The Beast
This Serial Killer has the highest number of victims
Profile of Luis Garavito
Name : Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos
Date of Birth: January 25, 1957
Age: 64
Birth Place : Génova, Quindio, Colombia
Other names: The Priest, Goofy, El Loco
Siblings: 7
No. of victims: Estimated to be 400; confirmed-138
Years active: 1992–1999
Arrested: April 22, 1999
Imprisonment: 22 years
Who is Luis Garavito?
Luis Garavito was born in Génova, Quindio, Colombia on January 25, 1957. Garavito has seven younger siblings. His father was so violent and abusive towards the children. He was brutally abused by his heavily alcoholic father, who also abused the siblings. His mother is unknown in this situation, but it is speculated that she was a prostitute. His alcoholic father abused his wife and also forced Garavito to watch his mother engage in sexual activities with her clients. These clients sexually abused and molested Garavito.
Garavito claimed in a police interrogation that he was also sexually abused by his neighbors, one of them being a friend of his father and a local drugstore owner. He also told the police officials that his father used to beat up his mother without any remorse even when she was in the advanced stages of pregnancy.
Without any vent to his frustrations, Garavito killed and tore a bird apart. When he was raped by another man, he revealed that his homosexual tendencies increased. As he grew up and came across heterosexual porn he felt an intense aversion to it. Garavito told that this was the time when he started fondling his brothers when they were asleep.
At the age of 16, unable to handle the abuse and torture, Garavito decided to flee from his home. He started by working at a farm and then moved onto working as a store clerk. Then he started to sell religious prayer cards in the streets. He moved places frequently and was doing odd jobs for a living. In midst of this, he also had a girlfriend named Teresa, who was a single mother. He shared a stable relationship with her and the child. According to Teresa and Garavito’s friends, Garavito was a very normal and friendly person, except that he was short-tempered.
As he moved into adulthood, he moved to different places in search of work. He had also taken after his father’s drinking habits, thus leading him to be very unfriendly and aggressive. The people who accommodated him pushed him out due to his aggressive behavior.
How did he choose his victims?
Garavito started killing in 1992. He used to lure boys by changing his disguises often. He disguised himself as a priest, farmer, homeless man, street vendor, drug dealer, elderly man, and gambler. He lured poor children, like orphans, peasants, and the homeless within the age span of 8 and 16 years, during the daytime by promising them payment for easy work, offering drugs to addicted children, bribing them with small gifts, money, candy, and odd jobs. When Garavito offered money to these kids they became suspicious, hence he paid stakes for children interested in games and for odd jobs. He even offered juice or cake from local shops and took them with him for long walks or for doing labor (carrying crates of fruits, help with cattle, harvesting sugarcane, etc).
Once the children felt fatigued and vulnerable he would take them to areas with high plants and tie, torture, rape, and kill them. There were cuts in the neck or decapitation and also cuts at several places in the body. Children were subjected to prolonged torture, bite marks in their genitals, sharp objects inserted into their genitals (glass bottles, knives, etc.), and mutilation.
During the 1990s the Colombian conflict was on the rise leading to the Government neglecting the poor and homeless people, especially focusing on missing cases of poor and homeless children. Since these children had no one to report them as missing, it went unnoticed until November 1998.
The Investigation
380 miles from Bogota in Nacederos, a mass grave of 14 caucasian boys was discovered. After forensic investigation, it was discovered that the boys’ age fell between 8 and 14 years. After 5 years, the bodies were found rendering it difficult to identify the bodies. With time, it became crucial to find the identities of the victims to move forward with the case. Since the boys were either poor or orphans, they never got dental treatments hence leaving the police with no dental match. The police at the end was left with only two options, which were DNA Analysis and Facial Reconstruction from bones.
With forensic officials working on identifying the victims more boys were going missing. Later in April 1999, in Villavicencio, Colombia, John Ivan Sabogal (between age 10 and 16) who went to sell lottery tickets goes missing. His mother, Maria Bertelda Lara, and her husband went to the police to report the missing boy.
In midst of the troubled situation in Colombia, the police officials would have most probably sent them away. But with the increasing cases of missing children, the police officials took the case. During that time, Prosecutor Fernando Aya, who was handling the case came to know about this missing report. He was already investigating 13 cases of the murdered children for over 6 months. He assured the father of Ivan that he would do his best to bring the kid back home.
On the other side, Mario Leon Artunduaga, Colombia’s well-known Forensic Facial Reconstructionist was helping the police officials. Since the children fell between the age group of 8 to 16, their face structure wasn’t fully developed. Since the adult parameters are different from the child’s facial parameters, he faced difficulties.
Police were coming up with theories and working on the leads, one of the theories being the perpetrators being part of a cult since wax was found in the burial sites. The other theory being that it was a drug-related payback, but none of the theories helped the case.
Aldemar Duran, an investigator who was investigating the three murders in Genova, Quindio, was closely following up on the patterns of the killings, leading him to similarities with other child murder cases across the country. He had an assumption that the perpetrator might be the same person. He started going through similar crime records between the years 1991 to 1998 and he discovered a pattern.
The way they have been buried, evidence found at the crime scene and at the burial sites, the position of the bodies, fibers from the rope used to tie the victims, and empty bottles discovered at the place of burial were some of the patterns found in the children murder case.
From the forensic analysis of the physical evidence, they were able to deduce that they were behind a serial killer who was sexually motivated. Duran tried to detect the behavioral pattern of the killer with the given evidence. But the Colombian law did not have the expertise to create a psychological profile of a serial killer.
On February 6, 1999, in Palmira, about 60 km from Narcederos, more bodies were discovered. Carlos Hernan Herrera, another detective was assigned. Some of the evidence found at the scene were a pair of glasses, a pair of shoes, underwear, and some currency.
When the evidence was closely analyzed, the left heel of the shoes, showed unusual wear inconsistent with the other pair. It was hypothesized that the killer had a limp which led him to rotate his right leg a bit while walking. The pair of glasses were burnt half so this might have caused an injury. the prescription of glasses revealed that the killer might fall between the age of 40 and 45 or between 55 and 60. The currency revealed that the killer was someone who travels from place to place
With all the evidence gathered and analyzed they knew they were looking for a man who limps, a man who wears glasses with an average height of 1.63–1.67 meters and of age between 40 to 45 or 55 to 60. he also had a preferred liquor brand which he doesn’t deviate from.
With these criteria, the police started searching for previous records where young boys were murdered, offenders being above age 42, height being 1.63 to 1.67, and the areas where the bodies were discovered. There were around 25 suspects who were active in these areas where the bodies were found.
Duran went to Bogota to investigate on a deeper level and after a few days of intensive research, he came across a case of a child victim in Tunja in 1996. The 12-year-old boy, Renald Delgado, was murdered and buried in the same pattern as the other cases pointing out that the same killer has killed Renald also. In the case notes it was revealed that a store owner, as well as several prostitutes, revealed that they saw Renald with an unknown man who wasn’t local. Among the suspect list who were interrogated and released without proper evidence, Luis Garavito was one too.
During this time, investigations in Pereira lead to a probable suspect, Pedro Pablo Ramirez Garcia, who was a child offender for a long time, and his crimes against children began in 1980. He was 44 years of age, limped with his right leg, shared the same height range, and was found selling honey in a bottle similar to the ones found in the burial sites. On October 1, 1997, two boys disappeared in Pereira and their bodies were found with traces of torture and sexual assault and another boy pointed out Pedro as the one who attempted to rape him. With all these factors, Pedro was arrested and kept in lock-up. Pedro refused to admit to any of the crimes.
Just when the police thought they had nabbed the killer, another four children were murdered in Bogota identical to previous murder cases. Mario who was working on the Facial Reconstruction, with the help of techniques used in Russia, Britain, and the USA, managed to reconstruct the faces of four victims and the family recognized the boys too.
Duran was able to reach Garavito’s family and met one of Garavito’s sisters, Ester Garavito Cubillos. When asked if Garavito left anything behind, the sister gave a bag full of Garavito’s personal items which he had asked her to keep. The bag contained papers, photos, notebooks but nothing that revealed where he currently is.
On further investigation, Duran found that Garavito was involved by a court for the murder of a minor in Corinto. He also discovered that one of the receipts showed a transfer of money to a woman. He tracked down the woman and she also had a bag that Garavito had given to her to keep. That bag also contained papers, newspapers, bus tickets, pictures, and few lottery tickets. These lottery tickets were similar to what Ivan was selling. There were also synthetic fibers, razors which lead to a strong suspicion that Garavito was the man they were after.
At Palmira, where they had found charred items, they assumed that Garavito must have also burnt himself in the process which would require medical attention. They investigated medical facilities around Palmira but it seemed he hadn’t visited them but instead had traveled six hours to Pereira to get treatment for his injuries in the pharmacy.
After a lot of analysis with all gathered evidence, case notes, and reports it was concluded that Garavito was present in all scenarios and he is the serial killer they have been searching for.
They arrested Luis Garavito and had him for an interrogation which prolonged for a period of eight hours, which yielded no result as Garavito refused to admit to his wrong-doings. Then finally they invited Duran for interrogation, who was an experienced detective and also who extensively studied and researched the crimes committed by Garavito. He talked about the crimes committed by Garavito in detail which allowed Garavito to relive the crimes and finally lead him to a breakdown.
Luis Garavito confessed everything to the police officials and revealed that he felt like he was possessed by an evil spirit while committing the crimes. He also showed the police all the places where he had buried the victims.
Garavito was charged with 172 counts of murder out of which he was declared guilty for 138 counts thus sentenced to 1853 years and 9 days in prison. However, the Colombian law has a limit of only 40 years of sentence hence reducing it and also by helping the police in investigation Garavito’s sentence was reduced to 22 years. He is expected to be released in 2021.
Psychology of Luis Garavito
During the investigation, Garavito revealed that he felt powerful and in control when he tortured the victims and looked at them suffer. Garavito also took advantage of the social unrest due to the Colombian Conflict. He also confessed that he found pleasure in raping the children, biting their nipples, and burning this side of their buttocks. The more pain inflicted on the victims, the more intense the orgasm and the more pleasure he gains from it. He even used to cut off the thumbs of the children and keep them as souvenirs. He stopped taking thumbs as souvenirs since he realized dogs may sniff out the scent.
Garavito revealed that there were times when he would wake up crying remembering the victims, but when he thought about the pleasure gained he would feel content and happy. He even maintained a list of the victims so that he can pray for them. In January 1984 it was revealed he was under psychiatric care for 5 years. Post-discharge he planned and perfected his technique of luring the children.
He was diagnosed with Anti-social Personality Disorder. He fitted the stereotype of an Intelligent Serial Killer. He skillfully changed his disguises according to the location without raising any suspicions. Due to the aggressive and chaotic conditions in Colombia, working odd jobs did not raise any suspicion and odd jobs were inviting for the poor children.
Garavito was used to jumping from topic to topic and when it comes to talking about his personal matters he skips it. According to the opinion of the police, it seems to be the repercussions of his childhood abuse.
Garavito also seemed to have a controlling personality because he reached his goals using the perfect social methods, like getting his sentence reduced by helping the police in the investigation. He never showed true remorse till the end. From the outside, he looks very friendly, soft-spoken, and open.
He even confessed that he was drunk while he murdered his victims. His drinking habits, childhood abuse, and also the environment he grew up in, with an alcoholic father and mother who was into substance abuse must have affected him deeply. Even as a fetus the substance abuse would have affected him hence producing a psychopath. According to a Forensic expert, he was considered a sadist, pedophile, and psychopath.
He never believed the people around him and was paranoid that someone might poison his food. He only accepts food delivered by people he believes completely. The location of his facility is unknown to the public.
In memories of the children, at the location where the first set of victims were discovered scenes of children playing have been painted.
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