Local media are reporting that a Couple has been Detained in the South Russian Krasnodarksy region on the grounds that they may be responsible for up to 30 deaths.
The NTV news channel reported that a man and a woman had been detained, citing a source in the Investigative Committee. According to the Mash Telegram TV channel, police have identified seven victims, but they believe the couple may be responsible for up 30 deaths since 1999.
Searching the residence
The seven victims were identified after investigators discovered remains in the courtyard of the suspects' home.
A computer found in the residence was searched, in which investigators found cannibalistic recipes. The couple is said to have committed crimes such as kidnapping and murder, as well as eating their victims.
The male was detained in early September after the remains of a woman were found in a military dormitory. A cell phone was later discovered on the street in the same city - Krasnador - in which the pair were arrested. The cell phone contains photographs in which a man is seen posing with the body parts of a dismembered woman.
Reports say the male suspect initially denied any responsibility for the woman's death, saying he had found the remains and decided to take selfies with them.
NTV later reported that the suspects' residence was searched by police, who found a dismembered hand in a can.
Russia's cannibalistic past
The investigation is currently ongoing, but if it is found that the couple is indeed responsible for around 30 deaths, the case would instantly be recognized as one of the most deadly serial killer cases in Russia's history.
There are currently two famed Russian serial killer-cannibals; Alexander Spesivtsev and Alexander Bychkov. The former was convicted of killing four people in Novokuznetsk in 1996. The latter was convicted of the murder of nine men in Belinsky, Penza Oblast between 2009 and 2012.
More recently, a case involving cannibals in Russia reached international news just last year.
In that case, a suspected cannibal was arrested after he killed a married couple and boiled their heads in his kitchen.
The suspect boiled their heads on a gas cooker before flushing parts down the toilet, which caused blockage in the St Petersburg apartment's sewer system. Plumbers discovered these while investigating the blockage.
Shortly after their horrifying discovery, they informed the police, who managed to trace the remains back to a specific apartment. The murderer then confessed to killing the couple he was sharing the apartment with.
