If not for a broken mobile phone that was found on a city street in the Russian town of Krasnodar, the cannibal couple may have gone scot-free and their revolting secret never known.
- The couple’s sickening secret came to light when their broken mobile phone was found
- The phone had photos of a man with dismembered human body parts in his mouth
- One photo shows a dismembered human head on a platter surrounded by oranges
- Admitted to eating humans at least 30 times in the last 18 years
- Frozen meat parts of unknown origin found in couple’s kitchen
- A glass jar with a canned hand and fragments of human body in saline solution found in suspects’ home
- Remains of human skin removed from dead people also discovered
- Suspected to have sold pies and other food containing human meat
- Video lessons on how to cook meals from human meat
According to a report in the Moscow Times where the news first broke, road repair workers in the Russian town of Krasnodar found a discarded phone on the street. It was still working so they swiped through the images only to be horribly shocked.
The phone had “photos of a man with different parts of a dismembered human body in his mouth”, the report quoted the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs as saying in a statement.
One photograph is dated 28 December 1999 and appears to show a dismembered human head on a platter surrounded by oranges.
The phone number was then traced to Dmitry Baksheev, 35, and his wife Natalia, 42.
Police have arrested the couple. So far, Dmitry has been charged with one count of murder while the investigation is ongoing.
In police custody, Dmitry told authorities that he and his wife had practised cannibalism at least 30 times for more than a decade, according to the BBC.
For years, the couple had been living at what the BBC called a “hostel accommodation” at the site of a military base in the city. One or both had at one point worked on the base, in the kitchen.
In the couple’s home, investigators discovered fragments of the human body in saline solution and frozen meat parts of unknown origin in the kitchen, according to CBS News.
CNN reported one police source as saying that law enforcement had discovered “a glass jar with a canned hand”.
Remains of human skin that had been removed from dead people were also discovered.
Police confirmed a number of food and meat items discovered at the house of horrors were now being tested for human DNA.
A body of a 35-year-old woman was reportedly discovered at the military base. The body was dismembered and a bag of the victim’s belongings was reportedly also found.
Police have identified seven victims so far, according to CNN.
One victim was waitress Elena Vashrushev, 35, who lived close to the couple.
Other victims are feared to be women who joined dating websites before vanishing, as it is believed the couple trawled dating websites to find their preys.
Initial investigations revealed that the couple would knock their victims out with a drug.
People complained that they could smell it outside their room in the hostel, according to neighbours.
“Each time we tried to enter their room, they started wild shouting and crying. Natalia is a scandalous woman, aggressive, so we did not risk it,” a military academy worker said.
Residents of Krasnodar who knew the couple claimed that besides their messy appearances and love of alcohol, they did not act very strange.
Natalia, who used to work as a nurse, was apparently currently unemployed and she was known to drink all the time.
It is believed that after sedating their victims, the couple would skin them alive.
According to a report in The Washington Post, the couple ate parts of their victims, froze their remains or packed them in jars filled with saline solution.
Neighbours say Natalia made and sold pies to boost her income and boasted to cafe owners that she could supply “meat”, according to The Sun.
“I bake pies,” she allegedly told one local.
Asked what she filled them with, Natalia replied: “Whatever is around.”
It is suspected that the couple sold food containing human meat to military trainees at the academy where she worked.
UK’s Metro newspaper reported that Dmitry’s natural parents had been addicts and he had grown up in an orphanage before he was adopted.
Lyubov Baksheeva, second wife of Vladimir – Dmitry’s adoptive father, revealed that Dmitry had been jailed several times in his teens for robbery and theft.
“We knew that this woman Natalia influenced him in a bad way.
“I saw her three times and she was also drunk, aggressive and shouting. They were even fighting with each other,” Lyubov was quoted as saying.
According to Metro, a police source said many mobile phones of victims were found in the couple’s home, and also video lessons on how to cook meals from human meat.