Original subtitles

This is a case that has had a profound impact on Mexican society

and has come to be known as the "Cannibal of the Guerrero."

The story of José Luis Calva Zepeda came to light on October 8th,

when he was arrested in the Guerrero neighborhood.

That morning, he tried to flee his apartment at 198 Mosqueta Street.

Inside, police found the dismembered body of a woman

with whom he had been romantically involved.

The discovery of a woman with severed limbs was extremely disturbing.

It was already a high-profile homicide in itself.

BUTCHER! MONSTER!

The first press conference about the Cannibal drew around 250 reporters,

including foreign correspondents

and even journalists from entertainment and telenovela beats.

My editor called me and said, "I need you to look into this case

because it seems that he ate her."

I remember saying, "What do you mean, he ate her?"

HORROR AT THE CANNIBAL'S HOUSE

There had never been a documented case of a cannibal...

IT IS HUMAN FLESH

...in Mexico City.

- What is your occupation? - Writer.

His occupation is writer.

He presents himself as a playwright,

even as an actor.

He seemed every bit... every bit the gentleman devoted to the arts.

I pulled the gun from my waistband and aimed it...

He is an extreme case.

He ranges from being charming and romantic...

BLESSED IS MADNESS IF IT'S FOR LOVE

...to being an utterly sadistic and violent criminal.

He was someone who kept descending further... into evil.

THE GUERRERO CANNIBAL IMITATES A FICTIONAL CHARACTER

According to experts,

José Luis Calva Zepeda fits the profile of a serial killer perfectly.

He's far too clever.

LINKED TO FIFTH DISMEMBERED WOMAN

If they don't keep this man in shackles,

I guarantee he'll escape from police custody.

The authorities should have effectively investigated his whereabouts

to prevent more people from dying.

I immediately told her, "Be careful."

"Be very careful with this man."

The moment we entered with the forensic team,

you could feel the evil.

We reached the closet,

and there was the body of a woman curled up in the fetal position.

She was my classmate, and of course,

at that moment, I felt

I had failed her.

THE CANNIBAL'S ACCOMPLICE ARRESTED

Juan Carlos Monroy, his alleged accomplice,

will remain in custody for 30 days

while authorities investigate his involvement in the crimes.

I understand you've never spoken to a reporter before.

Do you believe your brother ate human flesh?

Almost 20 years have passed, and whenever I think back to the Cannibal,

I ask how can a man be so violent?

How can he become a monster?

José Luis... That October 5th, what happened?

Do you remember cooking these body parts?

THE CANNIBAL POET

PROLOGUE

How's it going, Luis? Good morning. My name is Jason.

I host a podcast where I cover Mexico's most notorious criminal cases.

I'm reaching out because I'd like to do an episode about the Cannibal Poet.

I know you were heavily involved in the investigation at the time.

So if you're interested, please give me a call back, okay?

Take care.

Hi, Jason. Nice to meet you. This is Luis Brito.

That's right, I worked on the case in 2007.

It's been a long time, but back then it had a huge, huge impact.

It sounds good to revisit it

because, as with any case, there were questions left unanswered.

So yes, we should get together and talk.

Great, thank you.

Luis, do you mind if I record our conversation?

- Sure, go ahead. - Is that okay?

Tell me, how did you get involved in the Cannibal Poet case?

Well, back in 2007...

JOURNALIST

...I'd already spent several years covering the crime beat

for Reforma newspaper. I was a reporter for Reforma.

I remember it very clearly that...

that Monday, October 8th,

my editor called me and said, "We've got word..."

DISMEMBERED WOMAN FOUND

"...that they arrested a man, while he was trying to flee."

"They found the dismembered body of a woman in his apartment."

GUERRERO KILLER CAPTURED

Then he said, "I need you to look into this case."

"I need you to start asking questions

and find out what the Attorney General's Office has because...

it looks like he ate her."

HE DISMEMBERED WOMEN ...HE IS A KILLER AND A CANNIBAL!

The woman whose remains were found in his apartment at 198 Mosqueta Street

was named Alejandra.

They'd only been in a relationship for about a month,

maybe a month and a half.

I was also interested in hearing his side of the story.

His explanation of why he did what he was accused of doing. Right?

Were you one of the first reporters to interview him,

or were there already a lot of people trying to?

As far as I know, he gave an interview to us

and to another TV network.

PRESS

JOURNALIST

EXPERTS SEE A SERIAL KILLER PROFILE IN THE CANNIBAL POET

CANNIBAL POET LINKED TO WOMEN KILLED IN THE DITCH

Hi, Jason. How are you?

I've been going through the material I kept from that time,

and I think there's enough information to reopen the investigation.

I'm going to contact people who were connected to the case.

One person who comes to mind is Marcos Hernández Valerio.

He was an official with the Mexico City Attorney General's Office

and went into Calva Zepeda's apartment in the Guerrero neighborhood

when the investigation began.

Marcos, I wanted to ask you a few more specific questions.

To start, tell me, back in 2007, what was your job?

Well, I worked in the communications department.

I was the head of information

for what was then the Federal District Attorney General's Office.

Basically, my role was to coordinate the reporters

because a lot of times, the news chief just assigns the stories...

FORMER INFORMATION CHIEF, PGJDF

...and stays in the office.

But I loved going out with them to the different cases that came up.

How did you find out about José Luis Calva's arrest?

Well, I remember it very clearly. It was a Tuesday.

He was arrested in the early hours of the morning.

All the media outlets heard over the police radio

that someone had been injured after falling from the first floor.

And of course, it was José Luis Calva, José Luis Calva Zepeda.

At that point, the judicial police arrived,

the patrol cars showed up,

the forensic team's van arrived,

and we all headed over in a convoy to 198 Mosqueta Street.

THE APARTMENT

When we entered with the forensic team,

I went in with a video camera, documenting everything.

So, when we entered the apartment,

you could feel... the evil, you know?

There was a smell, a mixture of dampness and blood.

I mean, there was... decomposing flesh.

From the moment you walked in, you felt that?

Yes, that bad energy.

Then they opened the door, and the first thing you see,

in the living room, yes,

the first thing you see is the table with a plate

containing meat remains.

There was still meat, like... burnt meat,

half a lemon that had been squeezed,

and around it, a bottle of rum, a beer bottle,

even a sugar bowl.

When I saw the plate with the meat,

I froze. I stood there motionless, completely still.

I mean, everything you were seeing... the scene itself... it terrified you.

Until I felt someone's hand and they said,

"Come on, brother, why are you focusing on that dirty plate?"

"Change the shot."

When we entered the apartment, it was early in the morning...

FORMER DIRECTOR OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS AT THE PGJDF

It was pretty dark. You couldn't see very well.

So we turned on the light switch, but there was no electricity.

We started checking the bulbs, and all they needed was to be screwed in.

So it was something that had been deliberately done

by the tenant at the time,

leaving them unscrewed so there would be no light.

Immediately, we went to the kitchen.

A small stove.

Yes, this is where the frying pan was, and there were meat remains.

We located this part of the pan.

It had a lot of fat, a thick layer of grease,

and there were remains of what appeared to be muscle, actual meat.

However, I think the important part was that,

when we carried out the inspection from the general to the specific,

we found a cereal box.

When we examined it, I took out a fragment

containing what corresponded to the ulna and radius,

the actual bones, along with muscle tissue that showed signs

of having been exposed to heat.

So, you're looking at this scene,

and then it hits you even harder when they tell you,

"Well, here are the bones." And he sliced her with a box cutter.

He used two knives and a box cutter to dismember her.

In the refrigerator, we found human remains wrapped in two bags.

He used the first bedroom as a study.

Everything was messy.

There were pirated movies, including Hannibal,

and also some of his poetry books, like this one, Walking Along.

They weren't actual published copies, you know? They were copies.

We moved forward because that room was directly in front of us, facing north.

We could see the bed, a large bed,

and the window.

All the sheets, everything was tangled up. Clothes were scattered everywhere.

That's where they found drugs, cocaine.

There was even a Bible there.

They also found a woman's small mirror,

which they determined belonged to Alejandra.

Look, the most terrifying part of the main bedroom

was when the forensic experts opened the closet.

That's where they found the body.

It was in the corner, yes, leaning against it.

But there was still a pool of blood.

How can I put it? That part is indescribable

because she was already...

she was curled up, almost in a fetal position.

She had been dead...

- Yes. - ... for more than two days.

The smell of decomposition was already very strong.

It was extremely shocking, honestly.

Even though this is what we do,

it doesn't mean the situation stops affecting us.

But the idea is that this is a moment where you have to remain objective.

You can't lose objectivity or the contextual analysis

regarding the evidence.

So, we immediately see that there is a dismemberment

of the right leg at the level of the knee joint,

and it corresponds to the lower limb we found in the refrigerator.

The cuts are very irregular,

and that tells us about the skill level of the person

who caused the injuries or wounds at that time.

He had a relationship with Alejandra.

She was a 32-year-old single mother. She worked at a pharmacy

and wanted to end that relationship.

He asked her to have dinner one last time.

She agreed just so she could finally end things.

So, she stopped going to work after Friday.

When I got home,

immediately at the door, I called my wife

and told her to bring me another...

I said I was going to the bathroom and asked her to bring me a towel.

I literally took off all my clothes. I felt dirty...

I don't know how to describe it. It was as if I was covered in blood.

And I spent a very long time in the shower, scrubbing myself,

because I felt like I had all that evil... embedded in me.

CANNIBAL INSTINCTS

The so-called Cannibal of the Guerrero,

José Luis Calva Zepeda had remained hospitalized

with a skull fracture at Xoco Hospital since October 11th.

Apparently, his health was improving,

so he was placed at the disposal of the 21st Criminal Court judge,

who was overseeing the case against him

for the crimes of aggravated homicide and desecration of a corpse.

Of course, the Attorney General's Office will request the maximum sentence allowed

by the criminal code for these cases.

As the days went by, it became an extremely high-profile case, you know?

Look, the first press conference about the Cannibal case,

around 250 reporters from different media outlets attended.

So, there were a huge number of people.

There were foreign correspondents,

obviously crime reporters,

and there were even people from other fields,

from telenovelas and all that, you know?

- Entertainment. - Entertainment. Exactly.

For me, one of the most important things,

first of all, was being able to confirm

whether there had actually been an act of cannibalism.

On the first day, no one confirmed that. Right?

And whoever says they did is lying.

ACTOR AND POET

- Were there rumors about it? - There were rumors, yes.

- But... - Nothing was confirmed.

...because when you are dealing with information that is,

let's say, very sensitive,

if you didn't have confirmation from different sources

about something like that, you didn't publish it.

We're talking about 2007.

Although Mexico City already had security issues,

there were an average of two murders a day.

Even so, talking about a woman with severed limbs was extremely serious.

It was already, in itself, a high-impact homicide.

There were many questions.

Who is this individual who claims to be a writer,

who claims to be a journalist?

And why did someone like this suddenly appear in Mexico City?

WALKING ALONG...

"I am José Zepeda. I was born in '69."

"Heavy tobacco smoker. Mezcal drinker without the worm."

"A food enthusiast by hobby."

"Sexually active since my youth and still into my late middle age."

"Colorblind when it comes to letters. Platonic in love."

"An actor of farces and dramas, always being my own author."

"Self-exiled from my family, happily sheltered in no man's land."

"A teller of countless fantasies,

a discoverer of lies, and a witness to nothing."

WELCOME TO HELL

Ms. Amezcua, thank you very much.

As we discussed, I would like to start by asking you about...

the cases you had worked on,

and there were a lot of them before October 2007.

How different was José Luis Calva Zepeda's case

compared to what you had seen before?

Completely different. In all the years

that I worked in the homicide unit, which was ten years...

FORMER PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE AGENT IN THE HOMICIDE DIVISION

...there had never been a homicide...

involving a dismembered victim.

And especially not in Mexico City.

And then you think, "Wait a minute."

A person had been dismembered, and on top of that, it was a woman.

XOCO GENERAL HOSPITAL

When they transferred him to Xoco,

we arrived, and he was lying on the hospital bed.

I approached him and introduced myself. I said, "Good afternoon."

"I am a Public Prosecutor's Office agent from the Homicide Division,

and I am here to take your statement."

And he just stared at me. He didn't answer anything.

No "good afternoon," nothing.

They were checking... his catheter,

and he was smiling a lot with the nurse.

So when I arrived, the nurse left, and he didn't answer me.

He started looking at me with a certain contempt.

Contempt toward that authority figure, especially because I was a woman.

So, at that moment, I decided

it would be better for a male colleague to handle it.

For the sake of the investigation.

So that he would talk, and maybe he would tell them his achievements, you know?

José Luis Calva Zepeda gave his first statement

before the Public Prosecutor's Office early this morning.

He admitted to dismembering her limbs,

placing them in the refrigerator,

and also cooking or frying them,

although he denied having tasted the meat,

claiming he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

"HE CONFESSED"

CONFESSES HE KILLED ALEJANDRA BUT DID NOT EAT HER

GUERRERO CANNIBAL IMITATES A FICTIONAL CHARACTER

And he admits that he killed Alejandra, but he says it was an accident.

Yes, yes, yes, he does say that.

Obviously, that doesn't match at all with what we already had--

with the forensic evidence we had at that time.

We already had a medical report,

we already had a criminal investigation report.

There had already been a visual inspection,

and the mother of another victim who had been killed in the State of Mexico,

in Chimalhuacán, had even arrived at the prosecutor's office.

He's far too clever.

If they don't keep this man in shackles,

I guarantee he'll escape from police custody.

As the investigation continued,

Mrs. Judith Casarrubia Reynoso appeared before the Public Prosecutor.

OCTOBER 15TH, 2007 PGJDF HOMICIDE PROSECUTOR"

From her statement and the evidence gathered,

it was determined that on October 8th, 2007,

Mrs. Casarrubia learned through the news media

about the arrest of José Luis Calva Zepeda,

whom she holds responsible for the kidnapping and murder

of her 24-year-old daughter, Verónica Consuelo Martínez Casarrubia.

...AND HE IS LINKED TO ANOTHER MURDER

VERÓNICA MARTÍNEZ IDENTIFIES THE ALLEGED DISMEMBERER

That was when we said, within the investigation,

in the interdisciplinary team working the homicide case...

This is a serial killer.

Mrs. Judith, thank you very much for talking to me.

I understand this may be painful and difficult for you.

It's very important for me to know who Verónica was,

what she was like, and how all of these events unfolded.

Ready.

This is the photo that helped us.

And if you look at her eyes, she looks sad.

My daughter was a very hardworking, very responsible young woman.

VERÓNICA'S MOTHER

She had only recently gotten divorced.

Why did she separate from her husband?

Because of the bad situation they were living in.

He was abusive toward her and irresponsible.

She got tired of all that. That's when she told me,

"I'm getting a divorce." I said, "Go ahead."

And then she started working at the pharmacy chain?

That's when she started looking for work and got hired by Similares.

For me, it was wonderful to see her start out cleaning the pharmacy.

She was very quiet, always serious.

Little by little, she worked her way up.

Before long, she was managing the pharmacy.

Her supervisor asked her if she would agree

to let Juan Carlos Monroy Pérez work there.

JOSÉ LUIS CALVA ZEPEDA'S ACCOMPLICE

- Yes. - Because no other branch wanted

to take him because he was gay.

She felt sorry for him and agreed.

Juan Carlos became friends with her and she told me

"Mom, there's this young man nobody wants to hire..."

I told her, "Sweetheart, don't trust people so easily."

"Be careful." "Oh, Mom, you're too suspicious."

At that time,

José Luis Calva Zepeda was working as a taxi driver in Nezahualcóyotl.

One day, outside the pharmacy where Juan Carlos Monroy Pérez worked,

he flagged down that taxi,

and it turned out to be José Luis Calva Zepeda.

They struck up a conversation,

and José Luis Calva Zepeda began visiting Juan Carlos Monroy

at the branch where he worked.

But she noticed that someone was constantly waiting

outside the pharmacy around closing time.

One night in early December, they were supposedly using cocaine and crack

at José Luis Calva's apartment in Nezahualcóyotl.

Then he told Juan Carlos Monroy Pérez, "I'm a shaman, one of the best."

"Tell me the names of three of your female friends,

and I'll tell you what's going on in their lives."

One of those three names was Verónica.

He said, "Your friend has severe headaches," and so on.

Then he said, "I'll heal her. Put her on the phone."

So Juan Carlos called her.

José Luis Calva started talking to her.

According to the investigation,

that was their first contact.

A few days later, Juan Carlos Monroy Pérez was short on cash...

CASUAL PARTNER

...and asked Verónica to lend him some money.

Verónica said, "Sure, no problem. Come pick it up at my branch."

MEETS MONROY

Juan Carlos Monroy sent José Luis Calva to pick up the money, 1,000 pesos.

That's how they first met in person.

"At night I drink my coffee."

"I step out onto my balcony, if you can even call my window that."

"I look at the city, or at least the part of it I can see,

and I feel like I own it."

"I go out and devour the streets in my car."

"I streak through them at 60 kilometers per hour."

"I slice through the air,

and then there are neither angels nor demons."

"I am the master of the night."

In February, we celebrated my great-niece's 15th birthday,

and we all went.

That's where I met him, and so did the rest of my family.

- Nobody liked him. - Why? How did he behave at the party?

Oh, he was very nice.

He played music, sang, picked up the children, danced with them.

Then they asked me, "Hey, where did you find this guy?"

I said, "I don't know what asylum he escaped from."

He always wanted to stand out.

He said he was a singer, a performer, a reciter.

José Luis Calva Zepeda was very good at saying,

"I'm the best chef." "I used to be a magician."

He's a social chameleon. He knows about every subject.

He's... an expert at everything.

CRIMINAL AND FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGIST

But every amazing thing he claims to have done he only did once in his life.

That's when we begin to realize the person is lying to us.

Did you get a bad feeling about him?

No, I never liked him. I didn't trust him at all.

Why did you feel that way?

In one word, he was a con artist.

He was a freeloader.

He and his accomplice, Juan Carlos...

He helped him find women.

He'd tell him,

"This one's divorced," or, "She's a single mother."

In short, that she was single. Then he'd introduce them to him.

When I realized what was going on, I immediately told her,

"Be careful. Be very careful with that man."

She said, "Okay, Mom."

But what I didn't know was that he had already asked her

to move in with him.

Where was this taken?

I think this was at the go-kart track

by that park...

- So, in Iztacalco. - Yes, in Iztacalco. Over there.

- Near where he lived. Near his house. - Yes.

Was he at least kind to the children?

I think he treated them kindly so the women would let their guard down.

It looked like...

- Normal. - Just a normal day out.

During the night of March 20th

and into the early hours of March 21st,

José Luis Calva had been drinking

for most of the afternoon with one of his brothers.

They picked up Verónica and her two daughters

and went to his brother's house in the State of Mexico.

They kept drinking there.

Then José Luis Calva became angry

because he thought Verónica was flirting with his brother.

In a fit of rage,

he struck Verónica several times in the face.

According to the accounts of what happened,

the force of the blow knocked her to the floor.

What do you remember about that night?

I was very worried because she never came home.

I kept calling, trying to reach her.

Then what happened? This man's niece called me.

She said, "Please, I'm going to give you an address."

"I need you to come pick her and her children up

because my uncle just beat her so badly,

I don't even know if she's going to make it."

When Verónica's brothers arrived to pick her up,

José Luis Calva had already left.

Her brothers took her to Judith's home, the family house.

She had been badly beaten, visibly injured, even bleeding.

That same night, or rather, in the early hours of the morning,

they went to the Public Prosecutor's Office.

Your daughter and your...

- My children. - With your other children, her brothers.

- Yes. - Do you remember why

the Public Prosecutor's Office refused to open an investigation?

Because they said it wasn't under their jurisdiction,

since it had happened near the Satélite area.

But the forensic doctor did examine her

- and certified that... - Yes, he examined her.

- ...she had serious injuries. - Very serious.

- Those are exactly the kinds of moments... - There were already opportunities to stop

what was about to happen.

- You're making a very good point. - Yes.

That's another thread running alongside the case.

The system simply isn't designed to prevent this kind of thing.

It's ineffective.

There's a tremendous lack of efficiency.

While your daughter was trying to get medical attention

and file a report,

that same night José Luis Calva Zepeda

took advantage of the situation and went to her house.

Yes, because he had stolen the keys from my daughter's purse.

He unlocked the door, went into her house,

and took money before returning home.

We have to remember that José Luis Calva Zepeda was a predator.

And like any predator, he was very skilled at identifying

the women with low self-esteem,

socially vulnerable women,

and women with a deep emotional need for affection and validation.

These were women who most likely already had

a history of abuse and codependent relationships.

- He called her the next day. - Yes.

Why would she answer the phone?

That's exactly what I asked her. "Why did you answer?"

She said, "Because he's going to give back what he took from me."

I told her, "No, sweetheart." "Your life is worth more than that money."

But she never told us she was being threatened.

He threatened that if she didn't agree to live with him,

he would kill her children,

her brothers, and me.

But in a moment when we let our guard down,

she slipped away.

After the beating on March 20th,

she moved into José Luis Calva's apartment in Nezahualcóyotl.

She took her two daughters with her, but not her son.

While she was there,

José Luis Calva became increasingly violent toward her.

His drinking and drug use also became more frequent.

That's when she decided to contact her ex-boyfriend

so she could leave the apartment she shared with José Luis Calva.

She had only lived there for about two weeks.

On April 6th, 2004,

Verónica went to stay

with her ex-boyfriend for a few days.

Then, two weeks later on April 24th,

she left his house to go buy cold medicine at the pharmacy and disappeared.

"When intrigue arises,

when memories return,

when revenge takes over,

when time speeds up,

when passion intensifies...

cannibal instincts emerge."

Scene 53.

That same day, April 24th,

her ex-boyfriend tried to report Verónica missing,

but the prosecutor's office told him he had to wait 72 hours.

Even after that period had passed, the authorities did nothing.

Two days later,

he went to Calva's apartment in Nezahualcóyotl,

but found it empty.

Inside, he found soda cans with holes punched in them

that Calva used to smoke crack cocaine.

The ex-boyfriend filed two more reports, in May and September 2004,

providing a photo of Calva, phone numbers, and addresses.

Nothing happened.

AREA WHERE VERÓNICA DISAPPEARED

That marked the beginning of a long search

that lasted until early May 2005,

when the Mexico City Attorney General's Office told Judith,

"There's an unidentified woman whose remains were found a year ago."

"We haven't identified her. Go to the municipality of Chimalhuacán

and see if it's... if it's Verónica."

VERÓNICA'S BODY

THE DISMEMBERED BODY WAS FOUND DIVIDED AMONG SEVERAL PLASTIC BAGS.

THE WOMAN'S IDENTITY REMAINS UNKNOWN.

How did the identification process go?

Did they take you to a desk or a table...?

They handed me a huge stack of photographs.

Photos of my daughter's entire body.

She was unrecognizable.

Because they showed me my daughter's head.

Can you imagine? I kept saying, "How could that possibly be her?"

- You didn't believe it was her? - I didn't believe it was her.

She had been completely burned. Her hands, the palms of her hands.

Her entire body had been burned with cigarettes.

He was a sadist.

He was insane.

They laid out the photographs, and I began arranging them

from her head down to her feet.

On one of her feet,

the back of her shoe had rubbed against the skin, leaving a callus.

That's when I said, "Yes, yes, it's her."

That's when I broke down.

I collapsed.

I just sat there in silence, numb. I couldn't even cry.

Yes. I just...

It's so sad. It's so hard to endure that kind of pain.

Day after day, you never come to terms with it.

I have never accepted my daughter's death. Never.

And I don't think I ever will until the day I die.

"Yesterday I shed tears of blood when you left this place centuries ago."

"I looked at you in silence, pleading."

"I touched your feet, and your soul wept."

Verónica disappeared in April. April 2004.

Think about it. From 2004 to 2007.

Look at what the authorities did.

Because if you keep building a case file or an investigative file...

FORMER PGJDF OFFICIAL

...it's bound to lead you somewhere.

And with the information her mother had provided,

it was clear that this man was violent, jealous, and had been her boyfriend.

It was obvious that if she had disappeared,

something had happened.

The authorities should have effectively investigated her whereabouts

to prevent more people from dying.

CANNIBAL

José Luis Calva Zepeda, accused of being a serial killer,

was discharged from Xoco Hospital

and transferred to Oriente Prison

under an arrest warrant issued by the 21st Criminal Court judge.

The so-called Cannibal of the Guerrero

was placed in a maximum-security cell,

where he will be monitored 24 hours a day.

This Monday, the capital's Attorney General's Office confirmed

that the remains found in the apartment's kitchen

were human flesh.

The fact that the bone and the right forearm,

with all the attached muscle tissue, had been fried...

DIRECTOR OF FORENSIC SERVICES

There is a presumption that he may have...

Into the microphone.

...that he may have consumed that tissue...

When questioned by his attorney about whether he had committed cannibalism

against his victim,

José Luis Calva Zepeda replied that he had not,

saying it was nothing more than sensationalism.

On October 11th, we published that the investigation indicated

the meat found in the frying pan was human flesh.

That completely changed

the media coverage of the case

because from that point on, people were talking about a cannibal.

IT IS HUMAN FLESH

"THE MEAT WAS FOR THE DOGS" - "POET"

HE DISMEMBERED WOMEN ...HE'S A KILLER AND A CANNIBAL!

CANNIBAL INSTINCT

Tell me, how did you continue following the investigation

during those first few days?

I managed to get in touch with one of José Luis Calva Zepeda's sisters,

Claudia, who had essentially become the public face

of the Zepeda family.

The only thing I ask is for some respect, please.

Because I showed respect. She was my friend. She was my friend.

I knew Alejandra.

At one point I was able to contact her.

I told her, "We're very interested in interviewing José Luis Calva Zepeda."

Over the phone, of course. There was no other way.

She said, "Okay. Give me your information."

Two or three days later she told me, "I already spoke with him."

"He said that's fine, but you'll have to send a prepaid phone card."

About a week or ten days later, I received a call.

When I answered,

I heard the automated recording

that's played on calls from prison.

On the other end of the line was Calva,

the only person who could tell Luis Brito

what had really happened inside the apartment on Mosqueta Street.

CALVA ZEPEDA CASE 2007

ARCHIVE FOOTAGE

CALVA ZEPEDA INTERVIEW

INTERVIEW_CALVA_ZEPEDA_LONG.WAV

José Luis, so what happened on October 5th?

AUDIO FROM INTERVIEW WITH CALVA ZEPEDA, 2007

The whole story about the frying pan and the meat?

Do you remember cooking those body parts?

I just want to show that I'm not a monster.

I'm a person who under certain circumstances

made a mistake and committed a crime.

But I'm not the monster that I've been made out to be.

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