Chilean Judge Sentences Julio Pérez Silva to Life for the 14 Alto Hospicio Murders
Police had first claimed the missing girls of Alto Hospicio ran away. The man who killed them was sentenced to life, and families protested that the term was too light.
Published
When girls began disappearing from Alto Hospicio, police said they had run away. On February 26, 2004, a Chilean judge sentenced the man who killed them, Julio Pérez Silva, to life in prison for 14 murders.
Judge Eliana Ayala of the Iquique Court of Appeals, ruling at first instance as the special investigating judge, gave Pérez Silva, known as the "Psychopath of Alto Hospicio," simple life imprisonment for the 14 homicides, plus 20 years for two rapes and 10 years for an attempted murder. She also ordered the confiscation of the white 1991 Nissan he used to carry his victims. Under the sentence he could apply for prison benefits after 20 years.
According to the judge's investigation, the victims were killed between September 12, 1998, and August 23, 2001. They were Viviana Garay, Katherine Arce, Patricia Palma, Macarena Montesinos, Macarena Sánchez, Laura Sola, Gisela Melgarejo, Angélica Palape, Deysi Castro, Sara Gómez, Graciela Saravia, Ornella Linares, Angélica Lay and Ivonne Carrillo, aged 14 to 45. Pérez Silva picked them up in his unlicensed taxi. For months the police treated the disappearances of schoolgirls as runaways and even suggested they had gone to Peru, until their belongings began turning up in mine shafts and dumps near the town. He was detained in October 2001, after a surviving victim's escape, and confessed.
The next day about 40 relatives and neighbors protested outside the Iquique court. Macarena Sánchez's father called the sentence a gift to Pérez Silva and asked whether the lives of 14 people were worth nothing to the judge. A lawyer for the state said parole was all but out of reach. In September 2005 the Iquique Court of Appeals raised the sentence to the harsher "qualified" life term, requiring at least 40 years before any benefit, and the Supreme Court confirmed it in October 2006.
Cooperativa reported in 2004 that Pérez Silva had been held since October 5, 2001, while its 2006 report said he was detained on October 4. The judge dated the first killing to September 1998, while the 2006 report said the crimes began in 1999.
Sources
- "Sicópata de Alto Hospicio" fue condenado a cadena perpetua simple, Radio Cooperativa
- Familiares de víctimas protestaron y calificaron como "liviana" la condena de Pérez Silva, Radio Cooperativa
- CDE: "sicópata de Alto Hospicio" pasará toda su vida en la cárcel, Radio Cooperativa
- Suprema ratificó presidio perpetuo calificado para el "sicópata de Alto Hospicio", Radio Cooperativa