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A couple accused of murdering and eating at least 30 victims used dating websites to lure women to their deaths, it was claimed.

Dmitry Baksheev, 35, and Natalia Baksheeva, 42, were arrested after seven bags of body parts were allegedly found in their fridge and freezer.

It was feared human meat was fed to student pilots in the military academy where Baksheeva was a nurse.

She has told police they had at least 30 victims over 18 years and detectives are now trying to verify the claims.

It emerged today that Baksheeva had allegedly taken husband in as a teenage orphan and wed him when he turned 18.

(Image: Vkontakte/east2west news) (Image: Mash / east2west news)

Nineteen slices of skin and at least one jar with pickled human remains were also discovered in the couple's flat in Krasnodar, Russia, local media reported.

Cans with steamed meat were found in their kitchen, a source told Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Police fear that the victims were lured after being found on dating websites.

Baksheeva is reported to have been shown the faces of missing women and identified dozens who she claimed were their victims.

A police source said: "Going through the photographs, the woman has recognised more than 30 victims that they killed and eaten together with her husband.

"A psychologist was sent from Nizhny Novgorod to make her talk."

Separate reports say Baksheeva was checked by a psychiatric hospital and found to be "mentally healthy".

The police source said: "In their home, many mobile phones of their victims were found, and also video lessons on how to cook meals from human meat.

"This woman had been working in the military academy as a nurse and supposedly she was sharing these cans of steamed human meat with student pilots."

But so far police have concrete evidence of only two women who were allegedly killed and cannibalised, it is understood.

Baksheev was originally detained after a man found his mobile in the street in Krasnodar and saw images of him posing for selfies with a woman's body parts.

(Image: Mash/east2west news)

A police report stated: "He took a selfie with the hand in his mouth, at the same time he put the fingers of the dead hand into his nose.

"Then he cut one finger with a knife."

A police source added: "The earliest date of their culinary experiment is 28 December 1999 - the date on one of the photographs.

"We can see a cooked human head at the big plate surrounded by mandarins.

"They put olives into the eyes and attached a lemon to the nose."

A police search found body parts in a rubbish container near the hostel where the pair lived, and a red-haired woman's head in a metal bucket, with human skin nearby. More human remains were found in a cellar.

It was claimed Baksheev confessed to throwing away the body parts, telling police: "I did a stupid thing."

(Image: Vkontakte/east2west news)

(Image: East2west)

The woman was identified as Elena B, who lived in the same military academy where the alleged cannibal couple resided.

It is believed she was killed in a forest nearby and her dismembered remains were carried to his home by Baksheev in a backpack.

Both suspects have been detained pending further investigations.

A local shopkeeper remembers him coming to top up his mobile and walking away with blood dripping from a cooler bag he was carrying.

Baksheeva was fired as a nurse because of her drinking habit, according to reports.

Road worker Roman Khomyakov told how he found Baksheev's Samsung mobile phone and noticed the hideous photographs.

He said: "We were putting asphalt on the road, when I found the phone. I opened the photo album and looked only at two pictures.

(Image: Vkontakte / east2west news)

(Image: East2west)

"At first I did not even understand what was there, it looked like a head and a hand. I thought pictures were real."

Baksheev came looking for the phone, Khomyakov added.

He said: "The man looked homeless. He said: 'I lost my phone'. I recognised him from the pictures in the phone.

"So I did not return the phone, we said we knew nothing. He left. Soon a road police car came passed, and I gave them the mobile phone.

"I said: 'It's your job, sort it out'."

Police have established that Baksheev was an orphan from Siberia who was adopted by a childless couple.

Related video: 'Cannibal' hands himself in at police station with human leg and hand as proof

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He was in his teens when his mother Svetlana died of cancer and his adoptive father threw him out of the family home even though he was underage.

Some reports say Baksheeva took him in and married him when he was 18.

Baksheev's father, who was not named by local media, said: "Before moving out of our flat he set fire to his room."

He added: "He was convicted four times for stealing things. He took loans and gave my name as a trustee.

"I had to switch off my phone because banks kept calling me. I had tried to help him, I found jobs for him several times but what could I do?

"It is useless talking to him. His eyes are made of glass.

"He is looking through your body and does not listen."