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preferred platform today's episode involves crimes against children and won't be suitable for all
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listeners on Saturday May 5 1979 a shout rang out over the bustling Plaza urbina
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Market Square in the equadorian city of ambato alarming disappearance of Ecuadorian girls
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continues the day's newspaper headline was met with the dread from passing locals for several months girls between
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the ages of 7 and 14 had been Vanishing from the streets of Ecuador a majority of them worked as
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Market vendors having come from poor families who required them to sell Goods to help make 's
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meat because of this the police mostly branded the girls as runaways some officers believed the
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girls had fled to bigger cities where they could get jobs as Maids they told worried parents that
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their daughters were now probably better off others suggested the girls had fled
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their homes out of Shame for failing their school year despite being aware of the ever
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increasing danger many parents couldn't afford to hide their daughters away all they could do was keep a closer eye on
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their children and warn them not to go off with strangers it wasn't enough each week across the country two
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to three girls girls continued to go missing at Plaza urina 11-year-old ensia gares held a stack of the newspapers
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while shouting the horrifying headline trying to catch the interest of passes by for orenia selling newspapers was a
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necessity she was about to become a big sister and had to help her family provide for the arrival of her
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brother orenia continued shouting as she left Plaza orena and weaved her way through the city
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streets that evening as Darkness set in utena's family began to worry ensia should have sold all of her
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newspapers hours ago but she still hadn't returned home fearing the worst utena's father
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ran to Plaza rinaa there was no sign of the 11-year-old anywhere 3 days later the Tuesday edition of the
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newspaper was released the headline revealed that autentia g says was the latest girl to
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go missing Without a Trace [Music] [Music] over the next 9 months an increasing number of young Ecuadorian girls
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continued to go missing investigators could no longer ignore the issue when they finally
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started looking into the string of disappearances a distinct geographical pattern
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emerged the towns and cities from where the girls had vanished were concentrated
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along the Andes mountain range the northernmost town sat right up against the border with Colombia while
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the southernmost town was near the border with Peru to police this strongly suggested
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the involvement of human traffickers they theorized that the girls were being hidden in vehicles
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funneled along the Andes ranges and smuggled across the borders the only City not positioned
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along the Andes was wakil which sat about 100 km west of the mountains what Disturbed the police
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about this deviation was that wakil was a port city it handled over 90% of the country's shipping container
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traffic police feared that the girls were being loaded into these containers and transported by
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sea drug trafficking by Colombian gangs had been been an increasing problem and the theory quickly emerged that the
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criminals had expanded into child trafficking National newspapers reported that the Colombians had recruited a
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network of on the ground members from within Ecuador to procure young girls from the
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streets they were most likely being transported to another country in South or Central America and sold into
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domestic or sexual slavery International wild trafficking was a problem that had plagued South
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America for decades but Ecuador had rarely seen it on such an enormous scale citizens were on
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edge it was well known that members of trafficking organizations weren't limited to the obvious criminal types
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anyone could be involved from business owners to factory Workers Local officials and
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teachers the fact that the girls had been taken without any one noticing suggested that the abductors could
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easily blend in with their communities people became increasingly suspicious of their
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[Music] neighbors across the country police commenced a coordinated effort to capture anyone involved in the
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trafficking ring officers were posted at airports and bus terminals to identify any suspicious activity every truck G
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and car attempting to cross the border into Colombia or Peru was thoroughly searched uniformed officers were
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stationed in marketplaces to provide a visible police presence while undercover officers covertly patrolled these areas
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posing as Market vendors or customers Round the Clock surveillance teams watched the docks in W kill
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keeping an eye on all of the containers leaving Ecuador undercover officers posed as
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Dock Workers in the hopes of gaining Intel about human cargo despite these actions not a single
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missing girl was located nor a single suspect detained the fact that the police were
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being continuously outsmarted suggested that the trafficking ring was being run by highly skilled and highly organized
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criminals by early 1980 150 girls between the ages of 7 and 14 had been reported missing along the Andes
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ranges the situation was labeled a national crisis as tensions heightened the country's president demanded that the
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police produce results 's police captain Pastor cordiva sat at his desk in contemplation The Disappearance of
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11-year-old orenia gares from Plaza rabina 9 months earlier was wasn't the first in his
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jurisdiction nearly a dozen girls had been stolen from Ambat on Captain ca's watch frustrated and unsure what else to
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do Captain cordiva began reviewing the rap sheets of Colombian criminals with known links to trafficking or other
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organized crime perhaps his officers would get lucky and catch sight of one of these
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Colombians in Ambat with the right interrogation tactics the they could use this one gang
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member to break open the entire trafficking operation the captain prayed to find one
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of these men before another girl went missing on the afternoon of Thursday February 14 1980 a well-respected bakery
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owner named Carlos Yak entered the Ambat police station and stood before Captain
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cordiva Carlos was in obvious distress he explained that his 9-year-old daughter Ian NOA sometimes brought food
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to him at the bakery's head office she usually arrived by 11:00 a.m. but on this day she didn't turn
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up Carlos went home to check that everything was okay only to find that the house was
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empty he and his wife searched for even over but couldn't find her anywhere Captain civer considered what
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had just told him even NOA Yak was within the preferred age range of the child traffickers but she didn't fit
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with the rest of their usual victim profile Ian NOA belonged to a wealthy family and didn't work as a market
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vendor Captain cordiva asked whether iov's route would have taken her anywhere near Plaza
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orina Carlos nodded the yak family home was right near the plaza officers immediately began
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canvasing the Streets between the yaki's home and the bakery's head office asking
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if anyone had seen a young girl wearing blue overalls and a red apron with white
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polka dots Carlos and his wife pinned hundreds of missing person posters featuring a
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smiling picture of Ian NOA to Street lamps and Shop Windows across armato offering a substantial cash reward for
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information the investigation turned up nothing police couldn't even be certain where along the root iova had been
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[Music] abducted 3 weeks after Ian noa's disappearance on the morning of Sunday March 9 1980 Plaza robina's Market
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vendors huddled together before opening time Kina Ramon who ran the Hot Potato stall and was the president of the
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sellers Association reminded the group that several young girls who worked in or near the plaza had fallen victim to
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the child trafficking gang she urged everyone to be on the lookout for anything suspicious those in the crowd nodded in
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agreement before dispersing towards their stalls Carina called over her 11-year-old old daughter Maria who would
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be Manning a refreshment stand in the plaza that day Kina embraced Maria and implored her
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to be extra careful Maria skipped over to her stall and prepared for the day ahead her friend Esther not her real
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name was also working at a refreshment stand nearby and the two girls promised to look out for one
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another the crowds soon poured in and by 10:00 a.m. Plaza abina was buzzing with
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activity Maria looked up as a tall thin man with wavy brown hair and a toothless
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smile approached her stand he was carrying a jumbled collection of trinkets including buttons
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sewing kits matches chains padlocks sweets and cosmetics the man pulled out a crumpled
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100 sucra Bill and offered it to Maria it was a significant amount of money and much more than any of the drinks
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cost Maria eyed the man suspiciously he explained that he was a traveling street vendor who was only
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passing through town he needed help finding a bus that would take him to wak Hill the man offered to pay Maria the
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100 sucres if she took him to the bus stop Maria declined telling the man she couldn't leave her
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stand he turned and wandered away Maria called to her friend Esther and explained the strange
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encounter they decided it was best to tell Maria's mother Carina and dashed over to her
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store Carina followed Maria back to the refreshment stand to see if the suspicious man was still
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loitering they scanned the surrounding faces but he disappeared into the [Music]
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crowd a few hours later as the day's trade began to quieten down the street vendor
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reappeared this time he approached Esther's refreshment stand he repeated the story that he told
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Maria earlier offering Esther the 100 sucra to be his guide he also offered to buy all of
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Esther's remaining drinks so that she wouldn't lose out on any money by leaving her stall
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unattended Esther was immediately mistrustful she snapped back why do you just ask little girls
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why not ask an adult a man without waiting for his response Esther grabbed Maria and they hurried to
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find Carina Carina immediately sprung into action she dashed over to where the girls had last seen the man but he
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hadn't waited around Carina quickly Enlisted the help of other vors and they spread themselves
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throughout the Plaza on the hunt for the tall toothless man carrying a collection
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of trinkets Kina charged through the Labyrinth of stalls until she was certain the whole Market had been
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canvased frustrated that he'd managed to escape again Kina stopped on the edge of
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the plaza to catch her breath just as she was about to return to her potato stand she spotted someone
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who fit the description of the man coming out of a butcher shop across the street one of his abnormally large hands
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was wrapped around the tiny hand of a 9-year-old girl he was leading her away from the
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plaza Kina began screaming that the man was kidnapping a child she ran over to him and grabbed
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his arm the man tried to wriggle out of kalina's grasp but she held on to him with all her strength continuing to
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shout for assistance within seconds nearly a dozen men pounced on the trinket vendor and
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held him securely realizing he couldn't escape the man stopped struggling he offered the crowd a
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toothless smile saying he was just a simp simple traveling street vendor trying to make a
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living he claimed that the young girl was merely showing him the way to the bus station so he could continue his
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journey to some of the men this explanation seemed entirely plausible thinking they may have reacted
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unfairly they relaxed their grip but Carina didn't believe a word of it she told the crowd that the trinket
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Celler was part of the traffic ring abducting and selling young girls he'd earlier tried to lure her own daughter
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away with money those in front could see that the confused 9-year-old girl from The
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Butcher Shop was grasping a crumpled 100 sucra Bill the crowd was torn some supported Carina While others
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thought she was being hysterical as calls to let the man go be to circulate police arrived on the scene
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and took him into custody when Amato's police captain Pastor cordiva entered the interrogation
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room he was Furious the detaining officers had tried to extract information from the trinket
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vendor with violence and he sat bruised and bloody the beatings hadn't achieved anything the man insisted he was
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innocent and knew nothing about the alleged trafficking ring Captain cordiva feared that the
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officers had squandered any chance to get information from the suspect instead he decided to approach
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with kindness Captain cordiva brought the man a drink and a sandwich and offered him a
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cigarette the two Sat smoking together in silence eventually captain cordiva assured the trinket vendor that he
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wouldn't receive any more beatings and asked if the two could just talk for a while the men nodded in
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agreement he said his name was Pedro Alonzo Lopez and he was a 31-year-old traveling vendor from
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Colombia the captain maintained a calm exterior but internally he was excited thinking he may have finally caught one
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of the Colombian gang members cordiva leaned in a little further and said tell me about
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yourself Lopez relaxed and started to talk Captain cordiva desperately wanted to ask about the missing girls but he
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didn't want to jump into the subject too soon instead he asked Lopez whether he had a criminal
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past Lopez admitted that when he was 21 he was caught stealing a car in boretta the capital city of
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Colombia he was sent to prison for 7 years one night four older men entered his cell and raped
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him Lopez swore Revenge 2 weeks later he lured each of the men one by one back into his
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cell he stabbed three of them to death with a makeshift knife the fourth managed to escape and raised the
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alarm the authorities considered the killings to be in self-defense and Lopez wasn't harshly
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punished since his release Lopez made his meager living as a traveling street vendor he told Captain cordiva that he
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liked to be continuously on the move between Colombia Ecuador and Peru recognizing this as an opportunity
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the captain suggested to Lopez that a man who traveled so much must have seen many
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things Lopez agreed Captain cordiva pushed so you must know about the traffickers of the little
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girls Lopez shook his head he said he didn't know anything about traffickers and wasn't involved
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with that sort of thing at all Lopez then gave the captain a broad toothless smile and
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said but I do know about the girls Lopez said the police should forget about chasing down a child
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trafficking ring he said there was only one person responsible for the missing girls and that person was him
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Captain civer was unconvinced over 150 girls had been reported missing over the past year and
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it wasn't possible that one man had kidnapped them all furthermore if Pedro Lopez really
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was responsible selling the girls would have earned him a lot of money the man sitting before him was
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near penniless regardless the captain did believe Lopez knew something about what
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had happened to the missing girls he asked where are the girls now Lopez laughed and spoke
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triumphantly they are all dead dead and buried along the Andes he flashed another toothless grin
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and continued I'll show you within the hour captain cordiva and two other officers were in a police car
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following Lopez as's Directions They Drove North out of Ambat for about 16 km until they reached a
00:22:35
rural farming area Lopez directed the police through a number of turns down nondescript a dirt
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roads until he finally signaled for the car to stop cordiva and his officers followed
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Lopez on foot through scrub until they came to a gap in a fence Lopez slipped through and ran
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ahead when the officers caught up Lopez was standing in front of a small wooden box it was roughly 130 cm long and 90 CM
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wide and looked like it was intended to be a Mak shifted beehive a stench hung in the air as
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Lopez pointed to the Box the officers used crowbars to crack open the lid inside was a dirty
00:23:30
mattress on top of the mattress was the naked body of a young girl Captain cordiva immediately knew
00:23:39
who she was tucked alongside her body was a pair of blue overalls and a red apron with
00:23:47
white polka dots it was 9-year-old iova yak investig tigators had assumed that Ian NOA had been abducted while walking
00:24:02
to deliver food to her father but according to Lopez that wasn't the case he explained that on the morning of
00:24:11
Thursday February 14 1980 he was passing by the yak's house when even Nova poked
00:24:18
her head outside the front door she looked up the street before retreating back inside Lopez stopped in his tracks
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he watched the house for a few hours until he was certain that the child was Home
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Alone Lopez eventually knocked on the front door but there was no answer he called out to iova saying he
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was a friend of her father's Ian NOA cautiously opened the door Lopez produced 10 sucres and said
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that iova his parents wanted them to go to the store to buy vegetable Ian NOA was hesitant but Lopez said that
00:25:03
her parents would be angry if she didn't go with him she took Lopez's hand and the pair
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walked down the street Lopez spoke to wova sweetly and distracted her with conversation he guided her out of ambato
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and towards the rural Countryside after several hours they were amongst farmlands
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by Nightfall I NOA became tired of walking and started asking for her mother Lopez looked around and spotted
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the wooden box plus a discarded mattress lying nearby he opened the box and placed the
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mattress inside all of his friendliness towards Ian NOA disappeared and he ordered her
00:25:51
to climb inside Lopez subdued evanova by punching her twice in the head he then raped her repeatedly before
00:26:01
strangling her to death Lopez slept alongside her body for a while before closing the lid of the
00:26:08
box and walking away Captain Pastor cordiva made the heartbreaking call to iova his
00:26:18
parents when Carlos Yak saw his daughter's body he was unable to speak even of his mother collapsed to
00:26:27
the floor an autopsy on iov's body later corroborated Lopez's account of his attack Lopez had more to say he was
00:26:40
eager to take police to another of his young victims as they prepared to depart the
00:26:47
station they were met by an angry mob banging for Lopez's blood Captain cordiva tried to appease
00:26:55
the crowd telling them he understood their anger but this wasn't just about even
00:27:01
overa there were many more missing girls to be found the crowd ignored the captain's
00:27:08
pleas to be patient and repeatedly called for Lopez to be lynched officers were forced to smuggle
00:27:16
Lopez through an alternative exit and bundle him into a waiting police vehicle this time they didn't have to
00:27:24
travel far [Music] Pedro Lopez directed police to the outskirts of town where the ficoa bridge
00:27:35
connected Central Ambat with the affluent neighborhood of fooa he specified a site underneath the
00:27:43
bridge on the banks of the Ambat River officers began digging and it wasn't long before they found something
00:27:51
buried underneath it was a stack of newspapers dated May 5 19 1979 the day that 11-year-old ortensia
00:28:02
gares had disappeared underneath the papers was a small set of sceletal remains news that a second body had been
00:28:14
uncovered quickly spread and hundreds of towns folk gathered on the scene as the remains were lifted out of
00:28:21
the dirt Captain cordiva spotted utena's parents in the crowd and brought them forward
00:28:28
the body was too badly decomposed to be identified but utena's parents recognized her
00:28:36
clothes The Angry Crowd began throwing rocks at Lopez forcing police to remove him from the
00:28:44
scene on their way back to the station Lopez confessed that he'd approached ortensia gares as she was crossing the
00:28:51
ficoa bridge he took a copy of the newspaper and made a comment about the missing
00:28:58
girls headline he then asked utena to be his guide offering to pay 10 sucres as well
00:29:06
as by all of her remaining papers oreno agreed Lopez led orenia into the thick vegetation of the riverbank where he
00:29:19
proceeded to repeatedly rape her before strangling her to death he rested alongside utena's corpse
00:29:27
for a few hours then buried her and her newspapers in a nearby ditch Lopez then went in search of
00:29:35
another little girl he couldn't find one that day but he told police that he got lucky the
00:29:44
next over the following weeks Pedro Lopez LED captain cordiva and his officers to 110 remote and obscure
00:29:53
locations across Ecuador where he claimed to have buried the bodies of his V victims none of the sites were marked
00:30:02
yet Lopez recalled each location with Precision at some sites multiple bodies had been callously thrown on top of one
00:30:12
another at others no bodies could be found the remains presumably destroyed by animals weather and
00:30:21
time construction work had since been conducted at several locations in tuming any remains under
00:30:30
concrete every time a body was discovered Lopez explained how the girl came to be
00:30:37
there the story was more or less always the same Lopez would befriend his young victim and then lead her to a secluded
00:30:46
location before raping and killing her eventually Lopez told Captain cordiva no more I have proven enough
00:30:57
that I am the one responsible for all the girls in all the bodies of 80 Ecuadorian
00:31:05
girls were uncovered but by Lopez's own admissions police believed he was responsible for
00:31:13
over 100 murders in the country the people of Ecuador weren't suffering alone Lopez had happily admitted that
00:31:23
he'd done the same in Colombia and Peru across the three countries he claimed to
00:31:30
have taken at least 300 lives the realization dawned on Captain cordiva Pedro Lopez was one of the most
00:31:42
prolific serial killers ever [Music] known while in custody awaiting trial Pedro Lopez was permitted to partip
00:31:57
ipate in media interviews he delighted in the attention and took pleasure in detailing his story
00:32:04
to anyone who would listen explaining how he chose his victims he said I would walk among the markets
00:32:13
looking for a girl with a certain look on her face a look of innocence and Beauty I like the girls of
00:32:21
Ecuador they are more gentle more innocent and trusting than the girls of Colombia who are too suspicious of
00:32:30
strangers Lopez admitted that the girls he targeted were victims of convenience he had often followed
00:32:37
fair-haired children of tourists but his opportunity to strike never arose as quote their parents were too
00:32:48
watchful according to Lopez it all started in the mid 1970s following his release from
00:32:55
prison he spent a lot of time wandering through the mountains near the picturesque Tekken falls about 30 km
00:33:03
Southwest of Boga during one Journey he came across a young girl walking down a dirt
00:33:10
road she became Lopez's first child victim and the Tekken dama Falls area became a burial ground for a number of
00:33:18
young girls thereafter Lopez eventually made his way down to Peru where the rapes and murders
00:33:26
continued in 1978 Lopez was traveling through a small village in the yayak kucho region
00:33:34
of Southern Peru he managed to convince a 9-year-old indigenous girl to accompany him for a
00:33:40
walk but several villagers saw what he was doing and quickly realized that Lopez was responsible for the Spade of
00:33:48
missing girls in the area the community decided they would punish Lopez according to their native
00:33:56
Customs he was stripped in naked and hogtied honey was poured all over his body and he was thrown into a large
00:34:04
hole the villagers were planning to First torture Lopez with live ants and then bury him
00:34:12
alive just as they were about to release the ants an American woman stepped forward she was a Christian Missionary
00:34:20
who had been promoting her faith in the village the woman begged the villagers not to go through with their plant
00:34:28
she urged them to let her deliver Lopez to the Peruvian authorities Instead The Villages
00:34:36
agreed Lopez was hauled into the woman's Jeep and driven to the Region's police station but the Peruvian police were
00:34:46
apathetic to the plight of indigenous communities and they had no interest in investigating Lopez's involvement with
00:34:53
the missing girls without so much as questioning him they escorted Lopez across the border
00:35:00
and released him back into Colombia Lopez estimated that by the time he left Peru in 1978 he had
00:35:09
murdered over 100 girls there he claimed to have spent the next year traveling along the Andes mountain range between
00:35:17
Colombia and Ecuador abducting raping and strangling young girls with impunity based on the number of burial locations
00:35:33
that Pedro Lopez had pinpointed to Ecuadorian police he was eventually charged with the rape and murder of 110
00:35:41
girls in July 1981 14 months after his capture Lopez faced the judge despite his previous confessions
00:35:52
and for reasons unknown he pleaded guilty to only 57 of those charges Lopez labeled himself the man of
00:36:02
the century while the people of Ecuador called him the monster of the Andes the general consensus was that
00:36:10
Lopez deserved nothing short of execution but the death penalty had been abolished in Ecuador 70 years
00:36:17
prior the revulsion against Lopez's crimes was so great that a mass protest was staged in
00:36:24
ambato the families of the young victims petitioned the president to allow the death penalty in this instance
00:36:32
commenting our hearts are bloodied and our hands are raised to Heaven imploring Justice the president acknowledged the
00:36:42
pain that the families and all ecuadorians were feeling but rejected the request instead he asked them to put
00:36:51
their trust in the justice system assuring that Lopez would be punished to the full extent of the law
00:37:00
Ecuador's criminal code did not permit sentences for murder to run consecutively accordingly Pedro Lopez
00:37:08
would only be sentenced for one murder not the dozens he had pleaded guilty to nor the potential hundreds he was
00:37:16
responsible for Lopez was given the maximum penalty for murder that was in force in Ecuador
00:37:25
at the time 16 [Music] years just over 13 years later on Wednesday August 31 1994 Pedro Lopez was
00:37:38
released from prison early on account of good behavior he was 45 years old however Lopez was considered an
00:37:48
illegal immigrant in Ecuador as soon as he was released he was immediately taken
00:37:54
into custody by immigration officials the following day he was escorted across the border and delivered to the
00:38:01
Colombian authorities it was the moment they'd been waiting for for 14 years in late December 1979 2 months
00:38:12
prior to Lopez's capture in Ecuador a 9-year-old girl named FL Sanchez went missing from the Colombian town of L
00:38:21
espanel shortly after Flora's body was discovered she had been raped and strangled over the following weeks the
00:38:32
bodies of four more girls were discovered in Indian towns leading South back towards
00:38:38
Ecuador at the time Colombian authorities had no idea who was responsible for the
00:38:44
murders after Pedro Lopez was captured in Ecuador the reality became clear L espanel was Lopez's hometown
00:38:57
Flor Sanchez had gone missing the day after Pedro Lopez arrived for a visit there he left town a few days later
00:39:07
traveling his usual route South along the Andes in media interviews following his
00:39:13
capture Lopez boasted about committing many murders in L espanel he was amused that the police
00:39:20
hadn't found more bodies with Pedro Lopez back on Colombian soil authorities were finally
00:39:28
able to charge him with the murder of Flor Sanchez in Colombia the maximum penalty
00:39:34
for murder was 60 years given Lopez was 45 60 years would effectively be a life sentence this gave Comfort to the
00:39:45
families of Lopez's victims who felt cheated by the leniency of Ecuador's justice
00:39:52
system but such Comfort was shortlived as part of of the pre-trial procedures Lopez was subjected to a
00:40:00
psychiatric examination he was deemed mentally ill and therefore not criminally responsible
00:40:08
for his actions Lopez had consistently described a childhood of abuse and Trauma he
00:40:18
claimed that his mother was a sex worker that he never knew his own father and that all of his siblings were fathered
00:40:25
by different men as a child Lopez claimed that his mother was violent and abusive towards him
00:40:33
kicking him out of the family home when he was just 8 years old he spent the rest of his childhood
00:40:40
on the streets Lopez recalled he'd once been taken in by a seemingly kind man who
00:40:47
turned out to be a pedophile he escaped and returned to the streets a few years later when Lopez was
00:40:56
12 an American couple took pity on him they gave him food and clothes and enrolled him in
00:41:04
school there Lopez claimed he was sexually abused by one of the teachers according to Lopez the rapes
00:41:13
and murders he committed were in retaliation for his own childhood he told the media I lost my innocence at the age of
00:41:22
eight and I decided to do the same to as many young girls as possible I am not sorry for what I
00:41:31
did after Lopez's psychological assessment was handed down in Colombia the psychiatric Community debated his
00:41:39
mental state some believed that Lopez was turned into a rapist and Killer by his
00:41:45
childhood experiences others believed he was a born psychopath incapable of remorse or
00:41:54
Rehabilitation instead of a life Behind Bars he was sent to a mental health facility for ongoing
00:42:02
treatment just over 3 years later in February 1998 Pedro Lopez was declared CED and
00:42:11
sane at the age of 49 years he walked out of the facility a free man the first thing Lopez did was travel
00:42:21
to El espanel to see his mother berilda in the years since Lopez had been captured berilda had been interviewed
00:42:32
several times she rejected her son's claims of child abuse saying that although their
00:42:38
family was poor and life wasn't easy theirs had always been a loving home benilda claimed she made her living
00:42:46
as a laundress not a sex worker she clarified that Lopez's father had died 6 months before Lopez was born having been
00:42:56
killed in Colombia's civil violence according to benilda Lopez grew angry and resentful after she remarried
00:43:05
and had children with her new husband he wasn't kicked out of home but had left on his own
00:43:12
accord he returned at the age of 18 at which point berilda caught him inappropriately touching his youngest
00:43:19
sisters and kicked him out berilda said her son was a disgrace to society if she had known what he was capable of
00:43:30
she said she would have killed him herself to save Humanity from his crimes she expressed her deep apologies
00:43:37
to the families of his victims whom she lit a candle for every [Music] day benilda had no desire to see her son
00:43:48
again when Lopez arrived at her door after being released from the mental health facility it wasn't for a family
00:43:55
reunion he wanted money berilda was still very poor and had nothing to give instead Lopez took some of her
00:44:07
furniture and sold it for a meager amount of cash he left el espanol and Faded back
00:44:15
into the Andes in the years that followed other young girls between the ages of 7 and 14
00:44:25
went missing along the mountain range of those who were found deceased some had suffered the same fate as Pedro
00:44:33
Lopez's previous victims he immediately became a suspect not only did the crimes fit his
00:44:41
Mo there were serious doubts that he could ever be rehabilitated Lopez had been proud of
00:44:49
his crimes and at no point had he ever shown a hint of remorse Lopez had once told the
00:44:55
Ecuadorian police quote the moment of death is passionate and exciting someday when I'm free I'll
00:45:04
feel that moment again I will be happy to kill again it is my mission in 2002 Interpol issued a
00:45:16
warrant for Pedro Lopez's arrest but he couldn't be located family members of his victims
00:45:23
had been vocal about their desire for Revenge some had threatened to shoot Lopez others to burn him
00:45:31
alive the mother of one young victim had told reporters I wanted to break him into
00:45:38
pieces because he killed my baby Kina Ramon the market vendor who captured Lopez near Plaza Robina
00:45:47
supported the intention stating it would be a kindness to the world for someone to murder this fiend
00:45:57
many believe that someone did just that as of mid 2023 Pedro Lopez has never been found alive if he is still alive
00:46:09
Lopez would be in his mid 70s back in 1980 when Pedro Lopez LED Ecuadorian police to his burial sites
00:46:21
the remains of his victims were transported to the Ambat police headquarters parents of missing girls traveled from
00:46:29
across the country to view one corpse after another for many a visual identification
00:46:36
wasn't possible instead grief stricken mothers and fathers clutched familiar items of
00:46:42
clothing and wept over bones some mothers screamed and passed out while anguished fathers punched
00:46:52
walls Captain Pastor cordiva would never forget watching the heartbreaking procession of grieving
00:46:59
parents years later he described it as the most painful thing I've ever seen in my
00:47:08
life nearly half of the victims uncovered by police could not be identified if Lopez's confessions are to
00:47:16
be relied on potentially hundreds more in Colombia and Peru remain lost and buried the true number and identities of
00:47:26
the missing girl of the Andes will likely never be [Music] [Music] [Music] known for