‘Cannibal serial killer’ arrested in Russia

July 31, 2016

By Luke Browne

Russian police have arrested a suspected cannibal serial murderer who has confessed to killing at least six people and eating their livers.

Alexander Bychkov, 24, was being questioned on suspicion of stealing from a hardware store in the town of Belinksy in Russia’s Penza region, 640 kilometers south-east of Moscow, when he suddenly told police officers he had killed several people and hid their bodies near his home, The Daily Telegraph reports.

A representative of the local investigative committee told Russia’s Izvestiya newspaper that “a burial ground of six people was found there,” while a law enforcement official added: “There was cannibalism in several cases.”

Police said Bychkov had used a knife to kills his victims, and then ate their livers, according to the BBC. “The suspect identified the photos of those who died,” an official told Izvestiya.

A disabled man, Alexander Zhuplov, was convicted of carrying out several of the killings last year, in what may have been a miscarriage of justice, Fox News reports. It is not clear what will happen to him.

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Police are now investigating a series of unexplained disappearances between 2009 and 2011 in Belinsky. The remains of those who vanished were never found.

Bychkov’s mother, Irina, said she did not believe her son was guilty:

“It’s impossible to leave the house,” she said. “People are accusing not just my son, but the whole family. They think I made mince out of the victims and sold it on the market.”