Colombian officials have confirmed that a man accused of raping his
daughter for more than 20 years and fathering eight children with her,
is her biological father.
In a case reminiscent of that of Austria’s Josef
Fritzl, a report late Monday by the Colombian Institute of
Legal Medicine confirmed that 68-year-old farmer Arcebio Alvarez
is indeed the father of Alba Nidia Alvarez. She came forward
with the shocking allegations last month after accusing him of abusing
the children.
Alvarez has claimed he is innocent, but local media
quickly dubbed the alleged abuser “the Monster of Mariquita,” after the
name of the family’s home town in southwest Colombia.
The
daughter, now 32, reportedly claimed Alvarez forced her into the
abusive relationship after her mother died when she was nine years old,
and that she had her first child at age 13.
Alvarez was questioned and detained last month but released because of his advanced age.
His
attorney had asked Colombian authorities to conduct a DNA test in an
attempt to prove that his daughter had actually been adopted.
In
the sensational father-child sex abuse case in Austria, Fritzl was
sentenced last month to life in prison for raping his daughter for 24
years, and for the murder of one of the seven children he had with her.