"Cathedral Killer" goes free after three years at psychiatric hospital

SANTIAGO. -  The Putaendo Psychiatric Hospital has released Rodrigo Orias, who was sent to the facility in 2004 after murdering Italian priest Faustino Gazziero at the Metropolitan Cathedral. 

The release of 27 year-old Orias allows him unconditional freedom, since the young man was not charged with the priest’s murder after he was declared not responsible for his actions as a result of suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.

According to a statement made to Canal 13 by Iris Boisier, one of the doctors who treated Orias, the man had been “stable for a long time, he spent three and a half years with us, but we postponed his release due to the stigma of the case”. 

After leaving the hospital, Orias traveled to his hometown of Coyhaique, where he will continue to receive medical treatment and remain on medication for the rest of his life.  Nevertheless, he has already been assisted in finding a job.