Mexican 'cannibal' kills himself

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A Mexican man accused of murdering his girlfriend and eating her body parts has been found dead in his prison cell.

Jose Luis Calva was found hanging by his belt in the jail in Mexico City after apparently committing suicide, the department of corrections said.

Mr Calva was arrested on 8 October by police investigating the disappearance of his girlfriend, Alejandra Galeana.

In his flat in the capital, they found her dismembered body and a draft of an unfinished novel, Cannibal Instincts.

The discovery also led to him being investigated in connection with the murders of his ex-girlfriend in 2004 and a prostitute, whose body was found in plastic bags in the city earlier this year.

'Divine justice'

In a statement, the Mexico City department of corrections said the man known in the Mexican media as the "Cannibal of the Guerrero", an area of the capital, had been found dead in his cell on Tuesday morning.

Officials said they were investigating how he got the belt he apparently used to hang himself when he was supposed to be on continuous suicide watch.

I do not take pleasure in this man's death, but I have seen there is a God and that He is with me Soledad GaravitoMother of Alejandra Galeana

"Everything indicates it was suicide, but it is better to conduct a good investigation," Juan Garcia Ochoa, the city's assistant interior secretary told the local radio station, Formato 21.

Mexican prosecutors have said that before his death, Calva admitted killing his 30-year-old girlfriend and cutting up her body after a violent, drug- and alcohol-fuelled argument, but denied he ate her flesh.

In his flat, police discovered Galeana's torso in a cupboard, her leg in the fridge and bones in a cereal carton. Other body parts were found in a frying pan.

Calva said he had carefully cleaned and cooked parts of the body so he could feed it to dogs as a way of disposing of it, the prosecutor's added.

The victim's mother, Soledad Garavito, described Calva's death as "divine justice".

"I do not take pleasure in this man's death, but I have seen there is a God and that He is with me," she told the Associated Press.