Mexico Cannibal Suspect: Girlfriend's Death an Accident

MEXICO CITY – An aspiring horror novelist told investigators he accidentally killed his girlfriend but denied eating parts of her, authorities said Tuesday, a day after forensic experts said flesh found in a frying pan in the man's apartment was human.

In his first testimony since he was arrested last week, Jose Luis Calva reportedly said he squeezed the life out of Alejandra Galeana, 32, on Oct. 5 while trying to restrain her during a violent argument. Calva said Galeana began slapping him after he told her he wanted to break up.

"He tried to control her by grabbing her and hugging her from behind. But because of his strength, she fainted. He took her pulse and found she had died. He put her on the bed and then began to think of a way to get rid of the body, and started cutting it up to get rid of it, piece by piece," the Mexico City Attorney General's Office said in a statement recounting his testimony.

The statement said Calva claimed he was cooking the flesh to feed to his dogs and stored the severed limbs found in his refrigerator "so they wouldn't start smelling so quickly."

When pressed on whether he had eaten the flesh, Calva reportedly said he did not remember what he had done that night because he had consumed alcohol and cocaine.

The statement said he also denied involvement in the death of another former girlfriend, Veronica Martinez, whose dismembered body was found stuffed in cardboard boxes in 2004 or the killing of an unidentified woman whose remains were found in a suitcase earlier this year.

Calva made the statement at a Mexico City hospital where he is being treated for injuries suffered when police, alerted by Galeana's family, arrived to search his apartment. Calva tried to escape by climbing down balconies from his upper-floor apartment, but fell and hit his head.

Prosecutors said Calva would probably be charged with homicide, which carries a maximum sentence of 50 years in prison.