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One of the globe's most notorious serial killers who admitted to slaughtering hundreds of individuals was astonishingly freed early from jail and to this day nobody knows his whereabouts.
Pedro Alonzo Lopez, hailing from Colombia, is infamously known as the Monster of the Andes.
According to accounts, his extensive murder rampage commenced after being imprisoned in 1969 for vehicle theft.
While incarcerated, he was allegedly sexually attacked by fellow prisoners, and he retaliated by slaying them with a makeshift blade.
This merely extended his original sentence by two years - but following his release in 1978 he commenced raping and killing dozens of young girls across Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
The monster preyed upon defenceless girls from impoverished backgrounds and after kidnapping, raping and throttling them to death, he concealed their bodies beneath newspapers or foliage.
At one stage, he was allegedly killing three girls weekly, but when a flash flood struck near Ambato in Ecuador in 1979, some of his victims were exposed.
As these ghastly discoveries were being unearthed, Lopez tried to abduct a 12-year-old girl, named Maria Poveda.
Fortunately, the girl's mother managed to thwart the kidnapping in Ambato, before he was caught by officers.
During this period, police uncovered 53 burial sites containing girls aged between nine and 12.
Lopez was ultimately found guilty of murdering an astounding 110 people and he is reported to have posed with the skull of one of his victims. Throughout the proceedings, he alleged he endured a traumatic childhood, witnessing men engaging in sexual acts with his mother, who worked as a prostitute.
He claimed he was subjected to violence himself - and was thrown out of the family home at eight-years-old when his mother discovered him sexually abusing his younger sister.
He travelled to Bogota where he lived on the streets before an elderly man offered him shelter. According to Lopez, this man sexually abused him, prompting him to escape to an orphanage, where he alleged he was again subjected to sexual assault.
Following his capture, he also revealed to officers that young girls in Ecuador were his preferred targets because they were "more gentle and trusting, more innocent".
Disturbingly, according to reports, the fiend also admitted to an additional 240 killings.
Police officer Rothman Rios revealed: "It was weird, he remembered everything. And descriptions of all the girls.
"He knew where their bodies were. He was satisfied showing us the bodies. He felt no remorse, no guilt, no nothing."
Despite his heinous offences, Ecuador's legal system at that time imposed a maximum prison term of merely 16 years, irrespective of the victim count.
Remarkably, 32 years ago this month (on August 31, 1994), he was freed ahead of schedule for displaying "good behaviour" throughout his 14-year incarceration.
Upon his release, he was expelled to Colombia where he faced trial for murder charges matching his profile. However, these court proceedings determined that he was mentally ill, and in 1998 he was committed to a psychiatric hospital.
Nevertheless, he was subsequently declared mentally fit and permitted release after posting 50 bail.
One stipulation required him to report to the police station monthly - but he never complied.
It remains unknown whether he is still alive or his current whereabouts if he continues to live.
An Interpol arrest warrant was issued in 2002 but the serial killer was never apprehended.
C&I produced a documentary entitled Monster of the Andes about Lopez in 2019.
During one chilling interview from his prison cell, Lopez dubbed himself the "man of the century" and claimed that killing children made him feel "stronger and bigger".
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