Mentally ill suspect in Dutch murder case confesses to killing

Dutch murder case suspect confessed in detail Friday to killing, dismembering and deep-frying his victim in several woks.

Photo: Mentally ill suspect in Dutch murder case confesses to killing

Prosecution spokeswoman Susanne Staals confirmed the "terrible story," which she said was backed up by forensic evidence.

"He's completely insane," she said of the 30-year-old suspect, a Chinese immigrant identified only by his intials L.L.G. under Dutch privacy laws.

The victim, 22-year-old Joost Vastenhouw, was L.L.G.'s roommate in the Dutch town of Alphen aan den Rijn, near the Hague, where the case was being heard.

Vastenhouw disappeared in October 2006.

According to his signed confession, L.L.G. crept up behind Vastenhouw with an axe while he was working on his computer, killing him with blows to the head, then hacking the body to pieces.

The following day, he bought 20 bottles of oil at two local supermarkets, and cooked the body in several woks before baking it in an electric oven. He then disposed of it in ditches and dumps. Police eventually recovered 43 body parts with advice from L.L.G. on where to look.

Staals said rumors that L.L.G. had cannibalized the corpse were unfounded, as his primary goal appeared to be "driving away spirits" he believed were contained in the flesh.

Newspaper Algemeen Dagblad cited the suspect as claiming he had killed Vastenhouw not out of any personal animosity but because their spirits were fighting "in another dimension."

A court-appointed medical review found that L.L.G. suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. Prosecutors asked for him to be involuntarily committed to a prison for the criminally insane, with no objection from the defense, Staals said. A verdict was expected in two weeks.