MOSCOW: A Russian ‘cannibal couple’ is reported to have skinned their victims alive post the supply of sedatives and then preserve their parts in a saline solution.
The city police have arrested the couple — Natalia Baksheeva and her husband Dmitry Baksheev.
The authorities are of the opinion that there is a likelihood that the couple is responsible for deaths or disappearances of as many as 30 persons in the area about five hours from Sochi, the media reports said.
An investigation is underway and if all the killings are confirmed, the couple would rank among the country's worst serial killers.
Baksheev confessed that he and his wife had practised cannibalism at least 30 times in the past two decades.
The horrendous incident came to light when road repairing crew found a discarded phone and swiped through the photos.
On the phone were “photos of a man with different parts of a dismembered human body in his mouth,” the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a statement.
A dismembered corpse of a 35-year-old woman was also found.
The investigators were able to determine the phone's owner via “special technical measures” and arrested Baksheev, according to a news release.
A glass jar with a canned hand, fragments of the human body in saline solution and frozen meat parts of unknown origin have been recovered, reported multiple media reports.