Authorities in Germany's eastern city of Dresden announced on Friday that they had arrested a 55-year-old police officer suspected of murdering an allegedly willing victim and then burying his remains in small pieces in the garden of the police officer's guest apartment.
Dresden's police chief, Dieter Kroll, told reporters at a news conference that the suspected officer had confessed to having slashed the throat of his victim, a 59-year-old man from Hannover, who had traveled to Dresden, which is capital of the regional state of Saxony.
Kroll said there was, however, no evidence that the suspect, an investigative police officer from Saxony, had actually eaten any of his victim's body parts.
The killing had taken place on November 4.
The pair had met at Dresden railway station and then driven to the suspect's vacant rental apartment in the town of Hartmannsdorf-Reichenau, in the Harz Mountain region, where the killing took place.
Traced via electronic traffic
Kroll said investigators made the grisly discovery during the course of a search for the victim, who had been reported missing by a colleague on November 11.
Data from the dead man's electronic communications eventually led police to the suspect, who in turn led them to the body parts.
The police chief also said it appeared that the suspect had complied with the victim's wish to be killed.
"The victim had been fantasising about being killed and eaten by someone else since his youth," Kroll told reporters.
Meeting via web site
Police said that while the suspect, who is being held in investigative custody, had confessed to the killing, he had denied intending to eat his victim, even though the two had met on a web site catering to people with cannibalistic fantasies.
Dresden head of criminal investigations Maik Mainda told the press conference that until their web encounter the suspect and victim had "not known each other personally."
"The agreement was that the killing should take place immediately," Mainda said.
Previous high-profile case
International media focused some years ago on a German cannibal Armin Meiwes. On trial, he admitted to killing, mutilating and eating the flesh of a man he had met on the internet.
In 2004, a German court convicted Meiwes of manslaughter and sentenced him to eight and half years in prison.
Prosecutors though appealed the sentence, leading to a retrial, in which he was convicted of murder and handed a life sentence in 2006. Meiwes' appeal of that sentence was denied.
据德国之声网站报道，德国德累斯顿市警方11月29日宣布，他们逮捕了一名涉嫌杀人食人的警官。据称，他杀死一名自愿赴死的男性，然后将其尸解并埋在花园里。此案正在调查当中。
警方透露，55岁的嫌疑人通过一个食人癖网站结识59岁的受害人，同意后者的请求，将其杀死。11月4日，两人在德累斯顿火车站会面，然后驱车前往位于哈尔茨山区的嫌疑人出租公寓，实施杀戮。在此之前，他们并无私交。
11月11日，受害人的同事报告他失踪，调查人员分析他的通信记录，顺藤摸瓜找到涉嫌杀人的警察，最终找到已被肢解的尸体。嫌疑人承认杀了人，但是否认打算吃掉他。
德累斯顿市警察局长迪特尔•克罗尔在新闻发布会上说，嫌疑人似乎是遵照受害人的意愿将其杀死。“受害人年轻时就曾经幻想被人谋杀，并被吃掉。”他说，嫌疑人承认砍了受害人的脖子，但是没有证据显示，这位警官真的吃了受害人身体的任何部位。
涉嫌吃人的案件曾有先例。德国食人者阿明•迈韦斯曾接受审判，承认杀人食肉。迈韦斯过失杀人罪名2004年成立，被判入狱8年半；此案2006年提起重申，法官裁定迈韦斯谋杀，处以无期徒刑。