María José Reyes Moore and íaJoséJuan René Duarte Becerra were murdered in July 2012 in an antique shop in Lolol, Colchagua Province, O'Higgins Region, Chile. Both victims had visited the shop as customers and were attacked and decapitated by shop owner Óscar López Rodríguez.
The murderer was shot and killed by police responding to the scene of the Reyes murder. An analysis of accounts by people who knew him suggests that he was suffering from psychosis and "mystical delusions". He has been labeled the "Monster of Lolol" by Chilean media.
The events shocked the small town of Lolol, a peaceful tourist location. The local mayor said the murders would become a demarcation point in the history of the place.
Attacks
First attack
Most accounts say that on 10 July 2012 Juan Duarte visited Óscar López's antique shop "to purchase an iron stick". Duarte's housemaid, Olga Morales, told El Mercurio that he was, "actually interested in an old little table." Several people saw Duarte talking with López that afternoon.
Carabineros de Chile, the Chilean military police, stated that López stabbed Duarte in the back and subsequently beheaded him. They believed that Duarte tried to defend himself "tenaciously". López kept Duarte's head in a coffer, which was up for sale in his antique shop, and buried the rest of his body under rocks in his backyard. The following day, 11 July, Duarte's family filed a "presunta desgracia" (disappearance) claim with the Lolol police.
Second attack
On 12 July, María José Reyes Moore was traveling with two of her children, her 15-year-old daughter and 19-year-old son, to Fundo Querelena in the Bucarruca area in the commune of Paredones, Cardenal Caro Province. Her husband and her two other children were traveling later that day. At around 13:00 local time (17:00 UTC), she decided to stop in Lolol. She pulled up at Los Alerces Street 145 and went into López Rodríguez's antique shop with her daughter; her son stayed in the car.
Less than five minutes later and apparently without reason, López took Reyes Moore by her hair and stabbed her. Her daughter ran out of the shop to tell her brother. When they got back, they saw López taking their severely injured mother to a tree trunk in his backyard, where he proceeded to decapitate her with an axe.
Reyes Moore's children ran out of the antique shop to ask for help and, according to witnesses, shouting "They're killing our mommy!" ("¡Están matando a la mamita!"). Because it was Lolol's payday, the streets of the town were full of people. The teenagers eventually found a policeman, Sergeant Felipe González, who quickly got to the crime scene. In the meantime, López had taken Reyes' head and showed it to passers-by, raising the severed head "like a trophy". When González reached him, he ordered López to stop and fired into the air twice without receiving any response from López. López then rushed towards the policeman with the bloody ax he had used to decapitate Reyes Moore, forcing González to shoot him with his service weapon, killing him.
Murderer
Óscar Segundo López Rodríguez, labeled by the Chilean media as the "Monstruo de Lolol" ("Monster of Lolol"), was born on 1 November 1972 in Lolol, Colchagua Province, O'Higgins Region. His parents were Óscar del Carmen López Araya and Osvaldina de las Rosas Rodríguez Espinosa. Considered a "violent" and "lonely man" by his neighbors, López claimed to be a "messenger of God". López liked to dress as anime characters.
He was known in Lolol as "the Hippie", because of his "intentionally unkempt look, with beard and long hair," possibly inspired in the looks of Jesus Christ. Some Lolol residents have told the media that López may have been part of a satanic sect. He was also a user of marijuana, which he reportedly also sold.
López began collecting phonographs, lamps, cart wheels and iron gates in 1997, when he moved to Los Boldos, a rural area near Santa Cruz. Sometime afterwards, he moved to Los Robles, six kilometers from the urban centre of Lolol, where he joined an "ecologic community", of which he was later expelled. In August 2009, he moved to Las Palmas, three kilometers from central Lolol, and lived in three different houses there until March 2010. After the earthquake of 27 February 2010, he moved to his last home, an old adobe house, located in front of the Lolol firefighters' bureau. There, he established an antique shop, in the front of the house.