Luis Alfredo Garavito

Early life

Garavito and his siblings were neglected; he described his father as a "womanizer" and his parents fought frequently.

Garavito claimed that his strict father only interacted with him for work-related purposes and errands, and that his father frequently berated him. Attending Simón Bolívar School in Ceilán, he was teased often and ridiculed by other children, and struggled to learn most subjects. Nicknamed "Garabato" (meaning "squiggle", for his glasses), Garavito was reportedly bullied by his classmates and thus preferred being alone at recess.

Around 1968, Garavito was removed by his father from the fifth grade in order to financially assist their family, and was thus discouraged from making friends or interacting with girls. In 1969, during a routine vaccination visit that his father had taken him to, Garavito was allegedly sexually molested by the pharmacist-phlebotomist, a devoutly religious man who was also the family's neighbor. experts and others have questioned the truth of Garavito's claims, however. According to family and friends, Garavito became very withdrawn, extremely aggressive and "ready to take revenge on the world."

Adolescence

The family relocated to Trujillo in 1971.

Garavito started working as an assistant at a compensation fund and later in a chain of stores, and studied marketing, but he was problematic and escalated to physical altercations with clients, co-workers, and bosses. After losing his job, he worked as a street vendor who sold religious icons and as a migrant worker, developing platonic relationships with older women over the course of his adulthood. Garavito began work on a coffee plantation as a youth in Trujillo, first falling in love with a schoolteacher and single mother named Luz Mary Ocampo Orozco, with whom he later attended weekly mass services.

Adulthood 1970s Garavito suffered symptoms of psychosis, paranoia and depression, and compulsively molested male and female children, developing an almost exclusive preference for pubescent boys. He had depression and suicidal feelings related to his lack of achievement and wanted to start a family, Garavito also had conflict with his younger siblings over their father's favor to them. From this point on, Garavito fantasized about acquiring a machine gun and annihilating his father and family before committing suicide.

During this period, Garavito dated a single mother, Graciela Zabaleta, who resided near the local psychiatric centres in which he was committed. After introducing himself, Garavito casually suggested that she be his permanent companion. Charmed by his confidence, Zabaleta let Garavito live with her in Pereira, in exchange for providing meals and helping to pay bills in the household.

1990s Between 1980 and 1992, Garavito raped and tortured an estimated minimum of 200 youths, having attempted suicide several times.

He began wearing various disguises in order to evade identification and arrest. Known locally as "Goofy", a generous man who gave to children in Trujillo, locals went out of their way to keep documents for Garavito. He also collected their amputated toes, before disposing of them for fear that the Colombian National Police's scent dog team may trace them to him. Restricted by having to use crutches, wear a neck brace, and a cast, Garavito resorted to begging on the street for the two months he resided with her. According to Garavito, he ordered the killings of his adult victims. Marked for his thick Colombian accent, locals spotted a foreign drifter begging for money in July and August of that year. In addition, Garavito also stated that he had allegedly committed murder in Venezuela. When Garavito lost consciousness from drinking, Trujillo managed to escape.

Unidentified youth In 1988, Garavito lured an unidentified victim and sexually assaulted him near a restaurant called El Arepazo in the Alto del Río sector of Quindío's Calarcá, a location where several bodies were later found within a 20-meter proximity of one another.

Eleven years later, on 25 January 1999 (Garavito's 42nd birthday), and following a devastating earthquake, authorities found the owner of El Arepazo—which was reduced to rubble—who described Garavito and pointed them in his direction, saying he had known him for many years but avoided him due to his drinking problem and aggressive tendencies. He reportedly molested young boys with "cute faces" and blue or green eyes; To prevent suspicions about his activities from developing, Garavito would change his disguise often.

Once he had the trust of a child, Garavito typically walked to a secluded spot or mass grave site with the victim, encouraging them to talk about their personal life until they were tired and vulnerable, which then made them easy to handle. After sipping about half a bottle of brandy, Garavito bound the children, intimidating them with a knife as he fondled and sometimes masturbated over them. Necrophilia with the victim's corpse was also occasionally involved in the crimes; sometimes prematurely, as Garavito could only achieve orgasm by beating and stabbing his victims during intercourse.

Investigation

Beginning in the 1980s, minors from impoverished backgrounds and other groups termed "desechables" ("disposable") began disappearing rapidly from the streets of Colombia. Due to the decades-long civil war, victims were unlikely to be reported missing. A group of children discovered a skeleton in Pereira while playing football on 7 November 1998, yet authorities did not take much notice until 15 November, when mass graves of as many as 36 children were uncovered—almost all of them boys—with signs of binding, sexual assault, and prolonged torture.

This large number of missing children called for a widespread investigation as these killings were not confined to a specific area. The brutality was so fierce to authorities that they initially hypothesized the killings were performed by a Satanic cult or an international child-trafficking ring. In spite of this, the Prosecutor's Office soon determined that it was likely one man to be responsible due to the prevalence of nylon cord and liquor bottle caps found at all of the crime scenes. Garavito proceeded to seize Sabogal with a knife before threatening the child into silence. Pretending to hug Sabogal, Garavito escorted him into a taxi before forcing him to climb a barbed wire fence that led to a secluded hillside. At this location, Garavito proceeded to bind Sabogal while repeatedly screaming, "Am I a sadist?"

A homeless 16-year-old had been close enough to hear the struggle between Garavito and the child. The teen began to curse and throw stones at Garavito. Garavito chased the teenager with his dagger. Both boys fled to the Rosa Blanca farmhouse located on La Coralina Road in Villavicencio, where they were met by a 12-year-old girl. Garavito later reached the farmhouse, aggressively asking the girl for directions. She directed Garavito into the woods, where he became lost. The police were contacted, resulting in a search. Authorities found Garavito walking out of the woods at approximately 7:00 p.m. as they urged angry locals not to get involved in the search. He gave them a false ID and claimed to be the politician Lizcano. Despite this, they suspected the man to be Garavito anyway. He was found guilty of 138 of the 172 accounts; Garavito was sentenced to 1,853 years and 9 days in prison, the lengthiest sentence in Colombian history. However, Colombian law limits imprisonment to 40 years, and, because Garavito helped police find the victims' bodies, his sentence was further reduced to 22 years.

Garavito served his sentence in a maximum-security prison in Valledupar in the department of El Cesar in Colombia. He was held separately from all other prisoners because it was feared that he would be killed immediately. He could have become eligible for parole in 2023 when he had served three-fifths of his sentence.

Garavito remained hopeful, having expressed to Colombian senator Carlos Moreno de Caro apparent plans to enter Colombian congress, enter the ministry as a Pentecostal pastor, and marry a woman in the hope that he would be able to help abused children upon his release. Garavito suffered from severe eye cancer and leukemia, which left him blind, weak and fatigued, requiring daily blood transfusions. He spent most of his time making handcuffs, earrings and necklaces in the medical unit of Valledupar's prison.

Death Garavito died from a heart attack, tuberculosis, leukemia, and eye cancer at a hospital in Valledupar on 12 October 2023. He was 66 years old.

Public response Many Colombians criticized the possibility of Garavito's early release. In recent years, Colombians have increasingly felt that Garavito's sentence was not sufficient punishment for his crimes. Some argued he deserved either life in prison or the death penalty, neither of which exists in Colombia. Colombian law had no provision or method to impose a sentence longer than what Garavito received, which was seen as a deficiency in the law caused by the failure to address the possibility of a serial killer in Colombian society. The law has since increased the maximum penalty for such crimes to 60 years in prison.

Journalist Guillermo Prieto "Pirry" La Rotta interviewed Garavito for a show which was broadcast on 11 June 2006. Pirry mentioned that, during the interview, Garavito tried to minimize his actions and expressed intent to start a political career in order to help abused children. Pirry also described Garavito's conditions in prison and commented that due to good behaviour, he could have probably applied for early release within three years.