‘I’m tired of eating human flesh’

WOMAN-EATERS: MAN ‘TIRED OF EATING HUMAN FLESH’ GOES TO POLICE, TWO MORE ARRESTED

With these words a man handed himself over to the police, producing parts of a human leg and hand.

Officers at Estcourt police station in KwaZulu-Natal were shocked when a man handed himself in, declaring he was “tired of eating human flesh”.

Police were sceptical until he produced parts of a human leg and a hand.

The officers immediately began an investigation, which led to a house in nearby Rensburgdrift, where more human remains were found.

Two more men, including one believed to be a traditional healer, were arrested.

It is believed the three men raped, killed and ate their female victims.

Police are attempting to link them to other missing persons cases in the area.

It is not clear how far and wide the men searched for their victims, or if some of the victims were from Ladysmith, 70km from Estcourt.

Former head of the Saps specialised investigative psychology section, Professor Gerard Labuschagne, reportedly said it was unlikely this was muti-related crime.

He said the allegations of cannibalism did not fit the profile for muti killings.

“It’s very rare and unusual to get a case where people are actually eating human body parts,” he said.

“When people are eating hu- man body parts, it’s more likely got to do with a mental health issue.”

Labuschagne said people who ate human body parts were often in the throes of psychotic episodes.

“They are usually experiencing audio and/or visual hallucinations, hearing voices or seeing things that aren’t there, and having bizarre thoughts like ‘I must eat this body part as it will make me powerful’.”

Labuschagne added that the suggestion that this was a group crime was also unusual.

“You do sometimes get a group of people where one is mentally ill, sort of like a cult leader, and his followers have dependency issues. It’s very, very rare though.”

Cannibalism in itself is not a crime in South Africa, but murder, mutilating a corpse and being in possession of human tissue are all criminal offences. – Citizen reporter