A French restaurant owner confessed to killing a recluse man during a botched robbery, then chopping up his body and cooking parts of it in a pot of vegetables to try to cover up his tracks, according to a report.
Philippe Schneider, 69, and his partner Nathalie Caboubassy, 45, are both on trial for their alleged involvement in the murder of 60-year-old Georges Meichler, who disappeared in 2023.
Schneider, a former butcher, allegedly told police that he and Caboubassy killed Meichler during a botched break-in at the recluse’s home deep into the woods in the French village of Brasc, The Telegraph reported. Caboubassy has denied involvement.
The alleged killer even warned investigators that “What I’m going to tell you is horrific,” before detailing the macabre cover-up, according to the outlet.
Schneider told the investigating judge that they had tied up Meichler and gagged him and after searching his home, they came back to find him dead of suffocation — in his apparent latest version of events.
To cover up the incident, the pizza chef reportedly said he dismembered the victim’s body, burned his head, hands and feet, and left pieces scattered throughout the area and inside Meichler’s own van — which the pair absconded with, according to trial testimony.
Schneider also said that he tried cooking parts of Meichler’s body in a pot of vegetables in line with a religious ritual he learned about in Nepal and to cover the smell, the outlet reported.
Another man on trial, a 25-year-old grave digger allegedly roped in as an accomplice, said Schneider ordered him to cook the meat until it “falls off the bone” and to tell anyone who asked questions that it was “food for the dog,” according to The Sun.
Meichler’s daughter filed a missing persons report after his ex-partner said she hadn’t heard from him. Neighbors noted that they hadn’t seen him either.
The daughter said she also received a strange text supposedly from her father, which was uncharacteristic, as she said Meichler rarely texted at all.
“Hi. I’m heading to Brittany with a friend. Get some fresh air and see the country. See you when I get back. Have a nice day,” the text sent to Meichler’s daughter read, according to the Sun.
Police found Schneider and Caboubassy in Meichler’s stolen van days later. Schneider insisted that Meichler had loaned them the van, but police quickly discovered the missing man’s remains and blood in the back.
Schneider insisted that, at the time of the murder, he was embroiled in an addiction to alcohol and cannabis that pushed him to attempt the burglary. Caboubassy, meanwhile, continues to assert that she had no part in the murder.
“Philippe Schneider acknowledges his full responsibility and all the facts he is accused of,” his lawyer Luc Abratkiewicz told the Telegraph.
“Philippe Schneider’s version is that at the time he lived a life of alcohol, drugs, and then this completely crazy idea of going to burgle his neighbour. He gags him. It goes badly, he dies… He made a serious mistake,” the lawyer added. “Afterward, he continued to sink into absurdity and horror, because the fact of having cut up this corpse is going to cost them dearly.”
Schneider is on trial for kidnapping leading to death, concealment of a corpse, and endangering the integrity of the corpse.
Caboubassy and the gravedigger are both charged with complicity.
A verdict is expected to be announced on May 22.
