Former butcher tells Mexican court he peeled off the skin of woman ‘because she was very pretty’

A 72-year-old Mexican man accused of being a ‘serial killer cannibal’ has admitted killing five women, and telling a court he peeled the skin off the face of his last victim because he thought she was ‘pretty’.  

Andrés Mendoza made the shocking revelation during a four-hour court hearing Thursday in which he was formally charged with the feminicide of Reyna González, 34 – the wife of a local police officer. 

Mendoza, who worked as a butcher, was arrested on Saturday after Gonzalez disappeared and police searched his home in Atizapán de Zaragoza. During the search, officers found her remains, along with the remains of nine other women, video tapes of the killings, and personal objects. Mendoza also admitted to eating some of their body parts, police said. 

During his court hearing, Mendoza said ‘all I want to do is tell the truth’.  

‘I removed the skin from her face because she was very pretty,’ he said. ‘What has been done is done. The husband is there, he saw everything.’

Mendoza also admitted to killing four other women since 2001 during the hearing. However, it’s reported that he could have up to 20 victims.

Andrés Mendoza, who was arrested in Atizapán, Mexico, on May 15, admitted to murdering Reyna González and said he decided to peel the skin off her face ‘because she was pretty.’ He also confessed to killing four other women, the first incident taking place in 2001

Reyna González, a married mother of two girls, was hacked to death by Andrés Mendoza, who she and her husband considered a friend of the family

A search team works at the home of Andrés Mendoza in search of the remains of his victims

According to Infobae, Bruno Portillo, a police officer in the State of Mexico municipality of Atizapán de Zarazoga, last saw his wife May 14 at 5am before he left the family home for work. 

Portillo said his wife had planned to meet Mendoza to go shopping for spare parts for the used cellphone business she operated. It’s unclear how Gonzalez knew Mendoza, but her husband said that they provided him with financial assistance because of his old age.  

News tv network Milenio reported that Portillo noticed that the mother of his two daughters, aged 4 and 8, failed to return home at night, he went over to Mendoza’s home, but he refused to open the door.

The concerned cop returned to Mendoza’s home with other cops and after a brief struggle at the door, Portillo entered the residence and saw some of his wife’s personal belongings before he discovered her remains lying across a table.

Mendoza attempted to escape but was placed under arrest. 

Since Monday, search teams dispatched by the Attorney General’s Office for the State of Mexico have discovered various body parts, including skulls, which were found buried in the basement of the home after a sniffer dog was deployed.

They’ve also found bones buried underneath the concrete floors of the home.  

Agents also found video tapes that contain the actual killings of victims, a notebook with the names of 29 women and women’s clothing and accessories. 

State of Mexico Attorney General Alejandro Gómez said in a statement Friday that anthropologists, forensic archaeologists, geneticists, experts in criminology, dentistry, forensic medicine and photography, and detective are conducting a three-phase investigation in search of skeletal remains and other evidence.

The first phase includes digging out the patio and kitchen area, which is covered with wood and an unknown layer. 

The second phase of the search with include the excavation of the master bedroom and the 20 squared meter basement, which has two levels and can be accessed through a wooden staircase.

The final phase includes digging through  another patio area and two bathrooms.

The voter id cards of Rubicela Castillo (left) and Flor Vizcaíno (right) were located at the home of Andrés Mendoza, who told a court on Thursday that he is responsible for kidnapping and murdering them.

A search team digs through a floor at the residence while search  for human remains

Investigators recovered what they allege are accessories belonging to the nine women whose remains were found at the home of Andrés Mendoza

In court on Thursday, Mendoza described how his first victim was a woman named Norman in 2001. He met her at a bar and was rebuffed several times before he tricked her into going to his home where he stabbed her to death.  

Mendoza met his second victim, Berenice, at a bar and he again attempted to establish an a romantic relationship with her. After he was rejected, he plunged a knife into her chest before he cut off her limbs. 

In 2016, Mendoza met Flor Vizcaíno, a  38-year-old mother-of-two, at a bar and took her on dates and reportedly gave her money. Like the other women, Vizcaíno, was not interested in being Mendoza’s girlfriend and was killed, too.  

Mendoza said he met Rubicela Castillo , 32, in 2019 and that he was so obsessed with her, that he kidnapped and murdered her. 

Investigators found voter identification cards belonging to Castillo who was reported missing July 20, 2019, and Vizcaino, who was last seen October 16, 2016.

A dog searches the property of Andrés Mendoza before leading agents to human remains

Video tapes retrieved from Andrés Mendoza’s home which contain footage of him killing his victims

Investigators separate the evidence that was recovered at the home of Andrés Mendoza after cops discovered the dismembered body of 34-year-old Reyna González

Sergio Baltazar, a lawyer hired by González’s family, said it could take up to a month before her remains are turned over to her husband so that she can be buried because the medical examiner has to legally confirm her identity through DNA samples.

‘These types of people feel pleasure in taking the lives of other people,’ he said. 

‘This person is a psychopath because he does not feel regret, so much so that he tells the Public Ministry, in the presence of a defense attorney , the circumstances of how it happened, (as well as) the other events of the other people he has murdered.’ 

Residents in the Lomas de San Miguel neighborhood had mixed feelings about Mendoza – some described him as ‘polite’, while others said he was always ill and drunk.  

He was a very respected man for us. Now up until today it was unknown if he did something or kidnapped or killed,’ a woman named Francisca told the network. ‘Nothing was ever heard of him like he was fighting. No, he was a quiet man. That’s why he surprises us all.’

A neighbor named Mario said his sisters always complained that Mendoza was harassing ‘pretty young women with his gaze.’

‘They said that they did not trust him because he always looked at them and other young and pretty women strangely. Besides that he was always drunk,’ he said.