Investigative Committee of RussiaA man in northern Russia has been charged with cannibalism after three partially-eaten bodies were found, along with the remains of cats, dogs and other animals.
The unnamed suspect is believed to have murdered the three men after befriending them and plying them with alcohol. The 51-year-old allegedly stabbed them and chopped them up when they dozed off.
Bags of bones were found left in a lake and a river near the city of Arkhangelsk in northern Russia.
Watch the moment he was arrested and led away here:
Russia’s Investigative Committee (SK) released a statement regarding the suspect, who they’ve chosen not to name. They did however release a video clip of him under arrest as well as what appears to be one of the rural crime scenes.
The man is reported to have a previous criminal record and is said to be mentally sound after undergoing a medical examination.
SK said in its statement that as well as cannibalism ‘the accused regularly killed and ate cats, dogs and other small animals and birds’, and their bones were found mixed up with human ones in packages.
The murders are believed to have taken place sometime in 2016 and 2017, however the SK has said it took a long time to identify the victims as the body parts could only be assessed using forensic tests. Two of the three had no traceable relatives and the third was believed to have moved to the town to try and find new work.
Investigative Committee of RussiaIt’s alleged the suspect then moved into the flat of the victim who was looking for work, claiming he’d moved on to another town. Reports say he told the man’s parents that before going away he had agreed to let him look after the flat.
The SK’s statement, translated from Russian, continued:
He confidently put forward the same version to police officers who were looking for the missing person.
This shows the ‘special impudence, unscrupulousness and composure of the accused’, added the statement.
Russia’s Investigative Committee concluded:
Considering that parts of the corpses were found fragmentary, which, in practice, excluded the possibility of their identification, they were only able to establish their identities thanks to a large number of various complex examinations.
The Russian authorities are continuing their investigations.
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.