A man in his mid-30s in Belgium has confessed to killing his mother and dismembering her body, placing parts of it in a refrigerator found in a canal in the country’s east, according to prosecutors.
The gruesome discovery of the refrigerator, containing two arms and two legs, was made on Tuesday in a canal on the outskirts of Liege, prompting a murder investigation. Subsequent investigation led detectives to find the remaining parts of the woman’s body, including her head and torso, in a trash container thrown into a nearby river.
The victim, identified as a woman in her 70s, was recognized by a tattoo on her torso. Her son, born in 1988, was apprehended in a hotel near Brussels’s airport just before dawn on Thursday. Authorities believe he was planning to flee to South Korea.
During police questioning, the man confessed to the crime, leading the investigating judge to order his formal charging and custody.
Preliminary findings from the investigation indicate that the mother and son had frequent arguments after he returned to live with her following the Covid-19 pandemic. The incident is reported to have occurred in Seraing, a southwestern neighborhood of Liege, where the woman resided with her two children and a grandchild.
The suspect admitted to the killing to someone in his circle, who then informed another person that subsequently alerted the police.