YAKUTSK, November 9 (RIA Novosti) – Investigators have decided not to file charges against one of two Siberian fishermen suspected of chopping up and eating a companion after getting lost in a forest.
Four men disappeared in August while on a fishing trip in Yakutia, one of Russia’s most sparsely populated regions. Two of the men were found in late November and said they had no idea what had happened to others.
Later, a dead body was found not far from where the duo was rescued. The skeletal remains had been hacked to pieces with an ax and had little flesh remaining on them.
According to a statement by Yakutia’s branch of the Investigative Committee, one of the fishermen smashed the victim’s head with an unknown object.
“Investigators have established that the suspect and his friend dismembered the dead body and ate it because they had no other food,” the committee said.
However, only the suspected murderer will go on trial. His friend was cleared of all charges because there was no evidence of his involvement in the killing and the Russian criminal code has no article on cannibalism.
The fate of the fourth member of the group remains unknown.