Suspected Serial Killer Gets 52 Years in Rape, Death of 2 Colombian Boys

A man who has confessed to molesting and killing 140 children was sentenced to 52 years for murdering one boy and raping another, a newspaper reported Friday.

Luis Alfredo Garavito, a drifter accused of sexually abusing and killing scores of homeless and poor children in a seven-year period, was found guilty of the murder of an 11-year-old in the north-central city of Tunja in 1996, the Bogota daily El Tiempo reported.

An alcoholic who claims he was severely abused as a child, Garavito, 42, was arrested in April on charges that he tried to rape a 12-year-old boy in another rural city, Villavicencio.

While in prison awaiting trial, investigators looking into a multiyear rash of child disappearances discovered Garavito’s name on an arrest warrant in the Tunja slaying.

With that break, investigators turned their focus on Garavito as a possible serial killer and announced in October that they had obtained his confession in the cases of 140 children who had disappeared across the country since 1992.

Garavito, who allegedly used disguises and lured his victims with candy and soft drinks, would be one of history’s worst serial killers. Colombia does not have the death penalty, and the most he could be sentenced to is 60 years in prison.

Garavito is likely to face charges in dozens of other cases, but no comment or information was available Friday because it was a court holiday.