Colombia Luis Alfredo Garavito dies, convicted of raping and murdering almost 200 boys, girls and adolescents

Luis Alfredo Garavito, convicted of abusing, raping and murdering nearly 200 girls, boys and adolescents, died this Thursday in the prison where he was serving his sentence in the city of Valledupar, in northern Colombia, reported the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute ( INPEC).

“Mr. Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos, who was detained in the city of Valledupar, died in the last minutes,” INPEC reported in a brief statement, adding that he died early in the morning at the new Santo Tomás clinic due to “multiple conditions.”

Garavito is considered the largest serial killer of children in Colombia and was in prison after confessing that he raped and murdered 197 children in various regions of the country in the 1990s.

Known as “The Beast”, he was arrested in April 1999 when he was trying to rape a minor and entered prison in December 2002, accused of the crimes of violent sexual act, homicide, violent carnal access, simple kidnapping and arson. Garavito was sentenced in 2001 to 1,853 years, but his sentence was reduced to 40.