A couple who admitted to killing at least 20 women in México state have confessed to eating remains of their victims, authorities said.

State prosecutor Dilcya García Espinoza de los Monteros said Juan Carlos N. and Patricia N. confessed separately to committing acts of cannibalism.

“Both suspects, in their respective formal interviews, mentioned that they ate some parts of their victims,” she said.

Juan Carlos and Patricia, who were arrested in the municipality of Ecatepec on October 4 in possession of a baby carriage containing human remains, allegedly lured their victims to their home under the pretext of showing them clothes for sale.

After the women were killed, the couple allegedly cut their bodies into small pieces.

Investigators found body parts in buckets and freezer bags at the couple’s home, a nearby vacant lot and two other addresses in the same Ecatepec neighborhood where they lived.

Juan Carlos, who has been dubbed in media reports as “The Devil of Ecatepec,” has also confessed to sexually abusing some of the women after he killed them and feeding body parts to his dogs.

“I prefer that my dogs eat the flesh of those women than that they keep breathing my oxygen,” he said during a psychiatric assessment.

Juan Carlos said he was driven to commit at least 20 murders over the past six years because of his hatred for women.

His misogyny, the suspect told investigators, was cultivated by the treatment he received from his mother, who dressed him in female clothing when he was a boy and forced him to watch her having sex with several men.

Prosecutors said at an initial hearing that psychiatric testing had determined that Juan Carlos has both psychotic and personality disorders. Patricia has suffered from mental retardation since birth.

Both, however, know the difference between right and wrong, the testing determined.

Juan Carlos told his psychiatric examiners that he didn’t expect to be ever released from custody but added: “If I do get out . . . I’m going to keep killing women.”

México state Attorney General Alejandro Gómez, who described the serial murder case as “the most horrifying we’ve had,” also confirmed the cannibalism confessions and said that Juan Carlos had given specific details and descriptions of 10 of his victims.

He added that the couple, who confessed to selling the baby of one of their victims, are also suspected of selling human bones to practitioners of the Santería religion known as santeros.

State authorities are seeking two people who allegedly bought the bones, Gómez said.

The newspaper Milenio said that as a result of its own investigations it had determined that a single human bone can sell for up to 1,500 pesos (US $80) and that a skull is the most sought-after.

Carlos Mata Martínez, a criminal lawyer, told Milenio that buying or selling bones is a federal crime warranting up to five years’ imprisonment.

Both Juan Carlos and Patricia remain in preventative custody at México state’s Chiconautla prison.

Their crimes were the catalyst for a march in the sprawling municipality of Ecatepec Sunday, during which participants chanted and held up signs emblazoned with “ni una más” (not one more femicide victim).

Source: Milenio (sp)