Pedro Lopez
Written By: TJ
Edited By: Grave Reviews Staff
Pedro Lopez is a prolific Colombian serial killer, pedophile, and thief. He killed and raped hundreds of little girls across his home country, Peru, and Ecuador. He was known as the “Monster of the Andes” for all the terrible things he had done from the years 1969 to 2002. However, not all monsters are born, some are created and Pedro Lopez just happened to fall miserably on the second category.
The Birth of an Innocent Boy
A baby’s cry was heard in the town of Santa Isabel, Colombia, on the October 8th, 1948 as Benilda Lopez de Castańeda gave birth to her 7th child, whom she would later name Pedro Lopez. Pedro’s father, Midardo Reyes, was married to another woman but had an affair with Benilda. Midardo was shot dead during a rebellious attack in a grocery store 6 months before Pedro was even born and as a result, Pedro grew up with his mother and twelve other siblings.
Pedro was seen as a polite and innocent boy. He even dreamed of becoming a teacher someday. Benilda, on the other hand, was a prostitute, and little Pedro would sometimes catch his mother having sexual activities with her clients. As a kid, these scenes had a disturbing effect on his psyche. So by the age of eight, Pedro was caught by his mother molesting her younger sister, which led him to be kicked out of the family house forever.
How The Monster Became a Monster
Pedro had no choice but to survive on the harsh streets of Colombia. Few days later, a man approached him, promising to give him food and shelter if Pedro came with him. Desperate and hungry, Pedro accepted the stranger’s offer. The following events turned dark when the man took Pedro to an abandoned building and repeatedly sodomized the poor boy until he was sexually satisfied and left.
Two years later, while the now 10-year-old Pedro was rummaging the streets, a genuine help came in the form of an elderly couple who took him as an orphan. They gave him food and shelter, and enrolled him in a school where Pedro would start to live his life as a kid. However, this was also where his life would change after two years when he was again sexually assaulted but this time, by his own teacher.
Pedro ran away from the only place he considered home. He was back on the streets but he made a promise to himself, to never be abused again by anyone, and eventually spoke of vengeance for all his sufferings. Pedro hid in the shadows, only stealing at night and hiding by day. His petty theft progressed into carnapping where he would steal cars for sums of money. This was how Pedro lived his young adult life, fears cocooned in slyness and trickery.
At the age of 21, Pedro was arrested for auto theft and was sentenced to serve 7 years in prison. Two days after imprisonment, Pedro was brutally gang-raped by 3 of his cellmates, an event that deeply traumatized him. But Pedro wasn’t the helpless kid anymore. He created a makeshift knife and one by one, killed all of his attackers. This gained him respect from the other inmates who never dared disturb him again. The Colombian Justice Department ruled it as self-defense, and only two years was added to his sentence.
Monster of the Andes
Pedro’s release in 1978 began the monstrous madness of the Monster of the Andes. He started raping and killing little girls, mostly of indigenous backgrounds, aged from eight to twelve years old. He moved to Peru, where he continued his Modus Operandi. One incident almost took his life when a native tribe called Ayachuchos caught him trying to kidnap a nine-year-old. They submitted him into tribal law and planned to bury him alive when an intervention in the form of a Western missionary came. The missionary convinced the tribe to spare Pedro and turn him in to the Peruvian police. The missionary, however, deported Pedro back to Colombia without truly considering the dangers of such act.
Pedro was once again back at preying on innocent children. This time, he moved to Ecuador, where missing cases started to increase. The authorities assumed these youngsters were being kidnapped by child peddlers and being sold as sex slaves or organ sources. However, a flood in the midst of April 1980 exposed dead bodies of missing children and they quickly realized that a serial killer was at large.
Another incident caught Pedro in the act of kidnapping a little girl from a busy market, but this time no intervention came to spare him. The parents of the would-be victim cornered him and were ready to knock him out but the police arrived and took him to jail. Pedro refused to cooperate at first, but investigator Pastor Cordova Gudino had an idea to get information out of the suspect. Gudino dressed as an inmate and gained Pedro’s trust by sharing his stories and experiences with him, and the latter finally confessed to his own crimes.
Pedro poured his heart out to Gudino. He told him where he buried his victims and what he did to them. Pedro told him that he usually lured his victims to prepared graves. He would wait until sunrise before satisfying his sick sexual desires because he wanted to see the faces and the eyes of the children fade away to death. He would visit the graves full of dead bodies and have tea parties with the corpses. Pedro would often become annoyed by the victims when they did not respond.
Upon discovering at least 57 bodies at the places Pedro had mentioned, the police took him by his words. Coupled with his confessions, he was charged with 110 counts of murders but he claimed to have killed over 200 more in the neighboring countries of Peru and Colombia. Because of Ecuadorian law, Pedro only received a 16-year sentence on July 31, 1981, much to the outrage of parents and onlookers.
When asked why he committed all those inhumane crimes, he casually said, “I lost my innocence at the age of eight. So I decided to do the same to as many girls as I could.” A simple answer, but no remorse could be seen through his eyes.
The Monster was Freed
Pedro only served 14 years in prison, having been released 2 years early for good behavior. He was quoted saying “I am the man of century, no one will ever forget me”, before being deported back to his home country, Colombia. There, he was diagnosed insane in 1994 and was admitted to a psychiatric facility.
Only 4 years later, Pedro was declared sane and released under $50 bail with additional stipulations. He visited his mother after decades and decades of not seeing his family. He found his mother in an ill state, but he demanded that she give him his life inheritance. Afraid and weak, his mother gave him a few dollar bills from her cabinet. Pedro wasn’t satisfied so he also took her only bed and chair and sold it to people outside.
After that, Pedro was never seen again and his whereabouts are no longer known. If he isn’t dead at the current time, then the Monster of the Andes has been walking among us ever since.
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