garavito was also said to have operated in Ecuador during the summer of 1998, when he murdered 14-year-old Abel Gustavo Loor Vélez, a local shoe-shiner and paper boy on 20 July 1998 and 12-year-old Jimmy Leonardo Palacios Anchundia in Chone, Ecuador. Both boys were from poor families, and disappeared at noon. Garavito was subsequently spotted at an all-girls' school in Santo Domingo, Ecuador before fleeing Ecuadorian authorities who had been setting up an operation to catch him.[32] There they found two corpses, one of whom was a young girl who had been raped, tortured, murdered, and discarded in similar fashion to that of Garavito's modus operandi.[35] Marked for his thick Colombian accent, locals spotted a foreign drifter begging for money in July and August of that year. In addition, Garavito also stated that he had allegedly committed murder in Venezuela.[32]

According to Garavito, he primarily targeted children of humble background who were working class, homeless, peasants or orphaned. Claiming to feel a force within that compelled him to kill, Garavito would look for children and lure them away by bribing them with small gifts such as money, candy or odd jobs.[38] He typically abused thin children with soft features, fair eyes, hair, and/or complexion that he deemed "innocent"-looking.[39] Born and raised in the largely Spanish-descended Paisa region of Colombia, Garavito knew where to find victims that fit his criteria.[24]

Terrified of the dark, he would approach them in broad daylight in public places ranging from the countryside to crowded city streets. Garavito also drank brandy near school zones on evenings to wait for unknowing children.[32] He offered easy work for money and even disguised himself as various characters ranging from a Catholic priest, to a schoolteacher, to an elderly man to more effectively lure victims.[26][40] To prevent suspicions about his activities from developing, Garavito would change his disguise often.

Once he had the trust of a child, Garavito typically walked to a secluded spot or mass grave site with the victim, encouraging them to talk about their personal life until they were tired and vulnerable, which then made them easy to handle. After sipping about half a bottle of brandy, Garavito bound the children, intimidating them with a knife as he fondled and sometimes masturbated over them.[28] According to Garavito, he made a "pact with the devil" and Satanic rituals were also incorporated into the murders of the children, who were apparent blood sacrifices.[9]

The children were often molested and tortured simultaneously for prolonged periods, with methods ranging from being stabbed with a screwdriver in the buttocks, hands, and feet to having their buttocks flayed with broken blades that Garavito had placed between his fingers.[28] While alive, Garavito severed their genitals and placed them in the child's mouth. They were extensively beaten, burned, trampled and often showed deep cuts in the back, belly and throat. In some cases, they were sexually abused as their intestines poured out of their belly,[9] impaled through the anus and out of the mouth,[24] and stabbed over one hundred times.[10]

Garavito's climax would occur when he had decapitated the child alive or cut the throat as he finished before leaving the severed genitals in the mouth of the decapitated head.[9][39] Necrophilia with the victim's corpse was also occasionally involved in the crimes; sometimes prematurely, as Garavito could only achieve orgasm by beating and stabbing his victims during intercourse.[26] The bodies of the children were all found completely naked, bearing bite marks and signs of anal penetration. Containers of lubricant were found near the bodies, along with empty bottles of the cheapest brandy in Colombia. Most corpses showed signs of prolonged torture.[41]

Beginning in the 1980s, minors from impoverished backgrounds and other groups termed "desechables" ("disposable") began disappearing rapidly from the streets of Colombia. Due to the decades-long civil war, victims were unlikely to be reported missing. A group of children discovered a skeleton in Pereira while playing football on 7 November 1998, yet authorities did not take much notice until 15 November, when mass graves of as many as 36 children were uncovered—almost all of them boys—with signs of binding, sexual assault, and prolonged torture.[18][38] They discovered a total of 41 children in the department of Risaralda, with 27 children discovered in neighboring Valle del Cauca.[42]

This large number of missing children called for a widespread investigation as these killings were not confined to a specific area. The brutality was so fierce to authorities that they initially hypothesized the killings were performed by a Satanic cult or an international child-trafficking ring. In spite of this, the Prosecutor's Office quickly speculated that it was likely one man to be responsible for the killings, due to the prevalence of nylon cord and liquor bottle caps found at all of the crime scenes.[18] On 6 February 1999, outside the town of Palmira, the bodies of two naked children were found lying next to each other on a hill near a sugarcane field. The next day, only meters away, they discovered another child's body. All three bodies had their hands bound and bore signs of sexual abuse. The victims' necks were severely cut and bruises were on their backs, genitals, legs and buttocks. The murder weapon was found in the same area as the bodies. Garavito had passed out partially naked on top of a child's corpse while drunk with a cigarette in his left hand,[43][20] causing the cane field to catch fire. He burned himself severely in the process and left behind his money, burnt glasses, shorts, shoes, and underwear. Receipts and a note containing Graciela Zabaleta's address was also found.[19]

From his glasses, the authorities were able to determine that the local serial killer was middle-aged and had an astigmatism in his left eye. His shoes also showed that he walked with a limp and stood 163–167 cm (5 ft 4 in – 5 ft 6 in) tall. They falsely arrested a local sex offender named Pedro Pablo Ramírez García, who was 44 and had a limp in his right foot. As two boys disappeared in Pereira, a young boy had outed García as the man who attempted to assault him. He was kept in jail until more children began to disappear in Bogotá. Meanwhile, Aldemar Durán, the main detective, had begun to suspect Garavito as their wanted killer. Garavito's girlfriend was contacted; she told police that she had not seen him in months. She did, however, give to the police a black cloth suitcase that Garavito had left in her possession, which contained a number of his belongings. These items included pictures of young boys, detailed journals of his murders, tally marks of his victims and bills. This new information led them to Garavito's residence, but the property was vacant. Detectives believed that Garavito was either travelling for work or away attempting to find his next victim. García was released after Durán was able to track down the girlfriend and sister of Garavito.[16]

Garavito was picked up by the local police just a few days later on an unrelated charge of attempted rape against 12-year-old John Iván Sabogal. On 22 April 1999, Garavito was drinking brandy in the evening when he encountered Sabogal selling lottery tickets in the city of Villavicencio. Introducing himself as Bonifacio Morera Lizcano, a local politician,[44] Garavito proceeded to seize Sabogal with a knife before threatening the child into silence. Pretending to hug Sabogal, Garavito escorted him into a taxi before forcing him to climb a barbed wire fence that led to a secluded hillside. At this location, Garavito proceeded to bind Sabogal while repeatedly screaming, "Am I a sadist?"[17] He then taunted the child with the blade, shouting various obscenities as he masturbated over him.[45]

A homeless 16-year-old had been close enough to hear the struggle between Garavito and the child. The teen began to curse and throw stones at Garavito. Garavito chased the teenager with his dagger. Both the boy and the teen fled to the Rosa Blanca farmhouse located on La Coralina Road in Villavicencio,[46][47] where they were met by a 12-year-old girl. Garavito later reached the farmhouse, aggressively asking the girl for directions. She directed Garavito into the woods, where he became lost. The police were contacted, resulting in a search. Authorities found Garavito walking out of the woods at approximately 7:00 p.m. as they urged angry locals not to get involved in the search. He gave them a false ID and claimed to be the politician Lizcano. Despite this, they suspected the man to be Garavito anyway.[46] On 4 July 1999, their suspicion was confirmed.[44]

For Colombia's Justice Department, Garavito's confession was not enough. Garavito had an eye condition that was rare and only found in men in a particular age group. His glasses were specifically designed for his unique condition. These particular glasses were found at a crime scene. Garavito also left behind bottles of brandy, his underwear and his shoes. DNA was found on the victims, along with the other items left behind. Police scheduled the entire jail where Garavito was being detained to get an eye exam, the outcome of which would help police pair the glasses to Garavito. By making it mandatory for all the prisoners, it reduced Garavito's suspicion and kept him from lying about his eyesight.[19] His height of 165 cm (5 ft 5 in) and limp were also crucial in connecting him to the investigators' findings.

While Garavito was out of his cell, detectives took DNA samples from his pillow and living area. The DNA found on the victims was a match to the DNA found in Garavito's cell. Garavito confessed to murdering about 140 children and was charged with killing 172 altogether throughout Colombia.[48] He was found guilty on 138 of the 172 accounts; the others are ongoing. Garavito was sentenced to 1,853 years and 9 days in prison, the lengthiest sentence in Colombian history.[49] However, Colombian law limits imprisonment to 40 years, and, because Garavito helped police find the victims' bodies, his sentence was further reduced to 22 years.[50]

Garavito served his sentence in a maximum-security prison in Valledupar in the department of El Cesar in Colombia.[51] He was held separately from all other prisoners because it was feared that he would be killed immediately. He could have become eligible for parole in 2023[52] when he had served three-fifths of his sentence.[52] In 2021, a judge blocked a request to release Garavito early due to his good behaviour in prison on grounds that he had not paid a fine for his victims.[53]

Garavito remained hopeful, having expressed to Colombian senator Carlos Moreno de Caro apparent plans to enter Colombian congress, enter the ministry as a Pentecostal pastor, and marry a woman (in rejection of his self-admitted homosexuality) in the hopes that he would be able to help abused children upon his release.[54] Garavito suffered from severe eye cancer and leukemia, which left him left blind, weak and fatigued, requiring daily blood transfusions.[55] He spent most of his time making handcuffs, earrings and necklaces in the medical unit of Valledupar's prison.[13] Psychiatrists diagnosed him with antisocial personality disorder.[56]

Garavito died at a hospital in Valledupar on 12 October 2023, at the age of 66.[57][58]

Many Colombians criticized the possibility of Garavito's early release. In recent years, Colombians have increasingly felt that Garavito's sentence was not sufficient punishment for his crimes. Some argued he deserved either life in prison or the death penalty, neither of which exists in Colombia. Colombian law had no provision or method to impose a sentence longer than what Garavito received, which was seen as a deficiency in the law caused by the failure to address the possibility of a serial killer in Colombian society. The law has since increased the maximum penalty for such crimes to 60 years in prison.[59]

Journalist Guillermo Prieto "Pirry" La Rotta interviewed Garavito for a show which was broadcast on 11 June 2006. Pirry mentioned that, during the interview, Garavito tried to minimize his actions and expressed intent to start a political career in order to help abused children. Pirry also described Garavito's conditions in prison and commented that due to good behaviour, he could have probably applied for early release within three years.[60]

• List of serial killers in Colombia
• List of serial killers by number of victims
• Pedro López (serial killer)
• Manuel Octavio Bermúdez