US: Man rang police to tell them he was cooking his girlfriend

A man killed his girlfriend, then filleted and cooked parts of her body before calling police to tell them what he was doing, US authorities said.

Christopher Lee McCuin, 25, called police on Saturday and told an emergency dispatcher he had killed Jana Shearer, 21, and was boiling her body parts at his mother’s home in Texas, Smith County Sheriff J.B. Smith said.

When authorities arrived at the home, they found Ms Shearer’s mutilated body, one ear boiling in a pot of water on the stove and a fork sticking out of some human flesh sitting on a plate on the kitchen table.

Authorities said it was unclear whether McCuin consumed any part of Ms Shearer’s body.

“We cannot prove that he did,” Mr Smith said. “He was either going to, had been or led us to think that he was doing it.”

Authorities believe Ms Shearer, 21, was abducted from her home on Friday night and killed.

Her death and mutilation was apparently the beginning of a crime spree that also included McCuin allegedly stabbing the boyfriend of his estranged wife and breaking into a business.

The stabbing victim is in a critical condition in hospital, officials said.

McCuin, of Tyler, about 110 miles (177 kilometres) east of Dallas, was charged with capital murder.

He is being held in the Smith County Jail and is scheduled to appear in court today, Mr Smith said.

Before he called police, McCuin told his mother and her boyfriend to look in their garage, authorities said.

There the couple saw the remains of Ms Shearer. McCuin’s mother and her boyfriend fled the home and flagged down a police officer. McCuin called authorities after they left.

Ms Shearer appeared to have died from blunt trauma to her head, Mr Smith said. Detectives were trying to determine where and when the slaying happened.

Ms Shearer may have been kidnapped on Friday night, when her mother witnessed her getting into McCuin’s truck.

“There was no struggle but she could see the girl left with no shoes, no purse and no cell phone,” Mr Smith said.

McCuin then drove to his estranged wife’s home, where he stabbed William Veasley, 42, Mr Smith said.

McCuin was still in that home when deputies arrived, but escaped in his car after a short chase, Mr Smith said.

“We thought it was a disturbance or an assault,” Mr Smith said.

McCuin was not seen again until Saturday morning, when he arrived at his mother’s home and called her into the garage so she could “come see what he had done”, Mr Smith said.

When sheriff deputies arrived, McCuin barricaded himself in the home for a short time before coming out.

After he emerged, officers entered and found Ms Shearer’s body, Sgt Gary Middleton said.

Detectives think McCuin drove to his mother’s home with the dead woman in the back seat of his extended-cab pickup, Smith said.

Freddy Castillo, who lives two houses down, said he frequently heard McCuin and his girlfriend arguing.

“They would get pretty loud,” Mr Castillo said. “They’d yell back and forth and then he would just get in his car and leave.”