SAINT-SERNIN-SUR-RANCE, France (WKRC) – A restaurant owner and chef allegedly admitted to the killing, dismembering, and cooking of a recluse who died during a botched home invasion and robbery.
According to British outlet The Telegraph, authorities first learned about the incident in February of 2023 when the victim’s daughter contacted them after she received text messages from her father that were out of character and bizarre. The 60-year-old victim was described by the outlet as a recluse who lived in a simple house in the middle of the woods without running water or electricity.
Investigators eventually located the victim’s car while driving through town and found it was being operated by 69-year-old Philippe Schneider and his partner, 45-year-old Nathalie Caboubassy, per the outlet. The pair reportedly claimed to be “druids” and said they sold a “magic potion” at their sex shop that was made from plants harvested from their garden.
Schneider claimed that the victim lent his car to the pair so they could feed his animals, per the outlet, but that story quickly changed.
“What I’m going to tell you is horrific,” Schneider reportedly told police.
He allegedly initially confessed to killing the victim after the pair had a disagreement, but that story later changed once again to include a tale of a botched robbery and a third accomplice – a gravedigger named Loup Benrakia. Schneider said that he and Benrakia broke into the victim’s house to steal marijuana and subdued him by tying him up and gagging him, the outlet reported. He allegedly claimed that at some point during the robbery the victim suffocated on the gag and died.
Both Benrakia and Caboubassy denied any involvement with the crime, per the outlet.
Schneider reportedly told police that after the victim had died he took the corpse back to his house, waited three days to “respect the transmigration of the soul,” and dismembered the body with a butcher’s knife. He returned to the victim’s home and cooked his limbs with vegetables to hide the smell and burned identifiable parts of the corpse, like the head and hands, per the outlet. He allegedly poured the ashes around the victim’s property and prayed for his soul.
Schneider was charged with kidnapping leading to death, concealment of a corpse, and endangering the integrity of a corpse. Caboubassy and Benrakia were charged with complicity.