The killer, known only as Detlef G, a 55-year-old chief inspector with the Saxon Germany state police, reportedly has told investigators that he met his victim through a cannibalism website that hooks up those who want to dine on human flesh with those hoping to be eaten.
He has reportedly confessed to stabbing the 59-year-old German businessman in the neck. He admits he butchered the body and buried the pieces around his rustic bed and breakfast in the Ore Mountains, along the German border with the Czech Republic.
But, in his defence, he says he didn't eat his victim - not any part of the man Dresden police have identified as Wojciech S.
Detlef G. goes on to note that he didn't use his victim sexually, either.
He just killed him. And, he's told police, he killed him only because Wojciech S. came to him asking to be killed, in just the manner he carried out the act.
Whether consent to be killed is a viable defence remains to be seen. But it's not the first time such a defence has been tried here. And, in the end, the fact that such gruesome facts aren't new or even particularly surprising to Germans, who witnessed a similar case a decade ago, may be the most shocking bit of this case.
Back in 2004, another German cannibal faced trial for having killed a man, one who noted on a videotape that the victim and killer made together that being eaten by another human was the fulfillment of a dream.
In that case, Armin Meiwes, 42, was first sentenced to eight and a-half years in prison for manslaughter in the 2001 death of Bernd-Jurgen Brandes, 43, a successful software engineer from Berlin. Later, under new charges of murder, he was sentenced to life in prison, and must serve at least 15 years.
The German press has noted that before killing and eating pieces of Brandes, Meiwes had advertised for his victims - called "long pigs" after the term some cannibal tribes have used for their human food - on the same website on which Detlef G found Wojciech S.
Before selecting Brandes, Meiwes had had more than 200 volunteers respond to his ad. Brandes' email response, which was reviewed during the trial, said simply, "I am your meat."
During the trial, Meiwes described the consumption of Brandes as a merging of souls, even claiming that by eating Brandes, he'd picked up Brandes' English language ability.
Detlef G has been charged with murder, and he might face life in prison if he's convicted. News reports have made a point of noting that the German murder statute notes that "the satisfaction of a sexual urge" may be the difference between a murder conviction and a lesser charge.
Dresden police have finished scouring the land surrounding Detlef G's bed and breakfast. They dug up about 77 pounds of Wojciech S, to add to an undetermined amount of him they'd found earlier. But, according to news reports, they haven't yet found the entire body, and they couldn't yet rule out cannibalism. The Dresden police chief has noted that the killing, dismemberment and burial took Detlef G more than five hours.
The two cases began at what news reports note is the "No. 1 site for exotic meat," a euphemism for those with the desire to eat or be eaten. The website claims it has 3008 members, with screen names such as meatlover and daddylongpig. Back in 2004, Meiwes had estimated that there were 800 other chefs and long pigs in Germany.
Wojciech S's journey to fulfillment began November 4, when he took a bus and then a train to Dresden, where he met Detlef G. The two drove to the bed and breakfast, Pension Gimmlitzil, in the village of Reichenau. A room goes for less than $18 a night.
There doesn't appear to have been much foreplay to the act. Soon after arriving, Detlef G allegedly led Wojciech S to the basement and stabbed him in the neck.
After Wojciech S died, Detlef G cut the body into small pieces and buried it near the house. He told police the slaughter "had been desired by the victim."
The German newspaper Bild published an interview with a 31-year-old sewage mechanic from Baden Wurttemberg who goes by the online name "Junjie." Junjie had met Detlef G on the cannibal website after posting that he "wanted to be grilled alive ... whether on the grill or on a spit, I don't care."
Junjie told Bild that he wanted to disappear without a trace after a fight with his parents and he'd met with Detlef G and had spent two weeks at the bed and breakfast. Detlef G cooked for him every day, preparing Asian and East German dishes, but ultimately decided against the requested grilling death because, he told the volunteer victim, Junjie was too young.
Junjie told the newspaper, "I went there to be eaten."
Police are searching inside the bed and breakfast for evidence of other victims.
