Police in France shot a 32-year-old man after they found a teenage boy’s head in a bucket. The man in question is suspected of trying to eat as much of the rest of the body as he could.
The place where the gruesome relic was found was an apartment in Tarascon, about 60 miles northwest of Marseille. The flat had been rented only a day before the suspected cannibal was shot.
Marseille is important here because it is where the man either lured the boy into his clutches or just straight-up grabbed him. Either way, he was missing from a care home.
On Sunday, police were called to a scene of what looked to a neighbor like a body in a trash bag. Police confirmed the neighbor’s suspicions upon their arrival.
Almost immediately, the cannibal hypothesis was proffered. Strips of flesh had been removed from fleshy areas like the shoulder. The suspect did not know his crimes were figured out. He returned to the flat on Monday, literally the day after police searched it.
The suspect attempted a bold escape usually only seen in movies: he jumped from rooftop to rooftop.
Three hours later, however, he would be back on the ground. When he was found out, an officer put a bullet in his belly as he climbed over an iron fence.
Prosecutors knew the suspect had a diagnosed psychiatric problem and a history of violence.
Unfortunately, at this time it’s impossible to confirm the “why?” part of the senselessness of this crime. Nor is it possible to prove or disprove the idea of “anthropophagy” (cannibalism). The only way to examine either of those in a semi-accurate way is psychological autopsy. And that can only happen if something like a journal or electronic record of the suspect is found.
Read the update on this story here.
Comments / 34