The Monster of the Andes

Pedro Alonso López (born 8 October 1948), is a Colombian serial killer, child rapist, and fugitive who murdered a minimum of 110 people, mostly young women and girls, from 1969 to 1980. López claimed to have murdered over 300 victims.

Born into poverty in Colombia, López was initially imprisoned for auto theft in 1969, during which he claimed he was brutally gang-raped by a group of fellow inmates, whom he killed in retaliation. Upon his release from prison, López travelled extensively throughout South America, and during this period he claimed to have murdered hundreds of girls throughout Peru and Colombia. He was briefly captured by an Ayacuchoan indigenous tribe in Peru after attempting to abduct a 9-year-old girl, but an American missionary convinced the tribe to hand him over to the authorities, who released López soon after.

López was ultimately arrested in Ecuador in 1980 after attempting to abduct a 12-year-old girl. For murders committed in Ecuador, López was sentenced to 16 years in prison, the maximum penalty for murder in Ecuador at the time. López was released from prison in Ecuador in 1994, after which he was deported to and institutionalized in Colombia. López was released from psychiatric care in 1998, and is currently a wanted fugitive in connection with a murder committed in 2002. As of 2023, López's whereabouts remain unknown.

After his deportation from Peru, López resumed travelling throughout South America, and although authorities began to notice an increase of missing persons, more specifically young girls, throughout areas where he travelled, they concluded the disappearances were most likely cases of human trafficking.

In April 1980, the areas surrounding Ambato, Ecuador were hit by flash flooding, unearthing the remains of several young girls who had been previously reported missing. This revelation prompted the police to reopen their investigations and contributed towards López's ultimate arrest later that same year.

Not long after the flooding, a local woman named Carvina Poveda was on her way to the market with her 12-year-old daughter Marie when López attempted to abduct the girl. Local merchants were able to overpower López and hold him until the police arrived.

While in police custody after his arrest, López initially refused to cooperate during his interrogation, choosing to remain silent. Eventually though, López began to confess his crimes to Police Captain Pastor Cordova, who had been placed in the same cell as López posing as a prisoner. López boasted that in total, he had murdered “Over two hundred in Ecuador, some tens in Peru and many more in Colombia,” He described his modus operandi as first luring the victim away from public spaces with a trinket, before raping and strangling them with his bare hands. He additionally claimed that he would occasionally exhume the victim's bodies from their burial site and have 'tea parties' with them. When asked about his motive for the murders, López reportedly said: “I lost my innocence at age of eight. So I decided to do the same to as many girls as I could.” Soon after his confession, he directed the authorities to the bodies of 53 victims, and his confessions soon led to the confirmation of a total of 110 in Ecuador.

Later in 1980, López was convicted of murder and sentenced to 16 years in prison, the maximum prison sentence available in Ecuador at the time.

López served his prison sentence at the Garcia Moreno prison near Quito and was released from prison two years early, on August 31, 1994. In an interview shortly before his release, López described himself as "the man of the century" and said he was being released for "good behavior". After his release, López was deported to Colombia and was detained as an illegal immigrant on arrival, before being handed over to Colombian authorities. Prosecutors were unable to make a case against him, and he was instead declared insane and committed to a mental hospital. In 1998, López was declared sane and released on $70 bail, on the condition that he would periodically report to the authorities; he almost immediately absconded. Upon his release, López visited his mother and asked her for his inheritance. Upon being informed by her that she had nothing to give, he took and sold her chair and bed to people on the street. The last reported sighting of López was in September 1999, when he visited the National Civil Registry to renew his citizenship card.

In 2002, Colombian National Police and Interpol issued warrants for López's arrest over a murder bearing similarities to his modus operandi. The Interpol warrant was deactivated in 2005, but López remains a fugitive. López has also been named as a possible suspect in a homicide committed in Tunja, Colombia in 2012.