Pedro Alonso López (born October 8th 1948 or Venadillo. as the seventh of thirteen children born to Benilda López de Castañeda, a laundry worker. The family formerly lived in Saldaña, where his father Midardo Reyes,
López claimed that he had a difficult childhood due to the violence of the household and the absence of a father. He characterised his mother as a prostitute who "was only good for putting children into this world, each from different men", His mother claimed that she never took notice of any abnormal behaviour from López and that he ran away from home on his own accord on 5 April 1958 in an act of rebellion against her, presuming that he did not want to live with his mother any longer.
Serial killings
After his release in 1978, López began wandering throughout the northwestern area of South America. According to López, he usually stayed in Bogotá and would traverse the departments of Tolima, Huila, Cauca, and Nariño to enter Ecuador, through which he would pass into Peru. To acquaintances, he claimed to do migrant work in the Llanos on the border to Venezuela. While these claims are unverifiable, it is known that López was briefly captured by indigenous Peruvians in the Ayacucho region after attempting to abduct a 9-year-old girl from her village. The Ayacuchoans beat López for several hours before stripping him of his clothes and burying him up to the neck in sand. It's most often reported that their intention was to kill López through live burial, However, an American missionary convinced them to release López and turn him over to the police. The police did not detain López, and he was instead expelled from the country.
After his deportation from Peru, López resumed his killing spree in Ecuador, and although authorities began to notice an increase of missing persons, more specifically young girls, throughout areas where he travelled, they concluded the disappearances were most likely cases of human trafficking. On 14 December 1979, while in his hometown of El Espinal, López raped and murdered Flor Alba Sánchez. Also in El Espinal, there were two other murders of young girls on 21 December 1979 and 3 January 1980. Sánchez was found 20 days later buried on municipal property alongside another girl, Blanca Bautista, both bearing signs of torture. Sánchez is the only Colombian victim for whom López was tried. There were reportedly other criminal cases involving López, but the files were lost in a fire at the El Espinal courthouse. On 10 January 1980, he abducted Ivanova Jácome at a parking lot in , a suburb of Ambato, as she was heading for school. Jácome was raped and murdered in a nearby shack, with her body being discovered at Ambato's Plaza Urbina on 15 February.
In early 1980, two of the young vendors, florist Luz Marina Lozada and beverage vendor Marina Cuenca, were left alone after declining López's money, but they informed merchants of López's behaviour, believing he might be a child trafficker. On 9 March 1980, López tried to abduct 9-year-old Carmen Lozada, but her cries alerted bystanders, with López fleeing without the girl. Carmen identified López as the man who had previously offered her sister Luz Marina money. One of the first people who reached the scene, the plaza's merchant board president, Carolina Román Poveda, ran around the market, trying to rally other merchants to search for the attempted kidnapper. She was ignored because of the heavy business, with some saying she was being paranoid due to the news. She followed López out of the market and caught him talking to another 9-year-old girl, claiming to be a lost visitor and offering 100 sucres to be guided around, which the girl accepted. Román intervened as López was leading the girl to a secluded path, shouting that López was going to sell the child and threw herself on López. Bystanders were first inclined to believe López, who claimed ignorance and called Román crazy, and told her to let him go free. However, due to her insistence and the fact that she said that López already tried to kidnap two other girls, the crowd was convinced to bring López back to the plaza, shoving and punching him along the way. Román's fellow merchants were critical of her accusation and also wanted to release López, but she demanded him to be given to the authorities. López was brought to a police station, but he was released shortly after.
While in police custody after his arrest, López initially refused to cooperate during his interrogation, choosing to remain silent. He described his modus operandi as first luring the victim away from public spaces with a trinket, money, candy, or a job offer, before raping and strangling them with his bare hands for around 15 minutes. López would then embrace their corpses, referring to them as "muñequitas" ("dollies"), until they became cold, leaving them at the scene and returning later to cover them up more thoroughly. When asked about his motive for the murders, López reportedly said: "I lost my innocence at age of eight. So I decided to do the same to as many girls as I could." In an interview shortly before his release, López described himself as "the man of the century" and said he was being released for "good behavior". López was transported from Quito to Ibarra, where a judge had ordered for his deportation. Members of the press and the public were present at the court, with López shaking hands with several people on the way. After the deportation order was read, police seized López and took him to a different vehicle for transport to the Colombian border, driving around for five hours until nightfall to lose any potential pursuers, as the families of his victims had placed several bounties on López, the highest being $25,000.
In February 1998, López was declared sane and released on bail equivalent to US$70, on the condition that he would periodically report to his authorities and attend appointments with his therapist; he almost immediately absconded. He had used the identity card of a 60-year-old man from Aipe named Israel Césped to bypass checkpoints. The Interpol warrant was deactivated in 2005, based on a claim by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine that an abandoned corpse had been identified as López, which was accepted by the National Registry,
Victims
The most commonly reported victim count of 110 (not including the three prisoners killed by López in 1969) is based on López's admission to Ecuadorian authorities, who chose to only pursue those he stated to have killed within Ecuador. Police searches in "almost every province" recovered several remains around Ambato and Santo Domingo, as well as individual gravesites near villages in cantons including La Troncal, Tulcán, Quito, Azogues, Manta, and Salcedo. In 1992, López was also filmed and interviewed by American journalist Ronald Laytner of the National Examiner.
Editions of Guinness World Records between 2001 and 2007 included López in the Crime (alternatively the Crime and Punishment) category, initially as the "most prolific modern serial killer", below the "most prolific murderers" Indian bandit leader Thug Behram and Hungarian noblewoman Elizabeth Báthory. As the alleged victim count of the latter two was subject to dispute, later editions only included López as the "most prolific serial killer". The listing was removed in newer editions after complaints that it made a competition out of murder. López was again listed in the 2012 edition in the Big Stuff section. The Guinness World Records website continued to list López as "most prolific serial killer" until also being removed, while maintaining listings such as Jane Toppan as "most prolific serial killer (female)" and Behram as "most prolific murderer".
See also
- List of fugitives from justice who disappeared
- List of serial killers in Colombia
- List of serial killers by number of victims