The Monster Of The Andes
By: Emmanuella A.
Tags: Rape, Serial Killers, True Story, Crime, Murder

The Monster Of The Andes

en.wikipedia.org

There is a wonderful moment, a divine moment when I have my hands around a young girl’s throat- Pedro Alonso Lopez

The world is yet to prove that people can be born evil, although through history we’ve experienced people who might have been although it has been proven that people can grow to become monsters. Monsters are most times created by the environment they develop in, the uglier the environment the more terrifying the monster.

This is the biography of a man referred to as the monster of the Andes, a monster created by his environment.

Early Life

Pedro Lopez was born on October 8th, 1948 in Santa Isabel, Colombia. He was born to Medardo Ryes and Belinda Ryes. His father was killed six months before his birth in a grocery store which had been attacked by a rebellious mob, this attack occurred at the beginning of the civil war in Colombia which is known as “La Violencia”. Maybe if his father had been alive Pedro would have grown up differently.

Pedro was the seventh child among thirteen siblings and according to his mother, he was a polite boy who had the ambition to become a teacher.

How did a child with a dream to become a teacher turn into a monster?

When Pedro was eight years old, he was kicked out of the house by his mother because she had caught him fondling his younger sister. He later blamed it on his mother because she was a sex worker who had also been constantly abused by her clients and probably witnessing those acts as a child affected him.

Leaving home, fled to Bogota which is Colombia’s capital city where he joined a gang and began to smoke basuco- an impure form of cocaine. He was later approached by a man, a stranger who offered him shelter, young, afraid and probably hungry he followed this strange man and dissing the advice “never follow a stranger”. He was taken to an abandoned building by the stranger and was sexually abused.

Still thriving to survive, young Pedro turned 10 on the streets and he was picked up by an elderly couple who enrolled him in a school for orphans. This was supposed to be his breakthrough and a chance of survival for his victims but at the age of 12, he was molested by a male teacher which pushed him into running away, back into the street.

Growing up on the streets pushes people into a life of crime and that was the same for Pedro, he was arrested in 1969 for car theft. While serving his jail time, he was gang-raped by three of his fellow inmates this event had traumatized him deeply.

He got fed up with how he had been treated, and so he hunted down his abusers in jail and killed every single one of them his actions seen as self-defense by the local Colombian justice department not only that, he also earned respect from his fellow inmates.

Things got worse after his release in 1978 because that was the beginning of his murder and rape spree. He began by abducting, raping, and murdering three young girls weekly by posing as a salesman who was lost and needed help getting out of the area, he would then lure them to a remote area to commit his crimes.

But during an attempt to abduct a nine-year-old girl from an Indian tribe he was caught. As punishment he was beaten and buried up to his neck by the natives, they had planned to pour syrup on his head and left to be eaten alive by ants.

Luckily for Pedro, an American missionary saved him by convincing the locals to let her deliver him to the Peruvian police although they were adamant about killing him but were later convinced.

Some reports say the missionary set him free at the Colombian border, while others say he was actually taken to the police who promptly deported him to Colombia without considering the threat he posed to society. However, the story goes the point is Pedro was let free to continue his raping and murdering spree.

Allowed to roam free, he began traveling through Colombia and Ecuador, kidnapping, abusing, and murdering girls along his way. It was believed by the police and people that the missing children were being kidnapped by slavery and prostitution gang, of course, it was hard to believe that one man was monstrous enough to commit the crimes alone.

During a flood near Ambato, Ecuador in 1979, the bodies of four among many of the missing children were found and days after that Pedro was caught by the mother of twelve-year-old Maria Poveda while he was trying to abduct her from a market.

He was arrested and detained for question although at first, he was reluctant to confess even after being beaten and tortured he soon did. Captain Pastor Cordova won his trust and confessed his crimes to him, he told him where he could find one of his victims.

And that was how the body of Ivanova Jacome was found nude, lying on an old mattress in a cabin. When he was asked how many girls he had killed he replied;

“Over two hundred in Ecuador, some tens in Peru and many more in Colombia”

According to Biography.com, Pedro had a sick mentality that he was doing everything he did to help the girls, he killed them so they could go to heaven.

Hearing this, the president ordered that Pedro should be taken to the places he left the bodies until all victims in Ecuador were uncovered. At first, he was cooperative but knowing fully well that he would be charged for a murder he stopped and declared his innocence.

Although the police were able to uncover fifty-three bodies and coupled with his initial confession, Pedro was only sentenced to sixteen years due to the Ecuadorian law for the deaths and was sent to a psychiatric hospital being diagnosed as sociopathic.

On the 31st of August 1994, Pedro was released from prison two years earlier on account of good behavior, he was deported to Colombia where he was charged with a two-decade-old murder upon his arrival. Instead of being charged with jail time, he was declared insane and was institutionalized in a facility in 1995.

Pedro was declared sane and released under a fifty dollar bill in 1998, after his release he visited his elderly mother. She claimed she had been scared and convinced he would kill her because he had blamed her for all his atrocities, but instead he asked for his life inheritance knowing fully well that there was nothing.

He sold his mother’s sole bed and chair to people on the street before he disappeared. Till today Pedro Alonso Lopez where about whether dead or alive is still unknown.

This is the tale of one of the most prolific serial killers in the world known as the monster of the Andes.