Pedro López (serial killer)

Pedro Alonso Lopez, popularly known as The Monster of the Andes, was a Colombian serial killer, child rapist, and wanted man who claimed to have murdered over 300 people in Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador between 1969 and 1980. His victims were predominantly young women and children.

López, a poor Colombian native, was first detained for auto theft in 1969. He later said that while there, he was subjected to a vicious gang rape by a number of other prisoners, who he then killed in retribution. López spent a lot of time traveling across South America after being released from prison. He claimed to have killed hundreds of females in Peru and Colombia during this time. An indigenous Ayacuchoan tribe in Peru briefly held him captive, but an American missionary persuaded the tribe to turn him over to the police, who promptly released Lopez.

In 1980, López was finally apprehended in Ecuador for attempting to kidnap a 12-year-old girl. López received the maximum term for murder in Ecuador at the time—16 years in prison—for killing people there. López was deported to and institutionalized in Colombia after being released from jail in Ecuador in 1994. He was then released from psychiatric treatment in 1998, but he has since been wanted for questioning in connection with a murder that occurred in 2002. López's whereabouts are still a mystery as of 2023.

early years

In 1948, Pedro Alonso López was born in the Colombian town of Venadillo, Tolima. His mother moved to Santa Isabel six months after his birth. As the seventh of thirteen children born to prostitute Benilda López de Castaeda, Pedro López experienced a challenging upbringing marked by domestic abuse and the absence of a father figure. Megdardo Reyes, his father, was killed six months before he was born.

When López was nine years old, his mother saw him trying to molest his sister and kicked him out of the house. López was repeatedly sexually abused while he was homeless and wandering the streets of Bogotá. He was adopted by an American immigrant family when he was twelve years old, but he left after a teacher sexually attacked him.

López received a seven-year prison term in 1969 for motor theft. He was severely gang-raped by four other prisoners when he was being held in prison during this time. Days later, in retribution, López tracked down the prisoners and executed them. His sentence was extended by two years after the deaths were justified as acts of self-defense.

Murders

López started wandering through the northwestern region of South America after being released from prison in 1978, finally making it to Peru. Later, he stated that over 100 girls, mostly from indigenous tribes and the streets, had been murdered during this time. Although these allegations are unconfirmed, it is known that López attempted to kidnap a 9-year-old girl before being briefly apprehended by an indigenous Ayacuchoan tribe in south-central Peru. López was stripped of his clothes and things by the Ayacuchoans, who then buried him in the sand. But an American missionary persuaded the tribe to free Lopez and give him to the authorities. López was removed from the nation rather than being detained by the police.

After being expelled from Peru, López resumed his travels throughout South America. Although authorities started to notice an increase in the number of missing people—particularly young girls—in the regions where he traveled, they came to the conclusion that the disappearances were almost certainly the result of human trafficking.

Several young girls whose bodies had been reported missing were found when flash floods struck the Ambato, Ecuador, area in April 1980. The police reopened their inquiries in response to this information, which helped lead to López's eventual arrest later that year.

Arrest

When an attempted kidnapping went wrong and he was caught by market vendors, López was taken into custody. When he was apprehended in March 1980, according to the Associated Press, he confessed to the murder of 200 young girls, with a possible total of 350.

Release

In an interview from his prison cell, López referred to himself as "the man of the century" and stated he was being released for "good behavior," according to CNN. López "was detained in 1980, but was freed by the authorities in Ecuador at the end of." He was released from an Ecuadorian prison on August 31, 1994, according to an A&E Biography documentary. He was later detained again as an unauthorized immigrant and turned over to Colombian officials, who accused him of killing a man 20 years earlier. He was deemed insane and kept in a hospital in Bogota's mental wing. He was granted $50 bail and released on mental health evaluation in 1998. Later, he disappeared. According to the same documentary, he is currently wanted by the police after Interpol issued an advisory calling for his arrest again by Colombian authorities in connection with a new murder in 2002. As of 2002, his whereabouts are unknown.