Serial Killer file: THE KOBE CANNIBAL

Victim: Reneé Hartvelt

On June 11, 1981, Sagawa, then 32, invited his Sorbonne classmate Renée Hartevelt to dinner at his apartment under the pretext of translating poetry for a school assignment. He planned to kill and eat her, having selected her for her health and beauty; characteristics he believed he lacked. He describes himself as weak, ugly, and small (he is just under 5 ft [1.52 m] tall)[5] and claims he wanted to absorb her energy. She was 25 years old and 5'10"[1.78 m].[6] After she arrived, she began reading the poetry at a desk with her back to him. He shot her in the neck with a rifle. Sagawa said he fainted after the shock of shooting her, but awoke with the realization that he had to carry out his plan.[2] He raped her corpse but was unable to bite into her skin, so he left the apartment and purchased a butcher knife.[2] For two days, Sagawa ate various parts of her body, saving other parts in his refrigerator. He then attempted to dump her body in a lake in the Bois de Boulogne, but was seen in the act and arrested by French police.[2]

Sagawa's wealthy father provided a lawyer for his defense, and after being held for two years without trial Sagawa was found legally insane and unfit to stand trial by the French judge, Jean-Louis Bruguière, who ordered him held indefinitely in a mental institution.[2] After a visit by the author Inuhiko Yomota, Sagawa's account of the murder was published in Japan under the title In the Fog.[2] Sagawa's subsequent publicity and macabre celebrity likely contributed to the French authorities' decision to deport him to Japan, where he was immediately committed to Matsuzawa hospital. Examining psychologists there all declared him sane and found sexual perversion was his sole motivation for the murder.[2] Because charges in France had been dropped, the French court documents were sealed and were not released to Japanese authorities; consequently Sagawa could not legally be detained in Japan. He checked himself out of the hospital on August 12, 1986, and remained free.[2] Sagawa's continued freedom has been widely criticized.[2]