Pedro López (serial killer)

Pedro Alonso López was born in Colombia in 1948, in the municipality of Venadillo, Tolima. Pedro López was the seventh of thirteen children born to Benilda López de Castañeda, a prostitute, and had a difficult childhood due to the violence of the household and the absence of a father figure.[2] His father, Megdardo Reyes, was murdered in La Violencia six months before his birth.[3]

López was banished from the house at age eight, when his mother caught him attempting to molest his sister.[2] Homeless, López wandered the streets of Bogotá and was frequently sexually abused.[2] After the incident, he joined a gang of street children for protection. At age twelve, he was adopted by an American immigrant family, but fled after he was sexually assaulted by a teacher.[4]

In 1969, López was sentenced to seven years in prison for auto theft. During this period of incarceration, he was brutally gang-raped by four other inmates. Days later, López hunted down the inmates and killed them in retaliation. The killings were ruled as self-defense, and two years were added to his sentence.[5]

Upon his release from prison in 1978, López began wandering throughout the northwestern area of South America, eventually arriving in Peru. He later claimed that, during this period, he had killed over 100 girls, mainly street children and from indigenous tribes.[6] While these claims are unverifiable, it is known that López was briefly captured by an Ayacuchoan indigenous tribe in south-central Peru after attempting to abduct a 9-year-old girl.[7] The Ayacuchoans stripped López of his clothes and belongings and buried him in the sand.[8] However, an American missionary convinced the tribe to release López and turn him over to the police.[8] The police did not detain López, and he was instead expelled from the country.[8]

After his deportation from Peru, López resumed travelling throughout South America, 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.[8]

In April 1980, the areas surrounding Ambato, Ecuador were hit by flash flooding, unearthing the remains of several young girls who had been previously reported missing. This revelation prompted the police to reopen their investigations and contributed towards López's ultimate arrest later that same year.[8]

Not long after the flooding, a local woman named Carvina Poveda was on her way to the market with her 12-year-old daughter Marie when López attempted to abduct the girl. Local merchants were able to overpower López and hold him until the police arrived.[9]

While in police custody after his arrest, López initially refused to cooperate during his interrogation, choosing to remain silent.[9] Eventually, he began to confess his crimes to Police Captain Pastor Cordova, who had been placed in the same cell as him while posing as a prisoner.[10] López boasted that in total, he had murdered “Over two hundred in Ecuador, some tens in Peru, and many more in Colombia”.[10] He described his modus operandi as first luring the victim away from public spaces with a trinket, before raping and strangling them with his bare hands. [11] He additionally claimed that he would occasionally exhume the victim's bodies from their burial site and have 'tea parties' with them.[12] When asked about his motive for the murders, López reportedly said: “I lost my innocence at age of eight. So I decided to do the same to as many girls as I could.” [12] Soon after his confession, he directed the authorities to the bodies of 53 victims, and his confessions soon led to the confirmation of a total of 110 in Ecuador.[11]

Later in 1980, López was convicted of murder and sentenced to 16 years in prison, the maximum prison sentence available in Ecuador at the time.[9]

López served his prison sentence at the Garcia Moreno prison near Quito and was released from prison two years early, on August 31, 1994.[11][13] In an interview shortly before his release, López described himself as "the man of the century" and said he was being released for "good behavior".[14] After his release, López was deported to Colombia and was detained as an illegal immigrant on arrival, before being handed over to Colombian authorities.[13] Prosecutors were unable to make a case against him, and he was instead declared insane and committed to a mental hospital.[15]

In 1998, López was declared sane and released on $70 bail, on the condition that he would periodically report to the authorities; he almost immediately absconded.[11]

The last reported sighting of López was in September 1999, when he visited the National Civil Registry to renew his citizenship card.[16]

In 2002, Colombian National Police and Interpol issued warrants for López's arrest over a murder bearing similarities to his modus operandi.[17][18][19] The Interpol warrant was deactivated in 2005, but López remains a fugitive.[18][1] López has also been named as a possible suspect in a homicide committed in Tunja, Colombia in 2012.[20][21]

Editions of Guinness World Records up to 2006 credited Lopez as being the "most prolific serial killer".[22] The listing was removed on newer editions after complaints that it made a competition out of murder.[23]

• List of fugitives from justice who disappeared
• List of serial killers in Colombia
• List of serial killers by number of victims