Colombian serial killer who confessed to murdering 190 children dies

• Colombian serial killer Luis Garavito dies.
• ‘The Beast’ admitted to raping and murdering 190 children.
• He was 66.

Today marks the end of a dark chapter in Colombia’s history. Luis Alfredo Garavito, known as ‘The Beast’, has died.

He passed away at the age of 66 in a hospital in Valledupar, in the northern part of the country.

Garavito, one of Colombia’s most prolific serial killers, confessed to raping and murdering more than 190 children during the 1990s.

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This depraved criminal, nicknamed ‘The Beast’, confessed to having kidnapped, raped and murdered hundreds of children between the ages of 8 and 16.

Most of his victims were from low-income families.

He adopted different identities, posing as a monk, a homeless man or a street vendor to gain the trust of his young victims.

This horrifying method allowed him to commit his heinous crimes with impunity, and he was recognized as one of the most prolific killers of children.

Colombian serial killer Luis Garavito dies

The Instituto Nacional Penitenciario y Carcelario reported Garavito died in the hospital at the prison where he was being held.

Although the exact cause of his death has not been revealed, this news marks the end of a life defined by horror and violence.

Garavito was sentenced to more than 1,800 years in prison for his horrific crimes, which included nearly 200 murders and rapes of children over a period of less than a decade.

However, Colombian laws at the time limited the maximum penalty to 40 years in prison. Garavito was serving his sentence until his death on Thursday.

Chronicle of a vicious life

The Beast was captured in April 1999 and prosecuted for a series of abhorrent crimes, including violent sexual acts, violent sexual assault, homicide, arson and simple kidnapping.

A judge asked him if he murdered 114 children whose bodies were found in 59 Colombian towns.

Garavito admitted to the crimes and asked for forgiveness. He then confessed to more murders, which amounted to more than 190 children victims.

He apologized to the victims’ relatives at a court hearing: “I want to ask for forgiveness for everything I did and I am going to confess. Yes, I killed them and not only those, I killed others.”

A prolific murderer reveals his bloody crimes

Garavito’s release from prison was considered imminent, as he had served three-fifths of his sentence.

In 2021, then-president Iván Duque rejected the possibility that Garavito would regain his freedom and assured that during his administration he would “remain in prison.”

Garavito was born in 1957 in Quindío, Colombia and as an adult he traveled through 11 municipalities of the country where he abused and killed minors.

The authorities picked up his trail after noticing similarities in the cases of disappearances of minors in Pereira, Armenia and Tunja, according to The Associated Press.

Luis Garavito dies after nearly 40 years in prison

He disguised himself as a homeless person, a monk or a someone with a disability to approach foundations that worked with children, in order to gain access to his victims.

Sometimes he also tricked children with sweets or promises to gain their trust and lure them to less crowded areas, according to El País.

In 2021, he requested conditional release based on good behavior but the court denied it.

He was serving his sentence in the maximum security prison, La Tramacúa, in the capital of the Caribbean department of Cesar.