[8] Between his Colombian and Ecuadorian victims, Garavito is confirmed to have murdered at least 193 minors in total, making him the most prolific serial killer and child molester in modern history.
[11] Following this first incident of abuse, Garavito allegedly killed and dissected two birds, out of frustration, before reportedly beginning to sexually fondle and inappropriately eye his younger siblings.
"[10][9][n 4] Garavito started working as an assistant at a compensation fund and later in a chain of stores, and studied marketing, but he was problematic and escalated to physical altercations with clients, co-workers, and bosses.
[20] After losing his job, he worked as a street vendor who sold religious icons and as a migrant worker, developing platonic relationships with older women over the course of his adulthood.
[21] Garavito began work on a coffee plantation as a youth in Trujillo, first falling in love with a schoolteacher and single mother named Luz Mary Ocampo Orozco, with whom he later attended weekly mass services.
[23] Garavito suffered symptoms of psychosis, paranoia and depression, and compulsively molested male and female children, developing an almost exclusive preference for pubescent boys.
He had depression and suicidal feelings related to his lack of achievement and wanted to start a family,[9] but suffered erectile dysfunction with his female partners when drunk.
[10] Garavito began participating in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in 1978,[9] converting to the Pentecostal faith and working as a clerk at a store where he met with his first girlfriend Luz Mary.
In the autumn of 1980, he began carrying razor blades, candles, and lighters in order to torture his victims further, and even removed a tooth to bite them more effectively.
[9] Upon discovering Adolf Hitler's autobiography Mein Kampf, Garavito became very fond of the Nazi leader and even made several connections between both of their lives, such as traumatic childhoods, homosexual experiences and years spent in vagrancy.
On 25 January 1984, on his 27th birthday, Garavito was housed under psychiatric care for 33 days following a mental breakdown; he was prescribed antipsychotic medication and referred to psychotherapy for his depression.
[9] Garavito also developed an obsession with domestic terrorist Campo Elías Delgado, a self-declared Vietnam veteran, who murdered his own mother (and several others) at a Bogotá restaurant in December 1986.
[27][26] After being seen by his friends, Jairo Toro and Ancizar Valencia, drunk and in the company of young boys at local motels, Garavito's social circle subsequently became aware of his pederasty.
[28] Between 1980 and 1992, Garavito was estimated to have raped and tortured a minimum of 200 youths,[26] a period during which he had actively spent five years under psychiatric care,[29] having attempted suicide several times.
In a "state of drunkenness," he lured the youth—who he planned on bringing to a wooded lot—to the Melia hotel sector in Bolivar, Colombia before being interrupted and beaten by local police, one of whom hit him over the head with a revolver.
[9] In June 1996, Garavito complained to Luz Mary of losing his temporary job as a salesman for air fresheners, begging for a place to stay in exchange for food and financial relief.
After being informed he was no longer welcome, Garavito appeared the next morning shouting obscenities and threats while grabbing at Luz Mary's throat, prompting her and the family to hide at a neighbor's house.
Drinking brandy to subdue his impulses, he began breaking containers in a state of rage after seeing a child pass by, murdering 12-year-old Jhon Alexander Peñaranda on the way to his sister's residence while in Tuluá.
In 1993, Garavito started cutting into his victims' bellies, luring eight youths aged 9 to 11 from a local school to a nearby wooded lot in the La Victoria district.
For fear of being traced by bloodhounds, Garavito then discarded their amputated toes before murdering Henry Giovanni García, Marco Aurelio Castaño, Juan David Cárdenas, Jaime Orlando Popayán, and three more unidentified children in southeast Bogotá.
On 4 February 1994, Garavito lured 13-year-old Jaime Andrés González from the Plaza de Bolívar to a sugarcane field shortly after being expelled from a bar that night for complaining of their food before molesting and murdering him.
[32] In 1979, Garavito, wielding a machete, seized victim 9-year-old William Trujillo Mora (who was interviewed and featured on the Colombian television program Los Informantes) in the Valle del Cauca region as he was about to join other playing children, hugging him and threatening to kill him if he screamed.
In 1988, Garavito lured an unidentified victim and sexually assaulted him near a restaurant called El Arepazo in the Alto del Río sector of Quindío's Calarcá, a location where several bodies were later found within a 20-meter proximity of one another.
Offering him gifts and 200 pesos in exchange for work, Garavito led Carlos to the Alto de la Taza where he amicably spoke with the child.
[38] He reportedly molested young boys with "cute faces" and blue or green eyes;[24] Garavito himself boasted of his penchant for "innocent" looking children with "blondish" skin and hair.
[32] He offered easy work for money and wore disguises ranging from a Catholic priest, to a schoolteacher, to an elderly man to more effectively lure victims.
Once he had the trust of a child, Garavito typically walked to a secluded spot or mass grave site with the victim, encouraging them to talk about their personal life until they were tired and vulnerable, which then made them easy to handle.
In spite of this, the Prosecutor's Office soon determined that it was likely one man to be responsible due to the prevalence of nylon cord and liquor bottle caps found at all of the crime scenes.
Garavito had passed out partially naked on top of a child's corpse while drunk with a cigarette in his left hand,[44][20] causing the cane field to catch fire.
Pirry mentioned that, during the interview, Garavito tried to minimize his actions and expressed intent to start a political career in order to help abused children.