The Feminicide of Katherine Gómez
Katherine Gómez, 18, died after a targeted attack near Lima's Plaza Dos de Mayo in March 2023. Sergio Tarache Parra fled Peru, was captured in Colombia and extradited. He later accepted responsibility and received a 26-year prison sentence for aggravated feminicide.
Katherine Gómez was an 18-year-old woman in Lima whose death in March 2023 prompted national attention to severe intimate-partner violence and the speed of cross-border fugitive investigations. The man prosecuted for her death, Sergio Tarache Parra, left Peru after the attack but was located in Colombia and returned through extradition proceedings.
The March 2023 attack
On March 18, 2023, Katherine was attacked near Plaza Dos de Mayo in central Lima after ending a relationship with Tarache. He used an accelerant and set her alight in a public area. Katherine was taken for medical treatment but died six days later from her injuries.
This dossier does not reproduce graphic descriptions of her injuries. The essential criminal fact is that the later court proceeding treated the attack as aggravated feminicide and Tarache accepted responsibility.
Flight, capture and extradition
Tarache left Peru after the attack. Peruvian authorities sought him internationally, and Colombian authorities captured him in April 2023. After the extradition process, he was returned to Peru in January 2024 to face the criminal case.
The cross-border sequence is relevant because flight did not end the prosecution: cooperation between Peruvian and Colombian authorities brought the accused back before a Peruvian court.
Admission of responsibility
During the 2024 proceedings, Tarache accepted responsibility for aggravated feminicide. That admission became part of the basis for the court's adjudication, but sentencing remained contested by prosecutors and Katherine's family.
Twenty-six-year sentence
On September 12, 2024, the Second Permanent Collegiate Criminal Court of the Superior Court of Justice of Lima unanimously sentenced Sergio Tarache Parra to 26 years in prison for aggravated feminicide. Prosecutors had requested a longer term.
On October 1, 2024, the court fixed civil reparation at 350,000 soles. That financial order is separate from the criminal prison term and is included here only because it formed part of the documented judgment process.
Appeal over the sentence
Katherine's family and prosecutors challenged the length of the prison term. Reporting in June 2025 said the effort to increase the sentence had been rejected and that the 26-year term remained in place. The sources reviewed through September 4, 2026 did not identify a later judgment overturning the conviction.
The case is therefore classified as Solved / Adjudicated. That label reflects established criminal responsibility; it does not imply that Katherine's family agreed with the length of the punishment.
The disagreement over whether 26 years was sufficient is reported as a sentencing dispute, not as uncertainty about who was convicted. Tarache accepted responsibility and was convicted of aggravated feminicide.
Timeline
- Katherine is attacked in Lima
The targeted attack occurs near Plaza Dos de Mayo.
- Katherine dies
She dies after six days of medical treatment.
- Tarache captured in Colombia
Colombian authorities locate and detain him after his flight from Peru.
- Extradited to Peru
Tarache is returned to Peru to face prosecution.
- Conviction and prison term
The Lima court imposes 26 years for aggravated feminicide.
- Civil reparation fixed
The court sets compensation at 350,000 soles.
- Sentence increase rejected
Reporting says the appeal seeking a longer term is rejected and the 26-year sentence remains.
Sources and further reading
- Diario Oficial El Peruano — September 12, 2024 report on the unanimous 26-year aggravated-feminicide sentence
- TVPerú — conviction, capture in Colombia and extradition chronology
- El Comercio — October 2024 report on the 350,000-sol civil reparation order
- Infobae Perú — June 2025 report on the unsuccessful attempt to increase the 26-year sentence
Last reviewed: September 4, 2026