The date was Sunday, April 6, 1986, the location, La Cruz de Alajuelita in San José, Costa Rica. For a catholic country like Costa Rica, this Sunday held a special significance since it marked the beginning of another Holy Week; but this day would go on to be part of the country’s history for something very far from this.

Early that Sunday morning a woman named Rosario Zamora, 26 years-old at the time and mother of three girls was concerned about figuring out what to make for lunch, she was very poor and had nothing left to eat; her niece then showed up at her house at the request of Rosario’s sister to ask them to go with them to mass to La Cruz (the area in Alajuelita where a lighted cross stands in the mountains and is visible from several areas), Rosario initially declined, but her niece told her they had food ready, so this made Rosario agree immediately, she got her girls Alejandra (13), Carla (11) and Maria Eugenia (4) ready and in total 9 women, Rosario and her 3 girls, her sister Marta Eugenia (41) and her four daughters Cristina (18), Maria Gabriela (16), Maria Auxiliadora (11) and Carla Virginia (9) started the walk up the mountain.

After a while Rosario’s feet were hurting, her shoes were not meant for walking, so she decided to stay behind, she wasn’t going to be able to make it all the way up to “La Cruz” , her niece Cristina decided to stay with her, the rest continued with their walk. Hours went by and people began to make their way back down, but the 7 women in Rosario’s family never showed up. As it was later discovered, the group of women started to walk back down the mountain and they took a shortcut, what happened then no one knows for sure. The search began that same evening but it was not until the afternoon of April 7 when the owner of a property in the area found the seven victims, 5 lined up under a banana tree and the other 2 under a chayote plant, killed by gunfire specially directed to their head (later they determined from an M-3 submachine gun), three of the girls had been raped.

Two men were arrested in July 1986 in relation to this case and sentenced to prison, Jose Luis Monge Sandí, a.k.a Tres Pelos and Arnoldo Mora Portilla, a.k.a Arnoldillo back then the police suspected two other men were involved as well but the two died in separate violent situations in June 1986. In 1992 the court absolved the two men and ordered their release, errors in the process caused the annulment of the trails and there was not enough evidence to keep them in jail. After several years even some of the heads of the police back then recognized they had made a mistake.

Crimes that took place while Tres Pelos and Arnoldillo were in prison raised the alarm, today police officers and experts from the Judiciary Police consider this crime known popularly as “La Masacre de Alajuelita” (The Alajuelita Massacre) the first one committed by “the psychopath”.

At least 19 crimes between 1986 and 1996 are related to the serial killer now known as the psychopath, the 7 victims of Alajuelita are now considered the first; the second case occurred 8 months after the Alajuelita incident, the victims were Roberto Castro (27) and his girlfriend Francis Salazar (19) who were killed in Parque de la Amistad in Curridabat; this same location was the scene of the third crime, this time another couple, Juan Guillermo Najera (23) and his girlfriend Damaris Rodriguez (21), the bodies of the two man were found in the same place while the women were found in different areas of a nearby property; all of them were victims of several gun shots specially in the head. When the bodies of the two women were found Francis’ body was severely decomposed, but Damaris’ body showed wounds in her genitals that other women that were killed afterwards also showed. The victims of the next crime were Victor Julio Hernandez (18) and girlfriend Aracelly Astúa (15) in 1988, who were walking back from a party in San Vicente de La Unión in Cartago.

April 20,1989 was the date of the next event, Marta Miriam Navarro and Edwin Mata who were killed in San Diego de Tres Ríos. The woman had the exact same wounds in the genital area as the other women.

The same gun was used in all the murders.

The police elaborated several psychological profiles of the killer, including one “Rambo” theory that portrays him as a deranged former military or police official. There was also a theory stating that he could be the son of a wealthy politician.

Six years went by, the police thought he had left the country, was sick or maybe in prison for a different reason, perhaps even dead.

However, in March 12, 1995 (two weeks after the death of Tres Pelos) another woman by the name Marjorie Padilla was killed in the same fashion… the police had its doubts, six years had passed, but in October 26, 1996 another couple was murdered following the same M.O. in Patarrá, Desamparados, Mauricio Cordero (25) and Ileana Alvarez (23).
The crime of a woman Ligia María in her own room in July of 1987 was also later attributed to the psychopath.

The crime in 1996 was the last one with these same characteristics and attributed to the psychopath.

The police had one main suspect, a man of Nicaraguan nationality that apparently was killed in 1998, he was a former member of the guerrilla in Nicaragua and worked for the Metropolitan Police in San José, he also worked as a bodyguard for businessmen. The remains of the man were found at the Braulio Carrillo National Park along with two other bodies, which the police determined were all killed at different times, the three were Nicaraguans and victims of another serial killer known as “matanicas” (Nicaraguan killer) because he had a resentment against Nicaraguans since he was raped as a child by a man of Nicaraguan descent and therefore killed only men from this country. Apparently the two men met at a bar. The “matanicas” was detained and sent to prison.

The police considered the Nicaraguan man to be the psychopath after the description given by the woman that survived, a knife that was found in his home that was “similar” to the one used in the genital area of the victims, he owned two taxis and one was kept in a garage very close to the where the last victims were found. Whether or not it was him we will likely never know.