Mexican cops arrest cannibalism suspect

An aspiring horror novelist was arrested after police discovered his girlfriend's torso in his closet, a leg in the refrigerator and bones in a cereal box, the city prosecutor's spokesman said Thursday, and police suspect he may have been responsible for two other mutilation murders as well.

Jose Luis Calva told police he had boiled some of his girlfriend's flesh but that he hadn't eaten it, the spokesman said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity. He said investigators were trying to determine if the chunks of fried meat found in a pan in the apartment were human.

The spokesman also confirmed other details about the crime scene released by the prosecutor's office Wednesday night: that body parts were spread throughout the apartment, and that Calva is being investigated in a total of three killings of women whose mutilated bodies had been found in and around the capital.

Calva told police he was a writer and poet _ officers found the draft of a novel titled "Cannibalistic Instincts," the spokesman said.

Calva tried to escape when officers entered his apartment, but was struck by a car and had not yet recovered enough to give a statement to police, according to the prosecutors office. He was still hospitalized on Thursday, the spokesman said.

Police had come to Calva's apartment Monday to investigate the disappearance of his girlfriend, Alejandra Galeana, a 30-year-old pharmacy clerk and single mother. Her family had reported her missing on Friday and told police of her relationship with Calva, according to the prosecutor's office.

Galeana's dismembered body was discovered in a closet; a leg and flesh from an arm were in the refrigerator, and arm bones were inside a cereal box, the prosecutor's office said.

Calva also is being investigated in the mutilation killings of an unidentified prostitute in April and an ex-girlfriend, Veronica Martinez _ also a single mother and pharmacy worker _ whose dismembered body was found in 2004, the prosecutor's office said.

After his arrest was shown on television, Martinez's mother went to police saying Calva had also been her boyfriend, and showed officers a picture of them together. Her daughter's body was found chopped to pieces on the city's outskirts, the prosecutor's office said.

Neighbor Fermin Cruz, 41, lived several floors below Calva, and said he "seemed ill humored at times," adding, "one time he slammed the door on me."