From 1992 to 1999, serial killer Luis Garavito terrorized the entire South America by committing some of the most heinous crimes in modern history. As per reports, Garavito raped and tortured his victims before killing them.
For more than seven years, the authorities couldn’t catch Garavito. However, on April 22, 1999, the police arrested the serial killer and sent him to prison. The court declared that Garavito had killed 138 young men and boys in Western Colombia. However, investigators believe that he operated in Ecuador and Venezuela as well, and his final number of victims could be somewhere between 190 and 195.
In October 1999, Luis Garavito, known as The Beast of Colombia, confessed to his crimes. The court sentenced Garavito to spend 1,853 years and 9 days in jail. However, Colombian law limited his imprisonment to only 40 years. Although parole was a possibility, the 66-year-old convict succumbed to terminal cancer and died in a hospital in October 2023.
Luis Garavito: Was the serial killer convicted of his crimes?
In June 1992, Luis Garavito initiated his killing spree and took the life of a 13-year-old in Colombia. He didn’t stop there and continued to kill several others as time passed. Reports suggest that the killer felt a force within compelling him to murder children. At first, the sudden disappearances went unnoticed, but things took a horrifying turn when authorities uncovered mass graves containing as many as 36 children.
The investigation began, and soon, they developed suspicions about Garavito. Widely reported accounts depict Luis Garavito passing out partially naked on top of a child’s corpse with a cigarette in his left hand. In the process, he burned himself and left almost everything at the scene.
Authorities found a note containing Garavito’s girlfriend’s address. Police went and interrogated the girlfriend and found his belongings. Police discovered pictures of young boys, detailed journal entries in which Garavito described each of his crimes, and tally marks of his victims in one of his bags.
A week later, authorities finally arrested Garavito in April 1999 and he confessed to his crimes. He confessed to murdering about 140 children and faced charges for killing 172 altogether throughout Colombia.
A documentary based on Luis Garavito’s heinous crimes, titled Garavito: The Serial Beast, is available for streaming on Prime Video.
