Julio Pérez Silva
Julio Pérez Silva (born July 15, 1963 in Puchuncaví) is a Chilean serial killer who was active between 1998 and 2001.[1] Known as the Psychopath from Alto Hospicio, his crimes took place in the Tarapacá Region, specifically in the city of Iquique and in the town of Alto Hospicio, hence his nickname.[2][3]
Julio Pérez Silva | |
|---|---|
| Born | Julio Pérez Silva July 15, 1963 |
| Other names | The Psychopath from Alto Hospicio |
| Conviction(s) | Murder |
| Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment without parole |
| Details | |
| Victims | 14 |
Span of crimes | 1998–2001 |
| Country | Chile |
Date apprehended | October 4, 2001 |
His modus operandi was always the same. Working as a taxi driver, he intercepted young people with offers of free rides, then would take them somewhere remote, where he would rape and kill them with blows to the head. Later, Silva would throw the bodies in deep abandoned mines. He was convicted of killing 14 women and was sentenced to life imprisonment on February 26, 2004.[4]
Background
"Segua", as he was called in his childhood, spent most of years among the streets of Puchuncaví. Those who knew him at the school where he studied agreed that he was a quiet, introverted student.
He married at the age of 22 to Monica Cistemas, a native of La Calera, and they had two daughters. Then, he spent five years with Marianela Vergara, who already had two other daughters. With her he returned to Puchuncaví and reaped the reputation of a good husband.
In the mid-1990s he emigrated to Iquique looking for better job opportunities, finding a job loading sacks of salt. At a party he met Nancy Boero, fourteen years older than him and a mother of six children. After two weeks they were living together and then settled in Alto Hospicio, in a sector known as "La Negra". Later they would move to "Autoconstruccíon", another local sector.
Soon, he left his job to start as a taxi driver illegally. It was then that he began a string of crimes, all of similar characteristics.
Crimes
On September 17, 1998, he picked up 17-year-old Montserrat Graciela Saravia on the waterfront of Iquique. According to his confession, she offered him money in exchange for sex. However, this young woman's real intention was to steal from him. When he noticed this, he beat her to death and left her on a beach.
On November 24, 1999, while driving in Alto Hospicio, he offered 13-year-old Macarena Sanchez a ride to her school. After threatening her with a knife and raping her, he tied her hands and threw her into the Huantajaya Pique, which is more 220 meters deep.
In February 2000 he attacked twice in less than a week; the first was Sara Gomez on February 21, and just 2 days later 23-year-old cellphone promoter Angelica Lay, both of whom were killed in the middle of the desert.
On March 23 of the same year, exactly one month after the fourth murder, he assaulted and murdered 14-year-old Laura Zola, and like Sanchez, she was raped and murdered in Huantajaya.
Then, on April 5, he attacked Katherine Arce, whom he raped and murdered like Angelica Lay, then buried her body in an unofficial garbage dump.
On May 22, 17-year-old Patricia Palma left the lyceum on her way home. It was at that moment that Silva kidnapped, raped and killed her, leaving her body in Huantajaya along with the corpses of Sanchez and Zola.
Eleven days later, on June 2, he attacked again. He raped and murdered Macarena Montecinos in the "Pampa El Molle" sector, who suffered the same fate as Lay and Arce. The same fate befell 15-year-old Viviana Garay, who was intercepted, raped and killed with a blow to the head. The luck would be different this time, since the father of the last minor mobilized the relatives of other victims, who according to the authorities and the police had fled from their homes, immersed in poverty, to Peru or Bolivia, looking for a better future.
Because of this, Perez did not attack for nine months, but on April 17, 2001, he struck again in the sector "Autoconstrccíon" where he intercepted a child under 16 years identified as Maritza, threatening her with a knife and raping her, but did not kill her. Later she managed to escape and returned home. They took her to the hospital, where they took samples of the aggressor's semen. Although Maritza wasn't able to see her attacker due to the darkness, months later, when they checked him, she recognized his voice. They compared the DNA samples and they were identical.
Reactions of the press and victims' relatives
During all that time, the mysterious disappearances of so many young women from Alto Hospicio reached national coverage. However, the authorities of the time - mainly under the Secretary of Interior at the time, Jorge Burgos[5] - and the police assumed that it was most likely that the young people fled their homes due to poverty, possibly migrating to Tacna or Bolivia. There were even some suggestions that the girls probably engaged in prostitution. This fact diverted even more attention from the true motive of the disappearances.
However, with the disappearance of Viviana Garay generated a totally unexpected reaction. The father of the girl, Orlando Garay, mobilized the other affected families. Only then did the event become news, so the crimes briefly stopped.
The Mea Culpa program made a special about this case in 2003.
Discovery of the murderer
Searching for the truth
Orlando Garay, father of one of the victims Viviana Garay, began to fight for the truth and did not accept the authorities' speculations, selling his fisherman's boat to gather the families of other disappeared girls to find answers. On July 18, 2000, a bag and clothes belonging to Viviana were found on a rubbish dump where, according to her family and friends, she never went to; That same day, in another landfill, the neighbours found Katherine Acre's backpack and uniform. On July 20, Inés Valdivia, mother of Patricia Palma, distinguished her daughter's underwear in a ravine. This was how family members, friends and neighbours looked for the young women.
Last crime and arrest
On October 4, 2001, Perez made this last attack, when a young woman identified as Bárbara Nuñez survived. He intercepted and attacked in the same way he did with other victims, the difference was that Silva confessed to being the murderer; After he had hit her with a stone on the head and thinking she was dead, he left. Bárbara survived however, and managed to report the attack. That same day he was arrested; without any remorse he admitted to the murders and rapes, also confessing to having acted alone and denying having dementia. After his arrest, Perez provided the necessary information to locate the other victims' bodies. Currently, he is monitored 24 hours a day and is subjected to sleep control, after he once tried to commit suicide in his cell with a shoelace wound to a toothbrush.
So far, the names of five other disappeared young and adult women emerged in Alto Hospicio area between April 1999 and August 2001. However, Silva claims to know nothing about them.
Condemnation
Finally, on February 26, 2004, Perez, 40 years old at the time, was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for the murders of 11 adolescents and 3 adults in the attempted murder of other 2. He is currently incarcerated in the high security prison of Colina I in Santiago.[6]
Victims
According to the investigations, the 14 victims of Julio Pérez Silva, murdered between September 12, 1998 and August 23, 2001, would be:
- Viviana Garay, 16
- Katherine Arce, 16
- Patricia Palma, 17
- Macarena Montecino, 16
- Macarena Sánchez, 14
- Laura Zola, 15
- Gisela Melgarejo, 36
- Angelica Palape, 45
- Deysi Castro, 16
- Sara Gomez, 18
- Graciela Saravia, 18
- Ornella Linares, 16
- Angelica Lay, 24
- Ivonne Carrillo, 15
References
- Biography of Julio Pérez Silva on portalnet.cl
- Burlé O., Dominique (4 March 2014). "They ask to reopen case of the Alto Hospicio psychopath | (Piden reabrir caso del sicópata de Alto Hospicio)". www.lacuarta.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 July 2018.
- "RIGHTS-CHILE: Police Negligence in Serial Killings of Poor Teens | Inter Press Service". IPS Correspondents. SANTIAGO, Chile: IPS-Inter Press Service. www.ipsnews.net. 13 October 2001. Retrieved 30 July 2018.
- Locker, Melissa (21 September 2016). "South America's 8 Scariest Serial Killers". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 30 July 2018.
- "Burgos describes "legitimate" manifestations of relatives of victims of the Psychopath of Alto Hospicio against their appointment" (in Spanish). La Tercera. 27 February 2014. Retrieved 25 June 2016.
- "Psychopath of Alto Hospicio" was sentenced to simple life imprisonment