His modus operandi was always the same. Working as a taxi driver, he intercepted young people with offers of free rides, then would take them somewhere remote, where he would rape and kill them with blows to the head. Later, Silva would throw the bodies in deep abandoned mines. He was convicted of killing 14 women and was sentenced to life imprisonment on February 26, Those who knew at the school where he studied agreed that he was a quiet, introverted student.
He married at the age of 22 to Monica Cistemas, a native of La Calera , and they had two daughters. Then, he spent five years with Marianela Vergara, who already had two other daughters. In the mids he emigrated to Iquique looking for better job opportunities, finding a job loading sacks of salt. At a party he met Nancy Boero, fourteen years older than him and a mother of six children. After two weeks they were living together and then settled in Alto Hospicio, in a sector known as "La Negra".
Soon, he left his job to start as a taxi driver illegally. It was then that he began a string of crimes, all of similar characteristics. On September 17, , he picked up year-old Montserrat Graciela Saravia on the waterfront of Iquique. According to his confession, she offered him money in exchange for sex. However, this young woman's real intention was to steal from him.
When he noticed this, he beat her to death and left her on a beach. On November 24, , while driving in Alto Hospicio, he offered year-old Macarena Sanchez a ride to her school. After threatening her with a knife and raping her, he tied her hands and threw her into the Huantajaya Pique, which is more meters deep. In February he attacked twice in less than a week; the first was Sara Gomez on February 21, and just 2 days later year-old cellphone promoter Angelica Lay, both of whom were killed in the middle of the desert.
On March 23 of the same year, exactly one month after the fourth murder, he assaulted and murdered year-old Laura Zola, and like Sanchez, she was raped and murdered in Huantajaya. Then, on April 5, he attacked Katherine Arce, whom he raped and murdered like Angelica Lay, then buried her body in an unofficial garbage dump. On May 22, year-old Patricia Palma left the lyceum on her way home.
