Russia: Man kills woman then cuts up her, takes selfies with body parts

Russian investigators said on Monday they have detained a couple on suspicion of murdering a woman and eating her flesh after finding selfies with the victim's body parts.

The Investigative Committee in the southern Krasnodar region arrested the 35-year-old man and his wife after a lost phone containing the photographs was handed into police.

They believe the man killed the woman in a drunken fight in wasteland on September 8 and then cut up her body while his wife was present.

"After carrying out the crime, the man took photographs of himself with some fragments of the dead woman's body with his cell phone camera," investigators said.

The phone was traced to the couple living in a hostel at a nearby military facility, where a raid uncovered body parts in a salt solution.

A source in the law enforcement authorities told RIA Novosti news agency these included "a jar containing a preserved hand".

In the kitchen, officers said they also found "bits of food and frozen pieces of meat of unknown origin," which they are now testing to find out whether it is human or animal flesh.

The man claimed he found the body parts in a forest park. 

Investigators said they were giving the case top priority and would check information about the suspects' possible involvement in other crimes.

Police have uncovered numerous cases of cannibalism in Russia in recent years.

In June 2010 a court delivered long jail sentences to three homeless men who killed and ate a man and then sold his body parts to a kebab stall in a region of the Urals mountains.

Cannibalism is not a separate criminal offence under Russian law.