Brotherly Love?

Two men, aged 23 and 28 have killed and eaten their elder brother in the South Siberian city of Perm, the Life.ru web-site reported Wednesday.

According to the report, the crime was uncovered by pure chance – one of the criminals went to the police and asked for a written confirmation of the disappearance of his relative (a document necessary for inheritance rights to come into force). He said that his elder brother had left home and never came back. However, the policemen became suspicious as the alleged disappearance had taken place several months before the report.

Investigators searched the area around the brothers’ home and found a human head and remains of a corpse. Forensic tests revealed that these were the remains of the missing man.

The brothers confessed during the first police interview. They said that relations between them and their 30-year-old brother had been strained. A few years previous to the killing the middle brother had killed a neighbor in a drunken brawl and the elder brother had acted as a witness for the prosecution in court. The younger brother sided with the middle brother and the three relatives had had constant rows and fights since that time. At some point, the two brothers attacked the third one and strangled him to death.

To conceal their crime the brothers decided to eat the body. “Yes, we had to eat him. I did not want to go to prison again,” Life.ru quoted the middle brother as saying.

The cannibals have been charged with murder and are currently awaiting psychiatric tests.

Cannibalism is a surprisingly popular way to dispose of a body in Russia. In March 2009 a woman was detained for similar offence in the Siberian city of Irkutsk and in February last year two St. Petersburg men, who claimed to be part of the Goth community, killed and ate a teenage girl.