Issei Sagawa, Japanese man who killed and ate Dutch student in Paris, dies at 73

Issei Sagawa, a Japanese murderer known as the “Kobe Cannibal” who killed and ate a Dutch student but was never jailed, has died aged 73.

Sagawa died of pneumonia on November 24 and was given a funeral attended only by relatives, with no public ceremony planned, his younger brother and a friend said in a statement.

The statement was issued by the publisher of a 2019 memoir written by Sagawa’s brother.

In 1981, Sagawa was studying in Paris when he invited Dutch student Renee Hartevelt to his home.

He shot her in the neck, raped her, then consumed parts of her body over the course of three days.

He then attempted to dispose of her remains in the Bois de Boulogne park, where he was arrested.