Esneda Ruiz Cataño (center) of Colombia is accused of killing three men in order
to collect on their life insurance policies.
A Colombian woman dubbed “The Predator” is accused of killing three of her husbands so she could then collect their life insurance payouts.
Esneda Ruiz Cataño, 45, is alleged to have knifed her partners to death in 2001, 2006 and 2010 to then collect more than $50,000 in benefits.
She was detained by police on Tuesday in the northwestern municipality of Ebéjico, in Antioquia, which is some 165 miles northeast of the capital Bogota.
Col. Fernando Restrepo Espinosa told local media: “This woman, by deception, seduced men and convinced them to take out life insurance where she was the sole beneficiary.”
He said agents had been tracking Ruiz for more than two years, adding: “We realized the lady had murdered her three husbands in the same way: with a cut to the neck.”
Ruiz allegedly received some $8,445 and a lifetime pension after the death of her first husband, Juan Pablo Aristizábal, 33, in the town of Rionegro.
Her second alleged crime occured in 2006, when José Johany Valencia, 42, was discovered dead in the city of Medellin.
Her third alleged murder, in the same city, of Miguel Ángel Veleño García, saw her receive around $45,000 in compensation.
Restrepo added that Ruiz, who is now residing at a prison for women, “is a lady for whom life is not worth anything.”
