Police in Budapest arrested a 30-year-old hospital cleaner on June 17 after receiving information that he kept human body parts both at his workplace and in his apartment. Hungarian police said he is suspected of illegally handling human remains, and investigators think additional charges may follow once the inquiry is completed.
During a search of his home, officers found skulls, a whole leg, a hand, bones stored in a suitcase, and a reconstruction of a human face made from facial skin. They also found a jar containing a heart, although police said they still need to determine whether it was human or animal.
According to the police statement, the suspect admitted during questioning that he collected the body parts. He said he was especially drawn to human body parts and had prepared food from them and eaten them in different ways. Police described him as someone who is "very interested in anatomy and pathology and likes to dissect animals."
Investigators believe he obtained the remains both through his job at the hospital and by digging up graves in abandoned cemeteries in Hungary and Slovakia. Police seized his computer, tablets, mobile phones and memory cards. All the body parts will undergo forensic testing, and authorities said the scope of the case could expand after the origin of all the remains is determined.