Pedro Alonso López, a Colombian serial killer and rapist born in 1948, became known as the "Monster of the Andes." He targeted young girls, typically between ages 8 and 12, from poor and Indigenous families in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. He claimed to have killed over 300 girls, though he was convicted in connection with the murders of around 110 victims whose remains were linked to him in Ecuador.
Known Victims
At least 110 total — known victims include:
Unknown victims (10)
Location
Ambato Region, Quito, Ecuador
Summary
Pedro Lopez confessed to killing over 300 girls in Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador. He was released in 1998 and his current whereabouts are unknown.
Details
López lured girls from markets and rural areas with trinkets or promises, then raped and strangled them, often burying the bodies in mass graves. After being expelled from Peru, he continued offending in Ecuador, where he was captured in 1980 after a flash flood near Ambato exposed children's remains and a market attempt was foiled. He led investigators to numerous grave sites and confessed to roughly 300 murders. Convicted in Ecuador, he served around 18 years before being released in 1994 (deported to Colombia) and freed there in 1998; his whereabouts have since been unknown.
Background and Early Life
Pedro Alonso Lopez, later nicknamed the "Monster of the Andes," was born in Tolima Department, Colombia, in 1948. Sources differ on his exact date of birth, citing either October 5 or October 8, and occasionally the year 1949. His father was reportedly killed amid Colombia's mid-century political violence shortly before or after his birth, and Lopez grew up in extreme poverty.
By his own account, Lopez endured a deeply traumatic childhood that included homelessness, abandonment, and sexual abuse as a young boy living on the streets of Bogota. These claims originate largely from his later interviews and confessions and cannot be independently verified. As a young man he drifted into petty crime. In 1969 he was imprisoned in Colombia for vehicle theft, and he later claimed to have killed several fellow inmates while incarcerated, an assertion that, like much of his self-reported history, remains uncorroborated.
The Crimes
Lopez is alleged to have committed a series of murders across Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru in the late 1970s and 1980. According to his confessions, he targeted young girls, typically pre-teens, often from Indigenous and impoverished communities in markets and rural areas. He described luring victims away with the promise of small gifts, money, or trinkets before assaulting and strangling them.
The full scope of his crimes is one of the most contested aspects of the case. Lopez claimed responsibility for more than 300 killings, distributed across the three countries. Investigators were able to confirm only a fraction of this figure. The most frequently cited verified or recovered figure relates to the dozens of bodies later unearthed near Ambato, Ecuador. Because his confessions far exceeded the physical and forensic evidence, the widely repeated total of over 300 victims should be understood as his own uncorroborated claim rather than an established fact.
Investigation and Arrest
Lopez's capture came after years of crimes that had gone largely undetected, in part because victims were poor children whose disappearances received limited official attention. In 1980, he was seized by Indigenous Peruvians who caught him attempting to abduct a child. According to accounts of the case, an American missionary intervened to prevent his summary killing and arranged for him to be handed to local authorities, who deported him.
Soon afterward, in March 1980, Lopez was apprehended in Ambato, Ecuador, after an attempted abduction in a marketplace. A flash flood that same month exposed human remains in the area, lending sudden credibility to suspicions about a serial predator. Under interrogation, and reportedly aided by a police officer who posed as an inmate to gain his trust, Lopez delivered extensive confessions and led investigators to grave sites. Dozens of bodies, commonly reported as more than fifty, were recovered, transforming the case into one of the most notorious in South American criminal history.
Trial and Outcome
Following his confessions and the recovery of remains near Ambato, Lopez was prosecuted in Ecuador. He was convicted in the early 1980s in connection with the killings established there. At the time, Ecuadorian law capped prison sentences at a maximum of 16 years, the term he received, a sentence widely criticized given the scale of the crimes attributed to him.
The disparity between his self-reported hundreds of victims and his relatively short sentence reflected both the legal limits of the era and the difficulty of proving individual murders that crossed national borders and involved marginalized victims. Ecuadorian authorities focused prosecution on the cases they could substantiate, while his broader claims regarding Colombia and Peru were never fully tested in court.
Release, Aftermath, and Legacy
Lopez served his sentence in Ecuador and was released in the 1990s. Accounts of the timeline differ: he is reported to have been released from Ecuadorian custody and deported to Colombia in 1994, where he faced further legal proceedings, and to have been released again on bail in 1998. After this final release he disappeared, and his whereabouts have remained unknown ever since. There were later reports of renewed warrants and unconfirmed sightings, but no verified account of his death or capture has been established.
The case became internationally infamous, with Lopez frequently described in media as one of the most prolific serial killers ever, based on his own confessions. Criminologists and journalists have cautioned that his claimed total is unverified and likely inflated, even as the confirmed crimes remain horrific. His story has been the subject of documentaries and true-crime coverage, and it is often cited in discussions of gaps in cross-border law enforcement, the vulnerability of impoverished children, and the limits of sentencing law in the region during that period.
Frequently asked questions
What was the Pedro Lopez - Monster of the Andes case?
Pedro Lopez confessed to killing over 300 girls in Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador. He was released in 1998 and his current whereabouts are unknown.
Who was responsible for Pedro Lopez - Monster of the Andes?
Pedro Lopez. Pedro Alonso López, a Colombian serial killer and rapist born in 1948, became known as the "Monster of the Andes." He targeted young girls, typically between ages 8 and 12, from poor and Indigenous families in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. He claimed to have killed over 300 girls, though he was convicted in connection with the murders of around 110 victims whose remains were linked to him in Ecuador.
How many victims were there in the Pedro Lopez - Monster of the Andes case?
At least 110 victims are associated with this case, including named victims such as Unknown victims.
Where and when did the Pedro Lopez - Monster of the Andes case take place?
It took place in Quito, Ecuador in 1980.
Was the Pedro Lopez - Monster of the Andes case solved?
