Itzel Nayeli García Montaño

Itzel Nayelí Montaño García (born 1995 in Chimalhuacán, State of Mexico, Mexico) is an alleged Mexican spree killer accused of a series of crimes committed in the municipality of Chimalhuacán. Montaño attacked random strangers from behind, stabbing them in the neck. There was a total of seven attacks, two of which were fatal.

She was nicknamed "The Decapitator of Chimalhuacán" by the media. She was a disorganized killer, highlighted by the fact that her attacks were committed "body to body", an unusual modus operandi in female spree killers.

Life Itzel Montaño was born in 1995, in Chimalhuacán, State of Mexico, to a poor family in which she was the second of six children, her father working unofficially as a "car washer". Her childhood was spent in a marginalized area of her home municipality, sharing a house with her parents, siblings and several relatives. She used to take care of her younger siblings while her parents worked, and was described by relatives and acquaintances as "quiet and calm". She attended school only until the third grade, as her childhood and adolescence were marked by poverty.

At the age of 14, she moved in with a man and entered into a domestic partnership. At a young age she got pregnant for the first and only time—she suffered from an ectopic pregnancy, making it a necessity to undergo a hysterectomy in order to save her life, leaving her sterile. At age 16, she separated from her partner and began to consume alcohol, tobacco, and inhalants excessively. She maintained herself by selling sweets outside the Mexico City Metro. She had difficulties with reading, writing and maths.

At age 17, she met her second husband, a man named Rafael who drove a minibus. She moved in with him only after a few months of relationship. Their relationship was difficult, with fights which often ended in physical aggression.

Crimes The first attack attributed to Montaño occurred on September 14, 2015. The victim was a man named Antonio Soto Leyva. The 43-year-old was attacked at 5:30am by a woman who approached him from behind and stabbed him in the neck. Despite a injury to his neck, no vital organs were damaged and the victim survived. Soto was able to pursue his attacker for , but could not catch her.

The first fatality attributed to the killer came just a day later, on September 15, when a 40-year-old woman named Rosario Laureano Ventura was attacked. The second murder attributed to the murderer occurred on September 17, 2015, when a 16-year-old woman, Brenda Chantal Mondragón Martínez, was assaulted while walking to her school. The killer cut her jugular vein.

With the collaboration of victims and some witnesses, the police developed a profile of the attacker—she was described as a woman between 20 and 25 years of age, with light brown skin, long dark hair, thin, well-dressed and with two tattoos of the Santa Muerte. Both attacks occurred on September 13, 2015; the aggression towards the partner occurred in the context of a domestic fight and the second, against a man named "Jorge", known as the "leader of the street vendors", who demanded Montaño pay him so that she could sell her sweets. At first the police denied that Montaño was related to the Decapitator's crimes, but by October 9, 2015, they reversed that statement and claimed that she was a suspect in the murders.

In July 2017, Montaño was sentenced to 20 years in prison on a charge of attempted murder, and is still awaiting trial for other charges. Her motives remain unknown, but according to declarations of relatives, when she consumed inhalants her behaviour changed drastically, becoming violent and uninhibited. She is believed to have been on drugs in all the attacks, as well as the two attacks she confessed to.