Garavito, the top murderer and rapist of children in Colombia, died

At the Santo Tomás clinic in Valledupar, Luis Alfredo Garavito, classified as the top rapist and serial murderer of children in Colombia, died at noon this Thursday.

This subject was serving different sentences greater than 60 years in prison, including adults between Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador.

During the last years of his life he was confined in the Valledupar High and Medium Security Penitentiary, where he suffered from multiple illnesses, including leukemia. And he finally ceased to exist due to respiratory arrest.

Garavito’s criminal history

Garavito was captured in 1999 and sentenced to 60 years in prison for the crimes of violent sexual act, homicide, violent carnal access and simple kidnapping, but he was responsible for the murder and sexual abuse of at least 172 children in Colombia.

This man was one of the most prolific serial killers in Colombia and the world. His victims were children between 6 and 16 years old, of low economic status. He accosted them in playgrounds, sports fields, bus terminals, market squares and poor neighborhoods. As established, he offered them money and invited them to walk until the minors got tired and were attacked in unpopulated places. In those places, the lifeless bodies of the minors were found with their throats cut, mutilated and with signs of having been tied.

In 2023 he was diagnosed with eye cancer, which threatened his life. Since then, he had faced the possibility of conditional release, but a judge denied the request made by Colombia’s National Penitentiary and Prison Institute (Inpec). Garavito was transferred to the Rosario Pumarejo de López hospital in Valledupar in March 2020 for an unspecified case of leukemia.

In May 2020, Garavito was reported to be suffering from life-threatening eye cancer. In November 2020, it was reported that Garavito was in agony and continued to suffer until his death.

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