Luis Garavito: The Beast of Colombia

Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos was born in Colombia on January 25^th 1957. Garavito was the eldest of seven brothers, who were all raised by his alcoholic father; a man who both mentally and physically assaulted him and his siblings. Garavito decided to leave home at the age of 16 to get away from his father and make his own life. Work in Colombia at the time was hard to come by, so he often moved to keep up with odd jobs. Garavito kept a steady girlfriend who had a small child when they met [When questioned after his eventual arrest she was quoted as saying that he got along quite well with the child] all of the friends he acquired over the years said he was a kind man, but could be “easily tempered.”

Garavito started his killing career around 1992 and continued killing until he was caught by the Colombian Justice Department on April 22^nd 1999. Garavito targeted young homeless or orphaned boys between the ages of 6 and 16. He would disguise himself as various characters in order to get the boys he targeted to trust him; using the guises of a priest, farmer, street vendor, drug dealer, elderly man, and gambler. He would frequently change disguises in order to keep a low profile in whichever town he was living and killing in at the time. Depending on which disguise he was using at the time, he would find a boy and offer him money, candy, or odd jobs.

Upon convincing the targeted boy to follow him, he would keep them walking with him until they were tired; which he said made them easier to overcome. Once he did this, he would start the actual killing ritual by binding their hands behind their backs to keep them from making any sort of escape. Once bound, he would torture and rape his victims, and in some cases decapitate them or at the very least slit their throats. After killing his victims, he would often castrate them and place the removed genitalia in his victim’s mouths. Garavito chose to use mass graves for his victims, mostly due to being in one town for days or weeks and killing frequently. Upon the eventual findings of the mass graves, detectives noted that all of the victim’s bodies had bite marks, and in most cases, signs that their torture had been prolonged. Also surrounding most of the bodies would be empty liquor bottles and lubricant.

In 1992, when Garavito first started his serial killing journey, obviously many young boys started going missing, however the murders went under the radar until 1997… mostly due to the fact that Garavito was careful to choose homeless and or orphaned victims; which meant there was usually not a police report filed for the boys. Finally in 1997 the Colombian Justice Department took notice of these missing boys when a few of the mass graves were discovered. This discovery lead to a widespread investigation, although detectives had no real luck until around February 1998, when 3 bodies were found in close proximity to each other; naked with their hands bound and throats slit. The murder weapon had been left in plain sight near the bodies along with a note containing an address. This address lead detectives to the home of Garavito’s long time girlfriend.

Upon arrival at the home of Garavito’s girlfriend, she told detectives that she had not had any contact with him in the past several months, although she did have a bag that he had left in her possession when he had last paid her a visit. Detectives searched said bag, and found photos that Garavito had taken of his victims postmortem, detailed journals which he had described his killings and had even tallied the amount of murders he had committed. The bag also contained some of Garavito’s bills, which lead detectives to what they thought had been Garavito’s most recent address.

Upon arrival at the address they had discovered inside Garavito’s duffle bag, they found the house to be vacant. Detectives then assumed he had moved on to find other work and new victims and so their search continued.

Fast-forward to April 22^nd 1999, Garavito was arrested on two counts of the attempted rape of a young boy. He had been attempting said rape, when a homeless man had seen what was happening and decided to intervene [probably saving the boy’s life.] Unbeknownst to the arresting officers, they had in their custody the most wanted man in all of Colombia.

Upon questioning [and once they realized who they had in their custody] Garavito maintained his innocence; although it is said he cried when he was read the journal entries he had made detailing his killings. While having him in custody, the detectives still had to find enough evidence to prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, due to the Colombian Justice Department saying the journals and photos were not enough to prove it was all him. Luckily for the detectives, Garavito happened to have a rare eye disease found only in men of his age group. Due to this particular eye disease, Garavito had to wear a specific type of glasses. Glasses of the same type had been found in one of the mass graves, along with used underwear and shoes. The forensics analysis discovered DNA in the underwear and shoes and also inside the anal cavities of some of the victims. Detectives then decided to schedule mandatory eye exams to all prisoners in the facility in which Garavito was being held. While Garavito was outside of his cell, awaiting his eye exam, detectives went into his cell and collected DNA samples from his pillow, sheets and other articles located in the cell. Ultimately the DNA was a complete match to the DNA found on the underwear, shoes and inside the victims. That evidence, along with the eye exam proving his disease…meaning the glasses were a match to those found at one of the scenes, along with the postmortem photos of the victims and the detailed journals… detectives finally had enough evidence to prove Garavito was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and secure a conviction.

Garavito was initially charged with the killings of 172 boys; to which he only confessed to 147 and was convicted of 138. With the max sentencing for murder in Colombia x138, the total time amounted to 1853 years plus 9 days prison time. However, at the time of sentencing Colombian law stated max imprisonment could not exceed 40 years, and since Garavito eventually fessed up to the crimes and even drew maps to other gravesites, he was only sentenced to 22 years in prison. His scheduled date of release is sometime in the year 2021. Although, laws have since changed in Colombia and violent crimes against children must be sentenced to 60 years in prison, contrary to the previous 40-year max for crimes. Whether or not Garavito will be released on schedule in 2021 or will remain in prison for the rest of his life to serve out a full 60 years is yet to have been determined.